POETS PLACE
APRIL 2021
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, YO!!
APRIL is blooming! Achoo!!! It’s also the month of vaccinations for all of us! Go get em!! We will all congregate again soon with hugs galore! We have a host of writers for the month of lauded poetry. POETRY!!! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!! “The art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. Literary work in metrical form; verse. Prose with poetic qualities. Poetic qualities however manifested: the poetry of simple acts and things”. Dictionary.com. WOW!! Yes this is so true!! We must continue on this beautiful stream of consciousness and elevate our thoughts to share with the world!! Or at least here in Poets Place!! LOL!!! Let’s move towards brighter futures with the expressions of hope written in poetry!!! So we can “watch the sorrels”, and to gloriously witness justice for George Floyd! “Will we aspire and achieve further development” and “call forth our better angels” As Ronald Carrillo hopes. What can we promise ourselves Mary Cheung? To love and cherish our fellow man as we do ourselves, or should do for ourselves? “Hold your sword high! Be ready!” Find spirituality in poetry, or as Ismael ‘East’ Carlo says, “…Salsa is the salvation of our times!” Baila!
On a hot summer night
By Linda Kaye
On a hot summer night whilst the crescent moon shone in the distant night with the sweat pouring off his neck in the bright light
stars hidden in the heat and mist of his passion
and time was alluded
hint of sarcasm colluded between his sheets of speculation
amongst all the adoration
there was no hesitation
Now I turn My Attention to that of Music
By: IE Carlo
14 June 2019
Puerto Rico and its musicianship...is a way of life! Growing up in New York City, listening to the likes of Bobby Capo, Carlos Pizzaro, Daniel Santos, La Sonora Matancera, Johnny Rodriguez brother to Tito Rodriguez, Milta Silva, Trio Los Panchos, Perez Prado, Tito Puente, and as well music of Mexico, by many of their artists was a way of life at my house. There wasn’t a home (apartment) without music that I can remember in those tenements. Mother knew all the songs played on the radio, commercials included...meaning that music was a way of life for me and others growing up, there in that concrete city of New York.
Many friends today tell me they were allowed radio time; not in my house, mother was in total control of the radio. If I wanted to listen to radio and that of the Green Hornet, or the Shadow, I had to visit with my friend Bataan next door...the radio was for music, and mothers’ entertainment, period! Not that I mind; being I was always on the streets, and there as well music blasted from Mita’s candy store, my grandmother! No matter where you went in el barrio music was there to greet you.
Up on 110th Street and 5th Ave was the Park Plaza. Where the best of the worlds Latino/Hispanic musical orchestras played, and where fights between Cubans and Puerto Ricans ensued because of whose music was the better.
Which brings me to the music of today; the music I enjoy, salsa. Someone asked me about the salsa music of Puerto Rico the other day, all I could think to say was, it’s a way of life, almost a religion…
If you happen to visit Puerto Rico, you’ll find a festival at some interval of your stay. Music is everywhere, from regeton to rock, heavy metal, punk, but the biggest concerts are SALSA…
Salsa, the biggest dance craze on the planet, and its artists; Tito Nieves, Tito Vega, Jose el Canario, El Gran Combo, Gilberto SantaRosa, Franky Vasquez, Mark Anthony, Bobby Valentin, Willie Rosario, La Sonora Poncena, Roberto Rohena and His Apollo Sound. etc,etc,etc…
Comparisons I make none, other than to say they’re all good, and only to point out differences in that of sound and compositions written to that of the clave beat. I’m not a musician so I won’t get into the breakdown of musical notation or rhythm patterns, but I am a dancer, a street dancer! I learned my steps from watching Louie Maquina, Carlos, and Cuban Pete of the Palladium days. The rhythms of the music of those streets, the rhythms mixed together giving our music an intricate mixer, nowhere else could this music have developed being it encompassed all the rhythms brought to this great city of New York City.
Of course we must not forget its origins in that of clave, (the beat). Originally the clave was nothing more than what held the old wooden ships together. Clave was used in place of nails (pegs), and due to the wood it was made from, it had a unique sound that basically gave rise to the total sound of today. Two sticks and a drum made of wood and animal skin used for communications.
Africa, via way of Cuba gave the bottom to this rhythm as I understand it. Meaning the foundation, but the Puerto Rican sound is the one that has the weight of the times’. The New York City sound came via a number of rhythmic sounds that only a city like New York can render or inspire, and produce.
