Building A Poetry Community: Laureates and Leaders

Building A Poetry Community
Michael Sedano

A frustrated Texas poet, on social media, asks "Why is poetry so unpopular?" It might be that poetry is poorly taught and misunderstood, he guesses. The answer is none of the above. Every community is home to numerous poets and writers, but without an outlet to share their work, poets and writers remain silent and some people will perceive a poetry desert and conclude that poetry is unpopular. Clearly, there isn't enough poetry in the frustrated poet's community. 

Altadena, California models how communities across the nation can nurture their local poetry and writing resources and create a thriving "poetry scene" of readings, workshops, and publication. 

Twenty-some years ago, Altadena might have looked like its own poetry desert when the city's librarian, Pauli Dutton, invited poets she knew to share poetry and cookies in the library's community room. Dutton and the Altadena Library sponsored "Poetry and Cookies" readings for a couple of years. This opened a door to a hidden community of poets that encouraged Dutton to motivate the Board of Trustees of the Altadena Library District to sponsor a Poets Laureate program and appoint the city's first Laureate.

The fourth Laureate in the program, Thelma T. Reyna, recruited an advisory committee to grow the program, changing the informality of "poetry and cookies" to The Altadena Poetry Review, whose outgrowth, in 2014, was The Altadena Poetry Review Anthology. 

The book has grown to be a local institution with a mission "to publish poets and writers from Altadena, Pasadena, and LA County. We encourage and uplift submissions from historically underrepresented voices including Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of color, and people of diverse age groups and backgrounds."

Conducting workshops and coordinating readings, along with editing a book of poetry, took on monumental proportions beyond the abilities of a single volunteer poet. In 2018, the Board of Trustees appointed a pair of Laureates, one to coordinate public events, the other to manage and edit the anthology.

Over the years, as the Laureate program's workshops and readings and publications attracted more participants, that hidden community found the light of day and now, annually, Altadena's Poet Laureate program produces a critical mass of work demanding more time, more workshops, more pages. In fact, 2024's Altadena Poetry Review Anthology (link) expanded to 300 plus pages and over a hundred poets from across the country, including a few international contributors.

That's the thing about deserts. They may appear barren landscapes, but give a bit of water and the land explodes with life. Let Altadena be the model for communities and libraries across the nation. Start small, work smart, watch your desert bloom.

Here's a link to Altadena Library's poetry page where you will meet this year's pair of Laureates and explore links to discover details on the program and its history, and read samples of the work that comes out of a fertile landscape that's not unique to this corner of California's San Gabriel Valley.

 

This year's Altadena Poets Laureate, Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon, recently assumed their responsibilities. Their inaugural reading featured a lineup of predecessor Laureates. La Bloga-Tuesday is happy to share the event with you.

Nikki Winslow, Altadena Library District Director welcomes an enthusiastic audience to this term's inaugural reading, "A Reading Honoring the History & Poets of the Program."

Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon take the lectern in their introduction as the current Altadena Poets Laureate. (link to their bios)

Founder of the program, Pauli Dutton, shares a brief history of the laureateship. "The first year we had 12 poets, photocopies of the readings as a handout, and, of course, luscious cookies. In 2004 we had 15 poets, more cookies, and an attractive compilation of the poems which we printed and catalogued. Thus, was born the first edition of Cookies and Poetry. We made copies available for both checkout and reference so they could be available in the library. In 2005 we took our publication to Altadena printer Miss Dragon for a more polished look.In 2004 we chose our first Poet Laureate, Ralph Lane and decided this would be a bi-yearly unpaid position."

Dutton is followed by special guest poet, Morgan Gaskell, recent graduate of Pasadena High School who will attend UC Davis as a Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology major. 

At its Acme

by Morgan Gaskell

As hundreds of ANTI-LGBTQ+ bills have been been introduced and passed in 36 states in 2024

alone, there is a growing fear among queer youth about our futures. I wrote this poem to

Illustrate these recent attacks and my response to politicians across the nation who have robbed queer youth of their childhood and humanty.

This issue's at its acme, and it's ruining our psyche

Highest rates of nomelessness and suicide in the country

Why can't you just let us thrive in a world so set up against us?

Instead you pass these laws, force us to withstand prejudice

We don't see eye to eye 'cause you refuse to stare us in the face

We reason and plead just to make our case

That a wond with queer youth Is not one of danger

Yet you treat us with ignorance and anger

All your lies, time really flies when nothing's getting done

Another life taken and another one gone

You make it illegal to get care, so for other states we run

Decades of progress now being undone

I think we've had our share of violence and discrimination

Our queer elders have lost their lives for our rights in this nation

You continue to chastise us, battering down on a supposed sin

You polarize the climate of the States, where should I even begin?

