POETS PLACE
AUGUST EDITION 2026
The world is on fire and so is my heart. There doesn’t seem to be any calm and not a day goes by without more news of impending doom. Maybe some of you can relate on some if not many levels. Did you hear that AI is devouring as many books as it can to digest the knowledge and info, then spit it out into the trash heap? WTF!! Newly constructed oil pipelines destroying sacred lands for greedy billionaires! DOGE MUSK stopping the funding to protect parklands from fires in Minnesota, which is now on fire, the likes they have never seen before!!! The list of corruption, deceit and destruction is beyond belief. I know you all know this. How are you keeping your head on? How are you combating severe depression and feelings of hopelessness?? Are you furious??!! I see people shouting all over social media screaming at us to do something!!! Someone needs to write the playbook for what to DO!!!! I feel I am starting to lose my ability to calm myself. To relax and enjoy the gifts that I have in front of me. I fear I might go ballistic the next time someone mentions more horrors in …. you name it. I can’t carry on like there’s nothing going on. And now this… I was a huge Dodger fan and then they went to the White House and kissed that motherfuckers ass!!! #fuckthedodgers. I watched them all this season until then. I would look forward to my daily beer with the Dodger game. A distraction from all that is shit around me. NOW WHAT??? Many of my friends are dying from various cancers. WE HAVE A HUGE MALIGNANT CANCER GROWING IN DC!!! WHY IS THAT MOFO NOT BEING ARRESTED??? PROTECTED BY THE DOJ??? WHY AREN'T WE FORMING A COUP TO TAKE THEM DOWN??? The world is distancing themselves from us because we are toxic, murderous, and foul. I want to see it all crumble and crash. I hope I can make it to see it fall. IDK. And..it fucking suxx getting old. Age gracefully? Fuck that.
The Rapists Amongst us! (repost)
By Linda Kaye
Men, to this day, throughout the world, continually believe that they have power and control over women. That they have a right to behave so shamefully and dastardly, with unabashed, unchecked, self entitled sexual unwanted advances towards women
“all women know a rape victim, no man knows a rapist”
Personally, I want to hide under a rock until America is released from this tyranny
I want to shape shift into an invisible ninja entering the bedroom of DJT in the dark of night and beat the shit out of him until he screams and pleads for mercy.
I want to humiliate and poison the war mongers, the pedophile billionaires who are raping our country and lining their own pockets.
I want to strip naked and parade the fuckers in the administration walking them down the street in front of millions of Americans that have suffered under their reign of terror whilst the public throws rotten fruit in their faces- tomatoes at their heads whilst screaming traitor, traitor, traitor.
I wanna have the White House tagged with messages of traitor, pedophile rapist, destroyer of American values, piggy
I want to personally escort the traitors with their hands shackled and their bodies and faces painted with feces that spell traitor
Leading them out of our country banning them forever and stripping their wealth to pay for all the damages they had created
I want to be part of the coup that enters the White House destroying all the gold trophies, the gold ball room, and defecate on DJT’s portrait.
I want to manifest the power of all the indigenous people that were here before all the rapists and pillagers of colonial times and change back this continent into a beautiful accepting place for all people’s
I want, I wish I dream of these acts. I am angry. I am disgusted. I am ashamed. I am ready to be a martyr
This is the new me.
What is Family?
By Kassi Crews
F is for Freedom to be me
A is for the Admiration
M is for Meat on our bones
I is for the Isolation we break
L is for the Love of each other
Y is for the You in me
Fashion facing facts
Always present in spite of obstacles
Missing deeply our connections
I am fortunate to see
Love is different than taught
You remind me to forgive
Myself, my family, my friends of any misunderstandings
As we build new bridges to reach each other in new ways
Always loving
Always grieving for the least of us
Always questioning: Why?
Always trail blazing for the arts
Whether I want to or not
It’s in my programming–the show must go on!
Each of you add rays of light, a tapestry of magic in my heart
I am lucky to know you ALL from the start
©2024 Kassi Crews
Kassi Crews is an entertainment industry veteran and a consummate storyteller. She is a versatile & accomplished actor with a rich background in film, television, audiobooks, improvisation, stand-up comedy, and theatre as well as a published author. She currently focuses her time on building content for OURCOMMONUNITY.ORG serving the under-resourced youth. Crews became an industry leader in Hollywood post-production as the Vice President of Digital Jungle where she oversaw the day-to-day operations and served as producer on an endless list of film and television projects. Most recently, Crews lead multiple post-production teams at Fox and Walt Disney Television, overseeing the workflows of all television for FX Networks including "The Americans," “Fargo" and “Pose" as well as a DI Producer for Apple, Netflix, CBS, CW, Starz & Paramount. Crews has produced and directed a variety of critically acclaimed independent projects, “Broken Memories,” Heart of Recovery”, “God’s Ears” and “A Better Place” as well as live shows for the theater. She is a member of ATAS, NAB, NAPTE, PROMAX and SAG; holds a Master of Arts from CSU Fullerton and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from UC Santa Cruz.
