Sonoma County Literary Update

April 2020

Poetry can come in without knocking on the door

Red rice warms a bowl
steam rises like pale flowers
Searching for the light.

Most of us are spending our time indoors, our plans and readings, classes and programs postponed or cancelled. Or online. Real connections are on a shelf, virtual connections are replacing all. Waking up, texting friends, commuting to work at a desk a few steps away, perhaps adding another commute of a few more steps to the kitchen table…

And yet it’s April, poetry month — and there are ways to draw from the real connections left on that shelf, maybe one small picture at a time — maybe with haiku.

Poetry can come in without knocking on the door. This month, the Academy of American Poets is giving you dozens of ways to celebrate poetry from home . Also, California Poets in the Schools is offering you workshops from teachers all over the state; the New York Times has compiled a collection of learning prompts… Do take a look – you may just find one that speaks to you in a way nothing else does…

California poppies and blue-eyed grass —
one year after the 2017 wildfires in Pepperwood Preserve

Well, yes, I know you are already spending a lot of time on the screen, but if you decide to take one of the poetry offerings and write one in your notebook or elsewhere, do send me word about your creations. Haiku is so small, you can easily write one on your phone! OK, I am not encouraging you to spend more time on your phone – but it may serve you.

 

 

Maya Khosla
Sonoma Poet Laureate (2018-2020)
https://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla

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March 2020

“I felt like – I was learning a new language,” Matthew Chan, a student in Ms. Jessica Gilleran’s class at University Elementary at La Fiesta, confessed last week. Clearly, our journey into poetry had begun. I thought about the scratching of 25 pencils on paper, three or sometimes four students writing with their non-writing hands raised for help with a line, a new word, an idea for a rhyme. We began with haiku poems and a need to “forget about the 5-7-5 syllable rule for now,” we experimented with a diamante, created by several students. And then they jumped into the cadence and spirit of poetry on the page with astonishing ease and focus. My visits to University Elementary – and now to Rancho Cotate High School – were made possible by a grant from Rohnert Park Foundation. It will be fun to come back…

Practicing the art of a diamante poem (“diamond” poem) — by Ms. Jessica Gilleran’s
4th and 5th grade students of University Elementary at La Fiesta.

Ms. Jessica Gilleran’s 4th and 5th Grade Students of University Elementary
at La Fiesta reading their new poems.

March is going to be so full of events I want to list two important ones — and please write to me if you have any questions about these events. The first is “It’s Up to Us: Sonoma County Climate Activists Community Summit” — the county’s second Climate Summit — open to all. It’s on Saturday March 15th, 2020 in Odd Fellows Hall, Santa Rosa. You can RSVP by filling out the online form or by calling (707)-595-0320. The Summit is a call to action, a call to connect, a call to build on common ground.

More information on “It’s Up to Us: Sonoma County Climate Activists Community Summit” on March 15 may be found at: www.sonomawest.com/sonoma-county-climate-activists-community-summit-march/article_c82cdc66-5356-11ea-b08b-0f7a2147239a.html

The second event is the following Saturday, March 22, Time For A Change! A Fundraiser for Community Oversight of Our Local Law Enforcement, at the Sonoma Peace and Justice Center, hosting 100,000 Poets for Change.

OK – that’s not all. I’m still organizing the April events and you’ll hear more about them in April. For now, I should tell you about April 4th 2020, the first one in April. We will be celebrating California Fire and Water – a new anthology edited by Molly Fisk. The reading will be at the Central Santa Rosa Library.

Many thanks to Zoya Ahmed, Dana Gioia, Iris Jamahl Dunkle and Terry Ehret for reading in a packed forum room at Sonoma Valley Library (town of Sonoma) on January 11, 2020.

Hoping for more rain,

Maya Khosla
Sonoma Poet Laureate (2018-2020)
https://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla

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January 2020

Happy New Year 2020! 

