Poetry Connection | Connecting with Local Poets

Goleta Valley Poetry Series at Goleta Library Is a Little-Known Gem

Front row, from left, Anna Mathews, Daniel Thomas, Shirley Geok-lin-Lim, and Dylan Farrell. Back row David Starkey, left, and Cie Gumicio | Photo: Melinda Palacio

In a case of IYKYK, then you know that the Goleta Valley Poetry Series is one of the best-kept secrets in our local poetry scene. Poet Laureate Emeritus, David Starkey, runs the series twice a year. He pairs seasoned and youth poets, with the help of Cie Gumucio, who is the Santa Barbara County Coordinator and Poet Teacher with Cal Poets in the Schools. Starkey says he adopted the idea from a New England poetry series, The Liar’s Bench.

This month’s Goleta Valley edition was outstanding. Perhaps knowing that the series might be put on hold due to the library’s upcoming renovation made each reader stand out for me. There was something special about each of the poets. The librarians are committed to the poetry series and just might come up with a creative way to keep it going throughout the renovation. Let’s hope they come up with a solution to keep the biannual series going. Meanwhile, if you want to write more poetry in the new year, sign up for David Starkey’s Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop at the Central Library next month on Sunday, January 12.

Shirley Geok-lin Lim | Photo: Melinda Palacio
David Starkey | Photo: Melinda Palacio
Daniel Thomas | Photo: Melinda Palacio

The line-up included Dos Pueblos High School student and 2023 Poetry Out Loud Regional winner, Anna Mathews (you may recall Anna from previous columns); 6th grader at Mountain View Elementary, Dylan Farrell; Daniel Thomas; and Professor Emerita Shirley Geok-lin Lim, who merits her own write-up — look for more in a future Poetry Connection column. A proud Goleta resident, the UCSB Professor Emeritus said she was happy to be presenting at her local branch.

Anna Mathews is a poet to watch. As a Poetry Out Loud Regional winner, she knows how to deliver a poem, and even offers some hand choreography. Her powerful poems linger in the ear and heart. Dylan Farrell, age 12, opened the reading series. He said it was his first poetry reading. However, he seemed so at ease at the podium, you would think he was a much older, seasoned poet.

Nightmare

by Dylan Farrell
6th Grade, Mountain View Elementary

Nightmare
Tonight in the darkness, an image struck me
a land where love is a dream and hate is a dark reality where you find
strength in pain and beauty in death
when I arose from my slumber I vowed not to let this dark illusion become
a reality
yet my wounded heart fell
so I looked out the window, a portal and I threw my heart out
I projected my thoughts into the infant void
I screamed my mind to are beautiful country trying in vain to rid my life of
this nightmare
And the void answered back showing me a land of dreams a land where
you can unshackle your chains and set down your burdens
where love is your guide and hate is only a dark thought in the back of
your mind
As I looked through my portal my wounds hurt less and my scars
healed
yet my nightmare remanded It haunted me endlessly so I spoke
“‘I have tried fighting you and I have tried pushing you away so all that’s
left to do is to embrace you” and so I did
And I have never stopped
I hold it still to this day and for some strange reason I see things differently
when I see things hurt and tinged with despair
I look back to where we started
I look at a nightmare and I see a dream

Dylan’s original title was “Nightmare on Election Day, Tuesday November 5, 2024.” He wrote the poem after a presentation and lesson to his 6th grade class on how poets and politics have intersected over the years by Cie Gumucio. The class discussed Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still, I Rise,” and they watched and listened to Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb.” Cie asked the students to reflect on the inspiring words of each poet and write their own poems about their hopes for the future.

This week’s Poetry Connection also features two poems by Daniel Thomas who is equally at home writing about music and stillness. There’s a spiritual, yin and yang quality to his work. His collections of poems include, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn (2022) and Deep Pockets (2018). He has an MFA in poetry from Seattle Pacific University, as well as an MA in film and a BA in literature.

THE FADO SINGER

by Daniel Thomas

The word itself contains shadows,
as if the singer stands poised
between the saddened past
and the always fickle future, in a now
lit only by a glaring spotlight
that shines the sequins of her silver
dress and deepens the night sky
hidden in her eyes of black onyx.
Her long arms gesture to the balcony
and her voice trembles through
a languid melody in a minor key,
while three guitars pluck percussive
notes that frame her liquid arcs
like the simple setting of a fine
carnelian stone. Her Portuguese words
grant me liberty to hear only
rhythm and melody and the mouthed and trilled
consonants and vowels that might speak
of lost love, or death beside us
in the dim hall, or the deep sorrow
in these things we live beside. And so
I am transfixed by the origin of drama,
before plot or theme, just
the one life that shines through
her face, stares into darkness, sings
the pure song of her dangling fate.

GREEN PEARLS

by Daniel Thomas

When illness stills you, and worry weights
your limbs—when you rub your eyes to wake up
and the rose light of evening slants
across the dusty table—you take a walk,
but the neighborhood is empty—even the birds
have flown, taking with them the furnishings
of sound that make the world inhabitable.
You remember Midwest autumns—how herds
of maple leaves skittered across the blacktop.
Nestled among tree trunks and leafless shrubs,
they found their place of winter rest.
You, too, hurry down the driveway, brittle
as the dried husk of a seed pod. But within you—
green pearls in a frail shell.

Upcoming Poetry Events:

January 8: Blue Whale Poetry Reading, featuring Gabriella Klein and Sean Colletti, 5:30-7 p.m., Unity of Santa Barbara Chapel (227 E. Arrellaga St.).

January 12: The Art of Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop with David Starkey; Central Library, Faulkner Gallery (40 E. Anapamu St.); Sunday, 2-3:30 p.m., registration required.

January 16: Poetry Book Club, discusses Creature by Marsha de la O, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Timbres Books (1910 E. Main St., Ventura).

January 25: William Stafford Annual Reading, 2 p.m., at the First Crossing Day Use Area on Paradise Road in Los Padres National Forest. George Yatchisin will be the first reader and Emily Sommermann will play the violin.