When Death Comes Knocking
By Jackie Chou
When death comes knocking
I will ask him
where his blue suit is
Where is his boutonniere
pinned to a velvet lapel
Or the blond hair
in the sunlight
held up by gel
Is that the best he can do
the hollow eye sockets
under a black hoody
Where are my pink roses
my love emoji
He's not the one for me
because I'm a sucker
for the Quixotic type
Jackie Chou is a writer of poetry and flash fiction who has recent work in Chainmail Poetry, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, Poetry Online, Alien Buddha Zine, and Collaborature. Her poems have been translated into Chinese in the journal Poetry Hall. Her story "Kiss From a Rose on the Grey" is forthcoming in Spillwords. She believes that writers must write in order to call themselves writers, and hopes to live up to that herself.
The Quiet One
By Sam Moore
He was always so quiet
In the corner
Staring
Always staring
She always wondered about him
What was he thinking
Staring
Always staring
Into the air
Over there
In the corner
What was she thinking
He was there
He got up
And walked into the night
She followed
Followed him into the empty playground
Past all the slides
And into the carnival rides
She found him standing by the carousel
The same look in his eyes
Staring into the air
Always staring
She walked up to him and said
Can I talk to you
You are
He smiled
She grinned back and said
You’re always so quiet
To which he responded
I am. I like to stare
She stared into his eyes and saw oceans of emptiness
Rippling upon the surface
She touched his arm
He turned around gently and said
You and I make quite a pair
She walked away
And left him there
With the emptiness
Staring
Yes! I am Sam. SamEyezAm. I like to write. I chose the pen to get back to the pencil. The eraser is my friend, and I’m always moving.
Opposite of me
By Richard McDowell
She sat opposite of me as we road along
I’m on the bus again and no song is sung for us
Although I agree with Raskoinikov and his desire to find out, what did
the depraved Svidrigailov mean - when he said, “All one needs is a bit of fresh air, fresh air.”
And taking the time to get outside is just that.
A teal blue blouse – suits her well
Ascents her pudgy, round face, and I’m attracted to her ash colored skin
and she’s probably a poet like me.
We exchange no token complements
but her full red lips speak of words unspoken
One day could have awoken token, inner primordial
desire for life, to live, just live
And out the window as a little girl jumps after a butterfly
I witness her brother unaware - And I remember that summer well
When we were kids – yet it has been so long since I -
So long since the sense of wonder filled in the blank spaces
Spaces I see so clearly now, and as does mountain mist
or as distant clouds adorn the sky
and I see the little purple flowers on her dress
they don’t seem to mind
don’t seem to feel the wind and yet with the ruffle of her dress
she stepped out the back door of the bus
and as another traveler takes her empty seat, I feel contented
Richard McDowell has been a faithful resident of Downtown Los Angeles since 2001 and a current resident of Skid Row since 2007. Richard is a keen observer of the street. While living in an SRO, the Baltimore Hotel, he believes he found a subject matter and perhaps his voice. He is the author of Icarus Sat By Me and several chapbooks, including Observations of Night, In the Pit and Thirty Days on on Spring.
AMAZON QUEEN 4
By Keith Kurlander
The artwork features a central portrait of Lauren Sánchez Bezos in a black strapless top, rendered in a high-contrast halftone pattern using neon yellow skin tones and dark purple/blue hair. A striking magenta "censorship bar" covers her eyes. The entire composition is built on a chaotic, psychedelic background of dense magenta and blue polka dots over a black field, creating an optical illusion effect.
Keith Kurlander “I've always been a creative soul, I make art, music, music videos, TV shows, films and mayhem. If you want to learn all about my fascinating life here's a good place to start.”
KEITH KURLANDER, THE E. TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY
https://youtu.be/p3er5ptzZTA
LINK TO MUSIC https://www.idiot-savant.net/
More Art at: https://www.artpal.com/disobay & Music at https://www.idiot-savant.net/
I found an old manifesto I did not recall
By Dean Okamura
I could not recite lines
of my own thesis.
