POETS PLACE
MARCH EDITION
2024
YO! What’s happening all you beautiful people! It’s March! The ides are upon us. Let’s not worry about impending doom and keep our trajectories in focus. I, through my blurry lens that have been clouded lately with home disasters and misfortunes, keep plodding along, with a little help from my friends, MJ and alcohol. We all need some distractions from reality. LOL. Whatever it takes to get you through the next hour or day, do it. Do it to the max. Let go of the resistance. Unlock your fears and travel forth. Yes! And speaking of traveling, I will be traveling to France April 1! I am a bit scared of going abroad alone, but I must go, tackle my fears and jump in to the unknown. It’s the unknown that scares us/me, which often creates the anxious tremors you feel in your gut. Packing for a journey has always been a bane in my life. For my upcoming trip to France, I have decided to pack light, which for me is highly stressful since I am a fashion hound and look forward to my daily dress up ritual. I have a lot of clothes, shoes, jewelry, hats, shoes. Did I say shoes twice?! My biggest fear is losing my luggage (eek), which I have read that the Paris airport does often. I am going to travel with only carry on luggage. I have been practicing packing, if that’s such a thing, to ease my stress. I must say that it has worked and I am feeling a lot less stressed about packing. What will I be doing in France? I have been accepted to an artist residency in SW France, in the town of Nerac. I will be there for 2 weeks working on my memoir (below is a picture of the town). Looks absolutely gorgeous! I don’t believe there is anything not gorgeous in France! I will be filming a lot of live Instagram posts, so follow along with me to France @lindakayepoetry on Instagram!!! I will continue to publish POETS PLACE monthly, so keep sending me your beautiful poems and stories!
Avec Gratitude
Linda :0)
Spring Renewal
By Linda Kaye
Amidst torture and grief we choose life
our strength surfaces as the last light fades behind a cloud of smoke
we resurrect out of the bastion of suffering to teach what can be done
we pray for peace and hope for an endless future
which our guardians have fought for and won
we peel away the layers that have protected the sins of our past
it reveals a light
a shimmer of solidarity
that at last we can unite
The Book Review
By Theodore A Hoppe
From the beloved bestselling author
A tale full of intrigue and murder
An excursion into the world of suspense
and misadventure
Weaving together the high-tech fixing
Of a string of unexpected events
The quintessential tale of music,
The truths, and lies we tell ourselves
About life and love
Such an implausible mixture.
It's only slightly less amazing than the facts
A loving moving laugh-out loud celebration
Of special friends and family
Suspenseful and morally complex
Whose meaning resonates
Probing the seamy underside of
A dark romantic and captivating secret
Unforgettable, instructive and moving
Told in a down to earth amusing and agenda-free tone
A captivating examination of culture,
Race, class, death, and rebirth.
Beautiful,
and as painfully alluring as it is dangerous
Written with more warmth and grace than
we are likely to see again.
Theodore A Hoppe currently lives in the sleepy village of South Hero, Vermont (where ice fishing is still practiced, but only in the wintertime), and spends time in Los Angeles atop Baxter St, enjoying the warm sunsets and an occasional cocktail. His interests include neuroscience, complexity and chaos theory, and AI.
Black-Dog
By Naomi E. Cornejo, November 2018
It’s been more than two months now and I watch you slowly, fall apart, every day. I love you. You don’t understand why I love you. I just do.
I want to know how you are feeling and your response usually is, “I don’t know.” I have to understand that depression just is. You seem to have settled into nothingness and the world has become “blurry and hazy,” I’ve heard you say. Medications have made it worse, keeping you from eating, from sleeping or kept you sleeping too much. Sleeping is the only time where your brain stops for a few hours and the anxiety settles for a bit. I can see that you are frightened and some days, I look at you and you bow your head in shame. I love you, I want to scream!!! I’m afraid you won’t hear me.
Nothing I say reassures you that you are ever enough. You say everything hurts and I want to kiss all of your pain away but depression is like a permanent bruise. Depression has left you irritable, paranoid, lifeless, and critical. It has left you exhausted. I know that you feel like you are fading away but I see you. You are not invisible to me. You are grand in my eyes. I love you. I love you! I love you!!!
