Featured Poet Kathabela Wilson and Friends Present the Art of Tanka on August 26, 2018

Tanka Poets with Mariko Kitakubo at Kathabela and Rick Wilson's Poetry Salon.

On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. the Village Poets Monthly Reading at Bolton Hall Museum (10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91042) will focus on the ancient Japanese art of Tanka. The featured poet and reading organizer, Kathabela Wilson, will bring a group of Tanka Poets to share their work, with the musical accompaniment of Rick Wilson. The reading will last for 40 min. and will include two open mike segments.

Refreshments are served and $3 donations 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, named after the "little land" that each settler received in the Tujunga and Sunland foothills when the area was settled. The readings adhere to a self-imposed PG-13 rating, without extreme depictions of sex or violence, and with an air of gentility,  so poets use their words to bless the world, rather than curse it.

KATHABELA WILSON

Kathabela Wilson created and directs Poets on Site, Tanka Poets on Site, and Caltech Red Door Poets. She holds salons and weekly tanka meetings with her husband Rick Wilson at their home, hosts tanka performance festivals in and around Pasadena, California, and welcomes visiting poets. Kathabela performs with Rick’s accompaniment on flutes of the world in museums, galleries, libraries, and the local Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden. She has created more than thirty programs and themed anthologies containing international poets’ work. She leads the online Facebook group Tanka Poets on Site, for several years giving daily prompts for tanka writing exercises. Tanka Poets on Site was presented on the Queen Mary at the Tanka Society of America’s Tanka Sunday in 2013.

She currently writes “Mapping the Artist,” a weekly interview series with poets and artists, and hosts a weekly “Poetry Corner” for ColoradoBlvd.net, where she presents many tanka poets. Kathabela (her pen name is Kath Abela Wilson) uses her patient, beautiful 94-year-old mother’s Maltese maiden name (Abela) as a centerpiece and inspiration. Kathabela and Rick travel the world together to math conferences (the summer of 2014 marked their fifth trip to China and Japan). She loves her work as TSA secretary, especially because it gives her close personal contact and friendship with members, and inspiration to collaborate with them and read their work even more closely.


clear summer evening
getting ready for
the great ball
Mt. Fuji
puts on her red dress

        Ekphrastia Gone Wild, 2013


inside my shadow
I feel the pull downward
lie down with long stems
of lilies naked to the pink
my legs are green

        Ribbons, Fall 2013

like a painting
a blue heron . . .
my heart lifts
like a brush
full of sky

        Atlas Poetica #20, 2015

Handmade Dish sent by tanka poet

David John Terelinck in Australia  for tanka mertings in California 

Kath Abela Wilson Tanka

your handmade dish
rolled and folded heart-shaped
holds cashews
the chili-lime of love
we lick our fingertips

Kathabela and Rick Wilson perform at the Bolton Hall Museum, July 22, Photo by Emil Schultz.

TANKA READING UPDATE

Tanka Poets will be joined by Jennifer Bentson  (http://www.jenniferbentson.com/)

artist of the California Oaks. She will bring a few paintings on easels, and she will speak a few minutes on her experience with tanka poets and the oaks. 

The tanka poets will read some tanka from the  poets' tour of the Caltech campus tour with special focus the 400 year old oak that was lost a couple of years ago. Some poets and artists who are hoping to participate are Taura Scott, dalton perry, Charles Harmon, Mira Mataric, Jackie Chou, Joyce Futa, Briony James, Sonny Premo (artist), Jennifer Bentson (artist),  Deborah P. Kolodji, and Kath Abela Wilson. Poets performing  are all active members of Tanka Society of America.  All readings will have flute accompaniment by Rick.Wilson.

The poets will also give examples of tanka prose, tanka sequences, collaborative sequences kyoka and even cherita a relative of tanka --all by different poets as well as thoughts by the poets on why they write the form, its openness and variety. Poets will read from tanka journals especially to show a range of publication possibilities. 

https://coloradoboulevard.net/mapping-the-artist-jennifer-bentson-artist-to-the-oaks/

 VILLAGE POETS NEWS  

The reading on July 22, 2018 that featured Dr. Mira Mataric and Charles Harmon was a great success. The featured poets were pleased with the event, and Dr. Mataric commented: "We have been enjoying you and your events for many years and always come gladly with high expectations. This particular event was one of even more outstanding, successful performances and overall warm, friendly atmosphere. We came home happier and more elated. I want you to know how much we love and respect your efforts and friendship through the years. Thank you."

