Beverly M. Collins, Ed Rosenthal and Mariko Kitakubo - Sunday, July 19, 2020 at 5:00 pm

Hoping that the shut-down would not last more than two months, we rescheduled three Village Poets events - the official Passing of the Laurels Ceremony from Pamela Shea to Alice Pero, the reading by Alexis Rhone Fancher and Wayne Allen LeVine in March, and the reading by Cindy Rinne and Bory Thach in May.  Since the meeting and mask restrictions are not being lifted fast enough, our next reading, presenting Beverly M. Collins and Ed Rosenthal, was scheduled for Zoom, on Sunday, June 28, 2020. Entitled "Close to Nature: On Survival" the reading was planned as a collaboration of Village Poets with Phoenix Houses of California, as part of their Dignity Health Foundation grant.  

The new date and hour are as follows: SUNDAY, JULY 19, 5 PM ON ZOOM. Email Maja Trochimczyk at maja@moonrisepress.com, or the featured poets for Zoom details.

This presentation is partly sponsored by the Dignity Health Foundation, through a grant for "Close to Nature" Project for Phoenix Houses of Los Angeles, with the California State Poetry as one of the collaborating partners. 

BEVERLY M. COLLINS is the author of the books, Quiet Observations: Diary thought, Whimsy and Rhyme and Mud in Magic. Her poems have also appeared in California Quarterly, Poetry Speaks! A year of Great Poems and Poets, The Hidden and the Divine Female Voices in Ireland, The Journal of Modern Poetry, Spectrum, The Altadena Poetry Review, Lummox, The Galway Review (Ireland), Verse of Silence (New Delhi), Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine (London), Scarlet Leaf Review (Canada), The Wild Word magazine (Berlin) and many others. Winner of a 2019 Naji Naaman Literary Prize in Creativity (from Lebanon). Collins is also a prize winner for the California State Poetry Society. She has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, once for Independent Best American Poetry and “short listed” for the 2018 Pangolin Review Poetry Prize (Mauritius).

 Dragon

With eyes like emeralds…Its
voice blows fire until lives change shape.
Many are like clouds drug by the claws of the
wind, in new directions. Notice when a
pillow-like surface bears the tell-tale
pitter patter that something more lurks ready
to plant itself sweet as carbon monoxide’s kiss.

A quiver felt by one of the 5 senses while
completely undetected by the others.
It exists as a pre-warning and an aftermath
In the same casing. Pregnant with storm
Yet calm in appearance.

How many of us remember being part
of thunder’s story as it grew lightening?
Each new day-dreaded as gun powder’s scream.
Living through moments that cause one to feel
as muted and as an unfinished thesis
in a side cabinet.

The Dragon invites all to warm up
near the fires that will sting some into ashes.
Its promise presents a haven that is;
the “I” in team just out of view,
soft lips on a chicken and a bear that never
craps in a wooded area-believable.

Yet, pressure is one factor that grow muscle.
And, life is empty without the thrill of a
possibility to step upon the rocks that could burn.
So, we soldier on.

Published in We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology, 2020.

https://moonrisepress.com/mud-in-magic-by-beverly-m-collins.html

Ed Rosenthal, photo by Maja Trochimczyk, 2013

ED ROSENTHAL

Poetbroker Ed Rosenthalʼs real estate poetry has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times and Urban Land, the national magazine of the Urban Land Institute. He is known for performing poetry at Community Development Agencies, Los Angeles City Council investitures and gatherings of real estate developers. His nature/environmental poetry is found on Sierra Club sites and in California poetry journals. As a survivor of a desert ordeal, Rosenthal has been featured on “Fight to Survive” on The Outdoor Channel, and several Weather Channel presentations, LA Magazine, and “The Story” on National Public Radio. His volume of poems inspired by this experience, The Desert Hat, was published by Moonrise Press in 2015. He will read from his newest book, Salvation Canyon - A true Story of Desert Survival in Joshua Tree, published in June 2020.