When we're out in public out of fear we are anxious

You don't have to understand us, but you have to respect us

We have to exalt our community because no one else will

How are we even arguing about this still?

All these bans recently has other countries asking if we're okay

You keep telling people to pray the gay away

Heartening to hear some states will remain safe

But the number of people you displace?

Will you stare us in the face?

Or continue to look down on us, throw slurs at us, kill us

You've created a wall, so straight up it we will climb

The impacts of your bans are far from benign

Will there be any justice before you decimate queer youth?

Will you listen to the truth?

You're creating massive devastation

Will there be any justice in this nation, any justice in this nation?

Carla Rachel Sameth, with Peter J. Harris, served as 2022-2024 Co-Laureate. Sameth shares a work from her collection, Secondary Inspections (link).

June 2020: Alarm goes off,

by Carla R. Sameth

I clutch my wife, remember 

to breathe, remember 

George Floyd, remember 

Christopher Ballew 

21, assaulted by police 

up the street, in Altadena,

remember the names, 

the deaths. Nonstop.

Fear floods in, room congested.

A poet wrote me a poem 

that says think of your son

when you first wake up

and I do—but terror for

the risk to his soul,

his body, his skin. 

This mom’s heart

tumbles, even with

my wife opening the curtain,

singing me good morning,

good morning, even with 

wild parrots and cascading 

Pasadena birdsong, 

the cat kneading and purring. 

Even then, I cannot calm 

when my wife gets up to leave.

I see three missed calls last night— 

probably just son telling me 

about the latest protest. 

He made me laugh

at the Highland Park march—

Mom, look. that white woman. 

Full Black Panther regalia, 

knee high black boots, 

black coveralls and beret, 

fist raised, standing in front 

of that MLK mural on the wall 

of that hipster coffee shop?

(Would it be her Instagram post?)

The woman, she looked at me, just said, 

Your life matters.

Yes, it does, son, 

and I imagine 

telling him this every day, 

what I’ve always 

told him:

his life means. 

But the words sink into fear,

get stuck in the throat,

legs still glued to the bed,

mind gripped by galloping thoughts.

I pull the blanket over my head.

Dr. Thelma T. Reyna, the 2014-2016 Laureate, manages Golden Foothills Press which publishes the anthology. She shares this poem from her collection, Rising, Falling, All of Us (link).

Growing Up Dusty in a Small Texas Town

by Thelma T. Reyna

Our ankles were always gray, caliche

dust swirling like guardian angels around twiggy brown

legs leaping potholes, tripping on dirt clods. Nine

children oblivious to what it meant to be growing up dusty.

In winter, rivers of mud separated us from Licha, Juan,

Susie. Dripping mesquite trees beckoned. Black puddles

dotted our ‘hoodscape far as child eyes could see, little

lakes navigated house to house as we grew up dusty.

When morning light tickled our bedfaces, dervishes danced

through cracks and chinks in sills and walls and floors and doors.

Grandma’s rag couldn’t stem the tide of constant coats

of dust as we grew up in our small Texas town.

On the other end were asphalt roads, mown lawns and

children with patent leather shoes that stayed black.

At school, only chalkboard dust bound them and us as

we grew up dusty in our small Texas town.

 

Hazel Clayton Harrison served as Co-poet Laureate in 2018-2020. La Bloga-Tuesday apologizes for our failure to share Harrison's work from her collection, Down Freedom Road (link).

Linda Dove (link) holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance Literature and has published five collections of poetry along with a collection of scholarly essays. Dove's Laureateship included 2012-2014.

Mid-point

by Linda Dove

Now in the middle of my life

my journey is to forgive

everything that’s happened.

—Diana Marie Delgado

Imagine having a job that dispenses forgiveness, like priest or sin-eater. Bread balanced on the knife of the tongue, pre-swallow. I have consumed my fair share of other people’s crimes. The more ground I gain, the more their deeds dull, the more I understand the other side of the moon is an imaginary place. I will learn to live without those gray fields, but there are whole continents on this planet I won’t ever visit—news to my 10-year-old self, who stored dirt under her nails. I think of my untraveled body as an iceberg, all the menace below. What of us ends up rising? By the mid-point of any trip, I tire of regret, so the rest of the journey takes place in my skin, a blue map that reads like a prayer. Its words will extend beyond itself, absolve the feet that wanted to keep walking. 

first published in Club Plum, Issue Two, April 17, 2020.

