BAY AREA POETS REVIEW 

C B Follett, known as ‘Lyn to close friends, considers herself a medium-sized frog in a small puddle. After starting and maintaining a successful publishing company (Arctos Press), co-founding a literary journal that quickly earned national critical attention (Runes), and receiving the honor of representing Marin County as its poet laureate this past April, this medium-sized frog has more accurately earned the right to be called a princess.

Born in New York City in 1936, and raised in Connecticut, Carolyn Brown Follett began using CB as a way to not have her work gender-identified, a ploy many 19th-century women writers also used to deflect criticism by the literary establishment who dismissed them as “legions of scribbling women” who were, nonetheless, gaining readership and earnings.

Follett, a professional photographer and artist, works in a small, crowded, but exceedingly colorful atelier she rents in downtown San Rafael. In her “day job” as a visual artist, she juggles numerous projects, meets deadlines, has shows (most recently as part of a San Rafael Chamber of Commerce sponsored art walk). She turned to writing (or returned to it) in part because it was a field she could approach with somewhat lower expectations as compared to her more professional work of being a visual artist: “No one said I had to be any good” at writing. Quite the opposite.

CB FOLLETT & SUSAN TERRIS perform their unique "poetry braid" at the Valona Deli in Crockett, 2010 (photo copyrighted by Jannie M. Dresser)

There was a time when she had ambitions to be the next great American writer. An English major at Smith College in 1958--where she was a fellow student of Sylvia Plath--she was more interested in novels and fiction writing. She took a writing class taught by a nationally known and respected poet (who shall remain anonymous). The “mean-spirited” professor routinely read and ridiculed students’ work, including Follett’s own nascent writing; this put the kibosh on her youthful exploration of verse. [ED: With poetry instructors like that is it any wonder our art has lost so much ground in the American cultural sphere?] Years later and a continent apart from that encounter, poetry wooed Follett back via a course taught by Thomas Centolella at  College of Marin. Follett continued on with her poetry studies, taking workshops with Ellery Akers, “a wonderful teacher,” and the recently deceased Ruth Daigon.

After relatively few years, Follett has turned out several books and chapbooks of her work, including her latest, And Freddie Was My Darling (Many Voices Press, 2009), Hold and Release (2007), and At the Turning of the Light (Salmon Run Press, 2001) which won the 2001 National Poetry Award.

In a June 2010 interview for the Marin Poetry Center’s Quarterly Newsletter, Follett described herself to Kirsten Jones Neff as being “dangerously curious.” She is inspired by everything, she says, from the natural world to the world of surreal abstraction. Her engagement with both visual and literary art--not to mention her emphasis on being part of, and serving her local community--testify to a gift for enthusiasm and an ability to focus in her daily life. (Did I mention that she has also sustained 52 years of marriage and raised three children?)

In 1997, Follett founded Arctos Press. “I didn’t know any better,” she admits. Beside the Sleeping Maiden: Poets of Marin, the press’s first book, featured artwork and poems by Marin writers Kay Ryan (who later became United States poet laureate), Jane Hirshfield, Linda Gregg, Robert Hass (another U.S. poet laureate), and Brenda Hillman. The anthology was received with praise for both its content and design. Grrrrr! A Collection of Poems about BEARS, another unique anthology, followed in 2001.

When Follett was approached by poet Susan Terris to help with a poetry chapbook, the two were inspired to launch Runes. At its peak, the journal received 6,000-7,000 envelopes a year, each containing anywhere from three to ten poems. Follett and Terris ran the operation with integrity, reading every poem and writing personal notes to authors they accepted and rejected. Runes published seven issues in seven years, from 2001 through 2007, and then its 2,000 subscribers and vastly larger readership were gently disappointed by an eloquent letter in their final issue built around the theme of “Connection.” For Terris and Follett, they had surpassed their original goal of publishing Runes for five years; for lovers of quality poetry who had eagerly awaited each new issue, there was a classy, “not with a whimper” but a chime farewell.

Perhaps what most distinguished the operation of Runes was the guiding principle that Terris and Follett would “treat other poets as we wish to be treated when we submit our poems.“ Over its lifespan, Runes published over 550 poets from the United States and abroad, and received 42,000 poems. To get a rejection from Runes was hardly the discouraging and humiliating experience that usually goes with formal rejection letters. Many first published in Runes continued to see their work make it into print and win local and national poetry prizes. Follett says that she and Terris are still receiving notices from poets who acknowledge the role of Runes in giving them a start in publishing.

Runes issues are keepsakes, each volume attractively designed by Jeremy Thornton. Poems were selected to correspond to a theme: Gateway, Mystery, Memory, Storm, Signals, Hearth and the last one, Connection. Back issues are available through Arctos Press: http://www.arctospress.com, or by writing to Runes, Arctos Press, P.O. Box 401, Sausalito, CA 94966. Individual copies are $5 (or $45 for the set of seven) plus shipping.

In a sense, becoming poet laureate was simply a continuation of a role Follett has often played in the Bay Area’s poetry community. She describes herself as “an ambassador for poetry,” and wants to bring poems into a variety of local institutions and share them with a wider audience. With the support of the Marin Arts Council, her goal is “to turn on as many people as possible,” to poetry. Follett’s “Pass the Poem” project invites ordinary citizens to find a poem that they like, make a copy of it and give it to someone, chalk it on the sidewalk, pin it to a community bulletin board, or hand it out at a meeting they attend.

