POETS PLACE
OCTOBER 2024
October is here and so are we. As we drift in and out of conscious awareness of the state of the world, the universe, our hearts and minds, do we relish peace? Can we justify our personal peace when so many of us are in pain and suffering from the enormous toils of uncertainty? We can and have to, otherwise how could we carry on? My peace of mind has been in jeopardy these last few weeks. For the last two years, I have been bombarded by the incessant sometimes violent noise of construction across from my house that I feel my brain might be damaged beyond repair. It has triggered what is called vestibular migraines. Can I protest the building of this house? Can I send the architect and owner of the project my bills for medications, ear plugs and should I inform her/them of my potential psychiatric hospitalization for the insanity it had caused? What are my rights as a neighbor to this onslaught? The quality of my life has been impaired. Dare I complain when thousands of lives have been lost to war? There’s no comparison. I cannot bare either. What I can do is write. Write my peace. Shout it out in prose.
Many of us have a lot to say and I feel honored and blessed that I can host anyone who wants to put their thoughts together and share them here on POETS PLACE! Thank you all for this continuous support of my column!!! I am truly in awe of you all!!!
A SUPER BIG Thank you to Cathi Milligan for hosting us on the LAARTNEWS!!! MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!
Grateful,
Love, Linda :0)
On Linda Kaye’s Birthday
By S.A. Griffin
September 7, 2024
age took the day off
and declared time
a national holiday
clocks ran for public office
promising more seconds
in every hour
Linda's day glo hair became a long running musical
made of oxygen singing all you need is love
on every street corner of the cosmos
on Linda's birthday
all wars went vegan
guns went on strike shooting blanks
shouting we will kill no more
forever
hate changed its stripes into electric bananas
and for the first time
heard its inner child
whispering
free at last
as hate smiled and for the first time
began streaming
tears of everlasting
joy like a river into the
ever loving arms of the open sea
on Linda's birthday
art was elected God
weeping Willows laughed
and all was left and right
with the world spinning gold out of all the leftover
mad as hell madness
because Linda's magical heart
showed us
the way
A Carma Bum, S.A. Griffin is most recently the author of Pandemic Soul Music (Punk Hostage Press) which includes art by his late sister Robin Lynne Griffin, Suckers & Losers (River Dog) and Good Madness is Hard to Come By with Michael Lane Bruner (Rose of Sharon Press). Along with Rich Ferguson, Alexis Rhone Fancher and Kim Shuck, S.A. is the co-editor of Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press). Queued up for publication, he is the co-editor of Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts with Richard Modiano and the editor of Earful of Sun by Scott Wannberg with art/collages by Ray Swaney. A proud dad, S.A.'s son Spencer Lane Griffin recently released his award winning Poem Pie (Rose of Sharon), a children's book of poetry with illustrations by his mother Sharon Grish Griffin. It seems the apple didn't fall too far rom the tree. In fact, it landed with a resounding thud.
At the Green Heart of Form
For Alea Celeste Williams
by Alex S. Johnson
At the green heart of form
rustling
spreading fingers of leaves
skeletal claw points true north to
arctic blast
The trees tend together
forming cathedral arches
along the long stretch of
Emerald Avenue
where money vampires
breath through the
people's lung
in cells desaturated of blood red
Undead undead undead
Where my heart seeks its echo
where wings shimmer in silver suspension
where your dark eyes caress my heart
with plumes of wonder
I cannot abide in this lesser light. Your
shuddering electro vortex
brought me to the threshold
of awakening
Now I see more clearly the
theatre of cruelty
in all its
crutched, debased glory
A hole in the heart of things
where the blood rushes out
towards a clenched toilet death
A spasm in the aorta
a rhythmic swirl swirl thud thud swirl
brings pictures imminent of
again
A forest
Beasts
a feast of friends
Ants crawl along the well trodden
bricks leading
to the raised crypts in
New Orleans
Where entire families rest in
nibbled heaps of
bone
A jazz trumpeter blacker than
death rears
back his
noble head
and fires a
few
blasts of the
akashic
shotgun.