OK, let me be more specific since many people are probably wishing you a happy New Year right now. I wish you a 2020 where poetry has a place on your bookshelf, desk and screen, among your cups, on your stove (yes, let it cook for a while), on your shoe soles, out along muddy trails, in waters whacked by salmon tail-fins, at the nodes of stems where new leaves grow despite the odds, in the quick, in the slow, in buds and knots of wood — so that poetry is there for you in darkness and in the peach and pale yellow light, where “country is just a little way out of town.”

The “peach and pale yellow” and that last phrase about the country are from Geri Digiorno’s poem “people ask me how I like living in petaluma” (yes, the poem title is all lower case). In case you’re looking for the poem, it’s from her collection White Lipstick, which I pulled off my bookshelf this morning. I bought it after one of her readings years ago; I see she had signed her name under the title page. Geri was Sonoma Poet Laureate Emerita and founder of the Petaluma Poetry Walk. She passed away in December 2019.

On the note about bringing poetry into your New 2020, I’m inviting you to a reading at Sonoma Valley Regional Library— Saturday, January 11 2020 at 3 p.m. To be precise, the invitation is coming from my colleagues at Sonoma Valley Regional Library in the town of Sonoma and also from me. We are thrilled about the poetry reading, which will feature Dana Gioia, California Poet Laureate Emeritus, Iris Jamahl Dunkle and Terry Ehret, Sonoma Poets Laureate Emerita. Zoya Ahmed and Hannah Minton, two student winners of the previous Poets Out Loud (POL) competitions, will recite poems (the POL program was launched by Dana Gioia, and thank you Phyllis Meshulam for inviting students).

During the gathering, we will take a few moments to honor the work of Geri Digiorno. The reading will be held at the library’s Forum Room. Refreshments will be served. Author books will be available for sale. Please do come to the library on January 11. We’ll celebrate together.

Maya Khosla
Sonoma Poet Laureate (2018-2020)
https://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla

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December 2019

Sonoma Poets Read 

A year and a half of filming Sonoma’s poets has flown! I want to thank you for your patience as I continue to document your work — with the goal of creating films based on the readings. That work begins now… If you are one of Sonoma’s poets who has not had a chance to read and would like to, please contact me. The New Year will bring you more readings. And my work to bring bring poetry and ecology together will continue well beyond April 2020.  I’m also planning to take groups out to open spaces that are slightly unfamiliar and beautiful, to let them make their own discoveries.

Many thanks to all you poets who contributed powerful works to our Rising from the Ashes reading. Oh, and thank you Phyllis Meshulam and Nikki Winovich. Phyllis invited several student poets from Nikki’s class to read their poems as part of Rising from the Ashes. Phoenix, a poem by Arisbet Camacho (James Monroe Elementary School), is featured below.

Starting on December 1, nominations will be accepted for the Sonoma County’s 11th Poet Laureate (April 2020 – April 2022)! The nomination deadline is January 15, 2020. Please send your nominations to marketingmanager@sebarts.org. Do let me know if you need additional details.

Best wishes for the Holidays,
Maya

P.S. A small grant from the Rohnert Park Foundation will give me a chance to bring nature poetry to schools in Rohnert Park and Cotati in 2020.  The project will be sponsored by The Sitting Room Community Library. 

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Phoenix
by Arisbet  Camacho

I see you with your ruby-like eyes.
With your amber feathers,
circling my fingers like harmless fire.
You fly quickly and swiftly, your eyes
glinting like fireworks.
You gave me past
and hope for the future. Bright, bright,
is your welcoming sun.
You fly away, feathers high. Burst into flame.
You fade away.
Your burned ashes carry your cinnamon scent.
Come to me again.
Take me back to your spiritual world.
Let me rest in your aura.

6th grade, James Monroe Elementary School, Sonoma County
Classroom Teacher: Nikki Winovich
Poet-Teacher: Phyllis Meshulam

_____

Maya Khosla
Sonoma Poet Laureate (2018-2020)

________

November 2019

Keeping Your Strength 

Thank you Irma Vega Bijou, Jabez Churchill, Terry Ehret, Forrest Gander, John Johnson, Phyllis Meshulam and her student poets, Katie Numi Usher and all of you who contributed such moving poems at the Poetry of Remembrance gathering on the evening of October 18. One of the poems, “A Case of Realism,” by William Greenwood, is featured below.
 