Follett’s “Reach Out and Read” (ROAR) project coordinates and hosts poetry readings in senior residences and community centers. Her first event last spring at a local retirement community inspired 40 people to hear poems performed by local poets and to read their own favorites at an open mic. ROAR is now in over ten venues with some ambitious hosts aiming to produce monthly events. Audiences are encouraged to participate. Follett has put out the call for poets to volunteer as readers at future events; if you are interested, send an email to runes@aol.com. Although ROAR stands for Reach Out and Read, The ROAR programs range from Mill Valley and West Marin to Corte Madera and Novato.

Follett also wants to reach neighborhoods and institutions that may not have regular poetry programming, especially in the Hispanic, Haitian, or African-American communities. She has designated Abby Wasserman as point person for the Canal District, an area of San Rafael that runs along a canal leading out into the Bay that is populated by Spanish-speakers. ROAR is now aiming at this new audience with a spring program that will feature the Mexican, Central and South American literary canon; poems will be presented in both Spanish and English to give Marin audiences a chance to hear this astonishing body of work. Follett says, “The ROAR program is proving very exciting and we have lots of volunteers, mostly poets but not all. Anyone is welcome to participate, suggest locations for events, etc.”

Follett continues to share the spotlight with her colleague Susan Terris, performing “poetry braids.” These are beautifully choreographed sound collages of their work, with poems chosen and ordered to set them off in a meaningful context. In performance, the poets trade off reading and create a kind of dialogue through their poems without a lot of introduction or commentary in between poems; the technique relieves the tedium of hearing one voice reading one poem one after another without much variety in style or theme.

As a visual artist, Follett works in mixed-media; she is producing a "souvenir " quilt meant to honor each book that she has published. Combining word and image, Follett uses text in her collages, working to make the “text itself beautiful.” Even handwriting, she notes, has a rhythm that can be visually appealing.

It is hard to imagine Follett containing her artistic drive in any one form; the spillover of image into poem, and words into two-dimensional and three-dimensional art, is the natural outcome of an energy that looks both inward and outward, authorizing herself as she inspires and invites the participation of others. The only possible outcome of this is an expanded audience for poetic art, and all of us--poets and readers of poems--are the lucky beneficiaries.

SKATING

by CB Follett

The ice is lumpy.
There are twigs embedded.
My blades are dull,
my ankles weak.
The air is crisp
like apples without taste.
My ears stick out
into the cold.
I lace my skates,
pull tight at the ankles.
My knees get wet.
They will get wetter.
I will be awkward,
a crane misjudging land.
The pond is dark slate
under a mica shield.
There are bumps and crackles.
My ankles touch the ice.
I look for Fred.
He has racing skates,
black leather, thick blades.
His ankles are vertical.
His nose is red.
He has a dimple I love.
I push off from shore
and fall flat.
I get better.
I crack the whip.
My breath billows.
My lungs heave.
I have a red scarf.
My breath catches in the wool
and freezes there.
My chin gets chapped
and my lips.
They’ll be prickly.
Fred won’t want to kiss them.
The pond is small.
We fill it with voices.
Our mothers made cocoa.
It rolls down our insides,
a fire against the chill.
Winter black and white.
Branches snagged with nests.
Some are squirrel’s.
They sleep,
bushed tails
wrapped like coverlets.
Dogs race on the ice.
Slide across the surface.
Surprised, they try again.
Their paw prints are strange
and ghostly.

CB Follet, copyright 2010

Rebel with cause:

Mary Rudge

Alameda's Poet Laureate

Mary Rudge has served as the City of Alameda’s Poet Laureate for seven years. We spoke to her in the Alameda Public Library. During the interview, a young woman came over to warmly greet the woman who has helped create poetry community, across generations, in her town and beyond. Thank you to Mary, and all other city laureates who work to expand and connect our communities.

It’s difficult to keep Mary Rudge, born Mary Woods, focused on herself during an interview. Somehow, the conversation begins to focus on others: a journalism teacher in Oklahoma, a victim of torture in China, the diversity of people in the Alameda Island chapter of the Chaparral Poets, or Leopold Senghor, the great Senegalese poet and liberation leader, whom she met at an international poetry conference.

You cannot separate Rudge’s identity as a poet from her identity as a member of both a local and worldwide community dedicated to peace and creativity. She has served Alameda as the town’s first Poet Laureate since December 2002. As a member of the World Congress of Poets, and other poetry societies and organizations, Rudge is both diplomat and doyenne of poetry‘s ability to heal and bring people from different backgrounds together.

From a family, place, and background that did not cherish her creativity, Rudge had to learn how to break out.

She says she "learned about the need for justice and peace from the very first in my own being." Her childhood home in Texas was poor and creativity was not encouraged. "Poetry was not a normal language." Even though there is a rich tradition in her ancestor’s Irish and Scottish roots that celebrates music and poetry, her father’s frustration and struggle to earn a living during the Depression meant that he often came home in a rage, Mary sometimes took the brunt of this in the form of slaps, kicks, and beatings with a belt. It’s not a history that she dwells on, to the point of hardly mentioning at all, except to point out that her own path as a poet was one she had to forge on her own.

