Village Poets of Sunland & Tujunga

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Poets in the Garden - Charlene Mason Gallego and Maja Trochimczyk's "Bright Skies" - June 26, 2022 at 4:30pm on Zoom

Iris in Descanso Gardens, Photo by Maja Trochimczyk

Video from this reading on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ysDdSGMDUZE

Maja Trochimczyk reads poems from "Bright Skies"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30QrXhNFO7Q

Village Poets of Sunland Tujunga are pleased to present two poets writing from their non-toxic gardens, full of wildlife and healthy plants. Charlene Mason Gallego will present her artwork and poetry, and Maja Trochimczyk will read poems and show photos from her newest collection, "Bright Skies." The reading will be on Sunday, June 26, 2022 at 4:30 pm on Zoom. Send request for link to maja@moonrisepress.com.

Charlene Mason Gallego

Charlene Mason Gallego writes: "I consider myself a California girl, having lived all over this beautiful state. I spent time in the Monterey Peninsula where I took up photography and art making. After a brief stint as a flight attendant, I recommitted myself to the creative life, and attended California College of the Arts in San Francisco. I graduated with a BFA in Drawing and Painting. While in art school I took several creative writing classes which exposed me to new authors and poets. I have been an avid journal writer my whole life and have a deep love of words as a way to process my experiences. While I have been a writer to an audience of one, recently I have been compelled to share it with the world, or at least my intimate circles. I write to find myself, to explore the unknowables, to follow my fascination points, to connect with wonder and beauty. And most of all to fully embody this life. In addition to writing, drawing, painting, and photography, I am a wildlife gardener. I create space for the wild beings, with native plants, and nesting sites, and water sources. My wild garden is a place of solace and renewal, magic and connection. My creative process is about the personal as universal, and exploring the beauty of our interconnectivity and diversity."

On June 25, 2022 from 3pm to 8pm she is hosting an open house at her studio and garden, at 11525 Mt. Gleason Avenue, Tujunga CA91042.

BEAUTY CONSULTANT

My body is designed for beautiful things.
Like the sunrise happening as I write this.
It is ever shifting, ever changing,
and never the same.
It is me as a witness, at this moment,
With these eyes and these body feels.
That is the miracle, turning my mountain
a dusty kind of pink.
The kind of pink you find in an old woman’s
house, upon her worn velvet sofa.
The kind of pink worn on that same
woman’s lips, that discontinued shade
of Estee Lauder lipstick.
It is her at this moment, a blending of early
morning rays, through moisture laden clouds,
landing on the browns and tans of
those easterly slopes,
that forgotten shade has been reinvented,
reignited for my pleasure again.
And it triggers a feeling of nostalgia,
Back when the action was at the department
stores, in the malls, at the food courts.
Us, Lauder, Clinique, and Lancome girls,
playing with our beauty, only slightly
understanding it’s power and becoming
aware of it’s dangers.
Us, with our soft, full painted lips,
Laughing together and admiring each other’s
feminine allure.
Us, applying a new shade of pink
to replace the old one for that woman
seated in our chair awaiting her makeover,
Her transformation.
Applying a bandaid to all the
disappointments of life,
that have sagged the smile and
frowned the eyes.
We were baby alchemists.
It was the era of artificial excess,
Tortured tresses, contoured cheeks
And sexy eyebrows.
What kind of magic pill were we selling?

Youth in a bottle That perfect shade of
lipstick?
It would be years later that the
underpinnings of this artificial environment
would begin to crack.
My eyes would see through the
crumbling remains, that my
talents were not meant for selling
a manmade idea of beauty,
But for reveling in the source
of beauty herself.
And there is no selling beauty, not ever...
Beauty simply exists.
Beauty is that dusty shade of pink
upon my mountain,
That shade of pink that grins forth
from that old woman’s lips.

RETURNING HOME

We are coming into the days of long shadows.

