Poets in the 4th of July Parade and Mina Kirby and Beverly Collins on July 28

The Poets Convertible, July 2013

Happy Fourth of July! Poets Laureate of Sunland Tujunga will ride in a Parade in a specially decorated Poetry Convertible. Dorothy Skiles, the 7th Poet Laureate of ST will be the star, accompanied by Marlene Hitt, the first Poet Laureate, Maja Trochimczyk, the sixth, and Joe DeCenzo, the fourth who will serve as the driver.

Look for us along the Foothill Blvd., from Mt. Gleason to Sunland Park. The Parade starts at 10 a.m. Rain or Shine! See some pictures from the previous parades:

Dorothy Skiles, Poet Laureate, 2012

STAR- SPANGLED SKIES

This Fourth of July -

Let’s give a cheer

our town’s

parade is here!

Marching bands,

horseback riders,

carriages, classic cars,

and cycles

all making their way

down the boulevard.

Neighbors greeting,

friends meeting,

flags waving high!

Children giving chase

as fire trucks go by,

spraying the crowds,

cooling them down.

Sunland-Tujunga

that’s our town!

Star-spangled skies

will surely be alight

for this town will shine

in celebration tonight!

Young folks’, old folks’, all folks’ 

eyes watching darkened skies

for the sights and sounds

of fireworks on jubilant display

on this our nation’s birth holiday!

Dorothy Skiles

07/03/13

©Copyright 2013 by D. Skiles

(Written for Sunland-Tujunga’s 2013 Fourth of July Parade.)

Dorothy Skiles and Joe DeCenzo, Fourth of July, 2012

Maja Trochimczyk, Poet Laureate, 2010 - Album of Photos

Maja Trochimczyk, Poet Laureate, 2011 - Album of Photos

Who has more stars on the hat? Maja or a donkey?

Marlene Hitt - Poet Laureate of 1999, has ridden with the Little Landers Society and the Bolton Hall Museum volunteers. This is the first year she's riding in the Poets Laureate Convertible. Here's her Fourth of July poem:

America the Beautiful

Purple mountain majesties,ridges lines with houses,
windows on fire with the sun,
plains fruited with lawns, 
beds with all the world's flowers,
strip malls.
Spacious haz-ed skiesdrop onto hillsides.
Ten thousand worlds spin
on city streets
and broken pathways.
Beliefs are slippery 
as brookside moss,
and all the laws begin
to slide downhill
into canyons below.
God shed
with brotherhood...
Death passes freely
through red signals,
killing is for fun
or for initiation.
All the genders dance
to piercing sound
making bird song silent.
Blades of eyes
thrust out in condemnation
as new legends are sung,
the old myths lost somewhere.
Changed words question
the Constitution.
Amber waves of grainstill wave, Wind
still blows, confused,
whirl, oceans warm.
Fractal gods rule in chaos
while the people
hide behind locked doors
or in empty cathedrals
from sea to shining sea.

Marlene Hitt 

Marlene Hitt and Maja Trochimczyk decorate the car for the Fourth of July, 2013.

_______________________________________________________________

KIRBY AND COLLINS FEATURED ON JULY 28, 2013

On July 28, 2013, the last Sunday of the first month of the summer, we will celebrate poetic voices at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga (10110 Commerce Avenue) with two Featured Poets: Mina Kirby and Beverly M. Collins. Both poets have been seen and heard at Village Poets readings and we are looking forward to their presentations. Two segments of Open Mike and Refreshments in a lovely, historic home for poetry in the foothills...

BEVERLY M. COLLINS

Beverly M. Collins grew up in Westfield, New Jersey, loves amusement parks, music and traveling. Collins applies lessons she learned from Songwriter Guild of America and the National Association of Record Industry Professionals to her poetry. She is the author of the book, "Quiet Observations," and one of the 2012 prize winners for the California State Poetry Society.

Her work has appeared in the California Quarterly, Poetry Speaks! Year of Great Poems and Poets Calendar. (Sourcebooks, Inc.). Beverly Collins often attends many readings around town, has worked with "Poets on Site" and has featured at the Cobalt Cafe, The Talking Stick, "Unbuckled" NoHo Poetry. She is a regular at Barnes and Noble Burbank monthly readings, as well as at The VillagePoets of Sunland-Tujunga Monthly poetry Reading Series.