In addition to Celtic bardic DNA, Rudge also inherited genetic rebelliousness. Much of the family history was destroyed when an aunt burned the records, but Rudge was told that some kin had fled Ireland with prices on their heads for being anti-king, and that her Scots’ MacFarlane relatives were Highland outlaws. She surmises that the secrecy about the family’s past might have had to do with the fact that "they probably didn’t want to be found here."

As a child, Mary retreated into reading the only books the family owned: a dictionary and the Bible. At school she discovered in poetry "a strong and safer inner world" that kept her going even though she hadn’t yet learned how to express herself. She was “amazed that I could figure out that words rhymed and that my classmates had been impressed too.“ One of her earliest poems was about Texas.
"It was dumb," she says. "It probably had blue bonnets in it and rhymed 'state' with 'great'." The school curriculum focused more on practical subjects as students were steered away from creative pursuits. Even though Mary was chosen to advance to a higher grade, a teacher once told Mary’s mother that the girl was wasting time in class writing poetry and scribbling in the margins of her papers.

These admonitions planted two seeds: one that grew into a fear of being judged or rejected for her creativity, the other fomenting her rebelliousness and spiritual will.

At her high school in Oklahoma City, a relatively nondescript journalism teacher took her class to an all-black school to hear Langston Hughes read. The teacher told her that “reporters can go anywhere“ which left a strong impression on her. A couple of years later, another poet visited her school. He  turned out to be the famed master of the classic Western novel, Louis L’Amour. “He was very handsome and brave,” she remembers, "but most of all it was what he said about his life."

He described tramping around the world on steamers, acquiring material for his poetry. Rudge says she “wanted a life like that but didn’t see how it could work out,” especially since she didn’t know how she would deal with the logistics of having menstrual periods and all that. Nevertheless, L’Amour’s example validated both the process and value of being a poet.

Mary Rudge and Claire J. Baker collaborated on Poems from Street Spirit: Justice News and Homeless Blues (2005).

A poem by German avant garde playwright, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), spurred Rudge to think about poetry’s place in society. “To Posterity” described “fellow travelers” going through the world “in the class war, despairing” and killing to make a better world. One line--“we who want a better world can not ourselves be kind”--made her want to “write right back to this poem always,“ to insist that it was as important to be kind, that change can also take place through compassion and kindness. 

Rudge married twice. Her first husband died suddenly in an auto accident, leaving her with an infant son. She remarried and had six more children. During her final pregnancy, her husband abandoned the family. She turned to welfare to support her family, but after raising her children, Rudge attended college where poetry became "the place she allowed herself to feel most free and fully herself.“"That hard-won identity was not about to test itself; she resisted taking any poetry classes or workshops. At California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, she had to take a poetry class to complete her degree. “I wrote an angry poem about having to do this.” She attended a meeting for a class taught by Michael McClure, the well-known Bay Area survivor of the Beat poets scene; he was screening students one-by-one.

“McClure turned to me, gave me a dirty look, then told me I could stay.”

Rudge entered the lively readings circuit, at first experiencing anxiety every time she got up to read. After one event at the Intersection in San Francisco, a woman approached her in the bathroom and said she had noticed how fearful Rudge had seemed. Rudge realized that she needed to overcome what was a conditioned response from childhood when she had learned that self-expression could lead to being judged or hurt. She convinced herself to stay focused on the audience. “I knew I loved humanity, and was a great defender of others, but I couldn’t do it for myself.”


Mary Rudge with fellow poets (from left), Ken Peterson of Alameda, Bob Stanley of Sacramento, Mike Tuggle of Sonoma, Mary, Viola Weinberg and Judy Hardin Cheung, both of Sacramento.

For many years, Rudge (who declines to state her age) has written and published chapbooks by herself and in collaboration with other writers and artists, such as Claire J. Baker, Amy B. Estrada, and poet-dancer Natica Angilly. In addition to her laureate duties, she serves on the board of the California Federation of Chaparral Poets (www.chaparralpoets.org) and has been involved with Ina Coolbrith Circle (www.coolpoetry.org). 

As a member of the World Congress of Poets, (www.worldcongressofpoets.com) she travelled to Managua, Nicaragua, in July 2010 as a U.S. delegate to the organization’s annual conference. She is also an historian for the island of Alameda and notes how many great writers have lived or spent time there, including Jack London, William Saroyan, Jim Morrison, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Rudge has the notable distinction of printing the first poem by famed comedian Phyllis Diller, who lived in Alameda for a time. “I was putting together an anthology  and sought work from anyone on the island who claimed to be a poet.”

And, yes, she finally got to board a ship to teach poetry as it sailed to strange and exotic parts of the world, perhaps besting some of her earliest mentors. To learn more about Mary Rudge, listen to an interview with Nina Serrano at http://kpfa.org/archive/id/50500.

The Wild Geese

White wings sail against the sky
white sails furl over stormy sea,
before land’s end is the land we know,
before cliff’s drop
and tempest-wave crest
beyond is where we are going
a place we never knew, or wanted to,
but for need for words of rest and nest.
Wild geese,
we are flying against the wind
leaving Ireland, leaving our land.