The sunrise is noticeably changed as it now rises

to the south of Camelback Peak.

The browns of the brush have a well cooked aura.

The large Red Harvester Ants are busy gathering their stores.

The granite collects the heat to release it out into the

evening. Our home does the same.

Whenever I come back from a long trip, I notice a staleness to

the air as I open the front door.

This time I left the house to husband and daughter,

And I know without asking that they did not throw open the

windows as I do.

To let in the fresh morning whispers.

My home missed me as much as I missed her.

This early morning air has it’s own unique flavor,

that does not show itself at any other moment.

It would be a pity to miss these shy hours,

for they hold the key to the day’s unfolding.

I have cultivated a practice of participation that allows

a blessed insight into the becoming,

That will be this sunrise,

This high noon,

This sunset.

This turning as I plant my feel into Mother and witness

the miracle of

a day,

a night,

a season,

a life.

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2022/05/maja-trochimczyks-new-volume-of.html

ISBN 978-1-945938-49-8, color paperback

ISBN 978-1-945938-52-8, eBook in ePub format

US Trade (6 x 9 in / 152 x 229 mm), 184 Pages

85 poems, 162 color photographs, 6 portraits

Maja Trochimczyk dedicated this collection of poems, “Bright Skies,” to her children and grand-children, asking them to read and enjoy her verse “when they grow up.” The volume features 85 poems written in 2009-2022 and organized into five sections – Spring, Summer, Babie Lato, Autumn and Winter. The seasons of poetry include reflections on nature, beauty, love, life, and spirituality. The focus is on positive emotions, learning to be calm and content, full of compassion and wisdom. It is a life-long quest, and these poems are an invitation.

The poems are illustrated with 160 photographs taken in the poet’s neighborhood – Big Tujunga Wash, Angeles National Forest, Descanso Gardens, and Oxnard Beach. The surprising “Coda” brings a set of recipes for old-fashioned Polish dishes mentioned in poems. Bringing together favorite memories of her Polish childhood – making and flying kites, plays with soap bubbles – and the delights of sunny Southern California gardens, parks, and beaches, the book includes lessons how to seek and find the daily dose of domestic bliss. This book is a legacy from a well-lived life, and a companion to "Into Light: Poems and Incantations" - another collection of positive, inspirational poetry illustrated with photos.

Maja Trochimczyk with grandson Adam, Facebook Profile Picture by Maria Kubal

Maja Trochimczyk, PhD, is a Polish American poet, music historian, photographer, and non-profit director. She is the author/editor of eight books on music and Polish culture, five poetry volumes and four anthologies, including most recently We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology co-edited with Marlene Hitt to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Village Poets readings (2020). A former Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga in 2010-2012, since 2019 she has served as the President of the California State Poetry Society, and, since 2018, as the President of the Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club, promoting Polish culture in California.

Her poetry books include Rose Always, Miriam’s Iris, Slicing the Bread, Into Light, and The Rainy Bread. Hundreds of Trochimczyk’s poems appeared in English, Polish, as well as in German, French, Chinese, Spanish and Serbian translations in such journals as: The Loch Raven Review, Epiphany Magazine, Lily Review, Ekphrasis Journal, Quill and Parchment, Magnapoets, SGVGPQ, Pirene's Fountain, Cosmopolitan Review, The Scream Online, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology, Clockwise Cat, Lummox Journal, Phantom Seed, Colorado Boulevard, Spectrum, Poezja Dzisiaj, OccuPoetry, as well as many anthologies. She is the host of Village Poets Monthly Readings, Managing Editor of the California Quarterly and Editor of the CSPS Poetry Letter, promoting poetry worldwide.

