Village Poets Extravaganza - March 25, 2012

John Steven McGroarty, California Poet Laureate, wrote "Just California" to celebrate the unique beauty of our part of the world. The poem has been published in a variety of venues and even became required reading for California school children. You can read it in an embroidered or crocheted form on display at the McGroarty Arts Center.

In response to the current California in the Arts Exhibition at the Center, Village Poets dedicate their March group reading, to be held on March 25, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. at Bolton Hall Museum, Tujunga, CA. The reading will feature their poetic responses to McGroarty's "Just California" and to newly written poems based on the themes of nature and the seasons.

Here's McGroarty's poem, "Just California"

JUST CALIFORNIA

When I am in California I am not in the West.
It is West of the West. It is just California.
—Theodore Roosevelt

'Twixt the seas and the deserts,
'Twixt the wastes and the waves,
Between the sands of buried lands
And ocean's coral caves;
It lies not East nor West,
But like a scroll unfurled,
Where the hand of God hath flung it
Down the middle of the world.

It lies where God hath spread it
In the gladness of His eyes,
Like a flame of jeweled tapestry
Beneath His shining skies;
With the green of woven meadows,
The hills in golden chains,
The light of leaping rivers,
And the flash of poppied plains.

Days rise that gleam in glory,
Days die with sunset's breeze,
While from Cathay that was of old
Sail countless argosies;
Morns break again in splendor
O'er the giant, new-born West,
But of all the lands God fashioned,
'Tis this land is the best.

Sun and dews that kiss it,
Balmy winds that blow,
The stars in clustered diadems
Upon its peaks of snow;
The mighty mountains o'er it,
Below, the white seas swirled—
Just California, stretching down
The middle of the world.




JOE DECENZO grew up in Los Angeles and majored in theater and English Literature. From 2004-06 he served as poet laureate of Sunland-Tujunga. He produced the “Shouting Coyote” performing arts festival and was a Department of Cultural Affairs grant recipient. His published works include The Ballad of Alley and Hawk and the Study Guide and Poetry Primer for the same collection. He currently serves on the planning committee for the Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga and as Chair of Poet Laureate Search Committee.


MARLENE HITT is a Los Angeles poet, writer, and retired educator, a graduate of Occidental College who also studied at CSUN, UCLA and USC. A 26-year member of Chupa Rosa Writers of Sunland and of California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Ms. Hitt served as Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga in 1999-2001. Her poetry appeared in Eclipse, The Vineyard, Chopin with Cherries anthology and other publications. She published three books on local history, Sunland-Tujunga From Village to City (Arcadia Press, 2000 and 2005). She served as a columnist for The Foothill Leader, Glendale News-Press, and the Foothill Paper (since 1998). She currently writes for The Voice of The Village.


“Poetry has always been in my blood,” claims DOROTHY SKILES who has been writing poetry since her teenage years. A graduate of San Fernando Valley State College, and a retired social worker (after 34 years of public service), Dorothy published her first chapbook, The Sidewalk Gallery in 1979, while being married, raising twin boys, and managing a career. Other chapbooks followed: Ear to Earth (1996), Spine Flower Blues (1999) - a collaborative effort with fellow members of the Chuparosa Writers - and Riddle in the Rain (2003) - a joint venture with Marlene Hitt. Over the last 15 years, Dorothy has been involved in the local poetry scene and her poems appeared in a variety of community publications. The President of the Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga organizing monthly readings at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga, she is also an active member of Chuparosa Writers and of SAGE, an educational program for seniors, managed jointly by CSUN and the Lutheran Church in the Foothills.