--Mary Rudge (Alameda) from For Ireland (2007)
“Mary Rudge . . . returns to the origins of humanity and its art, to Poiesis which meant artistic creation to the ancient Greeks. She returns to ancient Egypt to mother Africa, where the same word means poetry, song and dance.” -- from the introduction to Mary Rudge’s book Water Planet (1986), by Leopold Senghor, poet and former president of Senegal.

 

Janell Moon Appointed
Emeryville’s 1st Poet Laureate

    Emeryville poet Janell Moon was named the city’s first  poet laureate and will serve a two-year term from 2010-12.

     Moon’s most recent book, Salt and Paper: 65 Candles, won publication in RAW ArT PRESS’s Experimental Poetry/Prose Prize for 2010. It was inspired by living near the bay: “Living on the bay, I see the seagulls and pelicans fly, hear the geese scratching their throats at dawn. I wonder how did I ever get to be this age.”
     As laureate, Moon will serve the city as its literary arts representative. She would like to add a literary night to the weekend of the opening reception of the Emeryville Celebration of the Arts, hopes to encourage poetry in both the youth and senior communities, and has plans to compile a directory of Emeryville writers. Those who qualify can contact her at janellmoon@gmail.com.
    In addition to these projects, Moon says she would like to create a poetry anthology of Emeryville school-children (kindergarten through 12th grade). She plans to enlist rappers to do the anthology.
    Moon has published several books of poetry and other texts. Her sixth book, Riding Free in a Blue Studebaker (Main Street Rag), was reviewed in BAPSR. She is also the author of four spiritual nonfiction books, including Stirring the Waters: Writing to Find Your Spirit (Tuttle), The Wise Earth Speaks to Your Spirit (RedWheel/ Weister) and others.
    Moon works in San Francisco as a counselor and is also a hypnotherapist in private practice and an instructor at College of Marin.    
    Congratulations to Janell Moon! The City of Emeryville is lucky to have such a dedicated poet and writer as a guiding light.  

At first, I was skeptical of the trend in many northern California cities of naming civic poet laureates. It had an air of the proverbial "big-fish-in-a-small-pond"-- self-promotion Babbitt-style--or at least that is what I thought. My inner cynic rebelled. But, something else is at work here, and my snobbery has transformed into great appreciation.
I have reported on several laureates already: Connie Post, laureate emerita of Livermore; Mary Rudge, who has maintained a multi-year run in Alameda; Geri DiGiorno of Sonoma County.
The bottom line is the demise of our art form in the grand agora of American culture. Poetry is not something you get in a flash of action across a wide screen; it does not map well on an entertainment paradigm fascinated by special effects and thunderous chase scenes. But, you say, there are tons of online sites for poetry and many local cafes hosting readings. Yes, hundreds-of-thousands of websites with more 10-second viewers than serious readers and lots of open-mic venues with chairs filled by other poets. The ubiquitous MFA program at least provides a context where writing poetry is seen as a worthwhile enterprise and poets can earn a real-world reward, but even it is dismissed both within the academia and by the culture of getting-and-spending, including a cadre of writers who think the only way to earn your verse is through the trenches of real life.
Poetry possesses a teensy-weensy niche in the American marketplace. With the loss of independent bookstores, many big-box stores tuck the poetry section--what is left of it--into the furthest corner of their real estate. With rare exception, poetry is absent from mainstream media; only the PBS News Hour and its host Jeffrey Brown routinely cover poets and poetry as a result of special funding through the Poetry Foundation. Well see what happens if that funding dries up.
We wont even mention the role of an educational system hell-bent on testing the joy out of learning. Where is Robin Williams and his poetry preaching when you need him?* In such climate, the local laureate movement is one valiant effort to reclaim public space, and Benicias Ronna Leon understands this. --Jannie M. Dresser, Editor and Publisher, of Bay Area Poets Review

Ronna Leon (photo by Rebecca Martinez)

Benicia's Mama Lion of Poetry: Ronna Leon

We have made ourselves an art form restricted to producing thin little books, says Ronna (who prefers to be referred to by her first name). When she took over as Benicias poet laureate in July, she felt that, the role of a local laureate is, above all, that of a community activist. there is a need to cross over into the general community beyond the occasional poem at commemorations or dedication ceremonies.