Teresa Mei Chuc teaches high school while holding several positions with arts organizations and editing anthologies. She served as 2018-2020 Altadena Poet Laureate.

Spring Poem

by Teresa Mei Chuc 

The flowers are blooming

and so are the bruises

on her face

purple and pink like showy penstemon

and there is no where she could go

The bruises on her arm

the deep violet of prickly pear fruits

tender to the touch

The flowers are blooming

around her tent on the hillside

overlooking the freeway

sunflowers, each branch

carrying light

The robins, mockingbirds and blue jays

are singing

as his fist punches her

The flowers are blooming

fuchsia red

fairy duster red

on her skin

and there is no where she could go

Dedicated to our grandmothers, mothers, sisters and daughters experiencing houselessness 

#SheDoes deserve shelter, protection and compassion 

Arts Leadership: Propaedeutic to A Laureate Program

Every community has people who write, or want to write, or want to write better, publish, and find a readership. Absent an established Laureate program, these gente can join writing programs to workshop among peers and grow their local literary community from drafts to published work. 

Women Who Submit is a Southern California organization that outgrew its regional focus to form local chapters in thirteen U.S. states, and Europe. Click this link for a list of local chapters. WWS offers a model for communities not yet in a position to launch a Laureate program, to develop local writers and get them published. Like Altadena's history, a Laureate program begins with a few writers and inevitably grows.

From WWS' website (link):

Women Who Submit seeks to empower women and nonbinary writers by creating physical and virtual spaces for sharing information, supporting and encouraging submissions to literary journals, and clarifying the submission and publication process.

WWS HISTORY

Women Who Submit began with the idea of a submission party—the brainchild of founding member Alyss Dixson—as a response to the VIDA count. Other founding members, Ashaki Jackson and Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, were brought in to help plan the first ever submission party held in Xochitl-Julisa’s mom’s kitchen (thanks, mom!) in July 2011. On that day six women ate quiche, created a sharing library of lit journals, set goals, asked for feedback on cover letters, and sent off submissions.

La Bloga's Michael Sedano recently enjoyed an engaging afternoon with five members of WWS at historic Campo de Cahuenga in North Hollywood, California. Today, we happily share portraits of WWS readers.  In future, La Bloga looks to share work by WWS writers in an Online Floricanto. 

Annalicia Aguilar

https://annalicia.com/

Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera

https://labloga.blogspot.com/2024/03/guest-reviewer-breaking-pattern-black.html

Mona Alvarado Frazier

https://labloga.blogspot.com/2023/07/review-garden-of-second-chances.html

Xochitl-Julsa Bermejo 

https://labloga.blogspot.com/2024/03/xochitl-julisa-bermejos-incantation.html

Roberta H. Martinez

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_H._Martinez

SoCal Poetry News

Saturday, September 7, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Six-Word Memoir & Book Making Workshop led by Olga Garcia Echeverría

Join the Altadena Poets Laureate for a Six-Word Memoir & Book Making workshop led by poet Olga Garcia Echeverría. About the poet Olga Garcia Echeverría. She / Her / Ella. Creator and destroyer of language. Daughter of migrating dreams. Born and raised in East Los Angeles. Profesora, poeta, and dreamer. Ultra Libra in love with the ocean, the trees, and the honey-making bees. Come write six-word memoirs and make cardboard books with me! olgagarciaecheverria.com | IG @ogecheverria | X @OlgaMariposa. Audience: Adult (18+ Years Old). Event Type: Literature & Poetry. DIY & Crafting. Art.Saturday, September 7, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Main Library Community Room.

Submissions for Online Publication in Spring 2025 will be accepted beginning September 5, 2024. Guidelines will be published in the near future.

"Best Political Poet in America" To Be Honored

Poetry Connection: Connecting with Poets of Different Generations

Melinda Palacio

 Earlier this month, David Starkey, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate from 2009-2011, hosted his semi-annual poetry series at the Goleta Valley Library August 4. Given that it was the last day of Fiesta, it was nice to see a full house. I was honored to read with a lineup that showcased four different generations of Santa Barbara County poets. Library technician Craig Clevenger is thrilled to have the series at the Goleta Valley Library. “I am truly moved by the participation and attendance at these events,” he said. “That such a thriving community for poetry is alive and well here is proof that Santa Barbara is a bright pin in the literary map.”

