Sonoma County Literary Update

Dear Literary Folk,

A Courage of Poets
On February 6, about 200 poets from across California came together to the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento to remember our fellow poet Renée Good and the more than 30 individuals who have died in ICE custody or as a result of ICE actions. 

The gathering, envisioned and organized by El Dorado County poet laureate and Sixteen Rivers member Moira Magneson, featured musicians who played inspirational songs from protests past as the poets came together for the spontaneous creation of a group poem.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass was there. So were Brenda Hillman, Maw Shein Win, Alison Luterman, Arthur Dawson, William O’Daly, Lin-Marie de Vincent, and county poets laureate from across the state. A few of you who couldn’t attend sent me lines to read, which then became part of the weave. California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick’s “Courage” provided the coda to the day’s event, followed by a great “barbaric yawp,” à la Whitman from the poets.

Here’s what my colleague Murray Silverstein had to say about the experience: “[W]hat astonished me most, and moved me to tears was the weave of words, what folks said, as we snaked around the circle, came in turn to the mic. The odd and surprising juxtapositions — Lincoln and Lorca, Frost and Ferlinghetti – seemed somehow so composed…and it did become, as Moira imagined, a single poem! Heart, meet brain. Never seen/heard anything like that…and then, every so often, in the midst of lines by Whitman, Mueller, Dickinson, Duncan, Levertov and the poet next door, folks simply said the names of ICE victims, and a word or two about them. So f—ing powerful! 

“And Lee Herrick’s poem at the end — as the circle was nearing the end, I was wondering how he could possibly ‘sum up’ such an improbably rich weave, but he did. Beautifully.”

A Courage of Poets was co-sponsored by Sixteen Rivers Press and the Sacramento Poetry Center. The t-shirts worn by the volunteers summed up our purpose and our vision: “We are the poem” and “We will poem our way out of this dark.”

Here is Lee Herrick’s poem, also available on the Academy of American Poets’ website. You can find a video of Lee reading his poem on the capitol steps on my Facebook page or on Sixteen Rivers Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.

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Courage

I almost stopped believing in the ocean.
Imagine that. I almost stopped believing
in the music of such massive natural splendor.
I had lost sight of it, lost sight of hope
because innocent people were killed
by people in masks, hiding their faces,
their shame parading as providence,
their weakness posing as policy.
But then, I remembered the tides.
I was restored by the courage of poets
whose songs sounded like ocean waves
guided by the moon. Even now, there is music.
Children laughing on the swings, a student
learning the saxophone, a woman reading
her rough draft by the lake, a father whistling
a love song in his native language.
Courage is from the Latin word cor,
which means heart, which means we are a heart of poets.
As in, take courage, take heart. As in, the widow
was grateful for your encouragement, your giving heart.
As in, the heart of your convictions.
What I mean is: we are made of love
and therefore larger than their terror.
As a great poet said, they can cut back all of the flowers,
but they cannot hold back spring.
We are a massive natural splendor, too.
In the end, all we are is love and love and love.
In the end, the ocean and the music might save us.
Meet me at the beach. Bring your light.
Bring your songs. I’ll wait for you.

Copyright © 2026 Lee Herrick. Used with the permission of the author.

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Book Launch for Fran Claggett-Holland’s New Collection
On the afternoon of Sunday, February 15, the Sonoma County literary community came together to celebrate Fran Claggett-Holland’s new collection of poems At Dusk, published by RiskPress. More than a book launch, the event, held at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, was a celebration of the profound influence Fran has had in our literary community and beyond and the quiet, but unmistakeable genius of her poetry. Writers, family, and friends sang tributes to Fran and read their own poems inspired by her mentoring. Fran read her poems, too, and spoke movingly about the ways in which we as a community depend on each other, nurture each other’s creative lives, and become a voice and a heart for a country in crisis.

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Last Call for Submissions for A Rivertown Poets Anthology
Monica Volker, Shawna Swetech, and Sande Anfang, directors of the reading series Rivertown Poets, invite you to submit your poems about Petaluma for an upcoming anthology.

Submission Window: January 5 – March 15, 2026

Submission guidelines:

• Poetry submissions are open to all over 18. The theme is Petaluma: its town, river, architecture, landscape, people, history, etc. You do not need to reside in Petaluma. Up to 2 original and unpublished poems per submission.
• We want one poem per page, up to 38 lines and no more than 300 words total. Please use Times New Roman, 12 font. (no AI generated poetry)
• Please submit your work and information in a Word document. Put your name, address, email and phone number on the first page of the submission document, followed by each poem on its own separate page. Please email your submission to odetopetaluma@gmail.com.
• There is a $10.00 submission fee to help defray publishing costs. You can pay by Venmo or mail a check payable to Monica Volker, 65 Astoria Circle, Petaluma, CA 94954. Venmo → @Monica-Volker
• You will be contacted by July 1st if your poem was chosen for inclusion in the book.

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Calendar Bytes: Cool Things Happening This Month Around the County
Check out the calendar of events for March for a more complete list of workshops, readings, performances, open mics, etc. Here are a few that caught my eye.