Simply put, Ronnas aim is to bring poetry into every single community event and organization. Local laureates are, in fact, a necessary link between the somewhat isolated poetry community and the larger populace, helping to break down walls and stereotypes on both sides.
They hold workshops in prisons, run small presses, host events structured around regional and historical themes, create workshops and readings, and bring together old and young to enjoy poetry and even write some of the stuff themselves in programs held in schools and senior centers. Local laureates are Citizen Poets who hope to introduce others to the pleasures and humanity found in poems.
An example of taking poetry to the streets--quite literally so--is Ronnas POEM HOME program. The POEM HOME is a stand-alone mail-box that looks like those for advertising real estate; instead, passers-by find copies of many different poems so which Ronna has solicited, logged, and photocopied. Fellow Benicia poet, Peter Bray, installed the boxes at seven public locations including the library, high school, community action council, parks and the towns independent Bookshop Benicia. At recent count, there were 350 poems representing 40 poets, with a total of over 700 poems distributed thus far.
Last December, Ronna hosted a Holiday Party with activities designed around the kind of poetry parlor games that inspired Elizabethan and Romantic poets; who knows what new poems will be inspired here? Ronna suggests that such events do not mean that we lose the high end of the esoteric art of poetry. Its a continuous process, she says. You have to cultivate readers and writers over time and through enjoyment. If you make it so that only artists are looking after--and at--their art, youre going to get into trouble right here in Kansas City.
Consider Ronna as a poetry proselytizer: Every time I go to a poetry reading or event, I try to fill my car with people. Born in Philadelphia but raised in Palo Alto, Ronna was accepted in a limited-enrollment program in writing and literature at the College of Creative Studies, at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she met her husband, Joe. She was interested in playwriting and theater production and Joe was studying visual art. In 1976 they created a business creating and hosting puppetry programs for schools and community venues. Joe Ronna creates most of the sets and is the main puppeteer while Ronna makes the puppets and writes the scripts: Nobody writes Quacks like I do, she says.
Getting young people involved is a high priority during her laureate stint. She has brought the Poetry Out Loud program to Benicia. In this recitation contest sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, high-school students hone memorization and recitation skills in order to go compete before well-known poets and state legislators to win recognition for themselves and their communities. The event is taped and made available to the public. At the state level, Ronna says enthusiastically, every elected representative has turned up. Many offer to write letters of recommendation to a students targeted college.
Ronnas two-year term as Benicias laureate began July 1st, 2010. She will serve until June 30, 2012. During her first year, she focused on launching programs that will be turned over to the next laureate. Laureate programs have a dove-tailing quality where one laureate builds on his or her predecessors success while allowing creative freedom to move into new areas or to approach populations that have been overlooked.
Ronna acknowledges clubs or civic groups, such as the Rotarians or the Lions Club, that accomplish many projects in town but dont necessarily include poetry in their plans. My goal is to get them to think oh, lets have a poet too, to build a consciousness that poetry should permeate every town function and community program.
In addition to her work as a poet laureate and puppet-master, she is a photographer, printmaker and visual artist, sharing her home with incredible portraits and paintings, as well as with a pet frog who adds a musical component to the household. Ive been an artist all my whole life, says Ronna. I want to make stuff and do stuff. Since 2005, she has photographed and provided background on all of Californias state poet laureates and built a website in their honor: Poetslaureate.com.

Ronnas poetry clinics invite teens and older poets to come for free critiques of their work and she has created two contests. Her Love Poem contest--deadine is on December 1st--is to honor the love affair of one of Benicias legendary citizens, Concepcon Argello; the famous dancing nun now rests in Saint Dominics Catholic Cemetery but her story haunts the town. In January, there will be a Student Poetry Contest which seeks poems that portray Benicia through kids eyes. For more information about sending poems for these contests, contact ronnaRonna@mac.com or go to http://www.benicialibrary.org/poet/events.
There has been a poet laureate in Benicia since 1983. Ronnas immediate predecessors are Joel Fallon and Robert Shelby. A few years ago, her encounter with Fallon drew her back to an art form she had always loved. At family gatherings, relatives would write doggerel or occasional poems, while her father sometimes read poems at the dinner table. She liked memorizing poems or having poems in her pocket as she moved through the day. Among her childhood favorites were Alfred Lord Tennysons Ring Out Wild Bells and Alfred Noyes The Admirals Ghosts as particular favorites.
When Ronnas youngest son got involved in a chess group that Fallon started, she learned that he was starting a poetry group. Saying that was something she wanted to support, she joined the group and started to attend some of the many poetry readings that take place around the Bay. However, she wasnt particularly impressed by what she heard. Many of those poems were depressing to me, deadly boring and not well read. She could hardly invite friends or neighbors who were not already devotees of poetry. It just didnt seem like a way many people would want to spend an evening of their lives. She also noticed that a lot of the poets attending these events barely seemed to listen to one another. Often a reader presented work using a compulsive or incomprehensible reading style. Yet, she says, she sometimes would discover a few gems [of poetry] and enjoyed some of the people she met.
In contrast to many contemporary poets, doing the publication-chase, Ronna says she is not interested being featured on a website of 900 poets, nor does she hanker after a Pushcart Prize. Poetry is something she wants to find in my world. . . at the table while waiting for food to arrive, mailing a letter, or standing in line at the grocery store.
Benicia has been Ronnas home for 28 years. In addition to boosting poetry, she is a civic booster as well and can list several famous writers who touched down in this community. With nearly 27,000 people, Benicia was for a brief period Californias state capital and is linked to the greater San Francisco Bay via the Carquinez Straits and Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge (Carquinez Bridge) Theres almost enough of a shipping history and the whiff of salt water to call Benicia a maritime town. The father of John Browns Bodys author Stephen Vincent Benet once commanded the military base here, while Jack London worked in Benicia, drank in Benicia, and took quick cold dips in the straits to sober up. John Muir rowed across the strait from his Martinez home to worship at Saint Pauls Episcopal Church.
The purpose of the arts for promoting communication and encouraging civic pride and identity is not lost on Ronna. Im always trying to talk to you, my unknown friend, is what she says about her own artistic pursuit. At age 65, and living with diabetes, Ronna is aware of the vulnerability of living as an artist. Although she and her husband own their home, purchased when property was not as expensive with help from their parents, they do not have job security, health insurance or much of a safety net. Were the richest poor people youll ever know, she laughs. Working tirelessly, Ronna gets out among her neighbors and community-at-large to encourage young and old to participate as poets and artists, in short learning the language that they speak or mentoring others. Simply put, this laureate is about one thing: I want more people to enjoy poetry.