 

Musician and Vietnam Veteran, Ruben Lee Dalton read from his book of poetry, Broken Bottles, a book that was published four years ago, during the pandemic. As many authors whose books were released during covid lockdown, it’s tough to figure out how to relaunch a book. Dalton’s first reading and presentation of Broken Bottles was on David Starkey’s television show, the Creative Community. When I asked the poet about his plans for a relaunch of his book, he nodded and mentioned he was thinking about it. His poems speak about fatherhood and human nature and the natural world. His poems about being a combat veteran are some of the best examples of that genre. I look forward to seeing more events surrounding this important poetry collection. 

 

While Dalton was our eldest poet, I represented the next generation or the Gen X group. My set of poems dealt with more contemporary political issues, such as the Dobbs decision, Black Lives Matter, and the border, specifically my poem that reimagines the legend of La Llorona. I had some friends in the audience who I hadn’t seen in over fifteen years. I read some older poems that I usually don’t read. 

 

Putting a set together is important to me. We all have attended poetry readings where the poet is not prepared and is flipping through their books and pages, trying to decide which poem to read. This causes the audience to lose their interest, however much they adore the poet. It’s important to respect the audience and to prepare a set. And, it’s always good to have a few extra poems prepared in case you are allotted extra time. 

 

I usually have a guitar or ukulele with me and if I am the only reader, I might plan on playing a song. At the library, because there were four readers, I left my instruments at home. It turned out I could have played a tune. A traffic incident caused two of our poets to be delayed and our host invited me to read a little longer. I was glad I had extra poems, but regretted that the one time I had left my guitar at home was when I could have used it. A lesson learned. Always be prepared. 

 

Next, our soon-to-be college student and Youth Poet Laureate, Jasmine Guerrero Sevilla arrived and read her poems. Last month’s guest column, featured an interview of Jasmine by Cie Gumicio. Jasmine writes effectively and lyrically in both English and Spanish. I am glad that her voice is being celebrated. Starting college at Sacramento State and a turn as Santa Barbara’s Youth Poet Laureate seems daunting, but after meeting her, I am sure she will excel at both. 

 

Our youngest reader was 10-year-old poet Soe Bender. With two parents who are writers, it’s no wonder Soe is already being published in this year’s California Poets in the Schools 2024 State Anthology. She was inspired to write her first poem when she was 8 years old after reading Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai. I wanted to know what she liked about writing poetry. She said, “I like that I can express my feelings through the rhythm of the words.” She reads her work with authority and energy. She is an impressive child and poet. 

 

This week’s poem comes from Soe Bender. 

 

 

 

I Am From…

 

By Soe Bender

 

I am from the sound of my dad, strumming his guitar,

music echoing through the walls

 

I am from the warmth of the sun and the patter of the rain on my face

When I step outside each day

 

I am from the pots clanging in the kitchen

Garlic and spices drifting through the air all around

 

I am from my first word, my first step, my first hug

Memories I will never forget

 

I am from laughs and smiles from my family and friends

That can cheer up any sad day

 

I am from the soft waves lapping against my feet

As my heels dig into the sun-kissed sand

 

I am from the snowy mountains

 

I am from the rolling hills

 

I am from everything that has made me happy or sad

Because all those things are apart of me

 

 

Soe Bender lives in Santa Barbara with her mom, dad, brother and dog, Cosmo. She spends most of her time drawing, writing, and painting. She enjoys listening to K-pop music and loves to express her creativity in different ways. 

*an earlier version of this column was published in the Santa Barbara Independent

Poetry Road Trip. Guest Reviewer. Honoree Nominations.

30 Poets, Four Cities, This Week
Michael Sedano

Billing themselves as Las Lunas Locas, thirty women from Los Angeles begin a caravan Thursday, driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco to launch a four-city poetry tour with readings also in Sacramento, Oakland, and Fresno.

Save the date! If you're in the neighborhood, the readings will offer memorable work in a unique peripatetic ambiente.

Six of the women held a fund raiser in El Sereno's popular Holy Grounds Coffee and Tea shop. What a genuine delight to see old friends and enjoy sparkling conversation with gente I've heard read at Avenue 50 Studio, and meeting others for the first time. The conversation and amistad were free. For a donation, a poet would create a poem on a now-ancient manual typewriter.

