In 2010, Juanita J. Martin became the first poet laureate for Fairfield, California. She was chosen based on her writing, her ability to articulate in many forms, and her vast resume. During her two years as laureate, she gave readings, workshops, book signings, and judged contests. She also wrote the poem for the City of Fairfield about Fairfield, called The Heart of Solano. She also wrote the first poet laureate program. In 2013, her book, The Lighthouse Beckons, a collection of poems, was accepted into several branches of the Solano County Library. Her poem, Emancipate Me, was accepted into Benicia Historical Museum’s exhibit, Freedom is a Hard Bought Thing, commemorating the Emancipation Proclamation’s 150th anniversary.
Arlene Biala is a Pinay poet and performance artist born in San Francisco, CA and raised in the South Bay. She has been participating in poetry performances and workshops in the Bay Area for over 30 years and was Poet Laureate of Santa Clara County for 2016 and 2017. Her poetry has been described as “grounded in ritual object and ritual practice, mantras that resonate within the body, and plant the body firmly in the world.”
She is the author of bone, her first chapbook of poetry published in 1993; continental drift, published by West End Press in 1999; her beckoning hands, published by Word Poetry in July, 2014 and winner of the 2015 American Book Award; and one inch punch, published by Word Poetry in October, 2018. She received her MFA in Poetics & Writing from New College of CA, and was the recipient of an artist residency at Montalvo. Performances and workshops include National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. with U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and Diana Garcia for “Poets Unite!” an evening of readings and conversation honoring United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, with poetry based on the “One Life: Dolores Huerta” exhibit; University of Texas at El Paso; Writers’ Week at UC Riverside; Kuwentuhan – A poetry project led by Barbara Jane Reyes in collaboration with The Poetry Center at SFSU; SFJAZZ Center; San Francisco Asian American Jazz Festival; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Manilatown Center at the I-Hotel; La Pena Cultural Center; APAture at Intersection for the Arts; Santa Clara University; San Jose Poetry Festival; and SOMArts Center in San Francisco. She has also performed for and taught creative writing workshops with elementary and high school youth.
D.L. Lang is a contemporary American poet and spoken word artist. The author of over a dozen poetry books, Lang has been writing poetry for over 25 years. She has performed her poetry on stage hundreds of times at protest rallies, county fairs, literary festivals, open mics, poetry circles, bookstores, libraries, and live radio broadcasts.
From 2017 to 2019 she served as Vallejo, California’s Poet Laureate. Her poems have been awarded with numerous county fair ribbons, transformed into songs, used as liturgy for prayer, and to advocate for peace, justice, and a better world. An internationally published poet, D.L. Lang’s poetry has been anthologized in dozens of titles worldwide.
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Cassandra Bousquet is 18 years old. She enjoys knitting, reading, spending time in nature, and participating in theatre and chorus. She has been writing all her life and hopes to be a successful author in the future. Cassandra is a recent graduate of the Youth Climate Ambassador program put on by San Mateo County’s Office of Sustainability, San Mateo County Office of Education, Citizens’ Environmental Council of Burlingame and Peninsula Clean Energy. Her work is featured in the collaborative poem, “Breathe,” which appeared in Nature & Culture 2021 Festival Book (Copenhagen: Red Press Kulturhuset Islands Brygge & Københavns Kommune, 2021). She is continuing her climate activism through her Instagram @unitedagainstclimatechange
Poem on Belonging
AN ARTIST
I have red hair like my mother.
My mother always told me we were magic
And I think there is a part of me that is burning
But it may not be my hair, it may just be the artist in me,
The light that radiates from my being, the madness that so many don’t see
The urge to write and write and write until my wrists don’t work
The ability to fight and fight and fight until I get what I need,
Whatever I can do to help the earth which is the best I can do for humanity.
I can talk with my eyes and I can talk with my hands,
I’ve been thinking about artists and the ones who don’t understand
I’ve been thinking about Van Gogh and Millay and Tchaikovsky
About the beauty of their minds and the tortured colors of their lives
In my room, hangs a poster of Vincent, and through him, I think I see
I come from lupine and buckeye, cherry-plum and blackberry
Nasturtium, jasmine, poison oak and rosemary
I come from a broken white bench
And a dusty, wild mountain
I come from good friends
And an overflowing water fountain
I have always been me, and I’ve always known it truly
How to have a tea party, and pet flowers and find the joy
Sometimes the truth is hidden, sometimes the veil of dusk hangs too thick
Sometimes the clouds fold into each other and I find myself enmeshed in grey
And so I turn to paper and pen until the sun shines again
Until the springtime sings sweetly its farewell to cold decay
I have always been writing; it is like breathing, so I must
I have always been humming, skipping this way and that
I’ve been wondering lately, about what a human means
About being, and singing, and regrowing wings
I have stardust in my veins or in my blood, just somewhere in there
I learned that long ago and have never forgotten that fact
When I think of who I am, I say my name; it seems to describe me well enough
But I feel something lacking, some scent my soul is slowly sipping
Some melody of delicate strength that is not ready to be heard yet
When I love, I am everything
When I fear, I am nothing
When I am angry, I am boiling
When I am sorry, I am melting
I am passion and pain and gold-dusted feathers
You must see me to sense me
You must read me to hear me
You must feel me to know the real me
I am wild and wonderful and very unwise
I have a tangible soul I can pull out through my eyes
I am the sun and the rain and every kind of weather
I am everything to love and everything to despise
I hug the trees and lie in the dirt
I say, “This is where I came from” and thank the earth for giving me life
I worry I am not worthy of it
And then remember that the leaves don’t care
The moss doesn’t even wonder why it is there
It simply exists with the life-force of love
I simply exist as another thread of the tapestry
And I weave golden and tightly and connect with the others who don’t know
I try to spread light and become part of the flow
Even if I don’t always know where to go
I have red hair like my mother.