Fairfield's Poet Laureate: Juanita Martin

Spending more time alone in childhood than she would have liked contributed to Juanita Martin becoming a poet. Growing up in southern New Jersey, she was the youngest of five older siblings. Books were her escape, so much so that an older cousin told her: Youre always using big words. Now that she is the first poet laureate of her adopted hometown of Fairfield, California--and a storyteller, public speaker and writer as well--those words come in handy.

Martin began to write in high school, poetry as well as prose. She wrote an essay in pencil and submitted it to a New Jersey Audubon Society contest and garnered the top prize, a $50 bond. After high school, she attended Atlantic City College, and eventually took a job for the South Jersey Advisor. Although she was placed in the advertising/sales department, the position offered her the opportunity to pursue some writing assignments: I just wanted to write, she says.

Martins drive and ambition led to other achievements as well. A stint in the Air Force led her to California and Travis Air Force Base. When a fellow airman chided her about her love of writing-- I dont know why you are wasting your time with poetry; theres no money in it,-- Martin asserted that she didnt see it that way. I would write no matter what. In addition to her military service, Martin is a Licensed Vocational Nurse and also works as a freelance copywriter and editor.

It is clear that being a poet, having the gift to move people with her words and example, are central to Martins essence, yet she is one of those rare writers who works just as hard to encourage and promote others. Even in college, when she launched a creative writing magazine, it was to showcase her fellow students art and writing as well as her own. Since moving to the Bay Area, she has hosted many literary events, such as the Fairfield Library's Poetry in the Park program and the Teen Poetry Slam at the Sonoma County Book Festival.
A significant turning point took place when she lost her mother, Rosetta Jenkins, who passed away in 2000. I started to take my own poetry more seriously, she said, in part to honor her mother. Martin walked in her first Solano County Memory Walk and wrote an article for the organizations newsletter. She also began to produce more of her own work. Poetry became the thing I wanted to do exclusively; I wanted to take it to another level and share it.
A year later, she started a poetry series at the Fairfield Barnes & Noble Bookstore. It lasted for two years. She also created a poetry and music CD called Soul Stirrings, which came out in 2003 and received full-page coverage in the Fairfield Daily Republic.
By 2004 and 2005, Martin was traveling all over the northern Bay Area and attending open-mics in Solano, Alameda and Solano counties. She accepted hosting duties at the Adobe Net Caf in Sonoma. At the local library, she saw an announcement about a poetry slam. I didnt know what a poetry slam was at the time but thought Id give it a try. Her poem and performance led her to win the slam, and eventually she became the host of the annual event.
The open mic poetry scene really opened me, she says. As she became known, people sought her out with their questions about writing and publishing. This led to invitations to be a featured reader. Well-known poets like Geri Digiorno, poet laureate emerita of Sonoma County, encouraged her and invited her to participate in other events, such as the celebrated Petaluma Poetry Walk held each September. Meanwhile, Martin was sending out poems, getting published, and earning recognition. I was thrilled to get those certificates and ribbons, she says. They made me want to work that much harder.
In 2006, she became a headlining performance poet in the Extreme Clean Comedy Tour, sponsored by First Bace Entertainment Group, her first professional appearance. At the Crest Theatre in Sacramento, she shared the stage with Al Jamal, comedian, Willie Brown, a ventriloquist act, and Woody and Doug Williams.
In spite of the honor of being named a prize-winner or getting into print, Martin says that what has been most meaningful is to hear what people say when she gives a reading. I enjoy your work or I love the way you read, are some of the things she has been told, or Your work is really polished. At one reading, she became aware of an audience member who was crying in response to a poem Martin was reading. The person told her: You were speaking to me. Juanita pats her heart, Those are the best compliments. Anyone can get published, but it is important to be part of a community and to have someone who has heard me, recommend me to someone else.
Martin had to lobby for her position as Fairfields first poet laureate, a two-year volunteer appointment promoted by the Solano County Arts Council. Fairfield, known primarily as the home of Travis Air Force Base and the Anheuser-Busch and Jelly Belly factories, is mostly a commuter community of workers who daily stream into the our larger urban centers. During Martins term as poet laureate, she hopes to raise the profile of poetry in her community.
Bringing poetry to school-kids is her first objective. Although school districts are currently in cut-back mode, Martin hopes to convince administrators and teachers the benefits of bringing poetry and poets to the children. Do you know that poetry can help people become better learners? she asks them. Martin has trained as a poet-teacher in the California Poets in the Schools program and was a coach for Poetry Out Loud; she wants to see these programs active in her hometown but has to convince people that poetry is a lot more than words on a page.
In January, Martin helped judge the local Poetry Out Loud project to select students for final rounds in Sacramento. Lindsay Blackie, a 12-grader at Benicia High School was Solano Countys winning student. With over 106,000 people in Fairfield, Martin is optimistic that there are a lot of poets, in her region. She hopes to bring more of them into the spotlight.