Even as many of us stand by or prepare for evacuations, I’m including a reminder about the Rising from the Ashes poetry reading, scheduled for Sunday, November 10, 2-4 pm at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, and want to thank all at Sebastopol Arts for hosting and offering the lovely space for our gathering (the first reading of its kind was held after the 2017 fires). The event will feature many Sonoma poets and students – please plan to attend. Refreshments will be served.
 
Take care.
 
Maya
https://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla/copy-of-films-2

P.S. Researchers say there are two groups of enzymes in the liver that assist the body with detoxification after exposure to smoke. Berrries, grapes, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, seeds of coriander, dill, and caraway stimulate the phase I enzymes. Cloves of garlic and turmeric cooked with black pepper stimulate the phase II enzymes.

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A Case of Realism
by William Greenwood
 
                 in memoriam for Tereso Morales, 1977
 
The night returns through oncoming headlights,
the sweaty meeting returns with these men,
for generations their families
burned by the crops.
 
We sharpened our deposition for weeks
in defense of the facts.
 
A spy for the plaintiffs cruises the house.
Tracks run down the street fighting the driver
out of the cold storage district.
 
The bare floor passes around the room.
Our words are measured into the air of solidarity
and conditional victory, into a haze
of cigarettes respectfully lit for each other
by hands stained with the lean fruit this year.
 
We plan the winter upon us.
We speak into the night.
The cloud of one crushed this fall by a tractor
 
rises.
We make vows to ourselves.
 
And we measure our patience
for the spring of justice
to open like sunlight.
 
 
Un Caso de Realismo
William Greenwood

               in memoriam para Tereso Morales, 1977
 
Regresa la noche por los faros de los coches venideros.
Regresa la sudada reunión de estos hombres,
por generaciones sus familias
quemadas por cultivos.
 
Afinamos nuestra declaración para la corte
en defensa de los hechos.
 
Un espía de los demandantes
pasa vigilando la casa.
La vía ferrea corre por la calle
peleándole control del timón
hacia afuera del barrio de los procesadores.
 
El piso desnudo circula por la sala.
Nuestras palabras se miden al aire solidario
de victoria condicional en una bruma de cigarros
respetuosamente prendidos unos para otros
con manos teñidas por la cosecha delgada este año.
 
Planificamos el invierno encima.
Hablamos hasta entrada la noche.
La nube de uno muerto
bajo un tractor Caterpila
 
sube.
Consigo mismo cada uno jura
comropmisos,
 
y pulsa su aguante
para una primavera de justicia
abrirse como al amanecer.

_____

Maya Khosla
Sonoma Poet Laureate (2018-2020)

________

October 2019

Rising from the Ashes: The Heart of Poetry — A Commemoration 

You are invited to a poetry reading and gathering at Sebastopol Center for the Arts on Sunday, November 10, 2019, 2-4 pm. The afternoon will mark two years after the “Rising from the Ashes,” a reading sponsored by Word Temple and organized by Poets Laureate Emerita Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Terry Ehret, Katherine Hastings, and by Larry Robinson, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and the Poet Laureate Selection Committee. Over 20 people shared poems, music, scratch-notes, and thoughts gathered in the haste of a moment — after the October 2017 fires. This time, our gathering will mark two years after the first Rising from the Ashes reading.

The 2017 reading inspired me to continue with a reading series, gathering places for poets and their audiences. Thanks to so many of you who have participated in many of the events and workshops since that time, we have been exploring themes centered on the rebuilding process and on lands advancing through the stages of vigorous post-fire rejuvenation — the oaks, bays, redwoods, the chaparral plants and wildflowers and animals. I hope you will make it to the November 10 2019 reading.

Refreshments will be served.