“because wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Naomi E. Cornejo is a native Angelina and a high school Reading and Life Skills teacher. She enjoys learning about her students’ everyday and teaching them the joy of reading and learning. She graduated from Mount St. Mary’s College (now a university) in Los Angeles in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Spanish and a minor in Religious Studies. She enjoys dabbling in writing Haikus, mostly narrative poems and attending poetry readings. She also, has a deep love for playing softball since childhood and has played in an adult league for the past eight years. Naomi has visited 14 countries and hopes to continue traveling the world someday and visit Portugal and Japan.
Poetry
By Ana-Alicia Salazar–awkwardsilverlinings
A deviation from the disheartening, dispirited and
Befuddlement,
as my horizon lay in disarray, disappointments & angst–
Otherworldly & magical He is
a Human personification of my inner
affections
An eternal light to the abysmal darkness, to rainbow spears through my splintered core
He is poetry in motion & my biggest risk
You changed me to my depths
I'm not letting go
Give yourself a chance
She said
Then, all at once, he found her–
A lifetime between them
He was not just anybody
Someone special
Comically offbeat and hypnotically deadpan
Truly poignant moments were those that followed & remain unsaid
Written in the stars
Exquisite magical delights as
they reveled in shared commonalities &
scorned hearts
Capricious no longer
Rather, he cloaked her in heartening tenderness
There was never anyone else
Ana is a contributing writer for UP Magazine, street art enthusiast, Arizona State hopeful, and a Multiple Sclerosis warrior.
She is a Los Angeles native.
Ana writes her poetry in cursive on any medium, even discarded furniture or a dumpster– utilizing aerosol, oil markers, and/or paint. Though, she likes to stick to classic pen and paper. Ana loves love. She writes about love gone right, wrong, and awry.
Writing tames intense feelings of recalling a flirty smile or a back ache.
Tirelessly, Ana continues to create, write and promote Multiple Sclerosis awareness.
Poetry
By ChampionElCid
Empathy
To feel a love so deeply,
That it shakes your very soul
Can make you feel amazing
Can make your heart feel whole
To care for those who suffer
It take a love so deep
To put yourself in their shoes
And know just why they weep
There are those who suffer silently
Who hide grief with a mask
They don't want to show their feelings
Not even when they are asked
They carry sorrow with them
All throughout their life
They soldier on with struggles
Not complaining of their strife
The soul that understands this
Can offer some solace
Can say they struggle also
Can relate to their mess
Not all can understand this
For some care not to know
The pain that other feel inside
The true depth of their woe
Empathy is important, to know how others feel
You must comprehend this, to help them finally heal
We all suffer in some way, and thus all walk this path
We must learn to love each other, or else it ends in wrath.
Friendship
To feel a love so deeply,
That it shakes your very soul
Can make you feel amazing
Can make your heart feel whole
To find a friend who loves you
For who you truly are
Can make a bad day feel good
Make you feel bright like a star
A friend like that is precious
A treasure truly rare
Such friendships are worth keeping
Through both joy and despair
Keeping friends can be a struggle
To make it truly last
It often takes a lot of work
To keep your friends steadfast
The longer that you keep your friends
The closer you will grow
You'll know each other better
You both will have gusto
Friends can last a lifetime
If you maintain them well
Together you'll face anything
Maybe even conquer hell
Friendship is important, for it helps you face the day
Friends help us when we really feel, that we've lost our way
Without friends life can be so rough, much harder and more cold
I pray my friends will still be there, when I am worn and old
Love
To feel a love so deeply,
That it shakes your very soul
Can make you feel amazing
Can make your heart feel whole
That unconditional love
Is something else for sure
It's different from other loves
It wonderfully pure
It has a unique aura
It has a tender grace
This love is full of patience
This love you cannot chase
It has to come from within
You have to understand
This love is complicated
Yet also truly grand
To know a love like this one
That is willing to forgive
To bear whatever hardships
To always want to live
Is something truly wonderful