Alex S. Johnson's singular poetry and prose has been widely published, including such venues as Drinker's Corner, Borderless Journal, Cease, Cows, Bizarro Central, Horror Sleaze Trash and Black Noise. John Shirley, Bram Stoker award winning author, co-creator of the Cyberpunk genre, lyricist for Blue Oyster Cult and co-author of the screenplay to the 1994 cult classic horror film The Crow, wrote of Johnson's dark poetry collection The Flowers of Doom, "Alex S. Johnson is the Baudelaire of our time; the poet of the underground." He has performed his poetry at the world-renowned venue Beyond Baroque in Venice Beach, California, the same place that Amanda Gorman got her start. He was an honorary member of The Dirty Girls Collective and read from his poetry with Punk Hostage Press founder Iris Berry. His poetry collection Skull Vinyl as well as his dark satire collection The Doom Hippies were acquired as culturally significant by the Widener Library at Harvard University. His upcoming books include a series of dark poetry chapbooks in collaboration with critically acclaimed author and artist Sandy DeLuca. Johnson resides in Carmichael, California with his family.
POEM
By Courtney Olanzapine
(untitled)
don't save me
let me drown
every single cut
makes me grow
let me find my soul
let me save myself!
this time
I need to get away
This is not the place
But where else?
No more Ms. Self Destruct
That was me
the lost Tinder girl
cruising through a sea of men
such a fucking mess
and desire hoards in my veins
and it dissolves into my blood
and sets me on fire
and sets me free
and now I know I need to flee
Courtney Olanzapine is a neurodivergent artist from Madrid, Spain, that devoted many years to study English Literature and she started writing in English. She’s also an outsider painter in her Instagram and her poems deal with the struggles and joys of being a madwoman in the crazy era we live in, made out of capitalism and Tinder, but also sprinkled with love, comradeship, and beauty. She loves glitter, mythology, psychology and everything punk, because punk is passionately being yourself, and that’s her highest aim.
Sounds of the night
1-25-22
2:48 a.m.
By Mary Cheung
Sound of a distant horn blowing...like a train coming through.
An owl hooting joins in the silence.
Making Its own Morse code...hoot...hoot hoot.
Just for me and you.
In inky darkness I lay in wonder.
All the sounds of the night are my friend.
Bubbling, gurgling the humidifier happily chugging along.
All these sounds and melodies...
Make for me this strange and beautiful song.
My stomach rumbles in response.
The snorting and breathing of my dog.
Lucy gets up to shake and wander.
Stomping in little padded feet.
Every now and then she stops to ponder.
Is this where I should settle down?
The search continues.
She paws, shakes, searching
Until the perfect spot is found.
Stomp stomp, ugh She paddles over my hills and dales.
I impatiently wait for her pacing to stop.
Eureka she's finally found a spot!
she finally drops!
Oh but wait.. that was just a ruse.
Lucy's up again. Stomping around..
In the darkness I hear her panting
And in the distance the train whistles a ghostly sound.
Mary Cheung is a multi-disciplinary artist. She has been creating art since she was young. Grew up the youngest in a family of eight. She came to America at the age of 2 and grew up in San Francisco. Attended American school during the day and Chinese school at night.
Mary has an AA degree in Fashion Design and a Best Costume Design Award from the NAACP. She often creates costumes for her art narratives and creations. Sometimes building the sets as needed.
Mary was the Producer for the Santa Rosa Spring Festivals 2011 and 2012, which incorporated live performances and festival games.
She produced the EVOLUTION Music and Arts event in 2013.
LUSCIOUS, Music Art, Live Body paint Art Event IN 2014 followed by
OPEN FLOOR IMPROV EXPERIMENT whose purpose was to engage the community, encourage local business growth and artists involvement. Her real passion and drive come from being able to engage the community while bringing hope, healing, joy, and human connection.
It is her goal to be able to continue to do this while making an impact on society’s values and thinking.
“I hope that I can be a role model for others to find their own true voice in life through my art."
By Ricardo Tomasz
O Love, thou fickle tyrant of the heart,
With poisoned arrows tipped in cruel art!
Thy fleeting pleasures burn but swiftly fade,
And leave behind a hollow, aching shade.