In response to Dr. Mataric's email, from her and her husband Gene, Dorothy Skiles stated: 

"Dear Mira,  It was a very enjoyable evening!  Thank you for your observations, kind words, and loyal support!  We so enjoyed having Charles and you co-feature!  Your animated delivery, both heartfelt and humorous poems were well received and very entertaining!  We strive to make it a welcoming place where new and seasoned poets can gather to perform their work in front of an engaged and appreciative audience.  We are so fortunate to have the support of the foothill community and beyond who attend our events and the Little Landers Society in providing the needed space.  Lastly, it’s the continuous support of poets like you who come to our events that and give their gift of poetry and community that keeps the doors open!"

Here are some photos taken by Emil "Gene" Schultz. Thanks to poets and photographer! 

Village Poets Present Mira Mataric and Charles Harmon on 22 July 2018

Look for Village Poets and Pam Shea in the 4th of July Parade of Sunland-Tujunga, Foothill Blvd from Mt. Gleason to Sunland Park. Starts at 10 am on the 4th of July. 

Dr. Mira Mataric and Charles Harmon will be featured poets on Sunday, July 22, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. at the Village Poets Monthly Reading at Bolton Hall Museum (10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91042). The readings include 30 min. for the featured poet, as well as two open mike segments. Refreshments are served and $3 donations 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, named after the "little land" that each settler received in the Tujunga and Sunland foothills when the area was settled. The readings adhere to a self-imposed PG-13 rating, without extreme depictions of sex or violence, and with an air of gentility,  so poets use their words to bless the world, rather than curse it.

MIRA N. MATARIC, Ph.D.

Mira N. Mataric, born in Belgrade, Serbia. Earned BA, MA, and Ph.D. in Linguistics and World Literature, and master’s studies in Special Education. Librarian in the National Library of Serbia for 14 years and teaching at the University of Beograd, Mira has been a prominent free-lance writer and translator-interpreter in Europe, publishing her poetry, prose, and translations in leading periodicals of Yugoslavia and Serbia since 1950. And translated American, English, Irish, Swedish, Indian, Rumanian, and other modern poetry and prose (John Steinbeck, Isaac Bashevis Singer etc.). She traveled extensively in Europe, USA, Australia, Asia and Africa.

Living in the USA since 1981, Mira taught college English, Creative Writing, Russian, and ESL, Special Education, and successfully applied her expertise in creative writing as art therapy. Mira worked extensively teaching senior citizens to write memoirs, journals, poetry and other literary forms, as a legacy.

Mira has edited a literary journal, organized literary workshops and readings, often delivering public speeches for schools, organizations, churches, and clubs, in Kansas for 18 years. She continues to discover and nurture new talents, building multi-cultural bridges and spreading education throughout her career. 

Mira has published 44 (bilingual) books of poetry, memoirs, short stories, novels and anthologies. She has thousands of citations in other publications and anthologies, translated into numerous languages and awarded for poetry, prose, translations and life achievements building international cultural bridges. Her awards include recognition from the President of the United States, the Government of Serbia, Ministry of Diaspora and Education, etc: Arsenie Charnoevich, 2005; Ivo Andric, 2013; Golden medal from the Cultural-Educational Association of Serbia, 2007; Sretenska Povelja for translations,  2008; Poeta from Arte, 2007; Shumadijske Metafore and Literary Workshop Kordun for her short stories, 2014; Special recognition, Indjija, Pro Poet, 2018.

Mira has promoted some two hundred Serbian authors abroad through her translations, reviews and lectures, and as many foreign writers in Serbia since 1950 to this day.

CHARLES HARMON

BIO SKETCH

Love to write, love to live, love to love, love to cook, love to eat. Teaching science is like cooking, cooking is like writing poetry, poetry is about life, love is about living, and living is about love. I love to write poetry. Long live love!