MAJA TROCHIMCZYK is a poet, music historian, photographer and translator born in Poland, educated in Warsaw and at McGill University in Canada (Ph.D., 1994), and living in California (www.trochimczyk.net). She received fellowships and awards from SSHRCC, ACLS, PAHA, USC. She published four books of music studies (After Chopin; The Music of Louis Andriessen; Polish Dance in Southern California, and A Romantic Century in Polish Music), two books of poetry illustrated with her photographs (Rose Always and Miriam’s Iris, 2008), the Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse (2010), as well as hundreds of peer-reviewed and popular articles on music and culture. Over 80 poems have appeared in such journals as the Epiphany Magazine, The Loch Raven Review, The Lily Review, Magnapoets, poeticdiversity, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Quill & Parchment, Ekprasis, and anthologies by Poets on Site and others. She taught music history at McGill University and USC, served as editor-in-chief for Polish Music Journal, the Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, President of Modjeska Club and Founder/President of the Moonrise Press.

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Photos of Sunland (c) 2012 by Maja Trochimczyk.

Portrait of Maja with her artwork at the Scenic Drive Gallery, by Susan Dobay.

Sharon Rizk and Radomir Luza instead of the Oscars

The Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga are pleased to announce their upcoming open MIC poetry event on Sunday, February 26, 2012 (yes the same time as the red carpet for the Oscars), at 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., at the Bolton Hall Museum, 10110 Commerce Ave., Tujunga, CA 91042.

The featured poets are Sharon Rizk and Radomir Luza!

Sharon Risk earned a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and currently has a private psychotherapy practice in Pasadena. She also teaches at a local community college, and provides clinical supervision for psychotherapy interns and trainees at various agencies. Sharon is a published poet and has one CD collection of her original work “The Shadow of Your Longing: Poems to Grow With” available on Amazon.com.

Radomir Vojtech Luza’s love of politics an art comes from his parents who escaped Communism in their beloved Czechoslovakia in 1948. Radomir has averaged about a book a year. He has been widely-published in literary journals, anthologies and on websites, and has organized poetry readings across the country, including UNBUCKLED: NOHO POETRY, which he co-organizes and hosts in North Hollywood. Luza has also recorded three spoken word CDs: STRAIGHT OUTTA NOHO: INCOMPLETE, NOTHING WATER and IN THE DARK OF MORN: A JOURNEY TOWARDS LOVE.

______________________________________

SHARON RIZK



Sharon Rizk was born in Oregon in 1943. She has spent the majority of her life in various communities within Los Angeles County, although her first few highly formative years of schooling occurred in San Francisco. She received a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature as a young adult, and returned to
school as an older adult to earn a Master’s degree and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

She currently has a private psychotherapy practice in Pasadena, CA, teaches at a local community college, and provides clinical supervision for psychotherapy interns and trainees at various agencies. She is a published poet and has one CD collection of her original work “The Shadow of Your Longing: Poems to Grow With” available on Amazon.com. She also has conducted several free writing workshops for the community over the past two years and facilitated a low-fee weekend writing retreat at the end of September, 2011. She can be reached at 626-674-4599 or srizk@earthlink.net.

Coming Up for Air

There will be times
when you may notice
something
missing

remember then
you come from here
seaweed forests crooned
at your arrival

sweetly undulate
each time that you return
you will visit land
pretend

that walking suits you
but know
of something
not alarming wrong

but not precisely right
San Francisco dawn
when her bridge is nestled
in a vagrant cloud

fallen out of formation
to feel its way through
and round girders, cables
veins of traffic

vaguely heard
but not seen and so
the bridge as well
not there

you will come up for air
an other sea to wash through you
that turns your blood bright red
when you inhale

and darkens
as it courses through
your body
as if

there were a time continuum
upon which
you could spot yourself
to avoid confusion, disarray

the sense of
something
missing
as you turn and turn

when air becomes unbearable
when one more breath
would ask too much
remember then

you come from here
there is no past that binds
no future that compels
no constraint upon this moment

it
is
all
all here

_____________________________________

RADOMIR LUZA



Radomir Vojtech Luza’s love of politics an art comes from his parents who escaped Communism in their beloved Czechoslovakia in 1948. His mother was the youngest actress ever accepted into the Czech National Dramatic Conservatory, where she studied until Adolph Hitler closed-down the school in 1943. His father, Radomir Sr., was a Resistance fighter against the Nazis in WWII, and later a widely-published full professor of Eastern European History at Tulane University in New Orleans. His grandfather, General Vojtech Luza, led the Czech Resistance until he was murdered by the Nazis in 1944.