Interview by VoyageLA website, 15 October 2021, http://voyagela.com/interview/inspiring-conversations-with-maja-trochimczyk-of-moonrise-press/

Interview by Shoutout LA website, March 1, 2021: https://shoutoutla.com/meet-maja-trochimczyk-poet-photographer-and-music-historian/

Matka Boska Zielna

~ for Mother of God of the Herbs (August 15)

Look at the greening hill slopes charred by last year’s wildfire—

that’s magic. Look at the mountain sunflower that grew

at the edge of the asphalt on Oro Vista road, it already blooms

out of nowhere—that’s magic, too. The postcard-size garden

by the old, wooden house, a shack, really—fills with flowers

every spring. Fruit appears on orange trees after bees collect pollen.

The scent of sweetness, the cheerful noise of bee wings—

is it not far more miraculous, a thousand, a million times

more delightful than the 100 floors of steel-metal-glass

of skyscrapers proudly pointing at the sky? Incomparable

with a patch of weeds, nature’s miracles of renewal.

How proud we are of our empty metallic constructions

that will rust in the jungle, abandoned, like stone pyramids

of the Mayas, shrouded by vibrant green of leaves and

branches. Thousands of years of human fame obliterated

by the steady, living, fertile abundance, the overflowing

force of life, of matter, our Mother.

Roots, shoots and tendrils spread out, germinate,

flow through the soil in search of water, nutrients,

life, more life, ever growing, ever richer, dancing,

singing the abundance of being—the song of creation

we are— we are —we are—we are all —

we are one—one—one—

Arbor Cosmica

~ for my children

No fear, no hate, not even a mild dislike*—

we leave our heavy burdens, shards of memories

broken, all too broken, at the bottom of crystal stairs

beneath clouds of white camellias, petals swirling

through air like the snow of forgetfulness

Perfect symmetry of blossoms

points the way—up, up, always up

rainbow crystal stairs, revealed

one by one as we ascend—inwards,

outwards—dancing spirals of our DNA

We get to know this place—these depths,

these heights—for once, for all lifetimes

With each step, pure notes resonate

and expand into clear, spacious chords—

the music of the spheres rings out, wave by wave

expanding from our open hearts

Each chord—harmonious, different—

each melody in this vast symphony

sweetly twines around another, and another

until all are One Song, One Wisdom—

of stem and flower, of leaf and root

in this Cosmic Tree of humanity

Arbor Cosmica—

We have been here

all along without knowing

First published in the California Quarterly 46:4, 2020.

More information about this book:

https://moonrisepress.blogspot.com/2022/05/maja-trochimczyks-new-volume-of.html

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Memorial Day Celebration with RG Cantalupo's "Remembrances" May 22, 2022, 4:30pm, Zoom

Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga will celebrate the Veterans in a Memorial-Day-themed reading by poet RG Cantalupo who will present a new book, "Remembrances" on Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 4:30 pm on Zoom. The reading's open mic section will include poets from the California Quarterly vol. 48 no. 1, spring 2022, edited by Maja Trochimczyk.

ABOUT THE POET

rg cantalupo is a poet, playwright, filmmaker, novelist, and director. His work has been published widely in literary journals in the United States, England, and Australia.

He graduated from UC Santa Cruz where he studied under such luminaries as George Hitchcock, editor of Kayak, Gregory Bateson, and Norman O. Brown, and received his MFA in Poetry and Non-Fiction from Vermont College of the Fine Arts.

His books of poetry include Involving Residence, No Thanks, Walking Water On Earth, The Art of Naming, Remembrances, and The Endurance: Journey To Worlds End, (a lyric novel).

He is also the author of You Don’t Know Me, (a five book young adult series), The Light Where Shadows End, and The Shadows In Which We Rise, memoirs, American Patriot, Surviving Covid, and a number of plays and stage adaptations including the musical versions of The Giving Tree and Where The Wild Things Are. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Stages in Santa Monica, a performing arts center.

He served in the 25^th Infantry Division as an RTO, radio operator, for an infantry company from 1968-69 and received three purple hearts and a Bronze Star with a Combat V for Valor Under Fire.