BIO

Published story in local newspaper in fourth grade. Produced hundreds of poems (first love), songs, stories, articles, photographs, artwork, screenplays, novel. Assembling collected poems, trying to get two books published. Won NSTA national science teaching award and $20,000 in 2001 for project, “Don’t Be a Crash Test Dummy!” that teaches kids traffic safety, physics, chemistry, math. Use poetry, songs to motivate students, challenging them to write their own, codifying learning. Reviewed, edited, contributed to five textbooks for Houghton Mifflin. World traveler, five years overseas, 60 countries, lifesaver. Taught English, composition as well as sciences. Won SGVPQ poetry slam in Hollywood in 2006. Published in Spectrum, Altadena Poetry Review, Ribbons, Haiku Windows, Haiku Society Anthology, Lummox, Prism Review, California Quarterly, Atlas Poetica. Charles was named one of the "Top Ten Poets of the San Gabriel Valley" by Spectrum Publications. 

  

THE JOY OF COOKING

I have tears in my eyes

But not from cutting onions

I’m laughing out loud

But not from jokes in my cookbook

Oil is sizzling and hot

But my pan remains empty

Not all the cooking wine 

Makes it into the pot

I want to cook for you

I want you in my kitchen

My spice box is exploding

Hot chili peppers set hearts on fire

Curry burns holes in souls

Lips blister from sampling salsa 

So sweet and sour

What strange alchemy transforms

Such simple ingredients into life?

Miracle food, magical energy source

Gives strength to go on, for 

Neither Woman nor Man

Can live by bread alone

We both need something more

Something hearty that endures

That sticks to Adam’s ribs and also Eve’s—

A great big serving 

Of passion and romance.

I’m dishing that up

With a chef’s flair for cuisine

Words of love to nourish 

Hungry hearts and thirsty souls

It’s hot and spicy and ready…

Are you hungry too?

Care to join me?

--Charles Harmon

__________________________________________________________

Previously published in Spectrum 4: “2016’s Top Ten San Gabriel Valley Poets, April;

Altadena Poetry Review 2017; Prism Review, Spring 2006; 

Winner, 2006 “Winner-Take-All” SGVPQ  Hollywood Poetry Contest

VILLAGE POETS NEWS

We had political representation at the Christine Jordan feature in June! State Senator Anthony Portantino is a poetry lover and attended our event along with a host of excellent poets!  Dorothy Skiles commented: "Christine Jordan performed her poetry and narrative readings with theatrical flair and humor which was well received by the audience! The poets who participated delivered humorous, compelling, and thought-provoking work, which is the hallmark of so many of our events."

Standing:  – left to right:  Cile Borman, Anthony Portantino, Mira Mataric, Joe DeCenzo, Peter Larsen, Beth Baird, Richard Dutton, Barbara Bagwell, Lalo Kikiriki. Sitting: - left to right:  Lida Abramian, Alice Pero, Pauli Dutton, Christine Jordan, Chris Cressey.

Village Poets wish all poets and poetry lovers

Happy Fourth of July! 

See you at the Parade down Foothill Blvd 

from Mt. Gleason at 10 am

From Mother to Daughter to Mother Again ... In Memory of Genevieve Krueger

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas 

and a Wonderful New Year, Everyone! 

Song

When fire flares forth

and from the chimney, smoke

I hear the song

of the fallen oak

its fibres grey with ashen coat

it gives to us

from its glowing throat

a whisper, a breath - words of light

what song to sing on Christmas night! 

by Genevieve Krueger

Published in 1994 Chupa Rosa Calendar Diary

 

Celebrating the Poetic Gifts of Gen Krueger

For our last blog for the year 2015, we decided to revisit the poetry and life of Genevieve Krueger. Village Poets just owe her so much! Dorothy Skiles organized a “Chuparosa Writers ” evening in memory of Gen on Thursday, December 3, 2015 at her Sunland home.  The purpose of the gathering was to read some of Gen’s poetry, and some written about her, as well as share special memories and stories about Gen that have inspired poets and made them laugh... 

Below you will find a selection of poems as well as photos from the Chuparosa Writers' event by Bill Skiles. 

Dorothy Skiles talks about Gen Krueger.

Just Outside Jerusalem

Dedicated to the memory of Gen Krueger, 1929-2015, 

mentor and facilitator of the Chuparosa Writers, Tujunga, California

My hill rises with the sun,

A day’s weariness 

Envelopes me like a shroud.  