Organizer Karineh Mahdessian had asked if I wanted a formalist work. I'd raised the formalist issue at a free verse-dominated La Palabra reading the previous week. I answered not exactly; I wanted something "in the style of Jesus" in as much as we were standing on Holy Grounds.

Indefatigable Karineh Mahdessian, poet, emcee, and poetry activist.

Melanie González was at the machine and took my offhand remark as a prompt. She rolled a sheet into the platen and began composing on-the-fly. Using mostly two fingers and striking the keys hard  like a percussion instrument until the fingers began to bleed a bit, almost, Melanie worked swiftly and confidently.

Iris de Anda's typing machine misbehaved and didn't move the inked ribbon. Melanie pulled the poem off the machine and read it aloud before presenting it to me. I complained I couldn't read the wondrous work. Iris checked it out then rendered the machine first aid. 

Iris and Melanie doing CPR on the portable typewriter.

Melanie rolled the paper back into the machine and re-typed the poem on the original document. I got two gems for the small donation. The palimpsest contains the faint impressions of the original running vertically, with the final edition reading top-to-bottom.

in the style of jesus

down on beaudry

the glue sniffers

and the rucas meet

at loreto high

with the eloteros and

tamaleros walk by

while the cholas

and freaks

wait to be crucified

in the style of jesus

arms

spread out 

like wings

sangre 

on the concrete

there is no heaven

here there is hell

and everyone is living

in the style of jesus 

with their tijuana bibles

Melanie Gonzáles reading "in the style of jesus"

I am saving this wonderful piece in my collection of libros cartoneros. Next time Las Lunas Locas hold another fund-raiser, I'm taking more money. These poets are founts of creativity and energy and are certain to create masterpiece after masterpiece, sparkling gems like the poets themselves.

Gente in Northern California and the central valley metropolis of Fresno can look forward to hearing Melanie at selected venues, or Karineh, or Iris, or one of the six spirits working the fundraiser. For sure, audiences will totally dig some combination of the thirty making the week-long caravan in the service of poetry and the Muse.

Emily Fernandez, Melanie González, Laura Sermeño,
Karineh Mahdessian, Carolina Gamero, Iris de Anda.

Guest Reviewer: Hugo Cesar Garcia 

Gene Aguilera. Mexican American Boxing in Los Angeles. Mt. Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Press, 2014. ISBN: 9781467130899

In 125 pages, 155 photos, 15 posters and souvenir programs, and one map, author Gene Aguilera captures the colorful, flamboyant and wonderful world of Mexican American boxing in Los Angeles starting with hard drinking, hard hitting Aurelio Herrera in 1895 and ending with 10-time champion Oscar De La Hoya in the nineteen nineties.

Photos capture epic ring battles but also offer candid snap shots of boxers, some very well known, others a revelation to the casual boxing fan, as well as interesting tidbits about their personal lives.

Unexpected treats: El Chicano band's singer Ersi Arvizu of Sabor a Mi fame as a professional boxer at age 18; singer/actor Frank Sinatra in Cisco Andrade’s corner;  icon Marylyn Monroe with the original Golden Boy, Art Aragon, who bobs and weaves throughout the book.

Captions, some of them quite deep, not only indicate the records of renowned champions Mando Ramos, Danny Little Red  Lopez, Carlos Palomino, Oscar De La Hoya, Raul Rojas, Genaro Chicanito Hernandez, and Bobby Chacon, but also provide interesting details about their careers and lives, as well as those of celebrated contenders Enrique Bolaños, Art Aragon, Armando Muñiz, Ernie Indian Red Lopez and Ignacio Keeny Teran, revealing the demons and circumstances that denied them the titles their skills in the ring merited.

Action-packed bouts featuring fierce light weight Mexican and Mexican American fighters attracted not only ordinary Latinos but Hollywood celebrities, because of promoters Aileen Eaton, Hap Navarro and Don Fraser; managers Howie Steindler and Benny Georgino; Joe and Dan Goossen; matchmakers George Parnassus and Don Chargin.

Beginning at Jack Doyle’s Vernon Arena at 38th and Santa Fe in the 30s, Cal Working’s Hollywood Legion Stadium and Wrigley Field in the 40s, the neighborhood rivalries and international duels of these light weight warriors moved on to the fabled Olympic Auditorium at 18th and Grand, the LA Sports Arena, The Fabulous Forum, plus Las Vegas and to other continents with brilliant smaller weight champions and contenders.

The retirement of Olympic Gold Medalist and 10 time world champ in six weight divisions Oscar De La Hoya marks the end of this informative book.