His books can be purchased through New World Publishers or through the author at rgcantalupo@gmail.com.

rg cantalupo (aka Ross Canton)

Links to YouTube Videos of RG Cantalupo's poetry:

A SAMPLE POEM

Want

Baby San wanted horses

mostly, Mustangs and

Appaloosas, a small ranch

outside Tucson with a good

woman and a few sons.

Devil wanted his girlfriend

to take this morning’s letter

back, for it to be the way

it was that last night

when she called out his name—

”Demond!”—Demond, the name

he had before he left The

World. I wanted to finish

school and write about

our days here, this day

and the ones before, us

simmering Spaghetti C’s

over heat tabs and drinking

our six free beers in the bunker’s

dusty shade, the crackle of

green bullets igniting the air

outside—far away now as we

sat and drank and lied and

killed the day, each of us

wanting what we knew

we couldn’t have, till it was

time to go and one by one

we stood up and stepped

through the blinding doorway,

and disappeared into the light.

ABOUT REMEMBRANCES (2022)

The poet provided the following description about his new book Remembrances (4/29/2022): "Some memories never die. Some memories are indelibly imprinted on our lives—moments of love, moments of overwhelming grief, of terror, of intense pain, of breathtaking happiness. And some moments change our lives forever. This is a book of such moments, remembered as best I can, shared in the only way I know. They are the moments that make up the story of my life."

Here are a few excerpts from the book:

From “Remembrances”

“If I could fill this body that each day ferries me through this world with only the moments I love, these would be among them. For my life isn’t like a boat, or a river, but these memories I carry inside me as I tread upstream or downstream toward tomorrow—these remembrances I cherish more than the traumatic ones that each day I must endeavor to forget.”

From “Prisoner of War”

“The night terrors ended—one night, or maybe over many nights—bleeding out till there was nothing left but fragments like the shrapnel that kept rising to the surface of my skin. Even the names—Lonny, Devil, Spike, Lee—faded into echoes, and then were gone.

I pressed them onto rice paper at The Wall once, and put them between the pages of a book like dead flowers, but they’re gone too, lost, along with the book, sometime during the days when I kept moving to forget where I’d been.”

From “Listening Post, December 23rd, 1968”

“Out here, gazing up at a trillion flickering stars, I could be anyone.

I could be who I was ten months ago, lying under a sycamore in Monterey, Janice snuggled beside me, just us, us and the stars, and the moon.

But no, I’m here, my head pressed against a rice paddy dike, my face blackened, my eyes staring through a starlight scope.

And the universe is so much smaller. It barely reaches beyond the rubber trees around Trang Bang, or our perimeter of claymore mines.”

From The Second Time I Got Wounded”

“—and so, I stood and watched and commanded my frozen body to move, to stop shaking, to take that last step beyond my fear and go into the fire—until it was finally over, the rockets no longer falling, the explosions ended, the ground silent, and all that was left were the moans for “Medic! Medic!”—my body fearless now, my legs unfrozen, the last step into darkness taken—and I ran, ran to the same pit where two weeks later I would stand as another rocket spiraled down, exploding a few feet away, hurling me up into the air, lifting me so high my soul looked down upon me as I lay bleeding, moaning “Medic! Medic!” and praying someone would come…”

From “Peaches”

“One afternoon, her fingers touched mine as they moved over the gauze near my heart, and I clasped them in a lover’s embrace, just for a moment, one quick moment, and gone.

When I left a few weeks later for a hospital in Japan, her eyes moistened as her sad hand waved goodbye.

Every now and then I still see her, her deep, brown eyes studying mine,as I gritted through her pain and my own.

I saved the letters I wrote in Yokohama.

I never knew where to send them.”

From “Forgiveness”

“I could’ve gone to jail for life to save a life, instead of pulling the trigger for death. Because there was no reason really, no justification for being there, for invading, or searching, or destroying their lives.

But I didn’t.

I made a choice.

I obeyed.