Every Thursday evening

I walk down the street 

To the writers workshop

Just outside Jerusalem.

I knock at the door, my shroud

Of weariness falls away, 

And I’m resurrected again.

For a few hours, I’m a rider 

On the wings of a poem.

by Dorothy Skiles

Rev. Dec. 3, 2015

All Rights Reserved 2015 by D. Skiles

Grandma Laureate

To honor you

I want to remember you

Your sweetness

Your uniqueness

Humble and wise

Creative and strong

Your noble Nordic spirit

Quietly expressed patience and love

Your earthy endearing heart

Warmly engaging in

conversations and smiles

Your love of literature

Your deeper love of family and friends

Steadfast and amaranthine

The embodiment of teacher and learner

An example of consistent

Positivity and optimism

Despite every challenge put before you

I love you

I miss you

I just want

To honor you

(c) 2015 by Amber

(Untitled)

Like a hole punched

Through my sturdy wall

Behind a hanging canvas

I tucked away the crater of your absence

5 days bereavement

Is American Grief

Coffee needs pouring

Stocks need selling

Minds need molding

The commute never dies

But at a red light

There is a breath

Between songs

There is a space

At the flip of a lightswitch

Blindness exists

Suddenly loss

Is here unannounced

And I don’t know

How I go

Day to Day

Yesterday your twin key

Unused on my busy ring

Slipped into my front door lock

My adult hand

Can’t turn this knob

This finite door is closed

The key now unlocks

Only your memory

Jenny Novak 12/3/15

Maja Trochimczyk reads Gen Krueger's "Color is What You Make It"

You can read more poems by Gen Krueger on our previous blog, from September 2015:

http://villagepoets.blogspot.com/2015/09/farewell-to-genevieve-krueger-and-her.html

Mira Mataric reads her poem, Hymn to Motherhood.

Hymn to Motherhood

I am watching you, my daughter,

 motherhood has shaped, rounded

and completed you as a woman.

Your eyes turned downy, soft with tenderness,

your voice croons a lullaby,

body and entire being ripened

turning your lap into a nest.

Your breast floods with the dew of life

hands ready to hold, feed, and caress.

Terms of endearment and nursery rhymes

murmuring, your ear attuned

to the child's soft cry,

that helpless call in the language

only a mother can understand,

the Morse code of intimacy,

carried through the umbilical cord

that never breaks

between a mother and her child.

With humanity,

 motherhood has connected you

and to me returned.

I am watching you, my daughter,

with love and pride,

not sure whether it is you or I,

that woman experiencing motherhood

for the first time and all over again.

That daughter we are raising now

as one woman

is that you, my child,

my discovery and masterpiece,

or a new life born in continuation

of humankind

 through the most powerful force -

 Love.

(c) by Mirjana N. Radovanov Mataric

Poetry of Mari Werner and a Birthday

On February 27, 2011, when the eyes of the world were turned to the parade of sparkly designer dresses on the red carpet of the Oscars, poets gathered at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga to hear Mari Werner and to share their work. In fact, so many poets gathered, that the time allotted to one reader shrunk over the course of the afternoon from three poems and/or five minutes, whichever is shorter, to two poems and or three minutes, to one poem and one minute. The job of the MC, Maja Trochimczyk, was certainly challenging.

Our featured poet, the wonderful and witty Mari Werner, "makes her living" - as she says - "as a writer of technical materials, but lately makes her life as a writer of poetry and humor. She grew up in Santa Barbara, California, came to the Los Angeles area in the mid-70s, and now lives in Altadena. her work has been published in a number of local publications including the Los Angeles Daily News, The Latest, and the Valley Star."

Mari Werner amused, educated, and inspired her audience with the following poems and prose pieces: Fire and Friendship, Confessions of a Tree Hugger, For My Father, Warmth, Two Eyes Looking, Scarcity, Miranda for Civilization, Keep on Singing, Night Falling, Fighting, Napping, Squirrel haiku, Moorpark Park, Cops and Seat Belts, Finding the Holy Grail, Penguin Power, and Consciousness.

We previously quoted here Mari's lyrical piece about the Crescent Moon. Here are two humorous poems:

Squirrel haiku

Squirrels foraging
Just two operating speeds
Overdrive and stop

Moorpark Park

On the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard
and Moorpark Street is a park
called Moorpark Park.
It doesn't have a parking lot.
but if it did, it would be called
Moorpark Park Parking Lot.