Maya Khosla
Sonoma Poet Laureate (2018-2020)

________

September 2019

Pepperwood Preserve, Coddingtown Library, Rivertown, and Beyond

Between the Petaluma Poetry Walk and many other poetry reading events, September is almost another poetry month! If you haven’t yet made it to any of the Pepperwood Preserve readings, please do come over on Sept 7^th. My colleagues at Pepperwood Preserve and I are delighted to announce a reading featuring three Sonoma-based poets, Forrest Gander, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Greg Mahrer and Kathleen Winter. Details about the three featured poets are below. The reading will be held at the Preserve’s Dwight Center from 4 – 6 pm. We are hoping for a clear afternoon, so we can gather outdoors under live oaks that experienced the 2017 fires and recovered beautifully. As always, refreshments will be served. Author books will be available for sale. Feel free to arrive a few minutes early to enjoy the view and refreshments before we settle in.  The readings will begin after short introductions.

My colleague Camille Norton and I will be reading at Aqus Café as part of Sandra Anfang’s Rivertown Poets series on Monday September 2, Labor Day (6 – 8:30 pm). And on September 14th (2 – 4 pm)I’ll be happy to share writing tips and writing during a presentation at the Northwest Santa Rosa Library,  Coddingtown Center .

________

OK, now for some sobering news: a poem about deforestation. And it’s not based on the Amazon. It’s based right here – well, in the Sierra Nevada just west of Yosemite.

A Small Gray Fox

The terror: nothing to climb, nothing
to step around or on. No burrow, no cover,
no limb, no woods. Page after page of ecology
slashed. Nothing but rising dust to breathe.

Three months ago, I watched you
scrambling up a trusted slant of trunk, a snag,
springing for another. Sitting down to give
the evening a good, investigative, sniff,
curling that furry black-tipped tail around
your front paws. Young pines dwarfed you.

A mountain lion pugmark in silt, wide
as my shoe. How naïve to spend a moment
believing the lion was the biggest threat
you would face. Can you run faster now.
Could I have given you warnings. Could I have
given someone, anyone, the real story.

To stop the plans, the crashing and shrieking,
metal against metal, a newborn forest turning
to dust, your pillars of home growing cold.
Stockpiles bound for biomass burning facilities.
What will we do with that sort of power.
Have you grown enough to outrun the rising dust.

________

On August 29, 2019, I watched as acres of forests were torn down and stockpiled for burning in biomass facilities, for the generation of power… Right now it’s all happening in the forest close to aremote dirt road, 1S82. This small gray fox was one of many I documented there. The forests were naturally regenerating after the 2013 Rim Fire burned through Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada. Families of gray foxes, bobcats, mountain lions, bears, weasels, ringtail cats, deer, and over 90 species of birds including northern goshawks were making their living near 1S82 and elsewhere – all over the thousands of acres that were thriving after the fire. I encountered them at every turn…

________

I almost forgot one more announcement you might have seen already: Nevada County Poet Laureate Emerita Molly Fisk is inviting poets to submit poems by California residents about wildfire, flooding, and other climate crisis events taking place in the state of California. Send up to three poems to californiafireandwater@gmail.comPreviously published work is welcome. Deadline: November 15th. For questions please write to californiafireandwater@gmail.com

Maya Khosla
Sonoma Poet Laureate (2018-2020)

________

August 2019

Fall Plans…

Summer is flying by! The Legacy Project will continue through the fall, with support from the California Humanities Program and continued support from The Sitting Room Community Library. During the fall of 2019, I am planning to bring nature poetry to several Sonoma schools.

Teachers and I will also be able to take students out into the field. If you’re interested taking your students out to Sonoma’s open spaces, or in bringing those spaces to your writing class, please let me know. We’ll have to plan well ahead, so do contact me soon – the website address below has a page where you can contact me.