Next

by Beverly M. Collins

From the tip-top of January
to the bottom of every December,
life is a continuum.
May we remember to remember.

There are no platforms on which we
halt. No arrivals at which we are landing.
There is only continuous movement.
Blend motion into all planning.

Next is a good four letter word that dances
on the tongue and illuminates the playgrounds
of our minds. Next can call loudly or soft
and subtle when it chimes.

Within the cold of winter remember next comes
fragrant flowers of spring. Next reminds us
there is no be-all or end-all to anything.

When riding a high tide or if low tide has one
feeling sadness or perplexed, know true muscle
can be found in how well we just say...Next!

Beverly M. Collins

MINA KIRBY 

Mina Kirby is a retired mathematics professor. She has survived a broken washing machine, a broken back and a broken heart, all of which provide rich material for writing poetry and stories. She has for many years been a folk singer and sometimes songwriter. Plagued with health problems in recent years, her writing is part of coming back to life. Mina is the author of several books, including Mathematical Dreams: Songs about Mathematics, a cookbook, and eight chap books. Her poetry has been included in Red Lights (tanka), The San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, and Poetry and Cookies. She has presented her poetry at a number of venues, including Pasadena Art Talk. She lives in Altadena with her husband, daughter, two cats, a pet rat, and too many spiders.

When I Was Me *

by Mina Kirby

When I was me

in bow ribbons

and kittens

and ice cream

I saw spring melt

into a buttercup

and heard symphonies

in wind-wafted trees

When I was me

in turquoise

and breezes

and cartwheels

I ran up the mountain

the sun warm on my face

and caught sparkles

in a flowing brook

When I was me

lacy

and pink

and vibrant

I was in love

wanting togetherness

for every minute

and for all time

Where did I go

that long-haired

lemon-scented

idealistic girl

who thought

she could absorb

all the tastes

in the universe

What prickly troubles

put obstacles

in my path

changed starry-eyed into ordinary

or did I

caught in whispers

of shifting clouds

just let me slip away

Perhaps one day

when soft rains turn to sunshine

and flowing water

pours over hard rocks

in a small place inside myself

I will find clothed with soft smooth silk

in purple and crimson and gold

the new me

and learn to love her too

A Special Place

by Mina Kirby

It is warm here

Golden rays of sunshine

brighten green fields

fragrant with yellow flowers

The air sparkles

with hums of bees

and chirps of soaring birds

A gentle breeze ruffles my hair

In the distance

are sounds of an ocean’s roar

as it splashes against rocks

I could be here

yesterday

tomorrow

and today

I could be here in the sun

and the softly falling rain

in the cheerful daylight

and in the velvety darkness

I could be here with you

feel the warmth of your hand in mine

talk until the moon goes down

and stars sparkle in the night sky

We could walk

for miles and miles

absorbing the beauty

surrounding us

Or

I could be here alone

a little sadder

but content

as perhaps

some day

I will

cloaked in sunshine

remembering you

Alex M. Frankel at Village Poets Reading in Bolton Hall

 

The highly inspiring reading by Alex M. Frankel on June 23, 2013. Alex read selections from his book My Father's Lady, Wearing Black, and a series of contemporary limericks that will appear in the next book.

Our star poet had lots of good company in open mike readers, to mention only: Judith Terzi, Beverly M. Collins, Mari Werner, Pam Shea, Lalo Kikiriki, Lois P. Jones, Debra P Kolodji, Kathabela and Rick Wilson, and Marlene Hitt with Dorothy Skiles. Joe DeCenzo served as a gracious host.

The First Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, Marlene Hitt celebrated her birthday on that day and read, among other pieces, a poem about number seven, of special significance today. The joint reading of Dorothy and Marlene was based on their book written as a poetic dialogue.

Kathabela's dialogue with Alex M. Frankel took the form of a poem about fathers (with an accompaniment on a Native American flute) and a special congratulation card for the distinguished poet of the day. The afternoon was filled with poems of many types and moods.

Our next meetings will be at the Fourth of July Parade (along the Foothill Blvd. down to Sunland Park), starting at 10 a.m. and at the next Village Poets Reading on July 28, featuring Beverly M. Collins and Mina Kirby.  A full announcement about this event will be posted soon. Below are some more photos from the Frankel event, starting from Henry Brant's antique music stand, featured in a poem by Maja Trochimczyk. Brant, a noted California composer (1913-2008) has his Centenary Year with fewer events that his talent merits. More information and The Music Stand poem are on poetrylaurels.blogspot.com.