Politics has become more resistance,
protest, meant only
to challenge today’s headlines.
Like my cat sees something
and squeezes under the dresser.
Then spend the rest
of the day running
around the house.
Perhaps we’re hunters,
far more curious than collectors.
We have forgotten what made us
the people we are today.
Dean resides in Torrance. There is so much happening in this world, but he can only comment in small poems.
Thorn in my heart
By Lupe Montiel
I tried
I tried with all my might
I’ve given up the fight
Not for lack of love
I am simply exhausted
Been running up a mountain
Its time to stop running
I can’t win this race
I know it
I don’t have a fighting chance
I promised myself once before
I wouldn’t fall into that trap again
Although I’ve been teetering
On the edge, feeling like I’ll surely fall
I keep pulling myself out of that sinking feeling I get with you
time and time again
Yet somehow I sink deeper & deeper into a vast and endless sink hole
Your silence is golden
It’s calculated
It’s cruel
it’s measured
I have no fight left in me
I’m at the end of the rope
Everything was smoke & mirrors
A mirage of sorts
You gave me false hope
As I continued to walk in blind faith
In reality, nothing that we lived through together was ever real
Though I loved you
Though I longed for you
Today, I set you free
You’re free to go
go far away
never look back
We are part of the the past now
In the future
I won’t call your name
I won’t send you messages
I won’t run to you
I won’t scan city streets looking for your silhouette
I’m pulling this thorn out of my own heart in the most raw, savage way
by my own hand
Believe me
It burns like hell
I’m in agony
Whenever I remember you
The wound will always be here
Where that thorn once lived
Now, my wounded heart is all that remains
You set the wheels in motion
There’s no turning back now
You wanted it this way
I set you free
Away from me
Apart from a heart full of infinite love for you
I wanted you more than life itself
I have to contend with the fact my love for you meant nothing to you
I hated that you felt forced to be with me somehow
My heart was the one place where you never wanted to exist
you always yearned to run far away from arms that only begged to hold you and you refused to please me
My heart is shattered to pieces
the mending must begin
I will never accept that I couldn’t win with you
You were so cruel by never telling me you never loved me
It is true, you never loved me the way I loved you
I loved you more than my own life
Go on now go
Go be where you want to be
Be who you want to be
Find your happiness
Erase me from your memory
I gave you everything I could
I have nothing left to give
you must know
Beyond the Sun, moon and stars
I would’ve pulled the whole universe for you
I love you
You meant everything to me
You were my everything
If only for a brief moment of my life
I gave you the best of me
You chose to end our life together
I must oblige
You got what you wanted
My mind now understands
But that message is too distant
it will never reach my broken heart
I will never accept, that we
were never meant to be
Lupe Montiel is a poet, playwright, filmmaker, actor, and interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. She is a founding member and Director of Content & Communication for The Show & Tale Film, Play & Arts Festival in Hollywood where she curates film, poetry, plays and visual art. Her poetry is included in the award-winning anthology Inficciones, (ediciones aguamiel) as well as, Acid Verse Vol. 2 (LA Poet Society Press) and Anger Is A Gift (Flowersong Press). In 2024 & 2026, she was honored by the City of Los Angeles and Downey for her many contributions to the arts communities.
Poem
By Lida Parent-Harris
2/7/26. 10:07 a.m.
The sun is bright,
the wind kicks up as the
crows cry even longer than before.
Nobody seems for certain,
but knowing that something is amiss.
That smile you connect with.
A friend to confide in.
All around you are busy streets of people passing
like zombies.
Everyone notices the same,
but everything changes the game.
Even the rooster stopped crowing.
The fire inside is hiding
the true you.
Anger is the fuel.
Sitting still bears the weight
of the storm.
The lucky ones find chocolate in their purse
that was lost.
The change is making everything cost.
Our highs are low,
the change seems to grow,
and it all feels like we are wasting time.
Curled away in our thoughts
buried in our minds.
All we know our song
has become our rhyme
to get us through this test of time.
This time,
we've got to make it matter.
For our future,
to make it better.
For all of us.
Lida began her writing career in 2001 when she began attending Open-mic events in the San Fernando Valley. She met wonderful friends in a coffeehouse, and soon her life and world opened.
Lida attended Community Literature Initiative instructed by Hiram Sims. It was a writing course at USC which gave her new roots. Her first book of poetry was published in 2015, by World Stage Press. She enjoyed performing in new venues, and creating her own shows called Lyrical Flames, in 2014.