Before and after Mari's poetry, we heard a variety of poetic voices, from local poets and guests, some of whom came from very far away. Sharon Chmielarz from Minneapolis, visiting California on a tour of readings, definitely was the one to get the "long distance" prize. We arranged her visit having been forewarned of her arrival. She is one of the poets published in the anthology "Chopin with Cherries" (edited by Maja Trochimczyk). Sharon read "Burning" from her new book Calling. See her website, www.sharonchmielarz.com for more information. Her friend, Mary Kay Rummel of Ventura read a poem named after and based on one of Stephen Linsteadt's paintings: "Feminine Restitution."

We also had guests from Ventura, Santa Barbara, Monrovia, Pasadena, and Palm Springs. Kathabela Wilson, the leader of Poets on Site, sketched them in her notebook! She also organized a wonderful birthday celebration of a Palm Springs painter and poet, Stephen Lindsteadt, by asking "open mike" poets to read their work they contributed to her upcoming anthology of ekphrastic poetry dedicated to and inspired by his paintings.

The book, called Art and Alchemy, will be published by Poets on Site and available through online bookstores. Poets Mira Mataric, Kathabela Wilson, Maria Elena Boekemeyer (Stephen's wife and editor of the "Badlands" journal), and Maja Trochimczyk read their work, inspired by different pieces from the Lindsteadt collection. Rick Wilson accompanied some poets on a flute, creating a wonderful mood... For images of Stephen's paintings visit his website: www.stephenlinsteadtstudio.com.

___________________________________________________

The next feature at the Village Poets reading, scheduled for March 27, at 4:30 p.m., will be the Spiritual Quartet, consisting of Lois P. Jones, Susan Rogers, Taoli-Ambika Talwar, and Maja Trochimczyk.

The Spiritual Quartet, formed in May 2010, consists of four women representing different spiritual traditions, while sharing the focus on positive values of compassion, inspiration, hope, illumination, creativity, and love. More information about the reading and the readers will follow!

______________________________________________


On April 17, at 4:30 p.m., Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga will present the work of Dr. John Z. Guzlowski, visiting California as a guest of the Modjeska Art and Culture Club, in honor of the "Milosz Year" - celebrating the anniversary of Polish Nobel-Prize winning poet, Czeslaw Milosz, who spent half of his life in Berkeley, California. Dr. Guzlowski's blog about his parents' ordeal in Buchenwald is published as: http://lightning-and-ashes.blogspot.com/. He also maintains a "clearing house" for all matters pertaining to Polish American writing, at: http://writingpolishdiaspora.blogspot.com

One of the "open mike" readers from our February event, Mina Kirby will soon appear at Boston Court Theater in Pasadena, featuring in Pasadena ARTTalk. On Saturday, March 12 at 1 p.m., she will present some of her poetry and songs. For more information see: http://www.playhousedistrict.org/arttalk/

Another "open mike" reader, Mira Mataric, previously featured at Village Poets (in November 2010), will co-feature with Taoli-Ambika Talwar at Moonday Poetry in Pacific Palisades. The Moonday series is held at Village Books of Pacific Palisades, www.moondaypoetry.com. Mira and Taoli-Ambika will appear on March 14, 2011, at 7:30 p.m.

_____________________________________________

In the top picture (L to R): Dorothy Skiles, Rick Dutton, Pauli Dutton, Joe DeCenzo, Rick Wilson, Kathabela Wilson, Mira Mataric, Sharon Chmielarz, Cindy Rinne, Mari Werner, Maria Elena Boekemeyer, Stephen Linsteadt, and Maja Trochimczyk.

In the middle picture (L to R): Rick Dutton, Pauli Dutton, Kathabela and Rick Wilson, Cindy Rinne, Maria Elena Boekemeyer, Stephen Linsteadt, and seated Mira Mataric, Mari Werner, and Maja Trochimczyk.

The sketch from Kathabela's notebook includes faces of open mike readers surrounding Mari Werner wearing a halo!

In the fourth picture (L to R): Taoli-Ambika Talwar, Susan Rogers, Lois P. Jones, and Maja Trochimczyk.