Author Aguilera modestly admits he never meant to pen the definitive pictorial history of Mexican American Boxing in Los Angeles, but Mexican American Boxing in Los Angeles is a pretty good one for long-time boxing fans, and new ones as well.

About the reviewer

Hugo Cesar Garcia, a long-time boxing fan, covered boxing at the Olympic Auditorium for Eastern Group Publications, whose circulation area served the eastern and central parts of the Los Angeles basin.

Garcia is currently working on his first novel Hueso, about Spanish language media, immigration, and police abuse. The novel''s action moves from Cd. Juarez to Los Angeles at the height of the narco wars.

2016 Award of Excellence Nominations Wide Open

Who has not read a list of notable raza and wondered who picked them, or why so-and-so was omitted? Austin, Texas' The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center invites everyone to get into the process of naming 2016 outstanding raza creators of the cultural arts for the Austin region of the country.

The centro announces six categories are open for nomination, including self-nomination"

THE ARTS: Those working in any medium including visual arts, dance, music, literature, theatre, film, performing arts and history.

PATRONAGE: Those who have made significant contributions or donations in support of the Latino cultural arts, and who have provided in-kind and non-financial support in the Latino cultural arts.

SERVICE: Those who have exhibited outstanding service as a volunteer and/or employee in the Latino cultural arts.

EMERGING ARTIST: Those who have shown innovative and exceptional accomplishments in the Latino cultural arts.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT or POSTHUMOUS: Those who have demonstrated years of passion and dedication in the Latino cultural arts.

ARTS EDUCATOR: Those that educate our community about Latino cultural arts.

Nominations close Wednesday, March 21st at 11:59 p.m. (CST).

Read the award descriptions, criteria and eligibility requirements, and download the nomination form, at the ESB-MACC website.

Guest Review: Anaya's Poems from the Río Grande. Poets Laureate of Two Cities.

Guest Review, Jesus Salvador Trevino: Poems From the Río Grande.

Rudolfo Anaya. Poems From The Río Grande. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.  ISBN: 9780806148663

Jesus Salvador Treviño

Rudy Anaya’s new poetry collection, Poems from the Río Grande, shares the language, imagery and landscape of his classic coming-of-age novel Bless Me Ultima and his more recent novels Randy Lopez Goes Home and The Old Man’s Love Story. This most recent work is an inspiring homage to New Mexico’s rich Hispanic heritage, its myths, legends and most of all, the vitality, perseverance and humanity of its people.

The poems are fresh, engaging, thought-inspiring and lyrical. They echo themes found in the more than thirty previous works which include novels, a short story collection, plays, essays and a slew of children’s books. In this first major venture into poetry, Anaya once again reveals himself to be a master wordsmith, equally adept at verse as he is at narrative prose.

The poems “A Child’s Christmas in New Mexico,” and “Song to the Río Grande,” resurrect the llano world of young Antonio Marez, protagonist of Bless Me Ultima, as well as many of the stories to be found in The Man Who Could Fly. A passage from“Song of the Río Grande” illustrates this.

You are the road
our fathers followed
to an enchanted land
to plant our roots.
Villages of adobe,
cities so beautiful.

In “The Adventures of Juan Chicaspatas” we are taken on a rambling journey with Juan Chicaspatas and Al Penco, both emblematic of the Chicano experience, as they search history and the present for the true meaning Aztlán, of the Chicano ancestral homeland. On their sojourn, they encounter iconic personages from the Chicano/Mexicano past–la Malinche, Moctesuma, Coatlicue. Their quest echos the issues of identity and empowerment to be found in Anaya’s novels, Heart of Aztlán and Alburquerque, such as in this passage.

To my jefita I sing
and praise her every step,
her strength, her daily work,
her love, her sacrifice,
so that I, Juan Chicaspatas,
a Chicano homeboy,
can grow into the future.

This poem accomplishes what was only hinted at in Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez’s classic epic poem, “I Am Joaquin,” – encapsulating the history of Mexican Americans within the context of contemporary struggle fueled by the power of enduring myths, legends and gods. As Anaya puts it:

History has turned and twisted,
and a new time is being born.
Now is the time for the Gods
To return to Aztlán!”