Best wishes,
Maya Khosla
Poet Laureate, Sonoma County (2018-2020)

http://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla/copy-of-poet-laureate-project

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead

________

May 2019

Poetry Walks Through Sonoma’s Open Space Areas

What an intense, nonstop National Poetry Month! Hope you had fun celebrating. For many of us, the celebrations began and ended with readings at The Sitting Room Community Library. On April 5th, Brenda Hillman and Bob Hass read from their work (I’ve never seen the library so full of people!) and on Sunday, April 28th, we concluded the month with a series of poetry readings. Once again, JJ Wilson and Karen Petersen generously offered the Sitting Room for the readings. We took a chance, held the event in the garden framed by redwoods, and were reasonably lucky with the weather (JJ had a stack of hats and blankets for the sun and wind). A California quail and an American robin made cameo appearances during the readings.

Sandra Anfang read from her new book, Xylem Highway, and Tim Nonn from his new collection, The Path Worn by Love. Many thanks to the poets, audience members, JJ Wilson, Karen Petersen, and Jenny Blaker, who set up all the refreshments!

OK – now that the events went smoothly, I have a confession. On Saturday, April 27th (a day before the Sitting Room readings), I was up in Grass Valley, Nevada County, at the Sierra Poetry Festival (reading and giving a workshop about poetry and film)! The festival featured Forrest Gander, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Matt Zapruder, Karen Terrey, Marcello Hernandez Castillo, Blas Falconer, Molly Fisk, Sarah Borjas, Lucille Lang Day and Ruth Nolan (co-editors of Fire and Rain, a new anthology of California poetry), and Chris Olander, who became the new Nevada County Poet Laureate!

Driving down from the Sierra foothills on Sunday morning, straight into preparations for the April 28th readings, was slightly nerve-wracking! Anyway, all went well.

OK, a couple of announcements for May 2019. As part of my Legacy Project, I am hosting two poetry walks. I will be so pleased if you can join me at Fairfield Osborn Preserve on the evening of Friday, May 10th. The event is called Poetry for a Changing Landscape, a continuation of an event that was held last November. If you’d like to go to the Preserve, please send an email to creekshade@gmail.com and I will send you directions and details. The second event on Sunday, May 12th is an afternoon walk through Glen Oaks Ranch. Between 2 and 5 pm, I will be leading a walk exploring the land and responding to it with writing. Parts of Glen Oaks that burned during the 2017 fires are now making a comeback. You are most welcome to attend both walks!

Best wishes,
Maya Khosla
Poet Laureate, Sonoma County (2018-2020)

________

April 2019

Grandmother Oak’s Daughter

“Why do you think people call this Grandmother Oak?” I asked 30 sixth-grade students from James Monroe Elementary School. We were standing under a dome of dark leaves, the 700 square-foot canopy of a coast live oak, by the side of a sloping trail in Pepperwood Preserve. The entire hillside burned during the 2017 fires; many of the oaks are alive.

“Because she’s old.” “Huge…” “Like – really old!” “She made it through the fire?”

For a few moments we counted the number of sounds, dominated by Pepperwood Creek in full flow. Further along the trail, while we took turns sitting on the low branch of a younger, “bench” oak, one of the students said, “This must be Grandma Oak’s daughter!”

Many thanks to Phyllis Meshulam (CPITS), Nikki Winovich and Mike Persinger, teachers at James Monroe Elementary School, and all their students for coming over to hike and read poetry in Pepperwood Preserve. Mike Persinger’s students were enthusiastic despite the rain, and created their own film based on the trip). Thanks also to Creative Sonoma and The Sitting Room Library for supporting the field trips.

Poetry month is here! We’ll be celebrating poetry all month, with public events on April 25th at Readers Books, Sonoma and on April 28th at the Sitting Room Library. The April 28th afternoon readings will begin at 2:30 and conclude by 5:00 pm. Please feel free to arrive by 2:00 so you have time to enjoy the refreshments! We will be celebrating many Sonoma poets, new books by Sandra Anfang (Xylem Highway) and by Tom Nonn (The Path Worn by Love). The Sitting Room has an announcement online (www.sittingroom.org/events.html; please scroll down to April 28th for the description). The April 25th reading at Readers Books in Sonoma will feature readings by new poets from Sixteen Rivers Press. Barbara Swift Brauer, Camille Norton and I will be reading.