A River Runs Through Me

Walking along the American River bed,
I lick the crisp mountain air. It glides across my tongue
like summer raindrops in a forest. My soul tingles,
as I disappear into the ecstasy of a wet dreamscape.

The rushing waves are ephemeral as I bathe my spirit.
So effortless, weightless I move life into life. A cacophony is
created by the smashing of blackened rocks,
that leave an angled wear pattern.

A symphony bounces off the water
with the boldness of Bach and Tchaikovsky,
the force of Beethoven and Verdi,
or the calm of Mozart and Vivaldi.

The wind beckons through the trees,
softly, gently, like a mysterious hand
directing a path, my heart,
as a river runs through me.
--Juanita J. Martin, copyright 2010

Geri Digiorno:

Doyenne of the Petaluma Poetry Walk

Geri Digiorno at her home in Petaluma

Photo by Jannie M. Dresser

Geri Digiorno has traveled some distance from being a grieving widow to serving as organizer emerita, chieftess doyenne of one of Northern Californias most popular poetry events, the Petaluma Poetry Walk.

When she first met Tony Digiorno, he wasnt exactly her type; but, even though he was fifteen years her senior, he was good on the dance floor. I never would have dated him, she says, except that he wooed her and treated her well, had a good sense of humor and was practical. So in her late thirties, having raised children already, she fell in love; it seemed she and Tony could live happily-ever-after. Unfortunately, Tony never went to the doctor. When the colon cancer was detected, it was already in an advanced stage and he passed away after only eleven years of marriage.

After Tony died, she started taking art and poetry classes, reconnecting to her love of literature and of poetry. She studied at Solano College where teacher Rene ChavezDorianne Laux in Petaluma and took courses at Sonoma State University. Through writing, she found a community and developed important friendships. encouraged her, then joined workshops led by poet

While having lunch with one of those friends, Judy Stedman, and out-of-state visitors, they started to toss around ideas for how they could increase the popularity of poetry in their area. Petaluma is the perfect town to do something, suggested Stedman. She turned to Digiorno and said, You can do it, Geri!

They sought recommendations from Laux for poets they could invite to read and the first Petaluma Poetry Walk was launched on the autumnal equinox, September 22, 1996, with the support of Poetry Flash, the New York-based Poets& Writers organization, Poets Gig, Rhyme, Rhythm, and Song, and the Sonoma County Literary Arts Guild, and local merchants.

Each year, I think, this will be my last. After serving as chief hostess and organizer for nearly 15 years, Digiorno says that she is glad she didnt know what she was getting into when she started out. From the beginning, the Walk drew large crowds and attracted well-known poets. Readings are held at various stations along a pre-arranged route where host-poets welcome featured readers and run open-mics. The venues come and go, but Digiorno acknowledges loyal business owners who provide their cafes, galleries, and theater spaces year after year.

This years line up of invited readers includes the current Sonoma County poet laureate Gwynn OGara, Los Angeles poet Wanda Coleman, Sharon Doubiago, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Margaret Kaufman, Austin Straus, Eugene Ruggles, authors in the 16 RiversAdam David Miller. A complete list and schedule is available at www.petalumapoetrywalk.org. publishing collective, H.D. Moe, Daniel Michael McKenzie, and

As in previous years, Digiorno works with a group of devoted volunteers: Bill Vartnaw of Petaluma and Carl Macki of Novato have helped year after year, booking locations and finding poets willing to come and read, while Michelle Baynes and Richard Little Moon (Digiornos daughter and grandson, respectively), Godlieve Hottanhove, Richard Benbrook, and Jim March have all played important roles, not to mention the hosts who keep it together at each venue.

Digiorno has published several books of verse, notably White Lipstick (2005), for which she received enthusiastic blurbs from Al Young, D.A. Powell, Laux, Gillan, and Diane DiPrima. In addition, Digiorno co-edited with Vartnaw the Petaluma Poetry Walk 10-Year Anthology: 1996 to 2005. She was appointed Sonoma Countys poet laureate for 2006-2007. During her tenure she organized children to write poems on Petaluma sidewalks, hung haiku-poems in the trees, taught poetry and collage, organized readings at Petalumas local library, and represented Petaluma in poetry events around the state. She has also taught poetry to women in a battered womens shelter and in homeless shelters as well as in college classrooms.

Digiorno's own poetry highlights relationships and draws on childhood memories. She was raised in a family with eight sisters. Her work is probably therapeutic in some ways, implying that some degree of self-discovery and healing is involved. Although one family member once joked Dont tell Geri anything; shell just write about it, Digiorno conscientiously strives to show respect toward, and not hurt anyone she writes about. Its complicated when your subject matter is mostly personal experience, in particular when the topic often circles around intimacy issues and family dynamics. In a large family, everyone has a different view of what happened. Still she perseveres in getting her memories done, and acknowledges teachers like Al Young who showed me it was o.k. to write the truth. Of her eight sisters, only one other is also a poet, the well-known Nancy Keane of San Francisco who operates the 3300 Club in San Francisco with its longstanding poetry-readings series.