My mother always told me we were magic.
I stand tall on the mountain top and gleam in the sun.
I know who I am and I know where I come from.
I know I am an artist, lupine and buckeye, stardust in my veins.
Cassandra Bousquet is 18 years old. She enjoys knitting, reading, spending time in nature, and participating in theatre and chorus. She has been writing all her life and hopes to be a successful author in the future. Cassandra is a recent graduate of the Youth Climate Ambassador program put on by San Mateo County’s Office of Sustainability, San Mateo County Office of Education, Citizens’ Environmental Council of Burlingame and Peninsula Clean Energy. She is also a San Mateo County youth ecopoet in an Academy of American Poets & Mellon Foundation-founded project. Her work is featured in the collaborative poem, “Breathe,” which appeared in Nature & Culture 2021 Festival Book (Copenhagen: Red Press Kulturhuset Islands Brygge & Københavns Kommune, 2021). She is continuing her climate activism through Instagram (@unitedagainstclimatechange).
Ecopoems
THE WOMAN AND THE OCEAN
The ocean came
And swept away
All of the memories that lay on the sand
All of the jealousies and contraband
Into her depths, these frightful follies flew
Unleashing sorrow, and toxins too
The man who gave his wife a plastic ring
Was swept to his death by the ocean’s wing
The wife, she cried, in life, she tried, to live in simple elegance
But every time she came to the shore, to mourn the wasteful days of yore
She was surrounded by plastic remnants, skeletal fragments
Of a life
One day she sat and looked at the sky
Reflecting that she, not plastic, was made to die
She stared at her finger, bony and bare
And recollected the ring that once had been there
Cheaper than diamonds, but oh so costly!
For it had wreaked havoc when tossed by the sea
Plumes of spray misted her face
Blessing her with awareness and grace
The waves kept crashing, as a bird keeps flapping, fighting for the right to fly, crying to reverse ‘goodbye’
The other people on the beach—they closed their eyes, they did not speak
As the woman flew into the breach, they were blind to their mistake
And they did not understand, those people on the sand, what the woman was trying to teach
They bought their partners plastic rings
Married themselves to the toxic king
De-beautified the beach and consumed without thinking
Some of them recognized what they were doing, but they did not try to stop the shameful un-doing
They said it was an inevitable thing
The woman whose body became part of the spirit
Of the great ocean that was so very ill
Cried out in pain, but the people couldn’t hear it
And she continues to cry out still
OCEANS RISING
Oceans rising
Temperatures reaching
Record highs
Climate lies
Are so ingrained in our consciousness
We aren’t surprised
When people say there is nothing we can do.
We don’t believe them,
But we’re not shocked
When they don’t believe;
We just groan,
And weep our salt tears
Into a river of rage,
Heating up our bodies
Becoming plastic;
It’s no wonder
The acidity of politics
Is breaking down into microaggressions
Polluting our world.
Oceans rising
Creatures dying
Heads trapped in plastic bags
Icebergs melting,
We’ve seen the pictures
Since we were children
It’s not surprising
More aren’t climbing
Off the escalator to hell
They say,
The current is too strong
But they,
Don’t reach out their hand to feel it
To see if that’s true.
Oceans rising
Islands sinking
Villagers burning trash
And dying from toxic fumes;
It’s not talked about enough,
Not nice to think about, will make you lose your appetite,
But children are hungry
In other countries
And even our own
But we don’t see it;
Our culture looks for muscle, not for bone.
Oceans rising
Heating, bleeding
How sick she must feel!
Some look to Space
For a way out
But we’re too far in
Too deep in chaos
Flailing, failing,
To back out now.
Oceans rising
How much more time have we?
For greedy old men to stop being so obsessed
With pretty pieces of paper
That they turn our world into plastic;
Cheap perfume of dust and chemicals
Tearing costly holes in the fabric of our atmosphere,
Pretending they can’t hear:
The desperate screams
Of our Mother
And of her children?
