Village Poets Present the June Featured Poet, Judy Barrat (June 26, 2016)

The Village Poets are pleased to invite poets and poetry lovers to the Monthly Poetry Reading on Sunday, June 26, at 4:30 p.m., at the Bolton Hall Museum, 10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91042. The reading will include a featured poet, Judy Barrat, and two open mike segments. Refreshments will be served and $3.00 or more donations will be collected for the cost of the venue, the second historical landmark in the City of Los Angeles, that celebrated its centennial in 2013.  The Museum is managed by the Little Landers Historical Society.

JUDY BARRAT

Born in the Bronx, New York, Judy was for most of her teenage years what she calls a “closet  writer” of poetry and short  fiction.  When she moved to Los Angeles in her 20's and got married, had two children, and subsequently became a single working mom writing became a thing of the past but she slowly began dabbling again in poetry and fiction, having  found sunny California  a bigger, warmer closet in which to write and about 5 years ago, was convinced by a friend that it was time to bring her writing into the light.

She has been sharing her thoughts and words at various poetry and music venues around Los Angeles and has had her work published in several quarterly magazines and anthologies, including  the Pelham Parkway Times, the San Gabriel Valley Quarterly, Spectrum, Then and Now and  Wild Women of Words, as well as on-line journals.  Not too long ago, Judy began to fuse her writings with a musical background of jazz or blues, both instrumental and vocal, adding another dimension to her repertoire.  

In October of 2015 she presented a one woman show at the Gardenia Club in Hollywood to musical accompaniment, eliciting a wonderful review in Cabaret Scenes Magazine.  Her writings  (quoting Jody Jaress, actress, vocalist): “are poignantly descriptive, carry a depth of insight and mystery, and no matter what her subject or genre,  are poetically, brilliantly, and sometimes defiantly a lot like Judy herself... wonderfully enjoyable to say the least.”

                                              Grass in Descanso Gardens, spring 2016, Photo by Maja Trochimczyk


           REMEMBERING THE DAISY DAYS

As children my best friend and I climbed a grassy hill
  that seemed to kiss the sky; it was dotted with flowers.
We thought when we reached the top
  The clouds would be just within our reach.

Along the way we passed some trees,
 giant oaks and maples and a lone weeping willow.
And there were birds, bluebirds and robins
 and we thought “this is where they learn to sing”.

Once at the top we’d sit in the cool grass
  picking honeysuckle, drinking nectar from the stems;
We held buttercups to each other’s chins
  To see the bright yellow reflection on our faces.

And then there were of course, the wild daisies
   Which swayed in the grass and called for us to
Pick one to determine whether the boys we liked
   Liked us back – he loves me, he loves me not.

Now all grown up I wander through a field
  Of flowers and stoop down to pick a daisy,
Reminded as I am, of those carefree daisy days.
   I look around, find myself alone and begin,

I gaze at this lovely perfect flower which seems
   to look right back at me with its big yellow eye
As one by one I gently pull petals until
   the last petal is gone: “he loves me not”.

He loves me not?– I stare in disbelief at
   that unblinking yellow eye and tearfully ask:
          “Is that your final answer?”

                                    © Judy Barrat, December 2011

Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

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The double-feature reading on May 22, 2016 was a great success and we are grateful to Marcia de la O and Jerry Garcia for sharing their words and ideas with the Village Poets. Here are some pictures taken by Joe DeCenzo.

Photos by Joe DeCenzo and friends.

Village Poets Present Marsha de la O and Jerry Garcia on May 22, 2016 at Bolton Hall

On Sunday, May 22, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. Village Poets will present two fascinating contemporary poets Jerry Garcia and Marsha de la O, in the monthly Open Mike Reading at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga (10110 Commerce Avenue). The reading will include two segments of Open Mike and refreshments - coffee, fruit, snacks or cakes - depending on the Village Poets' fancy.  This reading is one of "tenderness" - or "kindness" and "gentility" - because there's not enough of these three virtues in our world these days... 

The building, fascinating with is frontier beauty (facade and fireplace built of huge river-rocks) and storied history (Los Angeles's Historical Landmark No. 2, built in 1913), is managed by the Little Landers Historical Society that organizes events and quirky exhibits as well as invites the poets for their monthly feasts free of charge. Nonetheless, Village Poets do make donations to the LLHS, and for that purpose pass the hat, also historic - and formerly owned by the Bolton Hall builder, George Harris, to collect suggested donations of $3 per person that are then used to purchase refreshments for the poets and guests, and to donate funds to the Little Landers Historical Society.