Alex M. Frankel - Featured by Village Poets on June 23, 2013

Village Poets will present the next Monthly Poetry Reading at Bolton Hall Museum (10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, CA 91342) on June 23, 2013 with Featured Poet, Alex M. Frankel. It appears we want to feature all hosts of poetry readings in Southern California. 

So far we presented: Debbie Kolodji (Southern California Haiku Study Group at Pacific Asia Museum), Rick Lupert (Cobalt Cafe), R. Murray Thomas (Barnes and Noble, Long Beach), Don Kingfisher Campbell (Emerging Urban Poets, Pasadena's Catalina Library), Elena Secota (Rapp Saloon), Alice Pero and Lois P. Jones (Moonday East and Moonday West), Xochitl Julisa Bermejo (Beyond Baroque's Splinter Generation), Kathabela Wilson and Rick Wilson (Poets on Site readings and events, in Pasadena, Torrance, and elsewhere), and others. 

On Sunday, June 23 at 4:30 p.m. we will present poet and host of the famous Cafe Alibi Readings in Pasadena, Alex M. Frankel. The Village Poets Reading will also include two open mike segments and refreshments. The old hat of George Harris (who built Bolton Hall 100 years ago) will be passed around for donations to support our historic venue, City of Los Angeles Historic Monument No. 2. 


ALEX M. FRANKEL

Alex M. Frankel was born in San Francisco in 1960.  He went to Columbia and studied with Kenneth Koch and lived in Spain for many years. Now he teaches at Cal State LA. His chapbook is called My Father's Lady, Wearing Black. 

He will have a full-length book out later this year, called Birth Mother Mercy.  His book reviews now appear regularly in The Antioch Review. He's been nominated by Judith Hall for "Best New Poet" for his poem "SoccerStud16 I Need to Leave This World Come Back as You."  
 
 


Nine Hundred Thousand Legs to Waterloo

Alex M. Frankel

 
Drab fury of trains.
Three hundred and forty-four thousand bodies
are being pressed into the Underground.
There are severe delays on the Picadilly Line.
There is a good service on all other lines.
Wind
and men and women rushing toward
men and women, a few falling.
Not one face like yours
and liquid Prozac on my jeans,
stains, stickiness. Warmth
of forty-four thousand travelers.
Eddie Jay Santos:
your brown skin
your young hands,
you did not like your hands.
Please keep your belongings safe.
The fine eyebrows and teeth.
Pickpockets operate at this station.
The steady, noxious watchfulness
of the surveillance cameras,
my jeans stained with Prozac,
juicy and pleasant.
Fifty thousand five hundred bodies
collected and expectant.
Would customers please use
the full length of the platform
to avoid congestion at the platform entrances.
Samoans with British accents:
it shouldn’t be allowed,
they should be speaking Samoan
or regular American.
There are severe delays on the Picadilly Line.
There is a good service on all other lines.
Six thousand people reading about knife crime.
Eddie: you left
and you never left.
The free paper says Pakistani youths
fight with knives.
Seventy-five thousand men, women and animals
are fighting
to reach Leicester Square.
Eddie: twice nearly expelled
from Hollywood High
for fighting.
A hundred bodies packed
into a single “carriage.”
Several grey men hunger
for a fragrant South Asian.
Your tattooed, hard arms
your stubby little hands.
This is Westminster.
Please change here for the Circle Line 
and the District Line.
Your fresh-smelling t-shirts
your cologne
your rugged tattoo soaking up
my spinster sperm.
Wind.
Thunder.
Another tunnel.
Americans should not say “cheers”
when they mean “thank you”!
The next tunnel is terribly smelly.
Travelers can’t stop looking
at a Turk.
The smelly tunnel leads
to a long, smelly tunnel.
Please stand to the right
when using the escalators.
Eddie Jay: your naïve, unkind face
your thumbs efficient and alive
on your little keypad.
Wind
and wind.
Any unattended bag
or other item of luggage
will be removed 
and may be destroyed.
And not one grey hair
skin around your eyes alarmingly fresh
your lips and tongue hardworking
“caring”
on my nipples—
if you had charged three hundred a night
I would’ve paid you
I would pay three hundred
for a single word from you now. . .
This is a security announcement.
Eight hundred and one
stale, stiff people
are trying to rush for their trains
in the warm wind
in the narrow white passageways
under London.
_________________________________________

Here are some pictures from the Judith Terzi reading in May 2013. She charmed and inspired us with her wit, intelligence and sensitivity. 