Anaya’s writings in his later years deal with themes of love, loss and death as seen in the novels Randy Lopez Goes Home and The Old Man’s Love Story. These same themes are reiterated in the poem “Forgetting,” Anaya’s reflections on growing old and “Barecelona” recalling an unforgettable trip to Spain with his late wife, Patricia. But perhaps it is in the challenging poem, “Isis in the Heart: A Love Poem for Patricia,” that we find Anaya at his best– structurally complex, lyrical, symbolic, and filled with heartfelt passion that only a lifetime of memories can evoke.

Isis, the Egyptian goddess, was revered as the ideal mother and wife, and is for Anaya, a curandera (healer) par excellence. No accident, then, that Anaya chooses her as the shared memory and metaphor in the love poem to Patricia–in his life an ideal mother, wife and curandera. On a life-altering trip to Egypt, Anaya and Patricia discovered and fell in love with the Isis myth. Anaya became obsessed with transporting the ancient Egyptian myth to contemporary New Mexico, an Egyptian curandera in the land of curanderas. In so doing he broadens the Chicano literary experience beyond the borders of Aztlán. As with all great literature, it takes the specific and elevates it to the universal. Chicanos and Egyptians may speak a different language, but we all have mothers, wives and curanderas that heal the afflicted. As Anaya puts it, “If I could bring [Walt] Whitman to New Mexico then I could also bring Isis and Osiris to the Río Grande.”

This melancholic yet ultimately uplifting poem, set in three movements, follows Osiris, the brother and lover of Isis, to New Mexico where he, and later she, become metaphors of the ebb and flow of life’s cycles and the seasonal changes over an enchanted land. It is here that we find some of Anaya’s most beautiful lyricism.

He kisses her throat, and a spring of sweet water
Opens in the fissure of the lava rock.
He kisses her lips, and roses bloom on barren earth.

Some poetry critics may call Anaya’s poetic style overly narrative. And indeed the perennial cuentista, storyteller, can’t help but infuse his poetry with story. And what’s wrong with that? Anaya himself admits, “…my poems often lean toward narrative.” Yet, fellow poet Albert Ríos reminds us that “every word has a tremendous story behind it,” and that in writing poetry, “there is absolutely no one way to do it.” Readers looking for simple iambic pentameter or rhyming free verse, look elsewhere. This is poetry wrought by a master word craftsman at his prime.

What becomes clear as one reads this poetry is not just Anaya’s passion for the people and places he writes about, but his love for the transformative power of words. He tells us that in stories and poems, “one catches a glimpse of the Truth, and when the story ends, one returns fulfilled to one’s community.” Thankfully, Anaya is not yet done, either with his prose or poetic works. The last line in this the last poem reassures us.

there is always one more poem
to shape the future’s path.

_________________________________________________________________

Originally published in Latinopia Word. Copyright 2015 by Jesús Salvador Treviño. Excerpts from Poems From the Río Grande used by permission of the author. Alberto Riís quotations taken from the video “How to Write a Poem,” copyrighted by Barrio Dog Productions and available at Latinopia Word. Poems from the Río Grande is available from the publisher, at your local indie bookstore, and internet booksellers.




Best of Times, Worst of The Times: Poets Laureate of Two Cities
Michael Sedano

If an historic poetry reading featuring the Poets Laureate of San Francisco and Los Angeles happens in Los Angeles and the LA Times doesn’t report it, does it still make a joyous sound?

Saturday evening November 21, Avenue 50 Studio hosted a standing room only poetry reading that joined Luis J. Rodríguez with Alejandro Murguía, along with emerging voices from Las Lunas Locas writing community.

The LA Times reaches one out of three adults in the basin, but none of them got the word from the number one print platform west of the Hudson River. It’s not a fluke that Avenue 50 Studio’s Community Room overflowed with enthusiastic listeners. The night’s audience illustrates the power of social media and the increasing irrelevancy of “major” media to the region’s literary interests.

Luis J. Rodriguez

That small arts institutions serving people of color are unimportant to the Times drills a genuinely tragic lacuna into the heart of this media giant’s responsibility. The paper boasts that “more than 8.6 million adults18-34 across the U.S. visit latimes.com each month. In fact, the Times reaches more adults18-34 than WSJ, CNBC, MSNBC, FunnyorDie, Break, or Esquire.”

Every one of these people deserve professional coverage about literature, culture, and the arts, but every one of these people doesn’t get the opportunity to click and learn, much less drive to the northeast side of town to Avenue 50, because of the paper’s deliberate editorial blindness. If that’s all it is. What a shame the mis-served public considers the Times a newspaper of record.