And so, I ask for forgiveness. Not from some indifferent God, nor the blue sky, nor these white walls, nor this heart that beats like a mantra every day inside me.

But from my friend Teresa, from her and her family, and all the Vietnamese I’ve known…”

CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY SPRING 2022 ISSUE: VOL. 48 NO. 1

For the open mic sections of this reading, we invite poets published in the California Quarterly vol. 48 no. 1, spring 2022, edited by Maja Trochimczyk to join us at this reading and present their poems.

Table of contents of the issue may be found on CSPS Blog:

https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2022/02/contents-of-california-quarterly-48-no.html

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Raphael Block - Featured Poet on April 24, 2022, at 4:30 pm on Zoom

YouTube Video from the Reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2T0yO4oT1I

On Sunday, April 24, 2022, at 4:30 pm, Village Poets of Sunland-Tujunga present their Monthly Poetry Reading on Zoom, featuring Northern California Poet, Raphael Block. The links are emailed to our email list by Dorothy Skiles, DMHSkiles@gmail.com.

April 22, 1970 was the first Earth Day to celebrate our planet and make sure it stays healthy and whole, by reducing human-caused pollution and damage to our environment and all living beings. Plastics and now, masks, fill the oceans and wash up on the beaches. The groundwaters are full of chemicals in many places. The air was so bad with smog in some areas, people were forced to stay home. Even "environmentally-friendly" wind turbines are massive killers of birds and their huge blades are not recyclable... Mr. Block is keenly interested in these topics, hence he is a great choice for our reading on April 24, 2022.

Raphael's Block's poetry, infused with spirit, speaks to earth's call for a heartfelt response to our ecological crisis. Born on a kibbutz, he spent his boyhood playing on the hills of Haifa. His family returned to London as he turned nine, where learning British English shaped his ear for sound. In 1993 he moved to Northern California with his American wife and their daughter. His wife died from cancer in 2002, and for the following years he feels it was his privilege to raise their child.

Raphael worked with children of all ages for almost 30 years. Since 2008, a life-threatening illness, Crohn's, has played a major role in intensifying his appreciation and gratitude for the moments of each day.

He is the author of Songs from a Small Universe (2009), Spangling Darkness (2014), Strings of Shining Silence: Earth-Love Poems (2017), and At This Table (2020).

Raphael produces the monthly Earth-Love Newsletter which can be viewed at raphaelblock.com along with a National Geographic selected 5-minute documentary.

This Table

How amazing is this day!

The spider's web casts its shadow

play, lilies sing in sprays,

redwoods and broad oaks hold sway.

Ripe berries for beaks and lips,

patches of white lace—all set

on this delicate plate. We,

at your table, but guests.

Monday, March 14, 2022

Pamela Shea Passes the Laurels to ST 10th Poet Laureate Alice Pero on April 9, 2022

SUNLAND-TUJUNGA INDUCTS NEW POET LAUREATE, ALICE PERO

What: "Passing of the Laurels" Ceremony for Alice Pero

When: Saturday, April 9, 2022 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Where: Dayton Sculpture Garden, 10755 Art Street, Sunland 91040

Post by Maja Trochimczyk including material from two articles by Joe DeCenzo

On April 9, 2022, writer, teacher and musician Alice Pero will be inducted as Sunland-Tujunga’s new Poet Laureate. The ceremony known as the “Passing of the Laurels” honors a writer of distinguished class and distinct voice who has displayed love and admiration for their local area. The “laurels” refer to the honorary wreath awarded to ancient Greek poets and heroes for their achievements. The "Passing" will be conducted by 9th Poet Laureate Pamela Shea (2017-2020).