From his first book, THE HARAHAN JOURNAL (1986), to his 24th, THE CAFÉ LATTE TAPES, Radomir has averaged about a book a year. He has been widely-published in literary journals, anthologies and on websites, and has organized poetry readings across the country, including UNBUCKLED: NOHO POETRY, which he co-organizes and hosts in North Hollywood and a new Reading in NOHO at Phil’s Diner beginning January 18th.

Luza has also recorded three spoken word CDs: STRAIGHT OUTTA NOHO: INCOMPLETE, NOTHING WATER and IN THE DARK OF MORN: A JOURNEY TOWARDS LOVE.


Cleveland

The Starbucks on West 6th matters tonight
It slices through the poetry critic in my head like
The birth of death

Over there on the intersection of asphalt and pain the city stops making sense
It is a brown flamingo a flying submarine an undiscovered leper colony

Girls walk down Superior thumb prints in caffeine jungle nonfat milk not included
Boys sashay Lake Erie buttons bend below cuff
Water runs through levee of lips

Fish lying still
Finding me away from me
Raping the riverbed of retreat

The love we share
The backs I break
Cleveland free me
Squeeze me
Believe me

The easy way is getting harder
The numbness of instinct
The intrusion of genius
The arrogance of confidence

Your warehouses and flats
Buy words my sweaters take
My angels fake
My sister makes
Your rivers snake and shake through castrated causeways and bulletproof heartaches

At the parking lot across from the steak house I park my ulcer red Pontiac rent-a-car
And give Sam the attendant four dollars. I give the homeless guy down the block 35
Cents. After buying a Plain Dealer newspaper from a bilge box across the street I admit it
To myself: it is your people Cleveland your black, your red, your white, your green
Your baritone meadows and your rustic rattlesnakes
You close earlier than death my Midwestern mohawk
You open later than life Ohio ovary
Over there by the chophouse children lean on charred chandeliers and press tomatoes
Born while they ruled the universe in naked pinstripes
Cleveland you are my father
Guarding borders with a sunflower

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Camellia photos from Descanso Gardens (c) 2012 by Maja Trochimczyk

Search for New Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga for 2012-2014

The Poetry and Literature Committee of Sunland-Tujunga, co-chaired by Joe DeCenzo and Marlene Hitt, announces the search for the New Poet Laureate who will serve for a two-year term in 2012-2014.

The information about the position requirements and application format is enclosed below.
________________________


SCHEDULE OF EVENTS


January 31, 2012: DEADLINE for all applicant’s materials

February 26, 2012: notification of Finalists

March 11, 2012: Reading of finalists before the committee, at Bolton Hall, 4:00 pm (required for all finalists)

March 16, 2012: Public announcement of new Poet Laureate for 2012-2014

April 15, 2012: Passing of the Laurels Ceremony at McGroarty Art Center, 3pm

_________________________________________



POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Poet Laureate Position in Sunland-Tujunga

What is required of this position?

All applicants must be at least 18 years old and reside in the Sunland-Tujunga community. The position includes duties that involve adapting well to a variety of occasions: the maker of a toast, the bestower of a prize, the dedicator of a park, the composer of an ode to the Little League team, etc. As well as a position of high honor, it is a position of COMMUNITY SERVICE. The Poet Laureate serves a two year term.

The applicant should be:

• a resident of Sunland or Tujunga (which includes Shadow Hills - zip codes 91040 and 91042), and must be at least 18 years of age.

• a poet of good craftsmanship and one who has made an effort to study this craft and to hone his/her individual voice.

• comfortable with public speaking, appearances and interviews and should be able to speak clearly and capably.