The Avenue 50 Stufio program, dubbed Poets Laureate de Califas: SF y LA, offered a synoptic view of contemporary Chicana and Chicano poetry. There’s an emerging body of scholarship exploring these arts in academic journals and books, but in a single evening, students, scholars, literature lovers in attendance enjoyed informative, critically important, personal, funny, emotional, slivers of the hearts of seven poets and observed the diversity and depth characteristic of contemporary raza literature. Poems offered English, Spanish, Farsi, Armenian, and German expression.

For artists, the evening offered a primer on how to read your stuff aloud. A poetry recital is, for the poet, a confrontation of the self. The greater the poet’s familiarity with one’s emotional state in front of an audience, the deeper the poet can reach inside to discover resources for presentation that enlarge the performance repertoire and enhance the listener’s participation in the act of doing verbal art.

Seasoned readers, Luis J. Rodríguez and Alejandro Murguía exhibited outlandishly powerful skill. Rodriguez is a manuscript reader, holding his book or typescript at shoulder level without blocking the sound, always speaking to the house while following the lines. The Los Angeles Laureate divides the reading into narrative introductions then transitions onto the page.

San Francisco’s Murguía works principally from memory. His narrative transitions blend seamlessly into the poem, the rapt audience not required to observe a boundary between extemporaneity and polished publication. In Murguía’s presence, the poet is the poem.

The two Laureates leave the audience immensely satisfied with the experience and aching for more, disappointed when they hear the signpost, “My final poem is…”

The evening would have been completely satisfying featuring the two Poets Laureate in extended sets. But at the Laureates' insistence, Ceballos invited emerging women poets to share the stage. As Murguía observed, once the elevator reaches the top, send it back to the ground floor. In this case, the well-grounded poets from Las Lunas Locas enjoyed the ascent.

The energy the audience provided sent readers from Las Lunas Locas floating on air. As host and event organizer Jessica Ceballos introduced each Lunas Locas poet there was none of the awkwardness that often accompanies the walk from seat to rostrum. Energetic applause signaled anticipation and once the reader took her place, she performed as if being before an audience were as natural as breathing, or polishing an expression.

Iris De Anda, whose El Sereno healing center, Here and Now,
hosts Las Lunas Locas' weekly workshops.

Sophia Rivera is a co-founder of Las Lunas Locas

Emily Fernandez

Nadire Luna

Karineh Mahdessian reads and chants a quadriglossic poem

Mahdessian's notebook

For this night, none of the performers adopted a “poet voice” but spoke in natural cadences. Each allowed feelings and images so carefully crafted to find their meaning in the connected lines, none read as if line breaks required a pause or sing-song inflection. If one or two felt stiff and reluctant, it’s not a trait but a temporary state poets overcome by imitating the models of others on the program, and thinking of the reading as simply an extended conversation with the audience. Instead of chatting up a seatmate, then engaging the person in the next seat, then another, open up to include all within earshot.

In future readings, one might elect to get rid of that music stand lectern altogether, or, as Ceballos has done, keep the device low, near waist level so the metal frame doesn’t loom as an obstacle between the audience and the reader. The technology of the full body is as powerful as one’s voice, so eliminating the lectern offers an experience that requires the best kind of self-confrontation: the poet, her work, her audience. A recitation doesn’t get much better than this. The poet honors her work and gives each poem its due, it’s the poem’s reward for demanding to be made public.

Alejandro Murguía joins Jessica Ceballos in an index moment

The provenance of the event traces to serendipity. I was cleaning out some files and happened across picture postcards from early 20th century Mexico. I scanned them and posted them on Facebook. A Facebook friend observed that San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía’s Mexico postcards collection was displaying at a San Francisco museum. Landscape Architect Rhett Beavers asked me if Murguía wanted a collection Rhett owned?

Rhett Beavers and Alejandro Murguía. Rhett's baseball card collection will soon join Murguía's.

 In the course of Rhett’s giving Alejandro the collection, Murguía mentioned he’d be in LA in November. Asked if he’d like to do a reading, the Laureate said sure. I related the news to arts organizer extraordinaire Jessica Ceballos. We’d hoped to make it a trio, but Juan Felipe Herrera has become the peripatetic Laureate. In Ceballos' indefatigably capable hands, the historic Laureates of two cities reading came to Avenue 50 Studio. It was the best of times.

Jessica Ceballos, Karineh Mahdessian, Sophia Rivera, Emily Fernandez,
Luis J. Rodriguez, Alejandro Murguía, Nadire Luna, Iris De Anda