Best wishes,
Maya Khosla
Poet Laureate, Sonoma County (2018-2020)

http://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla/copy-of-poet-laureate-project

________

February 2019

The Good Work of the Seasons

The Legacy Project continues — with the sounds of rain and poetry! On the afternoon of January 13th, a bright afternoon between rain events, several Sonoma writers got together to read and to hear others at Pepperwood Preserve’s Dwight Center Gallery. The poetry was intense and powerful. The film project is beginning to take shape…

More readings will follow — there’s one planned for April 28th at the Sitting Room Community Library. With a little more than another full year as Sonoma’s poet laureate, I continue to invite people to attend or be a part of the reading series. It’s become a habit. Spontaneously, I answer questions with:

What I’m doing? I’m working on the Legacy Project, a series of gatherings and filmed poetry readings that began with responses to the 2017 Sonoma Fires. Given time, the themes have broadened naturally. Some poems focus on healing and renewal at personal or landscape levels (or both), some reflect on the fires; still others venture beyond those themes. Do attend one or more of the events* …

The Legacy Project collage shows a growing number of voices that are a part of the reading series…

On a related note, we’re stepping out into the field on February 23rd. The Petaluma Arts Center is offering a field-based program called From the Land to the Page. Beginning with an introduction at the Petaluma Arts Center, we will take off — bound for Annadel State Park. The park and neighboring lands are experiencing an astonishing level of post-fire renewal — giving us a chance to understand the way they have been shaped by rain, wind and fire since long before the dinosaurs. Scores of trees with fire scars are leafing out, while the standing dead trees support nests and dining areas for birds and other animals. All will be invited to absorb the landscape, pen down their thoughts and share them in a supportive environment.

*The Sitting Room Community Library is sponsoring many of the upcoming events — a big thank-you to the library!

Best wishes,
Maya Khosla
Poet Laureate, Sonoma County (2018-2020)

http://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla/copy-of-poet-laureate-project

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December 2018

As you bustle through the holiday season,

do spend a moment thinking of a powerful poem that caught your attention this year. My poet laureate project, The Legacy Project, has given me opportunities to record many powerful Sonoma voices in film. The materials will continue to grow with plans to continue filming Sonoma poets in 2019. While I’m thinking about it, I would like to thank all who made the 2018 events happen and all who attended them –  at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, The Sitting Room Community Library, Armstrong Woods, Aqus Café, Santa Rosa Junior College, Petaluma, the Petaluma Poetry Walk, Rohnert Park Public Library, Munroe Elementary School, Sebastopol Regional Library, the Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Fairfield Osborn Preserve and Pepperwood Preserve. Wow – and the list is expected to grow next year!

And before I forget: please keep a January event in mind…On January 13th, 2019, a poetry reading will be held at Pepperwood’s Dwight Center. More details will be listed here and on the Pepperwood Preserve website (www.pepperwoodpreserve.org) in January.

Best wishes,
Maya Khosla
Poet Laureate, Sonoma County (2018-2020)

http://creekshade.wixsite.com/mayakhosla/copy-of-poet-laureate-project

time stops for stars, while
a soft unheard rush of wings
brings winter nights home

– Maya

________

November 2018

The Beginning of a Poetry Series

The month of October 2018, one year after the October 2017 fires, was marked by many moments of silence, commemorations, poetry, music, and art events across Sonoma County. On October 14th many writers gathered at Pepperwood Preserve to read from their work dealing with the evacuations, the losses, the luck, and major realizations.* It was the beginning of a poetry reading series that will continue through 2019 and will broaden to include formal readings, informal gatherings, and walks through lands advancing through the stages of rejuvenation — the oaks, bays, redwoods, the chaparral plants and wildflowers and wildlife – even black bears — making a comeback (http://radio.krcb.org/post/filmmaker-and-poet-brings-art-fires).