Sunday, March 8, 4:00-5:30 p.m. Occidental Center for the Arts’ Lobby. Jazzmyn Inisis will read from her book, Shah Razad and the Djins Who Loved Her. Jazzmyn is a local writer who was deeply influenced living in the middle east as a child of a military father stationed there in the 1950’s. Join us for an afternoon of mystery and storytelling with Jazzmyn, accompanied by middle eastern food and fine wines available for purchase. For more info: occidentalcenterforthearts.org

Tuesday, March 10, 5:00-7:00 p.m. The 12th Barrel Proof Lounge/Timothy Williams Poetry Salon presents Two Golden Hours of All Things Irish. Featuring: Elizabeth Herron, Lin Marie diVincent, Hugh Shaklet, Anika Snyder, Gwynn O’Gara and Rob Catterton, and special guest Fergus Lenehan. In the theater for poets, writers, and musicians at 501 Mendocino Avenue, downtown Santa Rosa.

Wednesday, March 11, 7:30 p.m. Dave Pokorny presents West Side Stories: Every month there is a theme, hopefully that sparks a memory for you. You put your name in a hat and 10 people’s names are drawn at random. When your name is pulled you get 5 minutes to tell your personal true story. At the end of the evening, everyone votes by text for their favorite story of the night. The winner gets $50. January’s theme is “Don’t Give Up Your Day Job.” Details and ticket ($21.50) purchase: davepokornypresents.com/west-side-stories

Saturday March 21, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Dave Seter and Librarian Terra Emerson will be co-leading a workshop on the topic of “Documenting Current Events Through Poetry” at the Sebastopol Branch of Sonoma County Library located at 7140 Bodega Avenue. Details at https://events.sonomalibrary.org/event/copy-hold-potential-poet-laureate-event-94149?language=en

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Nominations for Our Next Sonoma County Poet Laureate
On March 6, 2026, Sebastopol Center for the Arts will open nominations for our next Sonoma County Poet Laureate. Do you have someone in mind you think would make a good literary ambassador for our county? Have you thought about stepping up to serve in this role yourself? Give this some consideration over the coming month, then check back with the SebArts website for details, qualifications, due dates, and nomination form.

Selection Committee Looking for Volunteers
The Poet Laureate Selection Committee draws from Sonoma County’s five supervisory districts, and also includes past poets laureate, representatives from the public library, Sonoma State University, and Santa Rosa Junior College. The committee is currently looking for a few volunteers to serve on the committee through the nomination and selection process. Specifically, we’re looking for a poet from the fourth supervisory district, which includes the north-county areas of Larkfield, Windor, Healdsburg, and Cloverdale; and from Santa Rosa Junior College. If you’re a student or faculty at SRJC, or if you reside in the fourth district and would like to join the selection committee, please contact Luna Sorrenti at SebArts: lunas@sebarts.org 707.829.4797 ext. 1004.

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Poem for March

A VALENTINE FOR MINNEAPOLIS

by Lisa Shulman

I love the crunch of your boots in the icy streets,
the rhythmic beat of your mittened hands,
the steam of your breath and the heat of your words 
in this brutal cold and ice-clapped world.
I love the chapped red of your cheeks, your dripping nose
the ice crystals on your eyebrows, your hair,
as you carry signs and bags of food and offer your arm
to that woman on the ground.
I love the street medics with their packs,
the rolling neighborhood patrols,
and the cafes open for free soup and coffee.
I love your cousins in Chicago, Portland, L.A.
I love the way you bang on drums, on cans and dumpsters,
your raucous all-night singing,
your harmonies as you kneel on frozen sidewalks,
your whistles and car horns.

I love your walking school buses,
your inflatable frogs, and knit red hats.
I love the warm and flowing river of your bodies
pouring through your city—
blood pulsing through its veins.
I love your courage that ignites our own,
fire melting ice.
I love your heart.

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Lisa Shulman is a poet, children’s book author, and teacher. Her poetry has appeared in Sheila-na-gig, About Place, Anacapa Review, Inkfish, Kitchen Table Quarterly, New Verse News, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Fragile Bones, Fierce Heart. A Pushcart nominee, Lisa teaches poetry with California Poets in the Schools, and workshops for women in recovery. www.lisashulman.com

Send Us Your Poetry/Short Prose Selections
Two years ago, I began featuring a different Sonoma County writer each month at the end of the Literary Update Post. Here’s how to participate.

The theme can be anything you feel is appropriate to the season. I’ve adjusted the subject line, so you won’t feel limited to sending lineated verse. In fact, prose poems, flash fiction, creative nonfiction are all welcome, as long as the piece you send is no more than a page in length.

Send your submission to me at tehret99@comcast.net, with “SCLU Poem/Prose of the Month” in the subject heading.

Send me just one submission, no more than a page (or less). Be patient, as I sometimes have a backlog of poems I’ve selected to publish.

These can be previously published, provided you identify the publishing source. If the piece is not your own, provide the author’s name and source. The author should be a Sonoma County voice, and if contemporary, please ask the author’s permission to submit.

Deadline: You can send the submission any time during the month, but I’ll need to receive your submission a few days before the month’s end to give me time to read, make my choice, and contact the author of the piece selected.

Terry Ehret, co-editor, Sonoma County Literary Update