Since then, Lida has performed her poetry in Las Vegas, Chicago, Santa Monica, Long Beach, North Holland, ArtShare LA, Leimert Park, Grand Park, and The Los Angeles Times Book Festival.
Lida is currently a mentor and dedicates her time to teach poetry for adults for The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. She is also taking Drumming and writes song lyrics for new realms of creativity.
Libertas
Art by Anna Broome
Anna Broome is a Los Angeles poet who has published in various anthologies and journals including Acts of Light, LA Art News and Spectrum 17. Broome performs for local troupes including Public Works Improvisational Theatre’s Storyphile at venues including Beyond Baroque and Art Share LA. She produces and hosts the Anna Broome Room, a monthly, free-to-the-public live-performance art show for the last ten years at Art Share LA. Broome studied poetry at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with Pulitzer Prize nominee Michael White. “Women Napping with Animals”, her collaborative project with Ted Meyer, was published in 2014. Her first collection of poetry, “Orthodox Bats”, was published in 2019. Her second collection “Sex Ed: A Prerequisite at Columbine” was published in 2022. Her new collection “An Irregular Bone” is currently under consideration for the Wilder Prize.
From any direction
By DAN MBO KUBA
Intellectual activities,
Of the human race,
Usually involves,
In ordinal scale;
From any direction,
Under single heading,
For that matter,
On a celestial body;
Such as the moon,
In a number of ways,
Named or numbered,
Better understood;
The type of place,
Indispensable for processing,
By the number of figures,
Of the lines;
Stored per degree,
For educationnal purpose,
Neither conformal,
Used to show paths.
Dan MBO KUBA is a contributing editor with a background in Finance and Development having been part of the Commercial, Marketing and Administrative school. He carries out his freelance tasks as an SEO writer with various writing options with various firms and establishments. Author of several Books and articles, notably for the Revue Avenir and the Revue of the digitalization and the management. Since 2016, he has been working as an Author, participating in various related activities.
Sugar In Space
By Snow Mack
If you were a Satellite, and I was the Cosmos
I would surround you with my darkness into forever
Does it matter?
I am so so small
Like a Neutron star
Ready to go black hole rogue
Impressing the sophomore stars hanging out in the Milky Way
So so
Do tell me your dreams
Slip back into your Cosmic blackness
Lean into the forever of our unknowable strengths
Awash in senseless babble
Dreams in pockets
So so conveniently convenient, sips and sighs
Are you ready? The bus is here
So so
Snow Mack (she, her) is a contemporary visual artist known for her vibrant, dream-inspired paintings and whimsical assemblage frames. Her work blends pop culture, mythology, and surreal imagery to explore the subconscious, resulting in visually rich narratives that are both personal and archetypal. Snow Mack lives and works in Los Angeles, where she continues to develop a body of work that merges vivid imagination, cultural commentary, and symbolic vision. SnowMack.com - IG @snowmackart
Bursts
By Michelle Smith
Cloudburst on my lawn
blades of grass frosted of
morning dew soothed
feet feel the drops cool
Sunburst of the dawn
wakey wakey from
last night's swoon
Dancing in our birthday suits
refreshingly dip in the pool
Moonburst into the midnight sky
of diamond stars
Celestial bodies float on in the
Galaxy of twilight
Melting into sensual highlights
Upside into the 69 and
climax seasons
Thunderburst
In sync
I am you
In sync
you are me
Singing cheek to cheek
To Earth, Wind, and Fire's "Reasons"
Cloud, Sun, Moon, Thunder
each one spellbound me
and how I wanderlust asunder
Michelle Y. Smith is a Los Angeleno native and is like Stretch Armstrong, an action figure with many life, love, and laughter roles:
My heart is mother to an autistic son who is my more than my pride and joy. Sister, aunt, grand aunt, cousin, & friend. My patience is my employment I am a CNA and advocate for the developmentally and elderly disabled community. My drive is published poetry in Love Letters, Acid Verse II, and Just for the People by Los Angeles Poet Society Press; anthologies and zines by DSTLArts; and Four Feathers Press zines and http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com. My poem, "There is a Sunflower" published in June was nominated by the Four Feathers Press PDF/Print Publication Awards.