As the poet represents the community, he/she should be a person of good character and one with a track record of contributing to the betterment of our community. We seek a person whose life and works reflect a love of our area which includes the flora, fauna, mountains, creeks and our diverse human community. This is a person who is the voice of our community, a cheerleader, a person whose words give wings to the heart of Sunland and Tujunga.

The Poet Laureate is encouraged to publish a collection of his or her works, as in a chapbook, for historical documentation. Those who choose the Poet Laureate are people with extensive knowledge of the community, educators, and those involved in arts and literature. Names of those judges may be presented upon request.
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DUTIES

Becoming Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga is not only a great honor it is a commitment to the community. The Poet Laureate is expected to use his or her talents and means to make the community more aware of poetry.

While there are no specified duties for the Poet Laureate, the Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga is expected to hold a reasonable public presence in the community.

Each Poet Laureate provides community service according to his or her special skills. In the past, Sunland-Tujunga Laureates have read poetry at community events and public schools; they have also written commemorative poems and created programs for the Arts, given speeches and readings. Each Laureate has produced at least one book.
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SUNLAND-TUJUNGA POET LAUREATE APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS


1) All applicants must be at least 18 years old and an active member of the Sunland-Tujunga community. You must show a history of active interest in Sunland-Tujunga.

2) Applicants must be able to demonstrate an active participation in poetry either through publication or featured poetry readings.

3) Applicants must agree to serve as Poet Laureate for a term of two years.

4) Please review the entire Requirements documents to be found at our website www.villagepoets.org

Please fill out the following:

Name ___________________________________________________

Address ____________________________________________________

Phone ___________________________________________________

Email ___________________________________________________



Printed Applications Forms are available at:

~ Mcgroarty Art Center 818.353.5285
~ Marlene Hitt 818.951.1041
~ The Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library

______________________________________



APPLICATION CONTENT:

Please provide the following:

1. List of publications and featured readings

2. Sample of poetry (approx. five poems. Two poems should represent Sunland-Tujunga)

3. History of community service.

4. One paragraph discussing a favorite poet.

5. One paragraph describing how you as Poet Laureate would promote poetry.

MAILING INSTRUCTIONS:

Submit completed poetry and items 1-5 from the above list and a check for $15.00 made out to McGroarty Art Center and send to:

McGroarty Art Center, Poet Laureate Applicant
7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga CA 91042

If you have questions regarding the Poet Laureate program call Marlene Hitt at (818) 951-1041. Or E-mail to poetlaureate@villagepoets.org

Please check with our website www.villagepoets.org for complete schedules, full Poet Laureate requirements, and further Poetry information.

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Photos (C) 2010-2011 by Maja Trochimczyk

Justin Kibbe Starts the Year of Black Water Dragon

There will be magic and mystery and shock and awe... when? On Sunday, January 22, 2012, at Bolton Hall Museum, 10110 Commerce Ave., Tujunga, CA 91042, from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Justin Kibbe is the Featured Poet for the Village Poets Monthly Poetry Reading.

Just Kibbe is a 21st century poet, a literaphic artist. Sometimes he feels like a photographer of words, searching for one in a thousand that speaks the inner drama of his awareness into a visual context for others to see and become aware.

Just Kibbe is the creator and curator of Curing The Pirate Pig, the first visual-narrative-poetry-exhibit (On Display in Fall 2012). He also designed and produced a Baby Obama Doll (limited edition of 500), which uses toy and packaging to make an interactive poetic statement about Americans’ relationships to political media.

Books by Just Kibbe include Elite Speaking Turquoise Monkey, a collection of text message poetry, printed side-by-side with equivalent English translations; Any Color Is Fine As Long As You Can See Through It, a coffee table book of collage art, written and designed with Rubik’s Cube as the mechanism which organizes the waterfall of original and stolen images and text into six chapters, each exploring a different phase of our lives’ cycle. His two chapbooks are Good God: Forbidden Poems, short poems with interpretive illustrations by Christopher Paul Russell, and Public Urinal Poetry Tour, a series of poems hand-written onto public urinals and photographed.