Thou doth betray with smiles and honeyed lies,
And mask thy thorns beneath thy sweet disguise.
What fool wouldst seek thy hand, so fair, so cold,
When once embraced, it turns to dust and mold?
Thy promises are whispers on the breeze,
That vanish when the heart doth bend its knees.
Thou trickster, born of folly and of fire,
That tempts the soul to leap into the pyre.
O false enchantress! Cease thy cruel game,
For all who love thee perish just the same.
I curse thee now, with every breath I take,
For love is naught but misery's mistake.
Ricardo Tomasz is an artist in audio-scapes, photography, painting, collage, video, performance art, Artificial Intelligence Art, and occasionally body hair. He is a creative genius and visionary, it says so on his middle school diploma. He was born and raised in Hungary, to a Hungarian mother, and a Spaniard father. They died when he was 16, but their passing allowed him to tour and study at some of the finest Art Universities in Europe. He came to America, thrusting himself into the art scene. He was in and out, in and out, and in and out of America over several years, until finally settling in Los Angeles as an artist, designer, and occasional human crosswalk sign. He is a valuable contributor to the Greater and Grander Artist collective. Subscribe to Greater & Grander for all your Ricardo Tomasz needs.
The Autumn Tree (August 2024)
By R. G. Carrillo
Love is like
An Autumn tree
Lush and green
In the youth
Of Spring
Then naked
And leafless
In the Fall
Of our time
Love evergreen
In the bloom
Of Maytime
Then gone
The blush
Of innocence
Fades and
Slowly withers
Away
Vocalizing words
Holding the notes
Bending
Sacred breath
Emoting
Consciousness
No longer
Pretending
Light and dark
Never able
To unite
Polar enemies
Non-magnetic
Forces
Conflicting
Deflecting
Rejecting
But ever
Expecting love
Poison
From my father
My mother
Will never
Recover
I was born
In a thunder
Storm
The leaves
From my Autumn tree
Most have blown away
Some remaining
My struggle
My suffering
Certainly
Not in vain
I am capable
Of love
Despite
My DNA
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.
Triumph and Tragedy
By Don Kingfisher Campbell
Wheeled out the portable
Air conditioner that looks
Like an all-white R2-D2
Sat it next to me in my red
UCLA-lifted swivel chair to
Provide a 78-degree breeze
I pointed the white plastic
Caterpillar-like exhaust tube
To the parted front door space
Below the bottom of the black
Iron security screen somehow an
Orange butterfly stilled by blast
Don Kingfisher Campbell, MFA Antioch University L.A., taught at USC and Occidental College Upward Bound, board member California Poets In The Schools, publisher Four Feathers Press, host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading and workshop series in Pasadena, California. For awards, features, and publication credits, please go to: http://dkc1031.blogspot.com
Excerpt from Opulent Mobility by A. Laura Brody, 2024
I had no idea when I first started thinking about wheelchairs that I would develop an international exhibit focusing on re-imagining disability. While growing up I volunteered a little with the Special Olympics and worked with folks who had serious injuries, but the concept of disability was not really part of my world. While most of my life was spent dealing with mental health issues, both mine and my family’s, it didn’t occur to me until much later on that those were disabilities.
It wasn’t until a former partner had a stroke that adaptive devices came into focus for me. I was right out of graduate school and had no idea of how to care for someone with a stroke. While taking him to physical therapy, I saw an 85 year old man and a four year old girl doing the exact same therapy, and something clicked. There was no question to me that anyone could become disabled at any time, for any reason. Since I enjoyed figuring out how things are made and designed, I was fascinated by the wheelchairs, walkers, scooters, and pinchers that helped people pull their socks up or to chop their produce with shaky hands. As an artist, though, I did not understand the cold and clinical designs of these items. They were almost insultingly ugly. Maybe the devices had to look that way for medical reasons, but something didn’t seem right. Many years later, after a tough but necessary breakup with both the partner in question and members of my immediate family, I began to focus on the fascinations I had cast aside before. I got back into storytelling and writing and learned some upholstery techniques- which eventually brought me to my first wheelchair re-creation.