Related to making a comeback, I would be pleased if you could join me for Poetry for a Changing Landscape in Fairfield Osborn Preserve on Sunday November 11th (https://conta.cc/2ofJ3Eo; please scroll down to the final event and click on Sunday, November 11th) And there’s one more informal gathering for the fall at the Sitting Room on November 29th, 4-6 pm (http://www.sittingroom.org/events.html; please scroll down to the final event). I’m delighted so many have gained from our fall 2018 gatherings – more are being planned!

For the future readings on January 13th 2019 (Pepperwood Preserve**), the end of April 2019 (The Sitting Room) and other future readings, I am hoping to gently shift the focus towards healing and renewal at both personal and landscape levels. My hope is that the readings can progress thematically over time. With permissions from poets, the readings will be filmed so I can begin to create a film featuring Sonoma poets. Do let me know if you’d like to participate.

Maya Khosla
Poet Laureate, Sonoma County (2018-2020)
www.mayakhosla.com

* ”Rising from the Ashes: The Heart of Poetry,” a gathering held at Sebastopol Center for the Arts a month after the October 2017 Wine Country Fires, inspired me to continue with a reading series, a gathering places for poets and their audiences. Over 20 people walked up to share their poems, music, scratch-notes, thoughts gathered in the haste of a moment. “Rising from the Ashes” was sponsored Word Temple, and organized by 2016-2018 Poet Laureate Iris Jamahl Dunkle, and by Terry Ehret, Katherine Hastings, Larry Robinson, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and the Poet Laureate Selection Committee.

** Pepperwood Preserve in the News:
www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pepperwood-preserve-rebound-20181023-story.html
www.pressdemocrat.com/specialsections/8419117-181/rebuilding-sonoma-county-revival-underway

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September 2018

Note how the Summer Light Turns

So much of this year has been full of new beginnings. If you have a moment, stop and think about one snapshot. It could be a photo you took with your phone or camera, or it could be in an image that has remained with you. You might have been in a rush, but for some reason that moment, that image, was important. And you hoped to keep in mind.

Consider the details of that image and take a moment to write about it. Perhaps you can simply create a short sketch in words, a sketch that expresses just a few details of that image. Or perhaps it can go a little beyond that moment – how you felt, why it was important, who else was present, and who was absent. There’s no pressure here – the minute you put yourself under pressure to write is the minute the words tend to escape like so much water in a stream. So begin small and simple, just a few words to celebrate that image. Your lines don’t have to follow any rules – just as long as they recapture that moment…

Maya Khosla
Poet Laureate, Sonoma County (2018-2020)
www.mayakhosla.com

https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/10/20/heating-up-california-spotted-owls-and-wildfire/
KRCB TV Sonoma fire update

 

 

 

 

 

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January 2018

Let’s Poem a Day our Way into 2018!

For most of us in Sonoma County, 2017 has been a challenging year with the most dramatic and devastating event being the wildfires that blazed through and forever changed our lives this past October. To begin 2018 on a positive note, I’m leading a free, online poem-a-day group on Nicenet – http://www.nicenet.org. Each morning, I will post a prompt and you will have all day to write a poem in response to it and post it under the day’s prompt. You will also be able to see all your fellow group member’s poems posted and you can leave brief comments on these poems if you like. (We try to stay positive though in a poem-a-day environment though because let’s face it it’s tough to write a poem in a single day!) Many of the prompts will be about the Sonoma and Napa county wildfires: remembering and reflecting on all that we lost and all that we gained as a community from this tragedy.

All are welcome to join! (There is no age limit!) So, please tell a friend! Also, if the idea of writing a poem-a-day terrifies you, don’t worry! You can join and only write a few poems.

Here are the instructions to join:

Go to http://www.nicenet.org
Set up an account.
Find our class: Poem a Day January 2018
Enter the key: 838ZZ63P36

I look forward to writing with you! Please feel free to send me an email (iris.dunkle@gmail.com) if you have any questions!

Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2016-2017

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Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s  poetry collections, Gold Passage (2013) There’s a Ghost in this Machine of Air (2015), and Interrupted Geographies (2017), are available at: www.irisjamahldunkle.com.

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Archives of previous Poet Laureate columns may be found here for 2012,  2013, 2014,  2015 and 2016-2017.