Puerto Rico’s musical sound has what one can call a magical sound that wants and needs those listening to move to the (and just slightly faster that our sister’s Cuba sound.) fast sway and rhythm of that sound, you dance it in the isles, on the streets, parks, and it’s called salsa, because it’s sexy and sultry, and it gives that basic feeling of freedom the body so desperately needs in a world half mad with frustration and demoralized. Salsa is the salvation of our times,
I laugh to myself wishing this to be true. I’ve mentioned the fact of the dance craze around the globe, it’s happening...and salsa leads the way. Salsa allows you to feel the sway of your partner, you dance it together, never separated other than for that freedom I allure to. You feel her/him in that flow, it’s magic…
There’s also the physical condition that salsa brings. When traveling you will always have a place to meet people close to that same salsa mentality, like I said, salsa, it’s almost spiritual.
Ismael (East) Carlo, poet, actor begins on the streets of East Harlem, el barrio whose monica of “East” happened due to others not being able to pronounce the name, Is-Ma-El…
East, considers himself more a storyteller than a poet, although at times he gets lucky and poetry emerges from his stories...
For more about East, visit IMDB. Paz en Vida
High Wind Warning
By Richard Russeth
The national weather service has issued
a high wind warning here in Ohio.
It says the power will go out tonight.
Trees will fall. Flashlights should be ready.
Because without light, life is hard
and maneuvering is difficult.
Because life is hard enough.
Because light is the sword
that cuts through darkness,
even just before the dawn.
Hold your sword high,
Be ready.
Richard Russeth is a poet, photographer, baker and magician who lives in Ohio with his wife Charlotte
Christmas in a Warm Bolinas Home
By Lee Boek
Skyward Ho
Watching the Sorrels
Run the ridges of the green land.
Riding the netted white cloud
We float above
The Blue Pacific Waters
Holding the Christ child
As nymphets dance
In the swirling Grateful canyons
Touching our feet to the soft white sand
We share the warm sunshine.
Lee Boek, born and raised in the California Bubble, “first I was a teen-age evangelist whose ministry intersected with the civil rights movement while preaching in the southern United States. Then turning to the education I was warned never to get, to the anti war movement of the sixties, the environmental movement of the seventies and today. During this time I became a performer of satirical stories and sketches mostly based on my own life experiences. For the last nearly forty years I have been a member of and/or the Artistic Director of Public Works Improvisational Theatre”.
Mister Floyd
By G. Billie Quijano
There was no time to hang a noose
They took him down
So he would not get loose
All he did was spend a 20 dollar bill
Who knew it would be used against his will
Why was the color of his skin,
A murderous sin?
A knee in the neck
When you are suppose to serve and protect
It was an execution
There was another solution
She shouted “please let me take his pulse”
But they made it false
9 minutes 29 seconds never to return
They did it for the public eye
We choked back our fear
We could not sigh
George you narrated your death
We witnessed your last breath
The whole world is watching, you fools
Darnella filmed you, that was her tool
It is genocide
Their hate won’t subside
We won’t rest
And you all be put to the test
Will justice be served?
Or will they lose their nerve
If peace is to be attainted
Our emotions will not be contained
Murder 2 is demanded
Keep that assassin remanded
9 minutes 29 seconds never to return
G. Billie Quijano-Bruja, Mestiza, self taught Artista, Fotographer and Poeta, recently published in Modern Latina magazine.
I was born in the Corazon of East Los. The landscape of my childhood were elements of L.A. urban life. Cool concrete, balmy nights, vibrant colors, sounds of girl groups, low riders and Trio Los Panchos. Mexico was all around me, surrounded by calla lillies, cactus and sunflowers. My neighbor Rafael’s rooster was my alarm clock. Olvera Street was my playground. Saturday’s breakfast was the delicious aromas of menudo, carnitas and freshly made tortillas de maiz from our local tortilleria on Whittier Blvd. My work is my desire to keep my ancestors traditions, history and vision alive.
America Hybrid???