Yet harder to maintain
It asks for so much from you
It can feel like a drain
Love knows many forms and has many ways of showing
It takes an open mind, to know how to keep love flowing
We must try and learn to love, to help all humankind
We must not act in anger, lest we make all people blind
Romance
To feel a love so deeply,
That it shakes your very soul
Can make you feel amazing
Can make your heart feel whole
To find a loving partner
That loves who you truly are
Can be a harrowing journey
That takes you very far
Romantic love is difficult
Its course is unforgiving
This love is great and terrible
And makes life worth living
At times love can be fickle
At times love likes to tease
Sometimes it makes you happy
Or brings you to your knees
When you find that special someone
Who makes your heartbeat soar
You should take care to keep them
Make them the object you adore
Romantic love takes time to find
For some it can take years
This love needs time to blossom
To overcome our fears
Romance is very tricky, especially for me
It's something I've experienced, but not recently
It's something that I long for, like most of us do
At times I feel it's something, that I cannot construe
ChampionElCid lives in Los Angeles, he currently works four different jobs so doesn't often have the time he'd like to write. When he was young he read Don Quixote for the first time and that book left an impression on him. He was later learned of a real life Spanish Knight named "El Cid" who embodied many of the ideals that Don Quixote strived for.Thus he decided to take that name when creating a profile on the internet and that name has stuck. You can see more of his poems and thoughts on things on his Deviantart profile.
Altered States
6:09 a.m.
12-6-23
By Mary Cheung
I don't need drugs to set me free.
Just the frame of mind,
to just let it be.
The state of my head,
is where it should be.
not in the right time, nor the right frame
Where is my mind,
I know it should rhyme,
No , wait there is still time.
To ride the loops,
Send in the troops!
To drag me away,
Will I see another day?
Oh my mind is afraid
And I'm afraid to say...
what I'm seeing today
Doesn't match with what I'm seeing in my head.
Because it's all jumbled
My sanity has taken a tumble.
Down the well of madness
The Hatter has nothing on me.
Because I've set my mind free.
Turning my thoughts out.
Oh please don't pout
Its really quite fine,
The state of my mind,
Is minding the states.
It's all very new, I hope you can relate.
The strangeness of it all.
Where I go
When I'm in,
these altered states.
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."
The Shy Ones
By Emily Kupinsky
Feet that don’t dance
should be given a second chance
to tap
and shuffle
and stomp
To pivot and slide
moving side to side
for it’s
the shy ones
that revel
when they romp
When Emily Kupinsky isn’t making Art for the Hive Gallery, she daydreams about how a shopping cart with one bad wheel is really just an awkward but willing dance partner
sadness
by daniel schack
In a way, perhaps, there is no such thing as superior or inferior. only moral or immoral. just maybe.
daniel schack, a new york city based poet/artist. more verse can be seen on poetrysoup.com
last night i was thinkin
by anna broome
it ain't easy
not the sittin
waitin uneasy
rockin of bein all
alone
no where to go
alone
losin myself in red
uncertain
flirtin & barkin
with the boys next door
& their black dogs
that ain't
stirrin me around
like collards
in the pot after i
add Tabasco
it's the love
of sweatin & rollin
around & in between
leavin me thirsty
for lemonade & a salty
kiss
exhaustin my easy
my big easy
way of sinkin
me into you
Anna Broome is a Los Angeles published poet
and producer of the monthly free-to-the public performance art show, The Anna Broome Room for the passed ten years and the Solo Concert Series, The Broome Closet. She earned two bachelor’s degrees: Creative Writing, Poetry and English Literature and Language with an emphasis on British and American Romantic Poetry from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where studied under Pulitzer Prize for Poetry nominee, Michael White. Her first book of poetry, Orthodox Bats was published in 2019. Her second book, Sex Ed: A Prerequisite at Columbine was published this year by Four Feathers Press. Her first novel, A Full Sun is due out in 2025. And first collection of novellas the following year.
Roots Remind Me
By Victoria Orantes
Another broken branch of her being.
And from this adverse abyss, she’s seeing.
Within- the told and known, disagreeing.
And so her peace is constantly fleeing.