Judith Terzi at Bolton Hall Museum on May 26, 2013

After a phenomenally successful performance by Neil McCarthy, from Ireland to California with Love, we are returning to the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga (10110 Commerce Ave., Tujunga, if not, Google it).

Judith Terzi wil be our Featured Poet on Sunday, May 26 at 4:30 p.m. The evening will also include two segments of Open Mike, and refreshments. As usual, we will collect donations for the Bolton Hall Museum, the Second Historical Monument in the City of Los Angeles. Bolton Hall is celebrating its Centennial this year, and we, as poets, are thrilled to be a part of this celebration.

Judith Terzi is the author of several chapbooks including Sharing Tabouli (Finishing Line, 2011). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Malala: Future Cycle Press Anthology, 2014; Myrrh, Mothwing, Smoke: Erotic Poems (Tupelo Press, 2013); Raintown Review; Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the 60s & 70s (She Writes Press, 2013); Trivia: Voices of Feminism; and elsewhere. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and Web and have garnered prizes and honorable mentions. A new chapbook, Ghazal for a Chambermaid, is forthcoming from Finishing Line. A former high school French teacher at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, CA, she also taught English at California State University, Los Angeles, and in Algiers, Algeria. She holds an M.A. in French literature.

Tsunami

               

            starting with a line by Sappho

           

Who is the one with violets in her lap?

After the earth shook, she rang the bell

to warn the town to run. The women who sell

wool, their skeins spread out like garlands of tulips

and lilies, fled, but what about their shawls,

caps and gloves piled in the beds of trucks?

The sea ripped boats of fishermen like a shark,

twisted roofs and furniture, churches, schools

in its wild walls. The rage complete, it displaced

their planks onto black sand, into forests, streets.

Violet is the light of mourning, luz divina,

luz of healing, luz of valor for Martina.

She is the one with violets; she knits wreaths

for the silt of the río Maule and shredded lace.

Copyright © Judith Terzi

Honorable Mention, Knock Our Hats Off Contest, Mad Hatters' Review, 2010

Party Bus

You can bet your money on fiesta here,

the women wearing dresses short and tight.

Smoothed, oiled thighs glide onto leather seats,

hips and bare shoulders rocking to the jolts

down Cahuenga Boulevard. I'm face à face

with dazzle, breaths hot and minty after cigs

and the joints hid in compartments,

along with the Don Julio and Casadores tequila.

Twenty of us stream into Club La Vida,

corner of Sunset and Gower, my white hair

stark, stark as bleach as I hit the champagne

trail and the dance floor. Twenty-somethings,

some foxed from liquor, others foxed by me––

a jadis diva circling under the strobes.

I'm photographed, I'm fire-foxed, I'm Lady Gaga'd.

I'm re-fired, re-minted in this Hollywoodland

hormonal blitz. For a moment, I become

the young woman in a black sheath, her dress

almost skimming her crotch. After each groove

and grind, she nudges slippery cloth back down,

her partner holding on to accessible parts,

releasing her, then holding on again until the pulsation

ends. I face down time here, though so much closer

to the index than to the preface of a vida loca.

Copyright © Judith Terzi

2nd Prize, Bananagram Contest, Newport Review, 2010

__________________________________________________

Photographs from Neil McCarthy's reading at the McGroarty Arts Center are posted on Facebook, and Picasa Web Albums.

Neil McCarthy, center, with Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga and guests.

Village Poets Celebrate the National Poetry Month at the La Crescenta Library on April 20 at 2 p.m.



Marlene Hitt, Joe DeCenzo, Dorothy Skiles and Maja Trochimczyk at Village
Poets Reading from Meditations on Divine Names (Moonrise Press, 2013)

 In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga will be featured at Los Angeles County Public Library in La Crescenta (2809 Foothill Blvd., CA 91214) on Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 2:00pm to 4:00pm.  The reading's program includes poetry by Dorothy Skiles, Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, as well as fellow past poets Marlene Hitt, Joe DeCenzo, Maja Trochimczyk, Mari Werner and Beverly M. Collins. There is no open reading.