By Ronald G. Carrillo
A national cancer
A constitutional disaster
Creating helter-skelter
A Summer of riots and swelter
The officer had his foot on Mr. Floyd’s neck
What the heck
He couldn’t breathe
The liberals still seethe
Freedom once again hanging from trees
A racial disease
The last squeeze of hatred
Finally acknowledging all humanity is sacred
Black America is endangered
Being black in America is being a stranger
The hand of peace and democracy never extended
Slavery, segregation, Jim Crow never mended
Post civil war a whitewash pretended
Emancipation not truly defended
Wounds so deep swept under our national rug
Cleaning house but still left the bugs
The nation dividing
Two worlds colliding
Liberty in her harbor crying
Good people still trying
The citizenry in pain
But still riding Liberty’s train
Adding such a strain on democracy
The doubters yelling hypocrisy
People of color living second class lives
On the fringe without forks and knives
In a country that could have done so much
But greed got in the way of the rush
Toward world power and center stage
Let me sleep in your mercy Lord
Let me continue to dream in your word
Bring forth prosperity for a new age
The best laid plans can still be conceived
Time for democracy to open her cage
Release full potential to be engaged
Coda: Our past leads us into the future
But the present defines that forward movement
The temperature and design of the country has vastly changed
Since the constitutional times of Jefferson and Hamilton
Slavery became segregation
Segregation became suppression
But never was EQUAL justice achieved
Legal white supremacy in the South ruled the day
Will we aspire and achieve further development
Or divide into the horrible inhumanity
Of an American caste system
We are truly better than this
Call forth our better angels that President Lincoln attested to
The husk of a founding white only constitution
Hides the fruit of a hybrid experiment in government
I await a new harvest for all our people
We continue to seek the dream of Dr. King
Ronald G. Carrillo is a native Lincoln Hts Angelino, living in Eagle Rock and a retired LAUSD educator and influencer. He writes of his passion and rebirth into the golden age of living. He has been writing since high school and was initially influenced from the songwriters, Keith Reid, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Neil Young.
BROKEN PROMISES
12-11-19
3:44 a.m.
By Mary Cheung
Your promises mean nothing,
Because they're just words.
Your words have no value,
Because they're just that.
Stolen my trust,
by your charms,
By your looks.
By ideals of who you are,
From words spoken.
You made your way inside,
& Inspired me to show even more.
once given freely, but lingeringly,
I hesitate now.
Cuz You show me my worth is zero,
And hope is a myth.
But then, I'm a dreamer.
And here I thought you were real.
For to say what you meant,
And to do what you said.
But your promises hold pain now.
Sharp pins digging in.
A pale coat of yellow,
Painted with flecks of distrust.
You once filled me with giddy anticipation,
Brimming with nervous joy.
But your words have no value,
Because they're just that.
I toss and turn, anxious to lose this feeling,
Cuz it steals away my joy.
But the only thing I lose is sleep
And my naivety.
Your promises are empty,
Is it time to pack up and go?
For your words have no value.
Because they are just that......
Mary Cheung- she is an innovative Artist and Costume Designer. Her works contain a strong sense of story as well as a highly sensuous style. She mostly works in paint or photography and sometimes making art that is wearable and innovative. She states “I am usually more of a Visual style Artists and have only recently been open to sharing literally art/poems, often paired with visual art of my creation, birthing a new form of spoken word art as another form of expression”.
⚜The Possibility
By Jacqueline Ray Phillips
The Poetess Reigns
Precious
Pure
Essence of Love
To the Mature Mind
A mind that's mine
Connected to me
A mind that's mine
Wired to be FREE...
From Thee
Or Me
What not to be
Is it me or is it thee??
The possibility
Of She Is strong
Was it so wrong?
To Love.... And Not to be
Only the possibility
Of She!
Only the possibility
Of Me!
To be made Free
Only she can be
Through the Possibility
Of being me
In touch with you
Is what's left to do
Inside of self
Is the definite wealth
Of living FREE
NOT to be bothered
By me
Is the Key
To happiness
And being FREE
Of the Possibility
Of Being ME!
I'm FREE...
The Poetess Reigns aka JackieRay Phillips is Creator of The Poetry of Justice Show, Where Social Consciousness Meets the Arts. The Show is designed to spark the interest and awareness of social diversity ranging from arts, entertainment and social justice at large. Catch The Poetry of Justice Show Saturday nights 6:00-8:00pm PST Live @Yikesradio.com and @AcceleratedRadio.net in addition to all other podcast streaming platforms. You may also view and subscribe to the Show’s YouTube channel @The POJ Show. Follow us on IG @The POJ Show and FB @ The Poetry of Justice Show and JackieRay Phillips.
Thanks for joining! We will continue to host writers and poets of all genres.
With great hope for a loving and accepting future!
Love,
Linda Kaye
Please submit your written work to:lindakayepoetry@icloud.com and include a short bio.
Linda Kaye writes poetry, produces spoken word and art events and produces a poetry column POETS PLACE for the online publication LAARTNEWS throughout the Los Angeles area.
Linda’s poetry events have included several summer poetry salons, and shows at 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 and Zweet Café in Eagle Rock. 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 most recent project a rap music video in collaboration with Mary Cheung, “ERACE-ISM” can also be seen on youtube. https://youtu.be/NfrbveNUBgg
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Linda Kaye is a native Angelino 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 was working for the last seven years 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.
www.lindakayepoetry.com
Twitter/Instagram: lindakayepoetry
www.laartnews.com