The Sunland-Tujunga Poet Laureate program was established in 1999 to honor the legacy of John Steven McGroarty who served as California State poet laureate form 1933-44. He was a poet, playwright and author who, for 40 years penned a column for the Los Angeles Times titled "Seen From The Green Verdugo Hills." His former home at 7570 McGroarty Terrace in Tujunga was donated to the City of Los Angeles and now serves as the local Arts Center. It is managed by the Department of Cultural Affairs and has been closed to the public since March of 2020 due to the pandemic and remains closed pending the lifting of all COVID-19 restrictions.

Ms. Pero was actually elected to her new post in 2020, but her official induction has been postponed on several occasions as a result of county health mandates. While the McGroarty Arts Center, the customary host of the “Passing of the Laurels” ceremony, is unavailable, the former home of late artist and sculptor Wendell Dayton will open its gates to the public for this prestigious event. It’s a recognizable and lovely location surrounded by an outdoor sculptor garden in the Shadow Hills section of Sunland.

ABOUT ALICE PERO

As a poet, Ms. Pero began giving public readings of her work in 1984. She has performed her work in dozens of venues in New York State, Austin and Los Angeles. For more than 15 years Alice Pero has called Sunland-Tujunga home. “I have absorbed the spirit of the desert wash, the plants, animals and birds and they have all become part of my poetry.” When further asked what she finds unique about the foothill surroundings, Ms. Pero said “Unlike the crowed rush of the cities I have lived in, there is space and a connection to living things here.” Not all are familiar with the title of Poet Laureate or what they do for a community. Ms. Pero explains, “A poet feels the pulse of the city, the people and all of nature. The program elevates the cultural level of the people it serves and honors the poet who has the traditional role of lifting hearts and soothing souls.”

Ms. Pero’s poetry has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies including National Poetry Review, California Quarterly, We Are Here, Coiled Serpent and Altadena Poetry Review. Her first book of poetry Thawed Stars was praised by renowned poet Kenneth Koch as having “clarity and surprises.” She is the founder of the Windsong Players Chamber Ensemble and the ongoing poetry reading series “Moonday” which, since 2002, has featured published poets on both East and West sides of Los Angeles including a nine-year run at the Flintridge Bookstore in La Cañada.

As a member of California Poets in the Schools, she is committed to the creative development of children. “For years I worked in inner city schools as a volunteer tutor and poetry workshop leader with mostly Hispanic children in South Central L.A. as well as the underserved areas of Brooklyn and Staten Island, NY,” says Ms. Pero. When speaking of her mission as new Sunland-Tujunga Poet Laureate she confidently states “Awakening the creative spirit in children of all races and ethnicities is paramount as these children are our future.”

Despite being held in the “on-deck circle,” Ms. Pero who is not one to languish continues to promote poetry and literacy through Zoom meetings, continued publications and the founding of a Poet-In-Residence program at Fair Oaks Academy. She is eager to begin her term of service as Sunland-Tujunga Poet Laureate as restrictions for gatherings are lifted. “It’ll be wonderful to once again have live readings and workshops in libraries and schools,” exclaims Ms. Pero. “Sunland-Tujunga is unique having nurtured a poet laureate program for 20 years. What other municipality can boast of this?”

Since 2020 Ms. Pero has served on the board of the California State Poetry Society as Chair of Monthly Poetry Contests. In addition to Thawed Stars, she published a poetic dialogue with Elsa Frausto dedicated to Sunland Park. Her newest book, Beyond Birds and Answers, written as a dialogue with New York artist Vera Campion, has been featured in two reviews in the Poetry Letter no. 4, 2021, by Toti O'Brien and Neal Leadbeater.

https://www.californiastatepoetrysociety.com/2022/01/poetry-letter-no-4-2021-reviews-of.html

You can find out more about Alice Pero's views on poetry, music, and creativity in the interview published on the Shoutout LA website: https://shoutoutla.com/meet-alice-pero-flutist-poet-poetry-teacher/

Wendell Dayton walking through his sculpture garden.