Geri followed in her mothers footsteps when she got pregnant at a young age; she was 17 when she had her first child. She had two daughters and a son and worked hard for years to support the family, taking a variety of jobs from being a teachers aide, a waitress, and helping out in a European art gallery. In addition to poetry, Geri has long been interested in art. Her home is filled with her own paintings and collages, as well as work she has received from friends.

In October she will participate in an open studio program in Petaluma. Some of her pieces draw on Catholic iconography--possibly a vestige of childhood visits to a Catholic Church where she was impressed by the statuary--so completely different from what she saw in her own family's Mormon religion.

POEMS BY GERI DIGIORNO

one year later

one year later
I will be living
in a home for
unwed mothers
in Oakland

right there in black and white
I am fifteen years old
standing between
dorothy hardy and
john luhring
jim cancella behind us
in a light suit and tie
a mouth full of teeth
like a cold breeze

joan is wearing a white
two-piece dress
with matching heels
her lips open
marilyn monroe style
albino curls oppose
her bony features
dorothys dress
sweeps away behind her
outlinging heavy legs
thick brown locks
cut short
surround her dimples

Im the only one
not smiling
dark blondness falls
across my cheeks
my eyes tumble
to the ground
diploma tightly held
in both hands
***
im one of them

i was baptized at sixteen
in my sister monas white
two piece bathing suit
and white flannel night gown

laid back onto the water by two men
in alabaster suits
holding my nose
while they prayed over me
pushed me down underneath the coolness
till I came up saved
*
(from White Lipstick, Red Hen Press, 2005, copyright by Geri Digiorno)

From BOO-Etry to poems about faith, Deborah Grossman--Pleasantons poet laureate

Reflections of a Leaving Laureate

We asked Connie Post, the City of Livermore’s Poet Laureate from May 2005 until June 2009 to write about her experience. Thank you to Connie, and all other city laureates who work to expand and connect the communities of poets.

It’s amazing how quickly four years can go by, even more amazing how time slows down when your term as Poet Laureate is ending. On May 3rd, I held my last “Wine and Words” reading in Livermore. I will never forget how moved I was by the kindness from the audience and it made me realize that a laureate can make a difference.

I wanted Livermore to become a place for poetry. I enjoyed creating a reading series at Ravenswood and the “Wine and Words” series, because they accentuated, in their beauty, the exquisite joys of poetry and language. I was privileged to host many wonderful poets at both: Kay Ryan, Jane Hirshfield, Kim Addonizio, Al Young, Chad Sweeney, Lynne Knight, Fady Joudah, Ellen Bass and many more. Each brought a unique voice to the venues.

When I started out, I had no idea I would meet so many wonderful people and make connections to last a lifetime. Good friends became better friends. Distant friends became closer friends. Poets like David Alpaugh mentored me with unyielding kindness and dedication. I got to know poets laureate from all over the state.

As I continued my journey, I felt strongly that poets laureate within California, should know each other, know what one another is doing, share struggles and bring a collective sense to the larger effort of community-building.

I enjoyed working with Ronna Leon to gather information on all of the state’s poet laureates. She took amaz-ing photos and traveled the state. I’d like to believe that our efforts made communities become part of a larger plan to make poetry matter all around California. I’d like to think that bringing the information to the California Arts Council had something to do with the CAC publishing Sometimes in the Open, an anthology featuring the state’s laureates. I also wanted to merge poetry with other art forms. Working with local artists and poets, I hosted two “Ekphrasis” events in Livermore in 2006 and 2008,  a rewarding and wonderful marriage of the arts. Also, incredibly gratifying, was mentoring young poets in Livermore. I received inexpressible joy in meeting with them each month to critique their poems and work on refining the art. Two of my students were published in “Hardpan.” It is great to know that I had my hands in building relationships with young people.
  
During my term, I wrote over 30 poems for various community or civic events. It tested me as a poet, but I think I became a better writer.

Poems of occasion must achieve several goals:
they must reach a general audience, stand in the moment for which they were meant to commemorate, yet last beyond that moment as a poem that someone would enjoy on any occasion. 

When a young child or a parent came up after a civic event and ask for a copy of the poem I had written, it meant that poetry was reaching beyond the boundaries of the poet community and into the larger world.

I wanted to make poetry accessible to my town in a way that was meaningful. I could not have imple-mented the programs I created without the incredible support of the [Livermore] city council, arts commis-sion, and local government. I can’t believe they in-stalled a beautiful plaque of my poem in the center of downtown. It’s nice to have been “plauquerized.”

People ask how I feel about having been Poet Laureate of Livermore for four years. I know I hoped to make an imprint that would last.  More importantly, I have been changed by the incredible passion, dedication, and kindness of those who shared this remarkable journey. I will look back every day with gratitude. Finally, I will do what I keep telling everyone I would: Take a nice long nap!

By Connie Post, Poet Laureate of the City of Livermore, Alameda County, May 2005–June 2009

Connie Post's latest book is Trip Wires