If you missed April’s Writers of Kern meeting, here is the video of the first Virtual Meeting held due to the Covid-19.
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Blog
18 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam
La Vida Lenta
(The Slow Life)
by Rose Lester
Oh so swiftly flying by
Winter, spring, summer, fall
The hours, days and minutes cry
For time to answer freedom’s call.
I long for soulful emptiness
And silence to abide;
A quiet heart that grace does bless
And angels by my side.
Rose Lester is a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice. As a true renaissance woman, she aspires to all things creative and is at home in a variety of creative mediums from song writing and singing, to playing her violin and guitar, to painting and sculpting, or writing poems about life and transformation. Her poems have been published in several anthologies and online websites. She volunteers for the Art for Healing program at Mercy Hospital and helps lead the Threshold Choir that sings at the bedside of those in need of comfort and peace.
17 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam
No Homilies, Please! (an Italian Sonnet-1975) by LaVerne Lovelady Don’t tell me to accept the things I see! The ills my mother suffered at the hands of sexist attitudes, were not the Plan of Father God, but that of bigotry. Don’t speak to me that lie about my Place, with child, at home, without the pow’r of choice; nor ask me speak, with condescending voice, submissive to this patriarchal race. For there are ways of death I will not choose; from weapons only feckless fools contrive. I fight a fight I do not dare to lose. The fire within burns blessed, and will survive, to purify the fiendishly obtuse; to purge the dross — restoring burnished lives.
LaVerne Lovelady is a 30-year veteran teacher of English and Interpretive Fiction. Her poems, essays, memoirs, and political commentary have been published in various publications through the years, including the WOK Anthology 2017 and CWC Literary Review. Her first novel The Quay Question was recently published. LaVerne is a native Oklahoman, a direct descendant of the Alabama Creek Path Cherokees. She lives in Bakersfield with three adorable cats: Soo-Lin, Siam, and Miss Kitty.
16 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam
When the Going Gets Tough by Sandy Sanford When the going gets tough, the tough get softer. They have less to protect, as all around them have their defenses down. When the going gets tough, the tough can care, be strong for others, reach out and be there. The tough weather the storm with those endangered. When the going gets tough, the tough take off their boxing gloves, reach out a soft hand, warm others with a kindness. When the going gets tough, the tough shave their calluses on real fear, and offer joy and hope to those in despair. When the going gets tough, the tough stay strong, so when those around melt down, they do not disappear. When the going gets tough, the tough can be vulnerable. They know they are strong. They’ve practiced their fight song.
Sandy Sanford, a Bakersfield native, left town for thirty years to see the world. When she returned in 1999, she surprised mostly herself, and stayed. The world now comes to her. Dozens of International Students from CSUB have found her home, their home away from home.
Known as an adventurer, challenger, connector, participator, friend; she loves travel, photography, scuba diving, a good story, journaling and synchronicity.
15 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam
Siddhartha Transformed by Portia Choi Siddhartha in lotus repose, palms touching in mind and heart, soles raised in gratitude. He was breathing with his brother, the bodhi tree. He inhaled morsels of wisdom, and exhaled the encumbrances of his past – castle, wife, feasts – memories evaporating like a mist. He lived the rock years of self-denial and hunger- only sitting and breathing: seldom eating or thinking. With each breath, he emptied his mind of delusions; breathing in sparks of Truth. One breath then another breath, continuing for years and years. In time, Siddhartha’s orange garment covered a being of light. Its energy oozing from all his pores that flowed upward into a cosmic Oneness. His mind opened. He became Buddha to serve, to heal and free “all beings from suffering.”
Portia Choi published a chapbook of her poems Sungsook, Korean War Poems. At Writers of Kern meetings, Choi met Helen Shanley and MaryLou Romagno who became good friends and mentors. Choi hosts First Friday Open Mic and publicizes National Poetry Month in April. She administers www.kernpoetry.com. Contact Choi ssportia@aol.com.