Just Kibbe is the current poet/artist in residence at Eliot Middle School in Pasadena; and he teaches alternative creativity classes at both John Muir High School and ARTworks in Pasadena as well.



__________________________________________________

After eleven

a poem for our anniversary

In bed we sleep, a mass of twisted spoons
baptizing our skins with chameleons you’ve carved from apples.

When you are clean I want you the way a banker wants money, the way little pigs want blankets, the way rivers want the ocean.

When I am dirty I want you the way a shark plays pool.

When I am clean, I want you the way cats want kittens,
the way an Angeleno drives the freeways, the way a snake wants legs.

When you are dirty, I want you the way a bear wants salmon.
I want your dirt in my teeth.
I want your head on an ice cream cone.
Make it a triple scoop. Sing to me.
Drown me with your strawberry rhubarb voice.

After eleven years, you are the sky to my skyscraper
the nitrogen to my gasoline.
I am drawn to you like earthquakes to California
like mirrors to your face.

_________________________

JUST KIBBE

Creator
Original Baby Obama Collectors Doll
www.BabyObama.com

Founding Captain & Publisher
Pirate Pig Press: An International Visual + Literary Portal
www.PiratePig.org

Managing Editor
THE Magazine: Pasadena Foothills Region
www.THEmagazine.biz

Founding Board Member, Past Board President
Indelible Ink: A Vanguard Performing Arts Series
www.IndelibleInk.net

____________________________________________

Telegram Collage by Justin Kibbe, used by permission.

Justin Kibbe's portrait with an Emu painted by Susan Dobay, (c) 2011 by Maja Trochimczyk.

Happy New Year 2012!

The Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga wish everyone everywhere, especially all the poets and poetry lovers, a wonderful and creative New Year 2012. This is the year of "Black Water Dragon" according to the Chinese calendar. It is also the year that the end of the world is supposed to come, if you want to believe the prophecies.

For some, it will be the end, for others, a new beginning. In any case, enjoy the poetry from our group and we hope to see you at the Village Poets readings at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga (on Commerce Avenue, hard to miss!) The next reading is on January 22, 2012, at 4:30 p.m., featuring our very own, whimsical and surprising Justin Kibbe. More information will follow next week.


New Years Eve

One new minute - just cause
to go off to meet another, a minute
murmuring ‘happy new moment’,
yes, but too quickly for my ear.
All those moments flying by
since Time was declared. Time,
moments that fell into the labeled
rhythm of hours and ages.
We wish “happy” to the new year,
happy party, happy cheers!
Happy kisses, happy years!
happy new, happy hope...
Year light, year bright,
I wish the wish I wish this night.
I wish I may, I wish I might
have the wish I wish tonight.

© 2001 by Marlene Hitt (12/22/01)



New Year’s Eve 2012

Midnight -

All eyes watch the clock
as fireworks fill the skies,
and bells ring, crowds sing
“Auld Lang Syne.”
Some, eager to start anew,
others are wistful or blue,
yet each finds a space,
with a kiss or embrace to
welcome in the New Year!

© Copyright 2011 by D. Skiles (December 27, 2011)



A Joyous New Year

Did the sun look any different
When you rose to turn the page
Of the callous book of time
That tends to promise a new age?
Did the tolling of one midnight
Pardon any prior sin
That the spirit could attest to
When the dawn was ushered in?
Did the glass reflect an image
Not unlike the day before
Or refine the soul’s complexion
Not considering the core?
For the coming of the solstice
Alters nothing from within,
And with only introspection
Can new countenance begin.
While a dropping crystal ball
May prove an elegant display
Can it equal any moment --
Any hour of the day,
We both welcome and avail
Ourselves to summon love’s increase
That each morn will spring anew
So New Year’s growth will never cease.


Joe DeCenzo
Sunland-Tujunga




New Year 1997

A new year greets at the dawn of the day.
Midnight tolling has faded away.

A gate has opened, a door is closed.
Hope has cheered the nighttime woes.