Originally from New Orleans, Megan Duffy Brown is a queer poet and writing coach/editor/tutor living in coastal San Mateo County. Her poetry has been published, most recently, in Poetry Ink, an anthology curated by Moonstone Press, by MiGoZine, and in Forum Magazine. In 2020, her poem “Life at the Center” was selected to commemorate the first anniversary of Jose Castro’s painting of the Middlefield Mural in North Fair Oaks, Calif. Before she began writing, Megan was involved in survey research and community organizing and worked to support the efforts of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in Nevada. Since March 2020, Megan has hosted a few online poetry events for artists both in and out of San Mateo County and now welcomes invitations to public appearances and in-person collaboration. She is proud to serve as a current judge for the local Word Slam youth poetry contest.
Poem on Belonging
I AM FROM
I am from a sliver
from a bowl of water
and polite requests for gold
I am from a damp oasis
of reptiles
beguiling, ancient
under the shade
of wide-open hands
where Spanish moss dangles
I’m from an education
in difficult spelling
(Tchoupitoulas)
and hugging the tearful
From lower your voice! and
speak your mind!
I was once from
the Baptists who hopped the fence
I’m from a city
that care should recall
from bejeweled sugar-bread
the root in coffee
from canoeing
to Mom’s hospital job
through the ‘83 flood
grab bags
of photographed joy
line my cypress dresser drawers
I am from
that first spark of light
a fern frond unfurling
for a certain healer
and a certain sailor
one long ago
aureate dawn.
Toni Mirosevich, Poet Laureate of Pacifica, grew up in a Croatian-American fishing family in Everett, Washington. Her books of poetry include The Takeaway Bin (Spuyten Duyvil), Queer Street (Custom Words), My Oblique Strategies (Thorngate Road, 2005, winner of the Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award for LGBTQ poetry), The Rooms We Make Our Own (Firebrand Books), and Trio: Toni Mirosevich, Charlotte Muse, Edward Smallfield (Specter Press). She is the author of a book of nonfiction stories, Pink Harvest, winner of the First Series in Creative Non Fiction Award and Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Her new book of linked stories Spell Heaven (Counterpoint Press, 2022) tells the tale of a gay couple’s move to a Northern California coastal town where they find comradery and meaning with a community of outsiders living by the sea’s edge. Her multi-genre writings have been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best of the Bellevue Literary Review, AutoBioDiversity: True Stories from Zyzzyva, Best Women’s Travel Writing. She is a recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Djerassi Resident Arts, Hedgebrook, among others. Recent writings can be found at Catapult.co. After early years working in various labor jobs she began teaching creative writing at San Francisco State University in 1991. She is a professor emeritus of creative writing at SFSU. Read Toni’s poem, “Crumble Cake.”
Cynthia J. Patton was appointed as the City of Livermore’s fourth Poet Laureate. Her term began July 1, 2017. Cynthia, a Livermore resident, is an attorney, author, consultant, and founder of the nonprofit organization, Autism A to Z. She has published two books on wetland protection and restoration, and a poetry collection, Across An Aqueous Moon: Travels in Autism (Finishing Line Press, 2016).
Her award-winning work has appeared in 14 anthologies, including the best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, plus numerous print and online publications, as well as her blog, An Unplanned Life. Two of her stories have been performed on stage, and the Museum of Motherhood featured her work as part of Mothers Are Making Art in November 2015.
Cynthia founded and hosts the popular Whistlestop Writers Open Mic at Swirl on the Square in downtown Livermore on the fourth Wednesday of the month. She formerly co-produced and hosted Storied Nights: An Evening of Spoken Word. She is a founding member of the Tri-Valley Branch of the California Writer’s Club.
Johanna Ely is the author of three poetry books, Transformation, Tides of the Heart—Poems for Benicia, and Postcards From a Dream (Blue Light Press 2020). She is an award-winning poet, and had a poem nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018. She has also been published in literary journals and anthologies. Johanna served as the sixth poet laureate for Benicia. In 2018, she collected poems written by the Benicia First Tuesday Poets, and put forth the anthology, Light and Shadow, published by Benicia Literary Arts. Until COVID-19 changed our world, Johanna hosted the monthly poetry series, Poetry Inside Out, inviting poets from all over the Bay Area to come to Benicia and read their work. She also enjoys writing ekphrastic poetry, and has coordinated many ekphrastic readings at the local galleries. Johanna is on the board of Benicia Literary Arts, and the Ina Coolbrith Circle of Poets, helping to organize prose and poetry events.
Cynthia Bryant was the Poetry Coordinator for Alameda County Fair in 2004 and in 2005. In June 2005 she was appointed the 4th Poet Laureate of Pleasanton and served until June 2007. Later, after returning to Pleasanton, Cynthia Bryant was appointed the 7th Poet Laureate serving 2011-2013. Published in over 50 anthologies, Cynthia’s poetry books Sojourn, Pebbles in the Shoe as well as No Time to Shoot the Poets have been accepted in the new Ina Coolbrith Circle library section in Sacramento’s State Library’s Special Collections Reading Room. Cynthia is currently the host of LAST SUNDAYS’ FISHBOWL POETRY in Monterey where she also resides with her husband Allen and fur babies, Oscar Wilde and Gracie Mae.
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