California
By Heather Romero-Kornblum
They killed a cat named
Chicken at Apple Valley
Animal Shelter
They’re killing a cat named Lois
at Apple Valley Animal Shelter
Ariel is a ballerina cat
and they’re killing her
at Apple Valley Animal Shelter
Goldfish is a breathtaking
green-eyed silky kitten a
lady in New York hoped
to adopt
But they’re killing her
at Apple Valley Animal Shelter
They’re killing a cat named Buddy
at Apple Valley Animal Shelter
They’re killing a nameless
bottle-fed baby
Black panther
at Apple Valley Animal Shelter
They’re killing a cat
at Apple Valley Animal Shelter
A former academic researcher, Heather Romero-Kornblum returned to poetry after several near-death experiences due to Long Covid. She captures the crumbling of her marriage in the wake of her near-death experiences in I’M NOT OVER YOU – the 2025 Four Feathers Press Chapbook Contest winner. She is published in multiple journals and anthologies, most recently on Poetry Super Highway as featured Poet of the Week, in the Altadena Poetry Review Anthology 2026, Tender Hearts Club by Feather Press, with Women Who Submit in ‘This Makes up the Sky’, LA Art News Poet's Place, Four Feathers Press monthly anthologies with her poem 'Alienation' winning a 2025 Print Poetry Award, The Zest of the Lemon, on the ZZyZx WriterZ podcast, Cobalt Poets, and in Silver Birch Press’ Words of Advice Poetry & Prose Series. She also leads the weekly community Poetic Problems workshop with the Saturday Afternoon Poetry group. https://www.heatherkornbooks.com/
THANKS FOR JOINING US!!!!
Please submit your written work to: lindakayepoetry@icloud.com
and include a short bio
Linda Kaye writes poetry, curates poetry, produces films, spoken word and art events and produces a poetry column POETS PLACE for the online publication LAARTNEWS throughout the Los Angeles area. She recently exhibited her first piece of artwork! A photograph taken in Waikiki, was represented at the Los Angeles Makery gallery’s REFLECTION:RESILIENCE show curated by the Arroyo Arts Collective. She has also been fortunate to show artwork again at the Los Angeles Makery. Her photograph, Ladispoli, Roma was included in The Quiet show April 2026.
She has published poetry in the publications, Art Block Zines 2024, 2025, & 2026, Curious Nothing vol 1&2, and the Altadena Poetry Review Anthology 2026.
Linda’s poetry events have included several summer poetry salons, and shows at the Los Angeles Makery, the Align Gallery, 50/50 Gallery, Gold Haus Gallery, Ave 50 Gallery, and Rock Rose Gallery in Highland Park, The Manifesto Café in Hermon, Pilates and Arts studio in Echo Park, and Native Boutique, Zweet Café in Eagle Rock, The Los Angeles Makery in Little Tokyo, and at the Neutra Institute Gallery and Museum in Silverlake. Her first short documentary film “BORDER POETS” was a socially and politically inspired event with poets and musicians filmed at the border wall near Tecate, Mexico on the Jacumba, Ca. side of the US. The film co-produced by MUD productions is available for viewing on her website and on youtube. https://youtu.be/5Te4-dlhxco
Her rap music video project in collaboration with Mary Cheung, “ERACE-ISM” can also be seen on youtube. https://youtu.be/NfrbveNUBgg This video was accepted into the Ontario Museum of History & Art show “We the People” Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. February 2- April 16, 2023. So honored!!
And… February 19, 2022, she debuted her staged poetry production of “20 Years Left” at the historic Ebell Club in Highland Park! Two sold out shows with 2 standing ovations!! Her documentary short of the making of “20 Years Left” screened at the Highland Park Independent Film festival in 2023 and was awarded an Honorable Mention. Check out the links to reviews and the video!
https://thehollywoodtimes.today/20-years-left-new-show-performance-poetry-music/
20 Years Left youtube live stream 2/19/22
Linda Kaye is a native Angeleno who grew up in the San Fernando Valley. She claims to be both a first-generation Valley Girl, and The Original Hipster. Educated at Antioch University and Cal State Long Beach in psychology and social work. Linda, now retired from medical social work, was working for her last seven years of employment as a psychotherapist and licensed clinical supervisor for an out patient mental health clinic. She was a licensed medical social worker for 30+ years working on the front line of healthcare, a private consultant for Physicians Aid Association and for skilled nursing facilities throughout California and Arizona. She was also an adjunct assistant professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Oh yeah.
Twitter/Instagram: lindakayepoetry
http://voyagela.com/interview/daily-inspiration-meet-linda-kaye/https://
shoutoutla.com/meet-linda-kaye-poet-poetry-and-theatrical-producer-filmmaker/