Yet rain still falls on city streets,
I’ve breakfast dishes, wrinkled sheets,

and what is new? And what’s the fuss?
The party’s over. It was tedious!

No new years come, there are only nows
as moments come along to browse.

But. When a midnight kiss comes stealing by
I’ll shout the words. I will comply.

Each raindrop is new, not yet tried out.
Blessed each drop our garden has caught

Happy new year. Let’s promise anew
to try to resolve a thing or two.


© 1997 by Marlene Hitt




A Haiku for 2012



black water dragon

in a nimbus of danger

we laugh to freedom




© 2011 by Maja Trochimczyk





New Year

A new palette, blue-white,
fresh brushes with no tint

That long season,
that whole year
blanketed itself
over the backs of colors.
Those were the yesterdays,
even over days of grey.

A child’s red dress
stitched by great-grandmother
shimmered on her skin
beside the greens of Maui’s sea
and lavender hills of sunset,
mixed up to something odd.

Tubes of paint lie fresh
not yet opened

you were dressed in black
smart and slim
every day of the year,
and now I wonder
what your face would say
if I would give you
a sun-yellow sweater
edged in gold.

The new season has begun,
bright, clear and golden.
These are the days to remember.

Burnt umber is a fine beginning.
Over that a springtime tree.


© 1999 by Marlene Hitt (12-99)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A year of Village Poets' readings has come to a close and we would like to thank all the participants and featured poets for spending their time with poetry at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. It has been a busy year and we have another year full of poetry ahead of us. The year 2012 will see the selection of a new Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga and a whole series of wonderful readings. Mark your calendars for: January 22 (Justin Kibbe), February 26 (Sharon Rizk with Radomir Luza), March 25 (Village Poets Extravaganza), April 15 (Passing of the Laurels Ceremony at McGroarty Arts Center), and more. As we look back with gratitude and forward with anticipation, we would like to share some holiday poems with you.

Eastward Rising

by Dorothy Skiles

The shepherd
and his sheep find
shelter in a cave
carved in the side
of a mountain;
a hollow place
in the rock
where his
lambs rest
without fear
from predators.

It’s a long journey
ahead, beyond
the hills towards the
town of Bethlehem.
Early night,
at once clear
and bright,
blankets the
cliffs and ridges
with stars.

At its eastward
rising, one star
more brilliant,
more blazing,
captivates
the shepherd
and his flock!

They follow.


Children in the Wilderness

By Dorothy Skiles

The homeless;
nomads of the streets.
Some have wandered
forty years, some
for forty days.
L.A. can be nasty amid
December’s cheer -

Few subway stations
to hide from the cold,
and unforgiving winds
batter cardboard tents
on city blocks and
underpasses.
Ignorant eyes stare
in puzzlement,
or disgust,
thinking God helps
only those who
help themselves.

Festive lights garnish
merchant windows,
But where is the manna?
Where is the land of promise?
And where are the inns
to shelter the homeless
on this holy night?



In Reverie This Christmas

by Marlene Hitt

A fire, and some China cups.
The taste of tea upon the lips
flavored by lovely moments that cling
to Time's delicious sips.

Christmas dreams, so many pass,
join chain-like into long thought strings,
chains linked up to smile and song
tearstained, circled, like table rings.

A fir tree always centers here
beside the sofa and this chair.
Circles of light in green and red
mingle with the scented air.

The oldest grandma sat right there
dressed in a home-sewn skirt.
Grandfather's pipe, unlit, unsmoked
spilled ash-brown leaf upon his shirt.

And now some little slippered toes
step on those ghostly feet,
those memories of time gone by,
of life in slow retreat.

Here, dreaming at the fireside,
mixing sad with cinnamon,
all the Christmas remembering
blends and mixes and steeps till done.



I was asked to read some poems at a party and realized that I have not written my annual Christmas poem yet. It came to me in the rain, when I could barely see the road ahead and the sky was heavy with darkness. I paired it up with my Christmas poem from two years ago and posted them on my blogs.

