POETS PLACE
MAY 2022
It’a May! What’s in store for us in May of 2022? Well, for one thing, women are about to lose their rights to make decisions about whether they can safely and legally receive abortions when a child is unwanted. Hard to imagine that we are being jettisoned back to those dark ages. So I just breathe deeply. There are just some things we have no control over. Literally. To our dismay.
On another note. Some interesting facts about the month of May: 1. The month May was named for Maia, the Greek goddess of fertility. 2. In any given year, no month ever begins or ends on the same day of the week as May does. 3. May's birthstone is the emerald which is emblematic of love and success. And 4. May was once considered a bad luck month to get married. Okay. So don’t get married in May, but if you do, don’t accidentally get pregnant because, some asshole, May tell you you have no rights to abort a fetus, that you have to carry the baby to term and then what?? Not the right time?? Too bad. Raise a child you are not equipped to take care of? Can’t afford? Was impregnated by a rape? Again, too bad. Can you imagine carrying a baby to term, spending 7-9 months caring for that baby and then relinquishing it to another? How distressing and challenging that whole experience puts on an individual?? Just having an abortion in the initial stages of gestation is hyper emotional and devastating enough, let alone giving up a full term human being. I have witnessed and assisted many women in my social work career, mostly young, often teens trying to make up their young minds to give away their babies. Some nurses and doctors will shame them in the obstetrics units telling them how horrible they are for not accepting “GODS child” when all they did was to have made the mistake of having unprotected sex and getting pregnant. Their future lives teetering on that ignorant mistake. I have counseled countless women and teens about their options and choices. Now what are the social workers going to say to the teenager whose father sexually molested her and now she is pregnant. Good luck with that??? It’s so fucked up.
And now some poetry …
Linda :0)
Pretty don’t mean happy
A soliloquy
By Linda Kaye
Pretty don’t mean happy
Pretty happy
Happy mostly
Pretty sometimes
Sometimes not too happy although feeling pretty helps to feel good
Feeling good is key
Having a key is freedom
Freedom to feel pretty is key
Pretty don’t mean happy
Pretty happy
Pretty sometimes and
happy mostly
is key
Human Capital?
By Randi Lavik
I had been wondering about whatever this HR/AI/Corporate Global Conglomerate Metadata Newspeak term meant for a few months now, and was seriously afraid to look it up. For the purposes of this piece, and more importantly, as a means to educate and inform my fellow beloved Angelenos…
…you know, #Science!
The Oxford Dictionary definition is cited below:
Human Capital
hu·man cap·i·tal
/ˈ(h)yo͞omən ˈkapədl/
noun
“The skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by an individual or population, viewed in terms of their value or cost to an organization or country.”
Oh boy. Worse than I thought. Worse than ‘Monetization’ even.
Let’s see how we rate, hmm? I love a Quiz! I’ll start…
Skills: Nervy. I make a lot of people happy by sharing musical joy.
I’ve saved two lives?
Knowledge: TMI. Be careful what you wish for, Sis.
So many showbiz biographies. So much schooling. So much information disseminated.
Curiosity literally almost killed this kittycat, four times, at least. Connections, achievements, trivia, disappointments, facts, lyrics, lies, loss, relationships, stacked in cabinets full of files in a massive file room in my noggin, keeping me up nightly.
I was almost a Librarian. I can’t pick up a book and relax ever since.
Kids sprouted and blooming, doggie happy, so these days I think about work 24/7.
Experience: It got me here, for better or worse?
Stupidly cared and trusted mediocre men, in the name of love.
Gratitude keeps me going.
Value: Subjective; constant debate, both internally and externally.
[Extra Credit: Part A: Value System
Short Answer: Quite different than most, whew! It sure ain’t monetization].
Cost: Everything. More than. Be careful what you wish for Sis, Part II.
Organization: Designated family fuckup.
Country: It’s one hot mess. I love it like family. I long to love it from a distance too.