ABOUT THE SITE

The Wendell Dayton Sculpture Garden is a private cultural site in development honoring the work and memory of American sculptor Wendell Dayton (1938-2019) and located in Sunland on Art Street. Dayton was a local artist who created sculpture for six decades and gained critical acclaim at the age of 80, when his rich oeuvre was celebrated by major galleries, institutions (including LACMA), and the arts media. The site is managed by the Wendell Dayton Foundation and plans for exhibition and performance spaces are in progress. https://wendelldayton.org/about

One of the sculptures, orange and oak trees seen from Art Street.

PAMELA SHEA, POET LAUREATE REFLECTS ON HER TERM OF SERVICE

Article by Joe DeCenzo

Writer Pamela Shea is nearing the end of her term of service as Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga. For her last official act, she will provide a public reading of some of her cherished work on April 9, 2022, where she will place the laurel wreath on the head of newly elected laureate Alice Pero.

Ms. Shea was raised in the foothills community of La Crescenta and studied at the University of Redlands. She later moved to Sunland and proudly raised three children while drawing inspiration from nature that surrounds the area. The triumph and strife of relationships and family were the fuel that “ignited her pen” while she developed her writing en route to her election as 9th poet laureate of Sunland-Tujunga in 2017.

Village Poets with Pamela Shea at her "Passing of the Laurels" ceremony in 2017. Elsa Frausto, Dorothy Skiles, Marlene Hitt, Joe DeCenzo, Pamela Shea and Dr. Maja Trochimczyk

As Poet Laureate, she was committed to “taking poetry to the people” at many venues in and around the foothills community. In 2017, she honored the firefighters, volunteers and staff of the McGroarty Arts Center whose grounds and structures were threatened by the “La Tuna” fire that consumed 7,194 acres of the Verdugo Mountains. Being featured by the Windsong Players Chamber Ensemble was one of her fondest and most exciting memories. They accompanied her with dulcet music while the California Contemporary Ballet performed a captivating dance.

During her term, she helped coordinate and participated in the Gathering of California’s Poets Laureate in 2018 hosted by then California State poet laureate Dana Gioia. The event held at the McGroarty Arts Center assembled 63 current and former poets laureate from dozens of regions around the state. Near to her heart, in 2019, she was among the presenters at the Sunland-Tujunga library when they celebrated the life of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friend of the Tuskegee Airmen on his 99th birthday. During her term, she published poetry in California Quarterly, Altadena Review, Spectrum and other poetry journals and sites. Her biography and several poems are also included in We Are Here: Village Poets Anthology edited by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk and Marlene Hitt to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Village Poets Monthly Readings.

https://moonrisepress.com/village-poets-anthology.html

The title of poet laureate dates to ancient Greece when a laurel was used to form a crown of honor for poets and heroes. The mantle is bestowed on a writer who exhibits excellence in their craft with a body of work that brings insights and perspective to the human experience as well as emphasizing a love for the local area they represent. Serving as 9th Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga “was a dream come true for me,” says Ms. Shea. “It gave me confidence to expand my poetic style and submit my work for publication.” Community service is inherent in the post. The poet laureate is often asked to speak at public events or provide a dedication during auspicious moments.

“I was proud to represent Sunland-Tujunga before the Los Angeles City Council and thrilled to write poems for the McGroarty Arts Center, Bolton Hall Museum and Verdugo Hills YMCA.” Her most emotional memory came in January of 2020 when she stood before the 150 year old oak tree at Sunland-Tujunga branch library and eulogized it on the eve of its removal. Steeped in the history of generations who enjoyed the beauty and shade of its sprawling bower, her poem spoke of its life and hope for the three small Coast Live Oaks that were planted in its place.

View of Sunland-Tujunga from the Big Tujunga Wash,

photo by Maja Trochimczyk

PHOTOS FROM PASSING OF THE LAURELS

The photos below were mostly taken by exceptionally talented Irene Kalents, some snapshots are from Facebook posts by Thelma Reyna and Maja Trochimczyk, taken by Izabella Zuralski and others.