Did you know?

Some Christmases are rainy
Tears fall from overcast sky
On lonely crowds in hospitals
And prison yards

Sometimes Christmas is icy
Frozen under the pale moon
Changing faces into lifeless
Shadows at night

Some Christmases are scarlet
And green like fir garlands and hearts
Warmed by barszcz and hot chocolate,
Evenings by the fire

Sometimes Christmas is white
Snowflakes melt on my gloves
The thin wafer of opłatek we break
Shelters us in good wishes

Some Christmases are sparkly
With the tinsel of laughter
Giggling children unwrap gifts
Magic in the morning

My Christmas is golden
Like that first star of Wigilia,
Warm kisses with kompot and kutia
Blessings under the tree

© 2011 by Maja Trochimczyk

I paired this poem with a photo I took this October at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I liked the open window, looking out through the multitude of shapes and colors onto a simpler, luminous world.


The picture became the cover of my Christmas card, and I paired it with the collage for the poem of "Rosa Mystica" - already posted here, but included below in the image pages. I also reprinted my last year's holiday poem, "Rules for Happy Holy Days" as a reminder about the importance of holidays. This poem was written for my last year's Christmas wishes. These Rules are timeless.

Rules for Happy Holy Days

Don’t play Christmas carols
at the airport. Amidst the roar
of jet engines, they will spread
a blanket of loneliness
over the weary, huddled masses,
trying not to cry out for home.

Don’t put Christmas light on a poplar.
With branches swathed in white
galaxies, under yellow leaves, the tree
will become foreign, like the skeleton
of an electric fish, deep in the ocean.

Clean the windows from the ashes
of last year’s fires. Glue the wings
of a torn paper angel. Brighten
your home with the fresh scent
of pine needles and rosemary.

Take a break from chopping almonds
to brush the cheek of your beloved
with the back of your hand,
just once, gently. Smile and say:
“You look so nice, dear,
you look so nice.”

© 2009 by Maja Trochimczyk



______________________________

Children in the Wilderness by Dorothy Skiles first appeared in Ear to Earth by D. Skiles, 1996. Revised 12/15/11 © All rights reserved 2011. Used by permission.

Eastward Rising by Dorothy Skiles first appeared in Riddle in the Rain, by M. Hitt and D. Skiles, 2003. © 2001 by D. Skiles, revised in 2011. Used by permission.

Photos of the Big Tujunga Wash, Christmas decorations, roses, berries, and the stained-glass window at Notre Dame, Paris, © 2011 by Maja Trochimczyk

Fall, Christmas and the New Year

We are delighted with the quality of our Featured Poets in 2011 that includes guests from near and far, poets from our community and from across the continent. As Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga I have brought many fascinating and talented poets to our monthly readings. During 2011, we have welcomed to Bolton Hall:

• poets from Sunland-Tujunga: Kathleen Travers, Alice Pero, Dorothy Skiles, and Maja Trochimczyk
  
  
• Poets from Los Angeles County: Millicent Borges Accardi, Lois P. Jones, Georgia Jones-Davis, Rick Lupert, Cindy Rinne, Susan Rogers, Mari Werner, Kathabela and Rick Wilson
  
  
• Poets from the Great Beyond: Ruth Nolan (Palm Springs), John Z. Guzlowski (Illino
  

We have found a dedicated and interesting group of open mike readers and enjoyed the refreshments prepared by Marlene Hitt. We collected donations for the Bolton Hall Museum and bought some poetic rocks.

In the early 2012 we will be getting ready for the elections of the next Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga. The Passing the Laurels Ceremony is scheduled for April 15, 2012. We also will enjoy the poetry of Sharon Rizk and Radomir Luza in January, and Justin Kibbe in February 2012.

With gratitude for the past enjoyable afternoons of poetry and friendship, we are looking forward to an even more exciting season in the spring of 2012. Details will be posted as they become available.

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Rick Lupert at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga.


Poets at Rick Lupert's Reading on November 20, 2011

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