Volunteer/Writer/Supporter of The Arts/Humanist Randi Lavik was born in Inglewood, raised in West LA and Downey, and once got a standing ovation in the Second City Writer’s Room, on the first day of class. She recently mouthed off to Conan O’Brien on Twitter, and made the South Korean news as a result. In addition, Lavik is a Spotify Presenter (BTS7 Podcast, Season 1, www.snippet.fm/shows/bts7) with Co-Host AAPI Activist Sylvia Park and a Volunteer FM Radio Producer and Host in Laguna Beach (The Drop, Friday Nights, www.kxfmradio.org).
A Sensible Conjecture
-- Stephen Buhler
Reflect we on the likelihood this day
Was born to us a child who would be styled
“Sweet swan of Avon” in his after years.
Alas! We know not with firm certainty
When William Shakespeare truly shuffled on
This mortal coil – the Stratford records note
“Gulielmus” (William) was so christenéd,
The son of one “Johannes Shakspere” (John),
On April twenty-sixth. Nativity
Into this solid flesh was no precise
Concern for either clerk or chronicle
Within the walls of Holy Trinity.
A later clerk, near Lincoln, Lancaster
(O Pioneers! with place names redolent
Of geographic Anglophilia),
Confesses that the twenty-third is but
A sensible conjecture, no plain fact
As far as when to celebrate Will’s day
In accents like the Bard’s and festivals
Of pomp, and triumph, and much reveling.
E’en so: by Harry, England, and Saint George
(Whose feast this fairly is) let us applaud
The inexhaustibility of Will,
Whose date of birth must needs remain, much like
His plays and poems, open to surmise.
Stephen Buhler teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and performs with the Americana-and-More group Tupelo Springfield.
The Rape of a Tear…
By G. Billie Quijano
I once lost my soul in the moon
The conscious rhythm of the conscious crime
Against my unconscious thigh
His swell did not make me swoon
My little hands grasping for the moon
I was so young
My praises had not yet been sung
Azul caressed my thoughts
That prepared my slumber and dreams
How easy those clouds moved
What do these words mean?
Depression comes and goes
How do I slow down the flow?
I am restless
But nevertheless
I survived
My life revived
My am the divine design
I am glitter and dust from the bones before me
I glide between the raindrops and the trees
My flor is in revolution
Fearlessness is the solution
The universe has a plan
So I need to take a stand
There's no bullshit here
When lipstick wasn't enough
Joy started showing up
My heart, my rage, my tears
All of it taking a knee
My soul, my spirit refuses to exist in fear
Now my heart explodes with glee
Warriors truth will prevail
Oceans of poetry
Imagination will not stale
No more raping of tears
Patriarchy is extinguished
There's no way around it, you will hear
G. Billie Quijano-Hija de East Los. Poeta, Mestiza, artista, instigator of beauty.
LET GO
3-29-22
8:13a.m
By Mary Cheung
Let go, let go
Release the hands you've held onto since birth.
Let go, let go,
Of the breathe you are holding in anticipation of your up coming lost.
Make room, make room ,
In you heart to expand from joy of hearing bout her daily adventures soon..
Just trust, just trust,
That they'll remember all that you've taught them and more.
Accept, accept,
That as sure as the rising sun and nightly moon...
Change is coming
Just breathe, just breathe..
You'll adapt and become something else soon.
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”.
Graffiti Street Verse
By Ronald G. Carrillo
Stop greed and violence in all politicians
Raid the Vatican to solve homelessness
Open the Vatican archives to the people
Where are the giant skeletons
Inter-dimensional beings mingling with Earthlings
Deals made Mafia style US Congress
Hatfields/McCoys – Capulets/Montague's – Democrats/Republicans
The slave/master mindset still in our fossil record
Cruelty condemned to be a fool/Kind and refined in the sunshine
Greedy from a seedy pool of fools
Violence violates to the highest degree
Self-actualized verbalized conceptualized
The garden breathes – Smell her aroma
Civilization has evolved technologically but remains savage
I am strong and grateful in kindness
Put-in Put-OUT
No effort to mask the insanity of DC during COVID-19
Elevate the global consciousness – you’re next!
Purify your being in mind and heart – STOP all Killing that is the true path but not religion.
