Deborah P Kolodji - Poetry Scrapbook and Random Musings

Last night I saw Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Tonight is closing night. The Fremont Centre Theatre is a very small theatre, which is the kind of live theatre I really like because it feels so intimate.

Ray Bradbury made a surprise appearance and was available to talk to fans/sign autographs before/after the show and in intermission.

Tomorrow, Ron Zheng's "Poetography" exhibit is closing in Santa Monica.

"leaving my found eden" is a exhibit combining black and white photography with tanka poetry and is described as "snapshots of life and the encounters with loss, regret, missed opportunities and separation from loved ones that we all experience in our lives.

Some of the photographs and poems can be seen on his website:
http://www.poetography.org

The gallery is open from Thursday through Saturday, from 11 am to 6 pm. On Sundays, it is open from noon to 5 p.m., but Ron's show closes at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.

James Gray Gallery
Bergamot Station Art Center
2525 Michigan Ave. Bldg D4
Santa Monica

I'm planning to go there this morning.

Tomorrow is the last day for The Taming of the Shrew which is being put on by Shakespeare LA in the South Coast Botanical Garden. There are performances tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m.

Yvette and I are going tomorrow with a picnic dinner. If anyone else wants to go, let me know.

For those of you in Southern California, there’s only two days left to see Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 at the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena.

Originally set to close on May 24th, it’s been extended until tomorrow night. The show starts at 8:00 p.m.

Fremont Centre Theatre
1000 Fremont Ave
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(323) 960-4451

Tickets are $20, $10 for Students and $15 for Seniors.

Here’s a review:
http://valleynews.com/Glendale/Stories/Reviews/General-Reviews/Story~459212.aspx

My daughter and I have tickets for tonight. Anyone else planning to go?

above the tree line, the 2008 anthology of the Southern California Haiku Study Group is now available. (The introduction I wrote for the book is available at the first link above). We will be having a performance reading and book launch on August 24, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. at the Pacific Asia Museum.

In other haiku news, the copy of Mayfly containing my haiku arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Included with it was a flyer advertising Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem, a short film by Tazuo Yamaguchi that looks interesting. It was apparently filmed at the Haiku North America 2007 conference in North Carolina.

Haiku North America 2009 is going to be in Ottawa. Anyone planning to go?

Point Mugu State Park, July 20, 2008


toes submerged in sand
as the sea weaves its way
through beach boulders,
I feel pulled
in different directions

- Deborah P Kolodji


This is one of the tanka I will be reading at the APC Fine Arts and Graphics Gallery in Torrance on Saturday. It was written partially because of my beach trip and partially because of a Milton Zornes painting of similar rocks.

On Saturday, July 26, at 2 PM, Poets on Site, an ongoing cooperative Southern California poetic writing and performance group will present poems and music for the exhibit "Three Generations: Milford Zornes, Bill Anderson, Ron Libbrecht."

The reading will feature Pasadena and other Los Angeles area poets inspired by the exhibit.
Paul Sherman, oboe, and Rick Wilson and Asuncion Ojeda will perform on historical flutes to compliment the poems and to create interludes between them. The poems will be read as a docent style tour of the exhibit.

Participating poets are Theresa Antonia, Tom Bilicke, Denise Dumars, Sharon Hawley, Margaret Hehman-Smith, Lindy Hill, Lois P. Jones, Deborah P Kolodji, Janis Albright Lukstein, Radomir Luza, Mira N. Mataric, Ruth Nolan, Susan Rogers, Taura Scott, Mary Frances Spenser, Nancy Ellis Taylor, Maja Trochimczyk, Chris Wesley, Erika Wilk, and kathleenwilson There will be a special chapbook available for purchase to commemorate the event.

APC Fine Arts and Graphics Gallery
1621 Cabrillo Ave
Torrance, CA 90501
310-328-0366

Paper Lanterns in the Pacific Asia Museum courtyard
July 19, 2008


July breeze
the lazy bob
of paper lanterns

- Deborah P Kolodji

July is supposed to be a lazy-dazy, relaxing summer month. But last weekend was admittedly a bit crazy for me.

Fun, but crazy.

First, I camped out at Pt. Mugu with some friends (families whose sons were in Boy Scouts back in the days when my sons were young enough to be Boy Scouts) from Friday through Sunday.

Then on Saturday after enjoying some morning beach time, I drove back to Pasadena to lead the haiku workshop for the Southern California Haiku Study Group before driving right back to the beach. I arrived just in time for our communal dinner/cookout.

So, it was totally nutty, considering the price of gas. But I must admit I had a great time.

This morning while I was walking in the sand at Point Mugu, time_shark called to let me know what happened yesterday with the Rhyslings!

And as a particularly large wave left me drenched from about mid-thigh down, I discovered that the members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association have awarded the following:

2008 Rhysling Short Poem Award: "Eating Light" by F.J. Bergmann (from Mythic Delirium)
2nd Place: "Ice Palace" by Margaret Atwood (from The Door)
3rd Place: "The Oracle on River Street" by Rachel Swirsky (from Goblin Fruit)

2008 Rhysling Long Poem Award: "The Seven Devils of Central California" by Catherynne M. Valente (from Farrago's Wainscot)
2nd Place: "In Deepspace Shadows" by Kendall Evans (Mythic Delirium Books)
3rd Place: "The Engineer" by Bryan Dietrich (from Isotope)

Grand Master Award: Ray Bradbury

Congratulations to all the winners!