At this reading, he will present fragments from the memoirs, he earlier featured as a poet with work from The Desert Hat, copied below for your enjoyment. 

ABOUT THIS BOOK 

from Amazon Smile 

Ed Rosenthal was Jewish kid from the mean streets of Rockaway, Queens who became a real estate broker in Downtown Los Angeles. His passion is poetry, writing about the historic buildings he sells and advocates to preserve. He hates slumlords, is fed up with his buyers, but finally closes The Big Deal and saves a century’s-old icon: Clifton’s Cafeteria. It is fall of 2010 and he’s ready to not to talk to anyone for a week. After the ribbon cutting he skips town and makes his way toward the Mojave to bathe at a natural spring and take his favorite hiking trip in Joshua Tree National Park. But his vacation soon turns into a nightmare. Over six grueling days without water, food, or hope, he discovers a well of perseverance in the snippets of his life that play over the deadly but inspiring landscape, in which he finds himself utterly and inexplicably lost. The God of Random Chance has, despite his best efforts his whole life, finally caught up to him. He describes his ordeal and its setting in intimate, vivid detail: surreal visions mix with wayfinding and intuitive wisdom in a poet’s-eye view of the life-lessons and magic that the desert can hold.

Rosenthal’s shocking ordeal was covered on The Outdoor Channel, local broadcast, The Weather Channel, in Los Angeles Magazine, and interviewed by Dick Gordon for “The Story” on National Public Radio. In 2014 he was the subject of an episode of “Fight to Survive” with Bear Grylls on The Outdoor Channel. www.poetbroker.com

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733957979?fbclid=IwAR3o4N-Ah70Kf-icBKbj1d5i8mDnK-CpLeD70tOzQ9YVA65T16yBnDdKMPo&pldnSite=1

Ed Rosenthal was lost in the desert for almost seven days. The lyrical result of his ordeal, "The Desert Hat," consist of 36 poems illustrated with 12 photographs of his hat and Salvation Canyon where he spent most of his time. Rosenthal’s poetry does not recount his experience in detail; it is not replete with maps, photographs, and a day-by-day account of his adventures. Instead, we gain an insight into what it means to be truly lost and found, to survive the strangest of desert nights and return to the heart of the city… with a newly found wisdom and zest for life. With an introduction by Ruth Nolan and photos by Maja Trochimczyk, and Ken and Wendy Sims. For more information visit Moonrise Press Blog.

https://moonrisepress.com/the-desert-hat---rosenthal.html

Ode to a Fly 

Wonderful insect
may I never see you
stuck to a glue strip
on yellow paper.

My sole companion
in Salvation Canyon
you cheerful orange-faced
slender friend

Loyal voyager, we escaped
sand flies, slept on the black rock
and returned to the cliffs,
when my Mother in Law
woke up us both
screaming my name
under a black sky

The evolved one
each morning
you hovered to let me
apply lotion then sat
back on my wrist

Dearest Horsefly
Canyon Homemaker
Odd Couple Member
Skinny Legged Friend

The Hat I


I got to the place out of the sun after a three day search
the first day looking for an exit, the second hiding
under a tree, the third morning of survival

A cold moon follows the blistering vision of day
I went downhill for succor, for a friend to lean against
from sun and night wind

In short-sleeve shirt and shorts I had to hide
under a clamshell rock with a split orange face
till the sun slapped me to wake again
I ran in here to the blessed salvation canyon of shadows

Seeing I would outlive that day’s sun and maybe
only another, I turned my hat to a mirror,
my pen to my blood’s red artery

“My dear wife and daughter, I lost the trail of celebration
of deals. I may never see you, read my wish and will.”

Out in a desert canyon my love poured onto nylon flaps
inside seams and creases as the mirror turned into
a bouquet of pomegranates and apricots

for a circle of friends gathered by the barbecue of stewed tomatoes,
candied rice with roasted meats and broiled fish at my wake
of smoking and carousing, with the clink of vodka glasses,

per my will, written on my desert hat
to be executed by my beloved
for my only child.