I am a professional costume maker and designer by trade, and have spent a lot of time crafting costumes out of all kinds of materials. I had no medical equipment training but could create interesting designs. A friend donated his unused electric wheelchair to me and I remade it into an Edwardian throne. It was lovely, but the upholstery was so thick that he was practically pushed onto the floor the first time he used it. Fortunately, he was unhurt and good-humored! I had a lot to learn about making functional and beautiful wheelchairs.
I decided to approach this through the lens of art instead of medical device manufacturing, since that is my strength. Art is also such a graceful way to introduce people to new concepts, to start difficult conversations, and help change minds. While developing my first mobility artworks, I found out how few interesting designs for wheelchairs ever make it to market. I also realized I was unintentionally touching on taboos about disability and mortality, and got some surprising resistance to my ideas. Most of this resistance came from able bodied people.
Luckily, instead of being discouraged, I got stubborn. Being a collaborative artist by nature, I wanted to bring other people into the equation and work on this together. I figured I couldn’t possibly be the only person thinking about re-imagining disability, so I made plans to put on an exhibit. After all, I had worked in live events and theater for years. How hard could it be?
The first show took a full year to get started. I fell in love with the ease of access and smooth walkways at the Bell Arts Factory in Ventura, but they did not feel the same way about me. After calling them once a month for a year, they finally agreed to a meeting. It turned out they were still upset about the time and money it took to make their space ADA compliant. Eventually, we came to an understanding and I put up a small show for a single weekend in their community room. There were 7 artists in the exhibit, including me and another one who was wrangled into the show by collaborating with me on a piece. Artists backed out, one had their work stolen from their accessible van, there were major communication lapses and occasional fights, and my car broke down the weekend of the event. It was overwhelming and frustrating and ridiculous, in the way of all live events. In the end it came together, and I met people who would become long time collaborators and advocates for the show.
Anthony Tusler approached me about entering some photographs into the exhibit well past the submission deadline. I had already announced the artists for the show, but I enjoyed his photos and kept in touch with him. Anthony is a wealth of information about disability culture, history, and best accessibility practices. He also has a delightful sense of humor and straightforward approach to art and life that I really appreciate. I asked him to co curate the next show with me, he agreed, and we’ve been co-curating Opulent Mobility ever since.
Fly Down
By Sonny Tristan
Lots of things said about LA
All just a bunch of words
The city’s got nothing for me
Freeways shuffle lifeless herds
Go there or don’t
Angels don’t care
That’s the very pull
that calls me there
Drawing me to her
like a Sunset song
The only place to go
where no one belongs
Culture born more than babies
scammers, Dreamers, artists, scores
Stacked sexless atop each other
Things that don’t love you
make you want them more
There’s a small chance
to end up ruling the world
No other Ed offers that degree
And the drug is in the offer
The first one’s always free
This is Sonny Tristan’s first published poem. He is inspired by workshops and readings and is grateful to friends for encouraging him to put art out into the universe.
Poema
By G. Billie Quijano
Let me be clear
The audacity of war
Genocide breathes into the inevitable
The responsibility of 3rd witness
Is exhausting and relentless
Refusal to know peace is attainable
Impotence of dictators
Extortion of innocent souls
The heart is the weapon
Not the bomb of your choice
Crimson currents in the streets
Laughter, love, imagination vaporized in the rubble
Mangled bodies in white sheets
Tears screaming through the olive trees
Cease fire
Falls on deaf ears
Aerial bombardment
A symphony, no one wants to hear
Carnage of conflict
What is the solution?
We will not traffic in your hate
Humanity is not a price to pay
Revolution of mind
Right now, right here, today…
G. Billie Quijano-Hija de East Los, Mestiza, Executive Chola. Assemblage Artista, Photographer, Poeta. Instigator of beauty. Currently experiencing a Spiritual Renaissance. Much love and joy to you all. VOTE!!!
Thanks for joining us! We will continue to host writers and poets of all genres.
Please submit your written work to: lindakayepoetry@icloud.com
and include a short bio
Linda Kaye writes poetry, curates poetry, produces films, 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, Zweet Café in Eagle Rock, The 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!! 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/