 

Freshly squeezed orange juice was a must in mid-century California. 

Items from the current display at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. 

JERRY GARCIA

Jerry Garcia is a poet, photographer and filmmaker from Los Angeles who is too old to have been named after The Grateful Dead guitar hero.He has been a producer and editor of television commercials, documentaries and motion picture previews. He is currently producing Poetry Films based on his and the poetry of others. 

In 2006, Jerry was chosen by the L.A. Poetry Festival to participate in Newer Poets XI Series as part of the L.A. Central Library’s Aloud Series.  In April 2015 he was winner of Terry Wolverton’s dis•articulationsreader Poem series.

His poetry has been seen in Askew, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, Chaparral, The Chiron Review, Palabra, Verdad Magazine, KCET’s Departures: Poetry L.A. Style, Tia Chucha’s Coiled Serpent Anthology and his chapbook Hitchhiking with the Guilty. 

Jerry is a past-director of the Valley Contemporary Poets and former president of Beyond Baroque’s Board of Trustees.


While Walking the Dog
Last Evening

I saw a falling star,
its tail so long,
its head so black,
surely it must rest this morning 
in a neighbor’s backyard, 
blackened rock, warm to the touch,
conspicuous on a thick bed
of blue grass.

If it struck like the truth
it could be the famous Boson
and if it had not been honest,
the prayers of many
would nod as they hold on to tomorrow
while the rest of us scramble
to keep the day intact.

Sometimes, what is visible in the black,
like reflected branches
and multi-galaxies of matter,
would support belief in substance,
while to others
the flickering sky expresses
the Divine.

(c) by Jerry Garcia 

MARSHA DE LA O

Marsha de la O was born and raised in Southern California. Both sides of her family arrived in the Los Angeles area before William Mulholland built the aqueduct that brought in water from the eastern Sierras. 

Her latest book, Antidote for Night, won the 2015 Isabella Gardner Award and was published by BOA Editions.  Her first book, Black Hope, was awarded the New Issues Press Poetry Prize. 


Summer

as far south as possible – to live – the ache  
on the edge of what can’t be endured, 
Monterey cypress on the spit, this remnant— 
when will longing be done with me—
parched, parched St. Catherine’s Lace 
fuming her last, and Sister Datura, 
mi loca, my girl, her closed mouth 
twisted like paper, horses in the 
shallows, piebald and panicked, rearing 
in the foam, ghost eyes wide, oh 
far-ranging roans, blue multitudes 
why oh why can’t I, rushing the horizon—  
naturally I dream the length of summer 
days & nights when the moon lives 
for weeks in my room, staggering in late 
every night drunk, slip sliding off her 
shoulders into an ivory pool on the carpet 
and still she will not ease me

(C) by Marsha de la O

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VILLAGE POETS WITH LOIS P. JONES AND ALICE PERO

The beautiful, inspired, whimsical, sensuous, and richly woven from a tapestry of words and images reading by featured poets Lois P. Jones and Alice Pero will remain among the highlights of the season. Not just the featured poets rose to the occasion, other readers celebrated the Earth Day of April 22 and commemorated the Armenian Genocide of April 24.

Poetry took us to the stars, inside a drawing by Leonardo, and on nature hikes, to see dragonflies in the Tujunga Wash. We learned how to eat a mountain and what Odysseus did when Sirens sang their irresistible song.  We listened, we thought, we laughed, we cried... 

Lois P. Jones thus summed up her experience: "The air was clean and crisp, the sunlight dappling, the poetry served al dente, warm and welcoming. There was humor and pathos (a powerful poem on the anniversary of the Armenian holocaust), odes to spring and renewal, the whimsical dynamism of Alice Pero and the welcoming light of MC, Maja Trochimczyk. A poet afterward offered something which I will take with me forever. "Your poetry opens the soul." Better than any awards or flashy publications. I must remember to keep my eye on the soul."

PHOTO L To R: Seated: Tim Callahan, Lida Abramian, Susan Rogers, Lois P. Jones, Alice Pero and Marlene Hitt . Standing: Maja Trochimczyk, Joe DeCenzo, Beverly M. Collins, Mark Evans, Bo Kyung Kim, Pam Shea, Elsa S. Frausto, Dorothy Skiles, Joe, Mira Mataric, Kathabela and Rick Wilson, and Janet Nippell.  Other photos are on Facebook and will find their way to an online album.