MARIKO KITAKUBO

A special guest from Japan will enrich our poetry offerings on July 19, 2020 at 5 pm.  Mariko has previously featured for Village Poets and will be with us, presenting new tanka in English and Japanese, with musical accompaniment.  

MARIKO KITAKUBO is a tanka poet/tanka reading performer, born in Tokyo and living in Mitaka-city, Tokyo, Japan. She has published six books of tanka including three bilingual ones, On This Same Star, Cicada Forest, and Indigo.  She has also produced a CD of her tanka entitled Messages. Mariko is an experienced performer who has presented her poetry at 234 poetry readings, events, and conferences, 177 of them overseas.   She presented tanka in 51 cities in the world, in such countries as the U.S., Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, India, Portugal, Tanzania, Switzerland, and the U.K. She hopes to encourage more poetry lovers worldwide to appreciate and practice tanka. www.en.kitakubo.com.

Happy Holidays! The New Year with Maria Elena B. Mahler and "Woman in Metaphor" on January 26, 2014

The last Poetry Reading of 2013 at Bolton Hall Museum was held on November 26, 2013 and featured Ed Rosenthal, poet and Susan Dobay, artist. With best wishes for a lovely holiday season, and happy and healthy New Year 2014, we'd like to share another of Dobay's Visual Interpretations of Music.

Village Poets: L to R. Seated: Maja Trochimczyk, Kathabela Wilson, Justin Kibbe, Susan Dobay, Ed Rosenthal, and Joe Decenzo. Standing: Dorothy Skiles, Endre Dobay, Rick Wilson, Chris Wesley, Sharon Hawley, Don Krotser, Peter Larsen, Pam Shea,Alice Pero,  Janet Nippell, Mari Werner, and Marlene Hitt. November 26, 2013, Bolton Hall Museum. 





WOMAN IN METAPHOR - MARIA ELENA B. MAHLER FEATURES ON JANUARY 26, 2014

The first reading of Village Poets in 2014 will be dedicated to the presentation of a new poetry-and-art book edited by Maria Elena B. Mahler.  The reading will take place on Sunday, January 26, 2014 at 4:30 p.m. and will include two segments of Open Mike - before and after the featured group reading, as well as refreshments.  

Dancer Upstairs with Marie Anne Favreau - by Stephen Linsteadt

About "Woman in Metaphor"

Poet and editor, Maria Elena B. Mahler, collected twenty-seven poems from twenty-seven accomplished, published, and award winning poets from different parts of the world. She invited them to write a poem based on one of StephenLinsteadt's paintings; paintings he created over the last thirty-five years.

The book contains an introduction and essay by Lois P. Jones, host of Pacifica Radio’s “Poet’s Café” (KPFK, Los Angeles 90.7 fm), and co-producer of the Moonday poetry reading series in Santa Monica. Lois is a four-time Pushcart nominee, and the winner of the 2012 Tiferet Poetry Prize and the 2012 Liakoura Prize. About this collection of art and poetry, Lois explains:

"When Stephen Linsteadt embarked on his metaphoric journey, he was striving toward a deeper sense of conception. If art implies a desire for the sacred it is, as Eckhart Tolle suggests, a portal or an access point which ultimately leads you to yourself. It is this portal that bids we enter, freely and without agenda. Each of the twenty-seven writers in Woman in Metaphor, all of various ages and beliefs – practiced poets or sensitive observer, transversed this threshold, returning with their own compelling visions."
 

