04 October
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I don’t know why I crawled under my potted bougainvillea, branches swooping wildly sideways, the trunk powerful enough to have split the pot long ago. Its days are numbered. Yet the life-force continues. Here among the under-branches, a branch remains with a few faded blossoms of stunning color, a kind of light-shot cerise. The tissue has grown so thin that these older blossoms glow like fuchsia windowpanes. It’s breathtaking, and almost registers as a wound. I’m thinking about Amy Uyematsu. Amy was a beloved friend. Years back, when cancer came to her, she wrote numbered ‘zap’ poems. Of course, she’ll survive, I thought, tallying soRead More →

07 November
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Couplets are a short form of poetry, and a very popular one! Couplets are two lines of poetry, typically written in the same meter or rhyme. Couplets are an easy poetry to write, and as such are very popular to both read and write! Some of the most notable couplet writers are Shakespeare and Dr Seuss, each having written many couplets. While they can be written on their own, couplets also come at the end of sonnets, and other long poems. Series of couplets are also common. There are a lot of different kinds of couplets, and today we’ll be talking about heroic, split, open,Read More →

08 October
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Sonnets are an older form of poetry, and one of the most well known kinds of poetry. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, with a formal rhyme scheme, and usually (though not always) written with ten syllables per line of poetry. Most know them through Shakespeare, as he wrote over a hundred sonnets and many are taught in English Classes. His style of writing them is difficult for many to replicate, since he wrote in iambic pentameter. However, his style is not the only way to write a sonnet. There are four kinds of sonnets: Petrarchan, Shakespearean, Spenserian, and Miltonic.   A PetrarchanRead More →

28 November
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For this week’s blog, I have the privilege to share four more impactful stories. Working with CA Humanities has helped our community share and learn from these valuable stories. “Dear America: Telling the World We Lived,” preserves the powerful voices of older people. Not only has the pandemic taken some much away from us, it has also helped us grow stronger. I hope that everyone has enjoyed these stories as much as I have. This week, I am honored to share with you the stories and poems by David Oliveira, Mary Kay Rummel, Russell Stockard, and Jeanne Munesato. David Oliveira shares his story about movingRead More →

04 November
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I’ve had the honor to listen to a few more stories and poems from our grant, “Dear America: Telling the World We Lived.” Just a reminder, the Ventura County Poetry Project is working with CA Humanities to preserve and learn from powerful voices of older people. Due to the pandemic, we’ve experienced a devastating loss. “Dear America: Telling the World We Lived” was created to record significant experiences in poems and stories from older writers and pass them on to the younger generation. I was incredibly moved by Andrea Carter Brown, Ruben Lee Dalton, Shigeru Yabu, and Lydia Cruz-Machlitt’s stories and I hope that youRead More →

18 October
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“Dear America: Telling the World We Lived,” is a new initiative that the Ventura County Poetry Project is working on, based on a grant from CA Humanities. It provides an incredible insight to many stories from the community. This project is made to preserve and learn from powerful voices of older people. Due to the pandemic, we’ve all experienced a devastating loss. It feels like there has not been enough time to stop and grieve over the losses we have experienced over the last year. Death rates, especially in seniors, have increased immensely due to the pandemic. “Dear America: Telling the World We Lived” wasRead More →

26 January
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Submit poems by April 21st  to vcpoetryproject@gmail.com poems should be no longer than 35 lines.   You name should not appear on the poem   include a cover sheet that includes the name of the poem, your name, address, phone number, email and the name of your favorite local library.   adult category youth category ( 12-18 years of age)Read More →