Manhood blooming on a street corner in Glendale
The heat of desire only memory now extinguished
He was erect but hardly hard
Hurry down – Surrey- picnic – gospel – learning Nyro dialect!
The common man only a slave species – awaken!
Your enigma has haunted me purple figure of my innocence
D.C. & NYC are America’s Sodom and Gomorrah
Put-in/Bi-den/Jin-Ping no harmony – these dudes can’t sing!
Remove this cup from me: I have lost faith in prophets, Popes and politicians
Divide and conquer utilizing fear and religion
Religion is not God but collective control through FEAR!
Jesus was a great achievement of deceit
Do right by the people American Congress
Poets are natural observers of their environments not watching the birds but their own species
Pieces of your heart in places in my heart
A lone thought suspended in a sunbeam
Climate deniers will have a special place in hell -
they will burn with their oil
Capitalists’ priorities will ALWAYS be money first
EVEN at the cost of human life
Capitalist money can buy off CongressMEN!
Shame on Exxon for not doing the right thing!
Science versus capitalism no contest – Science will lose!
Creating doubt when scientific fact and data are becoming even more certain that is how insane capitalism is becoming.
Truth and the people lose against Big Corporate Money!
We will choke on Koch propaganda!
Save the planet NOW – Protect the grid
Five decades on phantom fairies imprint hearts and minds
The impact of Nyro a musical landslide of emotion and song
Orgiastic plastic addicts drowning in drastic fanatical behavior
FREE energy now
Cancer free America from politics to health
Immigrants have ALWAYS been the fertile soil of growth and invention
The more I learn about our history the more I am appalled
The news should have a daily report of spontaneous kindness
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.
A Man of Quality Must
Un Hombre de Calidad
By:IE Carlo
16 April 2019
A man of quality must have
had and read books
Add that to the beating of the heart, wepa
Un hombre de calidad
Ha tenido y leído libros
Añada eso a el ritmo del corazón, wepa
A man of quality
Has friends
Now there’s a song for many
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene amigos
Ah! Ahí hay una canción para muchos
A man of quality
Loves music while standing still
Un hombre de calidad
Goza la música estando quieto
A man of quality
Has curiosity
Not using one's brain is a terrible thing to waste
Un hombre de calidad Tiene curiosidad
No usando el cerebro sería un gasto terrible
A man of quality
Has patience in all things human and beyond
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene paciencia en todas cosas humanas y más allá
A man of quality
Has integrity since it's not that difficult, being its yours for the asking
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene integridad
No es difícil, ya que es de usted solamente por preguntar
A man of quality
Has empathy for others since it's so very human
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene empatía por otros, ya que es tan humano
A man of quality
Being loyal is caring for others beyond their ability to loyalty
Un hombre de calidad
Es leal y bondadoso más allá de la habilidad de otros serlo
A man of quality
Having a conscience opens the path to recreate all things now and in the future
Un hombre de calidad
Tener una conciencia abre caminos para recrear todas las cosas ahora y en el futuro
A man of quality
Having courage does not mean to fight but to know when not to fight
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene valor, no de pelear, sino saber cuando no pelear
A man of quality
Has manners that makes the meal taste much better
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene modales que, hace la cena mucho más agradable
A man of quality
Has respect to all things present
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene respeto por todo presente
A man of quality
Has character of the self
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene character de su persona
A man of quality
has morality
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene moralidad
A man of quality
Has compassion and loves animals
Un hombre de calidad
Tiene compasió
n y amor por los animales
And dances the mambo..
Y baila el mambo
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
Thanks for joining us! We will continue to host writers and poets of all genres.
Love, Linda Kaye :0)
Please submit your written work to: lindakayepoetry@icloud.com and include a short bio.
Linda Kaye writes poetry, curates 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 rap music video project in collaboration with Mary Cheung, “ERACE-ISM” can also be seen on youtube. https://youtu.be/NfrbveNUBgg
Most recently, 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!! 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 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. Oh yeah.
Twitter/Instagram: lindakayepoetry