Consequence of her distressful thinking,
Split away for the sake of well-being.
In mental dissonance, roots remind me
That a tree does not discard blindly.
Victoria was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the owner and operator of the first 1966 Volkswagen Beetle boutique, V.E.O. Visions, where she sells her original art, original jewelry, hand-painted clothing, and curated $5 thrifts. Victoria’s art has been featured in local NELA establishments, art-walks, and recently Shoutout LA magazine.
Almost-Equinox Takes
By Marilyn Fuss 2017
The wild and waxing moon as it was last night, shaggy at the edges,
is still there for me this morning in the same high spot.
But it's too bright and warm out for the vision to be real.
Not winter's still, hard daylight version in a Wedgewood sky,
but pushing the Equinox on the deadly morning the clock sprang ahead.
At sixes and sevens; ankylosé, say the French. And stiff.
Something's off. Jet lag standing still.
The crows, having chased away the mockingbirds years ago, are actual,
with that castinet in their throats.
I can hear the smaller, fallen birds' voices: "Cheater, cheater, cheater!"
"Birdie, birdie, birdie," was the reply of their kind, once.
Another figment, like the daylight moon.
Real enough is the din of the magenta wash in swishing vat of pink water,
tearing the sheets in tiny places.
(I'll see you in court, Mr. Kenmore!)
Beset by later light and later exit,
Toby leans around the cabinet corner to claim
his commission of the scrambled eggs.
Strike his strident meow from the scene as he inhales them.
And cancel the bickering of crowded hens somewhere.
We trust these pasture eggs enough to triple down.
Across the street, a young couple tentatively knocks
to console a mother on the death of a neighborhood hermit.
First guests in five years. The mother is sprung too.
No longer audible are his shouts.
Back home here, a ring, a robocall:
A canned "Christine" announces herself just before ten,
when the body clock strikes nine.
A former teacher and go-fer, Marilyn Fuss has spent most of her life in Los Angeles, appreciating as many of its details as she can, and working to have a safe country to live in in 2021.
Poema
By G. Billie Quijano
Revolution in a Mujere’s soul
Cause of the Universe, whole
Our Indigenous blood
Raped through history of time
Crime after crime, crime after crime
Cosmic sounds
Renaissance spectrum of brown
Mujeres murdered
Children caged
Warrior resurrection
Illuminating elements of intersection
Ancestors spoke
Their words entwined in copal smoke
Echoes of struggle and trauma
Indeed justice will be served, this is your karma
Our hearts, not for you to vandalize
Yet you continue to colonize
We know no borders
All of these lands are free
Humble offerings to the Bruja of the sea
We are glitter and dust from the bones before
We are the divine design
Colores, memories, energies live in our shrines
La Curandera, La Bruja
Medicina, mysticism, magical real
Refusal to be disappeared
We move the earth, sun and the moon
La Monarcha, swaying and swoon
We rise, we rise
You will hear our cries
As we raise our fists to the skies
Committed to our truth, our liberation
Our voice
Our choice
The rhythm of the Ancients
Wisdom and changes in their passage
Pyramids and codices forever in movement
A new vida has begun
Our faces will feel the warmth of that familiar sun
El Colibri flys high in vibration
Abrazos, besos, intentions, creation
March 8th-International Women’s Day
The trafficking of women transpires daily
Femicide transpires daily
Moving from trauma, to survivor, to justice
Victory will prevail
G. Billie Quijano- Hija de East Los, Hermana de San Pancho. Self taught creative, photographer, watercolorist, assemblage arte. Bruja, poeta, instigator of beauty.
The landscape of my childhood, my classrooms were elements of urban life, cool concrete, vibrant colors and sounds from a place I love, prepared me for my life as an artist.
My heroes are the hard working, courageous street artists and activists all over the world. My work is a humble practice of keeping tradition and history alive.
My wish is to share my art, a desire to make a connection and contribution. To maintain beauty and balance in the universe. I continue to evolve and participate in the cultural rhythms of the streets and beyond.
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 and 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!! 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
20 Years Left is now a short documentary!!!! Screening at a living room near you!!!!
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/