Beyond Words by Stephen Linsteadt

"The artwork alone is worth the price of the anthology and the same can be said for the poetry. However, if you are expecting the usual classical female figure studies or poetry that sings the songs of love, requited or otherwise, this is not for you. Woman in Metaphor is not just about gender, it is an analysis of the meaning gender and all of the spiritual dimensions that it comprises. The poetry and art combine to give us what any great work of art strives for – a new way of envisioning a topic." - From a review by Ed Bennett in Quill and Parchment  Read more>>


List of Poets included in "Woman in Metaphor"

“Woman in Metaphor” is a global community of poets from diverse countries, including Argentina, Chile, Germany, Poland, England, Spain, and a Native American. Pushcart Prize nominees include: Lia Brooks, Lois P. Jones, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Susan Rogers, and Marci Vogel. Other award winning poets include Katrina Naomi (Templar Poetry Competition), Kate Kingston (The Ruth Stone Prize, the Atlanta Review International Publication Prize, and the Colorado Council on the Arts Literary Fellowship in Poetry). Russell Thorburn is the current poet laureate of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Other published poets include: Sharon Alexander, Nancy Scott Campbell, Elsa S. Frausto, Anita Harmon, David Dodd Lee, Sylvia Linsteadt, Genie Nakano, Dean Pasch, Mary Kay Rummel, Maja Trochimczyk, Mel Weisburd, M.J. Whistler, Kath Abela Wilson, and Mariano Zaro. And the new voices of Meg Cox, Indiana Jane Linsteadt, and Taylor Wade.

The book's editor, Maria Elena B Mahler, is a poet whose work has been published in English and Spanish in Badlands, Solstice, Quill & Parchment, Global Alchemy, Saint Julian Press and Poets on Site. She was a finalist for the 2011 San Francisco-based Primer Concurso de Poesía Latinoamericana en Español, and is published in the anthology by Colectivo Verso Activo. Recently, her work was also selected for the Spanish anthology Se Buscan Quijotes, published by El Centro de Estudios Poéticos in Madrid, Spain. Maria Elena also co-authored the non-fiction book The Heart of Health (Truth Publishing Co.) and also enjoys writing fiction. She was raised in the South of Chile. After graduating with a degree in Communications, she lived and worked in Mexico and Canada, and finally settled in the Sonoran Desert of Southern California in 2003.

The painter, Stephen Linsteadt was featured at Bolton Hall Museum as a poet in 2012. Stephen Linsteadt is a painter, poet, and writer. He is the co-author of The Heart of Health; the Principles of Physical Health and Vitality. His latest book is titled Scalar Heart Connection. His poetry is published in Moments of the Soul (Spirit First), Solstice, Cradle Songs (Quill & Parchment Press), Saint Julian Press, Poets on Site, and others. His paintings have appeared in Reed Magazine, Badlands Literary Journal, and Birmingham Arts Journal and can be seen at StephenLinsteadt.com.

Ed Rosenthal's "The Desert Hat" and Susan Dobay's Visual Interpretations of Music , November 24, 2013

Two different art forms, two different experiences to be grateful for... Poet Ed Rosenthal survived an ordeal in the desert to write poetry about it. Susan Dobay turned to computer-assisted art-making and what she calls "visual interpretations of music" when she no longer could paint her monumental canvas... We will meet both incredible artists on Sunday, November 24, 2013 at 4:30 p.m. at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. The Village Poets Monthly Reading will also include open mike and refreshments.

ED ROSENTHAL

Ed Rosenthal, “Poet/Broker of Downtown Los Angeles,” was known for using his verses to keep his escrows going. Taking the opposite tact of iconic modernist poets Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot, who kept their day jobs at a seeming distance from their poetry, “Poet/Broker” employed poetry as a tool in commercial real estate. Rosenthal’s “Poetic Request for 30 day Extension of Contingencies” was cited in the Los Angeles Times for enabling a redevelopment project. His Wall Street Journal piece admonished clients in couplets. To place poetic legitimacy on his state-issued real estate licenses, Rosenthal had some signed by world renowned writers, including Seamus Heaney and Evan Boland.

Prior to his near-death experience, he was already bored with the persona of the “Poet/Broker.” A fan of Federico Garcia Lorca, Rosenthal began to work with poems carrying lunar motifs in urban landscapes. Survival of a harrowing near-death experience in the Mojave Desert in 2010 has deepened this imagistic writer’s divorce from practicality in the direction of spiritual exploration.