 PROGRAM

• "Sensations" by Marlene Hitt, Dorothy Skiles and Joe DeCenzo read by Village Poets 
• Dorothy Skiles 
• Mari Werner 
• Beverly M. Collins 
• Group Reading of "Enrollment" by Joe DeCenzo 
• Joe DeCenzo 
• Marlene Hitt 
• "Remembering" by Marlene Hitt, read by Lloyd and Marlene Hitt
• Maja Trochimczyk 
• Group Reading of "The Veil, The Weave" by Maja Trochimczyk 

VILLAGE POETS

Village Poets of Sunland Tujunga is a group of former Poets Laureate of Sunland Tujunga who organize poetry readings in their community, write poetry, and publish books, making sure that poetry life is rich and vibrant in the foothills. Every two years Village Poets organize a competition for the Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga and, in order to involve the local community in the selection of its Poet-Laureate, establish a Poetry and Literature Committee of Sunland-Tujunga which selects the next Poet. Dorothy Skiles is the current Poet-Laureate in our community (2012-2014). Another important project of Village Poets is the Monthly Village Poets Reading at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga, CA. You can read about past and future featured poets on the Village Poets Blog. The upcoming readings are also announced in local "good news" paper - The Voice of the Village.

ABOUT THE POETS

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BEVERLY M. COLLINS was born in the small town of Milford, DE. She is the next to the youngest daughter in a family of five girls and grew up being absorbed by a love of music. Her family relocated to Central New Jersey ( Rahway, Plainfield, and Westfield). Having survived an uncertain early childhood which included losing two brothers in their infancy, the families frequent relocations, and witnessing her mother's turbulent marriage of repeated break-ups and reconciliations. Collins drew many conclusions about life that were later torn up and re-accessed. Using her love of music as medicine, she has arrived at a place of tender determination to brew a new stew of carefully selected life ingredients. She is one of the Prize Winners of the 2012 California State Poetry Society and her work appeared in the California Quarterly and Poetry Letter and Literary Review. Her work, "Child of Summer" is included in the Poetry Speaks! Year of great Poems and Poets 2009 Calendar and her poem "By Chance" appears in the July 2009 issue of Bits & Pieces, The magazine the motivates the world both are included in Quiet Observations, a collection of whimsical and thought-provoking poems that will lead readers to look at themselves and question their motives deep within. http://www.quietobservations.com/

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 Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council, 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 with local history as an avocation. She has served for many years as Archivist, Museum Director, and Historian at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga. She is a graduate of Occidental College, a 26-year member of the Chuparosa writers and a member of the California Federation of Chaparral poets, John Steven McGroarty Chapter. Ms. Hitt served as Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga 1999-2001. Her poetry has appeared in several journals, three chapbooks and in local newspapers. She has written the book Sunland-Tujunga from Village to City and served as columnist for the Foothill Leader, Glendale News Press, North Valley Reporter and the Voice of the Village newspapers since 1998.

DOROTHY SKILES, who has been writing since her teenage years, graduated from Cal State Northridge and pursued a career as a welfare worker, policy and Human Resources manager and analyst for the County of Los Angeles (retired after 34-years of service). Dorothy published her first chapbook, The Sidewalk Gallery in 1979. Other chapbooks followed: Ear to Earth (1996), Spine Flower Blues (1999) - a collaborative by the Chuparosa Writers - and Riddle in the Rain (2003) - 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. She is the current (7th) Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga (2012-2014), a member of Chuparosa Writers, the Verdugo Hills YMCA Senior Advisory Board, the 2013 Bolton Hall Centennial Committee, and the Lutheran Church in the Foothills.

MAJA TROCHIMCZYK, Ph.D., is a poet, music historian, and photographer born in Poland and living in California (www.trochimczyk.net). She published four books on music, two volumes of poetry (Rose Always and Miriam’s Iris), and two anthologies (Chopin with Cherries and Meditations on Divine Names). Hundreds of her articles and poems appeared in English, Polish, as well as in German, French, Chinese, Spanish and Serbian translations, in The Loch Raven Review, Angie's Diary, Epiphany Magazine, Lily Review, SVGPQ, Cosmopolitan Review, The Scream Online, Phantom Seed, Sentiment, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology, Lummox Journal, and other venues. The Sixth Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, and the founder of Moonrise Press, she taught music history at USC and ethics in jail. She received awards and fellowships from ACLS, SSHRCC, USC, McGill University, Polish American Historical Association, and Poland’s Ministry of Culture.

