Poetry Month Wrap-Up, Home-Grown Gems

National Poetry Month ends with a Santa Barbara City College poetry workshop and a reading at the Arlington Theatre next week with National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman.

However, Santa Barbara poets, myself included, will continue to poet during the coming months. Santa Barbara will host at least four poetry events in May. We are blessed with a vibrant poetry community. At my writing workshop at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, every seat was filled. I was thrilled to see how many people came to spend a couple of hours writing ekphrastic poetry, poetry in response to art. An unlikely couple who attended was Santa Barbara Middle School student Ellery Green and her mom Seraphim Albrecht. Ellery inspired everyone with her poetry and sketching skills. During the workshop, she had time to compose three poems. The future of poetry is safe.

Another young, local poet, Takunda Chikowero, took to the stage on Saturday at our Poetry in the Parks event. He read his award-winning Earth Day poem. Takunda is in the 4th grade at Isla Vista Elementary School and the winner of the 2024 Martin Luther King Santa Barbara (MLKSB) Poetry Award. The young student is in the process of writing his first poetry book.

What I didn’t mention when I introduced him was that he is the younger brother of Kundai Chikowero, Santa Barbara’s Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador. For six consecutive years, Kundai won the poetry competition at the Martin Luther King Santa Barbara Essay and Poetry Awards program, from 7th through 12th grade. She was mentored by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. I’ve also worked with her over the years to present her poetry at the MLKSB awards celebration. She was always a natural and needed little coaching. Every year, Takunda would watch his older sister prepare for her award-winning poem at the Arlington Theatre. Now, he is following in her footsteps. It’s a joy to see his progress as a young poet.  

Santa Barbara County is currently searching for its next Youth Poet Laureate. The program was established in 2022 with Madeline Miller serving as the inaugural Youth Poet Laureate and Kundai Chikowero as Youth Poet Ambassador. Applications are due May 20 by midnight PST. Contact yplsbc@gmail.com for more information.

Another fun poetry connection is with Joshua Alan Richardson (pronouns: they/them) who attended my Día de los Muertos Poetry Reading at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art last November. At the time, I didn’t know they wrote poetry. Later, when we met again at the Alhecama Theatre, where Joshua was the event attendant, they mentioned being a poet. It’s nice to see the various poetry connections around town. When Joshua asked me for advice on how they might get published, I suggested the online submittable site, where you can send in poems to various journals, publishing houses, and contests. They shared some poems with me. This week’s poem and its translation in English comes from Joshua Alan Richardson, who publishes under the pseudonym Criollo.

Naufragar en el amor

by Criollo

Te sigo buscando
en la playa, la arena
entre cada ola
y en la marea.

Esperaba que ya soñando
en mi mente te hallaría
tal vez en mis fantasías
o despierto por la mañana.

Aún sigo pensando
que en la luz del día
vinieras y me dirías
las palabras que tanto quería
oír de ti la última vez.

Pero ya al no encontrarte
fuera de las ganas
que yo tengo de amarte
en mis mareos
me hundo por mi estupidez.

To Drown in Love

by Criollo

I keep looking for you
on the beach, the sand
between each wave,
and in the tide.

I was hoping that once dreaming
in my mind I would find you
perhaps in my fantasies
or awake in the morning.

I still think
that in the light of day
you would come and tell me
the words that I had wanted so much
to hear from you last time.

But now that I can’t find you
out of the desire
that I have to love you
in my dizziness
I sink for my stupidity.

Criollo is a California-born Salvadoreño. They recently graduated from UCSF with a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and a minor in Spanish. Their previous works have been published by UCSB Mission Bay Hospital. They are currently working on a collection of poetry and looking to create comfortable and accessible spaces for Chicanx/Latinx art and literature in Santa Barbara and the Central Coast.

Upcoming Poetry Events:

April 3: National Poetry Month Workshop with Lara Mimosa Montes, 1-2 p.m. Free and open to all, SBCC Multi-modal Lab

April 30: Amanda Gorman, An Evening of Poetry and Conversation with Pico Iyer, Arlington Theatre (1317 State St.), 7:30 p.m.

May 8: The Blue Whale Reading Series, Unity of Santa Barbara Chapel (227 E. Arrellaga St.), 5:30-7 p.m. Featured readers Peg Quinn and Christopher Buckley.

May 15: Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emeritus Paul J. Willis reads and signs his new poetry collection, Losing Streak, at Chaucer’s Books (3321 State St.) at 6 p.m.

May 18: Poets Respond to the Ruth Leaf exhibit at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (229 E. Victoria St.), 2 p.m.

May 21: Poetry Walk, S.B. READS Odes, Farmers’ Market, State Street and Canon Perdido, 4-6 p.m. Meet local poets and read their poems. Poems featured in the Poetry Walk were written last fall during a Santa Barbara Reads ode-writing workshop led by Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Melinda Palacio.

June 6: Typewriter On-Demand Poetry — receive a typewritten poem. The long-awaited repeat of last year’s event will happen on 1st Thursday in June, details TBA.