Poetry Connection | Friendships and Poetry

As we transition to daylight savings and autumn, I’m mindful of Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, Santa Barbara’s sixth Poet Laureate and an important member of the community for more than 40 years. She is constantly on my mind as she finds herself in hospice care. The times I’ve gone to visit her, she is surrounded by friends and family. This is a particularly difficult time for her and all who love her. There is even a GoFundMe to help the family with end-of-life expenses. As she faces the end of life, I marvel at the rich color of her smooth skin, her delicate hands, and her bravery and elegance. Friends told me that on one occasion, she thanked everyone for visiting her, forever a lady of grace. These visits, knowing that any moment could be the last, are the hardest.

Attending poetry readings is good medicine. Last week’s Mission Poetry Series featured local poet Julian Talamantez Brolaski (now of New York Times fame), crowd favorite and recent Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Lynne Thompson, and newcomer Gustavo Hernandez.

Gustavo is from Orange County, but has local ties via a sister who lives in Ventura. Their mother was in the audience and this was the first time she had ever heard Gustavo read. I looked over and saw the tears in their mother’s eyes as they read poems honoring their late father. As someone who started writing poetry after my mother passed away, I was also brought to tears by seeing the love and pride in Gustavo’s mom. It was a beautiful moment. Gustavo says they’ve been writing for years and talks to their mother about the poems all the time. Many of their poems are about grief, about losing their beloved grandmother and father. “Grief is a vast and strange thing,” they said. “This was a healing moment. I’m so grateful to all of you for being so welcoming, responsive, and kind.”

Lynne Thompson’s words are as sensuous on the page as on the ears. From her opening line, you know she will deliver a poem that lingers in the mind. For a while, she and I had a tradition of taking a photo with Sojourner. I’ve collected photos of the three of us for more than a decade. Sometimes they pop up on my news feeds. It was bittersweet that Sojourner was not able to join us. I had the pleasure of introducing Lynne and it was such a joy to experience her words in person.

Julian’s work strikes the perfect combination of sobering whimsy that reminds us not to take anything for granted; he’s a poet and musician to watch for. This was a wonderful conclusion to the Mission Poetry Series’ 15th season and a round of applause for the poets and series curator, Emma Trelles, Santa Barbara’s ninth Poet Laureate. Each poet from Saturday’s reading is featured in this week’s poetry connection. These are the poems that were also featured in the broadsides produced by the Mission Poetry Series.

REFUGIO

by Gustavo Hernandez

In the early morning there’s a sweetness

in the white smoke rising from our houses.

It is December and the night mist has left

behind its small complications. They are

water on dry corn stalks. It is everywhere:

rooster feather, tractor wheel, the largest

nativity scene en el rancho, where even

the devil is gold-flaked. This is and isn’t

memory, because I am trying to tell you

of a time when only my grandmother

was left to walk across our patio.

Years after she stomped across it

to undo the rusty deadbolt to the room

my sister had locked me in. Years after

she guided my hands across it to wash up

in my mom’s lavadero. After we were all

gone. Living in El Norte. No, y yo pa que

voy? Y quien va a echarle agua a la salia? 

O al arrayán? O a las rosas y a los aretes?

I am filling in words now, too. See, I am

trying to make sense of it for you, for us,

because on this side, things grow

on their own whether someone goes or stays.

I’m trying to make this okay for you. Show

you I can still feel her missing me, in this

body: no shirt in a stainless-steel kitchen,

hairy chest and the crow’s feet, my glasses.

I am trying to show you there’s never a day

when the hills don’t unfold in light and dew

and smoke.

3/4 Jazz

to honor Yusef Komunyakaa

by Lynne Thompson

I am subsumed by how it horns

into obsidian and how it’s held up,

ever-captive, on the streets where 

Coltrane still lives —  I love the teak

and teak and teak of it, the hand

drum that recognizes me dark  I

adore my ebony as it strides the F

key in Lateef’s flute — My ten toes,

coal-colored, can outwit every lyre 

as well as the didgeridus of aborigines,

coupling jet and the raven Agogô

Bell — I am sable & magical powers & 

can exhaust at least one hundred cymbals

polaroid poetics

by Julian Talamantez Brolaski

a rough garden

which appears as if

unmanicured

locusts used as lightning rods

chestnuts deep in the forest un

archived

your painting was ordinary and

your role quite ancillary

but you’re cute enough

keep the crotch shots out

collective consciousness is talking now

corn, tobacco, banana, kudzu

I could harpoon them all day if I wanted to

I was orienting pretty regularly

the calligraphic touch is everywhere

print and cursive mixing at the speed

of thought

the moon looking kinda smug

and east coast hazy with a bite

taken out of its shoulder

small victories,

like staying sober that day

or helping a worm cross the road

divas don’t deal in dregs

but you scribbled a little warble

that plucked every string of my heart

Upcoming Poetry Events:

November 8, Blue Whale Poetry Series, featuring the Indy’s own George Yatchisin and Robert Krut, at Unity of Santa Barbara, 5:30 – 7 p.m.

November 9, Poetry reading at the CEC Hub Monarch Exhibit, 6 -7 p.m., 1219 State Street.

November 12, Out of the Ground: Poems Inspired by Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 2:30 p.m.

November 16, Fire Songs: An Evening of Poetry, Stories, and Music with Melinda Palacio, 6 p.m. at UCSB’s MCC Theater. See event flyer.