MARI WERNER grew up in Santa Barbara California. She now lives in Altadena and makes her living as an independent technical writer. Her columns and articles have been published in a number of local and national publications including the Los Angeles Daily News and The Latest. Between paid projects, she’s working on a book that uses humor to make the basics and truths of economics accessible to ordinary people. Poetry and humor are Mari’s true writing loves, and she’s been writing poetry off and on since childhood. She’s been a regular at the Village Poets open readings since she started attending in May 2010. Though she loves nature, she finds most of her poetic inspiration in human life. Her plain-spoken poetry is often laced with a touch of humor or sarcasm, but beneath it is a hope for human kind and the creative energy in us all.

100 Years of Bolton Hall (4/13) and Neil McCarthy at the McGroarty Arts Center (4/27)

Due to the Bolton Hall's Centennial Celebrations, the Village Poets Monthly Reading for the month of April will be moved to the McGroarty Arts Center (7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga, CA 91042). The reading will be held at the Center which is a former residence of John Steven McGroarty, California Poet Laureate in the 1930s and 1940s.  The event will present as the Featured Poet Neil McCarthy from Ireland.

Neil McCarthy

Instead of meeting as has been our tradition on a Sunday afternoon, the Village Poets Reading will be held on SATURDAY, April 27, at 4:30 p.m.  An open mike and refreshments will compliment the program. George Harris's hat will be passed around for donations, this time to support the wonderful arts programs at the McGroarty Arts Center. 

McGroarty Arts Center "Bite Me" Exhibition with Debby Beck's painting (above on the left).

In 2013, the Bolton Hall Museum is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The Museum is the City of Los Angeles's Historical Monument No. 2.  

The anniversary events are listed on the website for the Little Landers Historical Society and include:

• April 13, 1 p.m. - The Cornerstone Ceremony (a reenactment of events 100 years ago, with Richard Stewart playing the role of George Harris)
• May 11, 10 a.m. - Historic Home Tour
• July 4, 10 a.m. - Fourth of July Parade
• August 10, 4 p.m. - Open House
• November 9, 3 p.m . - Dance 

Marker for Bolton Hall - Historic Cultural Monument No. 2 of Los Angeles.

Neil McCarthy is an Irish poet from Cork now living in Los Angeles. He is the author of three chapbooks of poetry, with his poems appearing in over 30 international journals, including The New York Quarterly, The SHOp (Ireland), Magma (UK), and Poetry Salzburg Review (Austria) to name a few. He is a regular feature on the reading circuit and has performed a guest speaker in bookstores, cafes, embassies, bars and universities, in cities such as New York, LA, Denver, Dublin, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna and Melbourne. Earlier this year, he released a CD of spoken word recorded live in Vienna.  He can be found at www.neilmccarthypoetry.com

North from Laguna Beach

1.

It feels a lot longer in kilometres; the metric system making

everything seem a lot faster, further away, more expensive.

And here we are again: making a mockery of geography,

wishing our recent air miles could be ascribed to one company. 

Driving north from Laguna Beach, the Pacific struggles to

sleep in the glare of the marauding metropolis around the corner:

It is Halicarnassus during a siege, abraded sketches of victors

and the dead; the colour of Antelope Valley in April; your

Lithuanian skin where the sun screen missed, or my cheeks

ablaze with guilt the first time we kissed in Vienna.

I was Orson Welles skulking in the shadows and you Alida Valli;

our time measured like footsteps advancing on Gethsemane.

2.

I have been drawing a window sill of basil, rosemary and chive,

painting over the blu-tack marks on the bedroom wall, watching

you time and time again, learning your habits, your sleep patterns,

imagining your stomach extend by its nine monthly chapters.

I have been nailing Hollywood signs to buildings we wish to claim,

masquerading as a local on streets where angry men lash out at

invisible foes to the amusement of children and the horror of mothers.

You are there every time, safe in my hand, holding on to me as

I hold on to you, my arm across the divide driving north from Laguna

Beach.  Outside, the tableau of images read like a contents page

to a book written with every metric mile; and the burning sky above

Los Angeles just gets brighter and brighter and brighter.

(c) by Neil McCarthy

Mountain View from the McGroarty Arts Center, Tujunga.