THE DESERT HAT

This volume of poetry was inspired by a six-and-a-half-day ordeal of Ed Rosenthal, a Poet-Broker, who survived alone after being lost in the Mojave Desert in September 2010. An experienced hiker, he unexpectedly veered far away from his usual route and could not find his way back. While in Salvation Canyon, he was several times missed by search-and-rescue aircraft and helicopters, and finally, miraculously, was found by San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputies. The wry, surreal, and reflective poems in The Desert Hat: Survival Poems describe the spiritual trajectory of a survivor living through a close encounter with death, starting from alienation in a corporate urban environment and ending with the post-trauma reflections about life and natural environment.

The book consists of 36 poems organized in four sections, reflecting the distinct stages in the spiritual and personal journey, from getting off track, through searching for a way back, through hallucinations in a hostile desert environment, finding shelter in the shade of Salvation Canyon, to being rescued and experiencing the world after the return from the brink of death. The title alludes to a canvas hat that Rosenthal used as a notebook and helped the lost poet control his thoughts, capture emotions, and write down his last will and a farewell to his wife and daughter. The 12 illustrations include photos of the famous hat. The Desert Hat was published in October 2013 by Moonrise Press:  www.moonrisepress.com/desert.html  The book will be available for sale and signing.  

In "The Desert Hat," Los Angeles poet/real estate broker Ed Rosenthal presents the mythopoetic journey through his real-life experience of being lost for 6 days in remote canyons of the Mojave Desert's Joshua Tree National Park in September, 2010. "The Desert Hat" delves deeply into the wildest and unpredictable heart of the Mojave into a storied landscape that Rosenthal renders as both recognizable to the reader and also deeply specific to his solitary and unanticipated experience, and in these poems, creates an empathetic and spiritually-affirming desert landscape that resonates within all of our desert hearts.

~ Ruth Nolan. Professor of English @ College of the Desert, California desert poet, writer, editor, conservationist & scholar

SUSAN DOBAY

SUSAN DOBAY is a Hungarian-born California artist and gallery owner of the Scenic Drive Gallery in Monrovia. She left Hungary after the 1956 uprising against the Soviets that left thousands dead and the country in bondage for another 40 years. She studied the arts both in Hungary and in the U.S. and has shown her work for the first time with the Alliance of Hungarian Artists. As a member of New York Artist's Equity and Los Angeles Visionaries Association, Dobay has created an impressive body of work including painting, collages, image integration using digital technologies and visual interpretations of music inspired by famous operas and other classical compositions. Dobay's works were seen at over sixty solo exhibitions in Hungary, the U.S., Canada, Germany, England, Belgium, Austria, Israel, Japan and Kenya.  www.susandobay.com


VISUAL INTERPRETATIONS OF MUSIC

Dobay's most recent project is creating music videos with artistic interpretations of scenes and characters from Italian opera (La Traviata, Madame Butterfly, Pagliacci) and Hungarian music. She calls the technique used in these visual poems "image integration" - because of their "integrated" quality, with photographs of paintings transformed into digital art and photographs of real life scenes transformed into abstract images by adding shapes and colors. Ms. Dobay will present two of her Visual Interpretations of Music. Her artistic credo may be summarized in the following statement: "Although I derive inspiration from various sources- e.g.., music, nature, the human condition- I try to find the balance between mind and spirit. My goal is to involve viewers in a creative game where both the mind and the heart are stimulated."

TOCCATA                  http://youtu.be/c08Z_ZUKVEo  

LA TRAVIATA            http://youtu.be/HGFTQBJX6XA

PAGLIACCI                 http://youtu.be/7Bck-_v0rs0

Madama BUTTERFLY  http://youtu.be/-IHDZsLzdpA

Magyar REQUIEM      http://youtu.be/XU8y7IKL5E4