Poetry Connection: Poets and Light

Last week, light was a big theme in my week. Thanks to poet Dr. Monica Mody, who recently moved to town, I shared in my first Diwali ceremony. Diwali has been celebrated in India by people of all faiths. Mody said that, for her family, Diwali has been an occasion to reiterate the syncretic basis of the festival of lights, bringing together different traditions from different parts of the country. It’s a beautiful tradition and like many holiday celebrations, adopting a local family of friends is a good way to honor a cherished ritual when family is far away. The celebration is associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and it symbolizes the victory of light over darkness. With sweetness on our tongues and gratitude in our hearts, we each spoke our truth, lit our candles and enjoyed an Indian feast.

Lighting the candles reminded me of the sacred act of lighting prayer candles at church. Mody said she appreciated how everyone embraced the celebration, especially since she found herself being the only one familiar with the rituals. “To celebrate a smaller, informal version of Diwali with my new community here in Goleta/Santa Barbara was truly delightful and moving,” she said.

Only two days after celebrating Diwali, my dear friend Sojourner Kincaid Rolle passed away. Often described as a light in our community, our poet friend is now a bright light in the sky. She spent her last days at Serenity House, a hospice facility in Santa Barbara. In recent poetry events, I kept thinking of her enormous impact on all things having to do with poetry in Santa Barbara. Last Wednesday, as I emceed the Poetry Out Loud competition in Santa Maria, we took some time to acknowledge Sojourner’s commitment to the competition and to mentoring young poets. At a presentation of my music and poetry at the multicultural center at UCSB, I was reminded of how Sojourner was a big supporter.

I will certainly be thinking of Sojourner during Hospice of Santa Barbara’s 40^th Annual Light Up a Life. There will be four separate Light Up a Life Celebrations. Former Poet Laureate Perie Longo will read a poem during the first and last and I’ll read during the two middle celebrations in Montecito and Carpinteria. Each of the four ceremonies features speakers and special guests, entertainment, refreshments, and the lighting of a memorial tree. Guests can hang one or more stars in memory of a loved one or in honor of someone. Locations include: Santa Barbara (Lobero Theatre) Sunday, December 3 at 5:30 p.m.; Montecito (Upper Village Green), Wednesday, December 6 at 4 p.m.; Carpinteria (Seal Fountain) Saturday, December 9 at 5 p.m.; and Goleta (Camino Real Marketplace) Sunday, December 10 at 5 p.m.

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This Week’s Poetry Connection Poem is by Dr. Monica Mody, new poet and scholar in town.

Wild—

By Dr. Monica Mody

on tip of your feather, tip of your wing, soaring familiar as bones

cracking open to curve of dance that bends

         what spills from your eyes to its own rage, endemic

         ache, deep into memory that lives in your muscles,

so ancient—mothers

must have sung it to you crooning, wailing.

         Wild, resplendent wing burning, would have you know:

         what is free is fettered

to the tree—

owl & mineral root—

         whale praise—crag

         & mountain echo—

circles we make with our hands in air—

air we rub on our faces like water—

         moonlight threading hair, & thunder—

         blood from womb

distilling so Earth would know our color.

(Originally published in Bright Parallel, Copper Coin Publishing, 2023)

Monica Mody is a poet, scholar, and educator working at the intersections of liminal knowing/language, earth medicine, and decolonial frameworks of wholeness. She is the author of the full-length collection Bright Parallel (Copper Coin), the cross-genre Kala Pani (1913 Press), and three chapbooks including Ordinary Annals (above/ground press). Her poetry collection Wild Fin is forthcoming from Weavers Press. Her writing has won awards including the Sparks Prize, the Zora Neale Hurston Award, and the TOTO Award. Performances include the South Asian Literature and Arts Festival, Poetry with Prakriti, From Trauma to Catharsis: Performing the Asian Avant Garde Symposium, Delta Mouth, Noise Pop, and UCSD New Writing Series. She is a core professor in the Mythological Studies Program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute. Learn more about her at http://drmonicamody.com.