Steve Arntson & Loie Johnson feature 8/6/2018

08/06/2018   Steve Arntson & Loie Johnson  hosted by Jan

Steve Arntson came to writing after musical studies at the University of Washington - he became interested in poetry as read at some of the open mics in San Francisco in the 80s and 90s while he would always love to read poetry before, it was only after hearing others share their work at places like Cafe Babar and the Old Spaghetti Factory and myriad other open mics around town that he committed to writing himself he believes in writing each day if possible and cites journaling as a way to realize that end

Lately he's enjoyed the experience of writing short stories as well and finds them fun to do after the stricter demands of imagery and metaphor

Over time he's narrowed the scope of the writing to geography, especially the Oregon coast and the open spaces of Nevada where the Burning Man Arts Festival is

He's grateful to many friends and writers who have influenced and also continues to study music

Loie Johnson is a local Bay Area poet who lives in Palo Alto.  She has been a writer and 
an artist beginning in childhood.

Loie has been published internationally, and in many Bay Area anthologies.

She was a Feature at Kepler's in Menlo Park, and did a special Poetry Feature with a
 Shinto Art Presentation at the Waverly Writers after a visit to Japan.

She has also been a Feature at other Bay Area venues.

She and Elyse Garlock, a theatrical Mime, collaborated for many years, doing performances in
 Palo Alto, and Santa Monica.

“Once upon a time”—tell us a story? 6 min time limit.

07/30/2018 StoryTelling / Flash Fiction Night hosted by Jim

Bring Your Stories!

07/23/2018 Coleen McKee

07/23/2018  Coleen McKee  hosted by Gary 

Colleen McKee is the author of five collections of memoir, poetry, and fiction. Her latest book is called The Kingdom of Roly-Polys (Pedestrian Press).http://thepedestrianpress.weebly.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html For upcoming appearances, visithttp://colleenmckee.blogspot.com/.

 GIRAFFES

When I was little, a wild hill girl

of sun-scratched prairie

and shadowy woods cool

with the breath of the river,

I would spend hours in the tall tick-filled grass

just thinking about giraffes,

the mahogany and pale gold fur,

the arch of their necks bisecting the sun,

their elegant limbs listing and loping—

I’d dream of the giants of Africa

and play with the critters of Missouri,

walking sticks looking with paranoid eyes

at the tiny brown twig of my finger,

dizzy at being lifted

a mere two inches

from the dark grass.

                                                                                                

Solace is a Small Gray Stone

Solace is a small gray stone

at rest in the palm of your hand.

It is smooth. Curl your fingers

around it, but slowly. How solid

it is. Unlike sorrow, the stone

is finite. It can be weighed.

Feel the way

it carries the sun

even in the shade

of your thumb.

07/16/2018 David Zeltzer

07/16/2018 David Zeltzer hosted by bruce

   I started writing poems in grade school and I've never stopped. My writing continued but slowed down in grad school, and during my years in Boston working on human/computer interface design.   I’ve returned to the Bay Area, writing at full speed, and reading everywhere I can.

             While I was living in Eugene, Oregon, I co-founded the editorial collective that published 10 Point 5: A Magazine of the Arts. We published 7 issues from 1976-78, including poetry, images, and interviews with local filmmakers, dancers, Robert Bly, and the novelist Ursula Le Guin. My poems have appeared in Troubador Anthology, The Goodly Company, Mr. Cogito, Echo, 10 Point 5, Uut Poetry and Fur-lined Ghettos. You can get my digital chapbook, Realtime Babies, from iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and amazon -- you can hear me read all the poems in that volume at www.realtimebabies.net.   On May 30, 2016, I was the featured poet in the San Francisco Open Mic Poetry Podcast TV Show on youtube, in the segment hotsted by Clara Hsu.

melt the poured titanium

overgrown life has graves

growing normal pilots in paris

i can’t find trees inside us

to reach molybdenum anywhere

or salvage the ancient robot wheatfield violin dances

there’s not enough mustard gas

in the student aircraft wires

to guide us through the stalingrad meteors

i talked to her this week so please rescue us

and start over

tiny little machines listen to my favorite dying hole

the laser found my hot

stellar tape will say my name

and push the wrong button under the green bushes

i like to think i have no friend to meet

someday all my radios will sing stillness

stop the microscope satellite

under small trees

and marry the silent deathbed

gathered in dark mountain gunshots

— san jose

may 2015

Leticia Garcia Bradford features July 9, 2018

07/9/2018 Leticia Garcia Bradford hosted by Jim

Leticia Garcia Bradford is a poet, playwright and publisher. In 2014 she founded B Street Writers Collective (BSWC), Hayward, CA- a community of writers both amateur and professional. Her poems and stories have been published in local and national journals. She edited BSWC’s anthology FLY WITH ME which she is, also, the publisher for MoonShine Star Co. BSWC’s new anthology WHAT IS LOVE debuted this spring for which she is also editor and publisher. In 2017, Leticia toured around the entire SF Bay Area with her poetry and stories at open mics and readings. Check out her blogs: MY NEW ADVENTURE, living without a place to call home at leticiagarciabradford.blogspot.com, and LETICIA’S BLOG at lgbradford.blogspot.com has her poems and other stories.

Poem for Christopher

(and Kason)

I want to be alone

Life outside heavy and hardening

Driving streets freeway and stoplights with

fears of bumper to bumper

A terrifying scream from way down deep

Easier to sit inside

Inside I have my cat, my Lazyboy

My blanket which to hide beneath

My pillow where my lover rested his head

Alone I am safe and free

Safe and free

I want to be free

Escaping a past that haunts me

Nightmares of the restraints coupling my wrists

Cutting deep chafing my unprotected skin

Painfully reminding me that the release remains

elusive at the same time comforting

Letting go of the ills of my shallow heart

Shallow heart

I want to be a heart

blood pooling coursing to and fro

Dripping via veins arteries capillaries

Threat of vulnerability bearing down

Combined with insecurity of touch

Trusting you my friend

I’ve been here before

the rhythm the pounding

bathed in warmth 

Capture a dandelion, unpredictable wish

Unpredictable wish

I want to be a dandelion

Wisps of fuzz and seeds hidden in my wallet

A part of you I don’t know why

The night my nephew had had enough of this world

I found myself walking the neighborhood

Searching for soothing moonlight

Moon  Light 

I want to be the moon

With cows and cheese

Teasing stars with

tickles and butterfly kisses

Tears sprouting laughter

The man’s luminescent teeth hearty

like a lover on the horizon

the horizon

I want to be loved

Know that I am worthy

Quirkiness and all

Companionship

Independence

Respect for the life giving muscle

Transversing between time with patience and perseverance 

To find I’m alone

Leticia Garcia Bradford

© February 2018