Tom Stanton, Poet Laureate of Benicia Features 10/7/2019

10/7/19 Tom Stanton host Elaine

Thomas Eric Stanton [American, 1947– ]). Is primarily known as a California Surrealist. His works engage many mediums, and often emphasizes the aspects of 'Performance'. He has produced books of poetry, and his Paintings are included in many public, private, and museum collections. He lives and works in Benicia, California. He is the current Poet Laureate of Benicia, California 

9/30/19 Maverick Night :  STORY TELLING hosted by Gary

Bring your stories in any format -- Poems -- Prose -- Ad libitum -- Pictures & Dialogue

--??

Sandra Anfang Features 9/23/2019

9/23/19 Sandra Anfang  hosted by Gary

Sandra Anfang is a poet, teacher, and visual artist. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including San Francisco Peace and Hope, Unbroken Literary Journal, Rattle, and Spillway. Her chapbook, Looking Glass Heart, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2016. Road Worrier: Poems of the Inner and Outer Landscape (Finishing Line Press, 2018) followed. A full-length collection, Xylem Highway, was released in March, 2019 from Main Street Rag. Sandra was nominated for a Best Short Fictions award and a Pushcart Prize. She is founder of the monthly series, Rivertown Poets, in Petaluma, California, and a California Poet/Teacher in the Schools. 

Core Samples

At the Nevada mining museum

our seven-year old has a chokehold on my arm

timid at first, his tentative eyes—

as if searching for rattlers—

sweep the iron-incensed bunker 

before they lock on the rows of core samples.

He pronounces the name

which doesn’t quite fit in his mouth

carves new grooves on his tongue.

The desiccated docent

voice bald as his quarry explains 

how cylindrical drills drone deep into stone

probe Earth's mantle

yielding smooth columns, pygmy pillars 

relics of a place where dinosaurs 

once cut their terrible teeth.

Drawn in, my child dons a scholar’s mask.

This is proof of something real

a piece of the fossil record

truer than anything I can give him

a staff to wrap his brain’s heart around

a bed of rock his feet can trust 

no ephemera in this metamorphic floor.

I flash on the day I could finally read most anything 

the skeleton key of my brain cracking the code

translating the thatch of storefront signs

the irony of the missing “i” in “realty”

my hopeful eyes pleading with my mother:

can we bring some home? 

At five I knew we were already fresh out.

Sandra Anfang

Juanita J. Martin Features 9/16/19

9/16/2019 Juanita J. Martin  hosted by Bruce

Juanita J. Martin is Fairfield’s first poet laureate, 2010-2012. She’s also a freelance writer, and
performance artist. Her poetry book, The Lighthouse Beckons, was accepted into the Solano
County Library. Martin’s next volume of poems, Quiet Intensity, is due out in 2019. She’s
published in Blue Collar Review, SoMa Literary Review, and others. Juanita is active in Ina
Coolbrith Circle, and Benicia First Tuesday Poets. Juanita was also a longtime member of
Redwood Writers from 2007-2017. Juanita is listed with Poets & Writers Directory of Poets. She has read at the Frank Bette Cultural Center for the Alameda Poets in the Annual Black History event. She often reads for the Beat Poetry Festival and 100 Thousand Poets for Change. Juanita has been a featured reader with Healdsburg Literary Guild, Petaluma Poetry Walk 2007 & 2016, as well as Berkeley Poetry Festival. She has also contributed to Sonoma Discoveries Magazine, a tourist magazine covering North & West Sonoma County, and the Coast.www.jmartinpoetwriter.com

A Bittern Wades in Lonely Water

—Juanita J. Martin

Foggy blanket hovers piney timbers

The brave who cavort with darkness

A mind judges himself along the waters’ edge

Against dilapidated death

Against the briny stench 

Of a burg

A shale-colored moon spotlights

A bittern at one end

The lonely end,

Where the wine of antipathy

Pours into a tall glass

Ripples of water are soothing 

a mind massages the longing 

finds solace there

A break in the mundane silence of living

(Third Place Ribbon-Solano County Fair 2016)

Tureeda Mikell Features 9/9/19

9/9/19  Tureeda Mikell        hosted by Jim

Tureeda Mikell, Bay Area Writing Project Teacher Consultant, Story Medicine Woman, published poet and writer, Qigong Healer, storyteller, lyricist, astrologer and performance artist, has published 72 CA Poets in the Schools student anthologies since 1989. Has performed at Lawrence Hall and Golden Gate Academy of Sciences, MoAD, Randell, Oakland, and The DeYoung Museums, and has been featured storyteller for National Association of Black Storytellers.    Her book, Synchronicity, Oracles of Story Medicine, soon to be published. 

   excerpts from

Spell’s Labyrinth

Why alter the altar?

Silence the Arc for an Ark?

Why douse sacred fire of every kind?

Who enters prize for this enterprise?

Why did the son of the sun worship with warship?

Prey on those who pray for peace,

Set sail for sale of piece,

With pair-of-dice for paradise?

Governments profit

Gamble with prophets

Covenant of light

Will joules perish in parish of jewels?

Who’s good is sacrificed for concepts of god?

By Tureeda