(l to r): Deborah P Kolodji, Dr. Thomas Rimer, Laurence Rimer, Janis Lukstein


On July 8th, two members of the Southern California Haiku Study Group attended one of the Japan Study Club’s lecture/dinner events at the Nibei Foundation along with several poets from the Poema7 yahoogroup.

The speaker was Dr. Thomas Rimer, a visiting professor of Japanese Literature at UCLA who just retired this year. Dr. Rimer has written, co-authored, and co-edited several books on Japanese literature, including A Reader’s Guide to Japanese Literature, The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945 (with Van C. Gessel), Japan: A Traveler’s Literary Companion (with Donald Richie and Jeffrey Angles), and Traditional Japanese Arts and Culture: An Illustrated Sourcebook (with Stephen Addiss and Gerald Groemer).

An interview with Robert Wilson appeared in Simply Haiku a couple of years ago.

It was an enjoyable evening. The food was great and Rimer is a good lecturer. It would be fun to go back in time and listen to one of his lectures at UCLA. The topic for the evening was haiku and Rimer opened his lecture by relating an incident from a visit to Japan where his host asked him to write a haiku in his guest book. He talked about renku and linked verse and how the opening hokku would identify the season, location, time of day, and general atmosphere of the poem. Then he gave us the following by Bashō, asking us to identify these four elements:

determined to fail
a weathered-exposed skeleton
I cannot help the sore wind
blowing through my heart

- Bashō

The audience with some coaching decided the season was “fall,” the location was “outside,” the time of day was “evening,” and the general atmosphere of the poem was “bereft.”

He also quoted Bashō as saying (paraphrased) to write haiku you need to leave yourself so that you don’t impose yourself on the object, you need to lose the subjective preoccupation with yourself to become one with the object.

Rimer also touched on haiku basics such as kigo (seasonal references) and kireji (cutting words). It was a wonderful beginning lecture on haiku.

Although I knew most of the information covered, I still found enjoyment in his presentation. As I left, I thought that I need to find that quote by Bashō because it so aptly describes the problem I see with some of the beginning haiku poets I sometimes work with in various workshops.

He also issued a challenge – to write a haiku about turnips. I wrote the following:

the one bowl
on the table not empty –
turnip greens

The next event in the Japan Study Club’s Dinner/Lecture series is “Dye Art: The Beauty of Japanese Dye Art” presented by Mrs. Setsuko Hayashi on Tuesday, August 26, 2008. Reception and dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. followed by the presentation at 7:30 p.m. Admission including dinner is $10 per person. You can register online at http://www.nibei.org.

Dreams and Nightmares #80 is out. I haven't seen my contributor's copy yet but it contains the longest poem I've published to date, "Man'yōshū at Galactic Edge: Poems from the Courtesan" as well as a sonnet, "Legends and Ghost Ships."

dreamnnightmare has the contents on his blog here

Also, I heard back from Marge Simon regarding my recent Star*Line submission and she’s taking “Falstaff Revisited” (a time travel haibun) for the March 2009 issue and two untitled tanka for the May 2009 issue.

Today samhenderson and I went to a reading at Vroman's for the Writer's Club of Whittier.

krylyr was one of the featured readers and he read a fun story called The Unbelievable Origin of Superspiff and the Toothpick Kid.

It was a good reading, mostly fiction, the only poet being Rosalie Thompson, whom I really enjoyed. There was a nice variety of voices, each story very different, which made for a really interesting afternoon of listening.

Afterwards, Samantha and I went to Burger Continental with her daughters. For the non-Pasadena area native, Burger Continental is not a burger place, even though they do offer hamburgers on the menu. I guess I'd describe it as having mostly Middle Eastern food although there's a variety of things on the menu - some Greek food, some Armenian food, even pizza -there's really no way to describe it, you have to experience it. There's a fabulous salad bar with such things as marinated mushrooms and salmon. As an appetizer, they'll bring you a plate of pita with taboule and hummus. Some of the dishes have interesting names, my favorite example being Chicken Breast Erotica which is chicken breast stuffed with jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon.

It can be really decadent, yet reasonably priced. We even ordered baklava. Needless to say, I came home with enough for lunch tomorrow.

(p.s. And krylyr, they really did have a belly dancer there tonight along with some live music.)

Seattle Japanese Garden, Washington Park Arboretum
June 29, 2008


On Sunday, we had a ginko walk and kukai at the Seattle Japanese Garden, which is located in the Washington Park Arboretum.

At the entrance was a haiku display with sample poems from Northwest Haiku members in addition to visiting haiku poets who were there for the HSA meeting. It was fun to see one of my haiku displayed so far from home.

the world so empty
without you in it -
summer sea

- Deborah P Kolodji
from fog and brittle pine, the 2007 Yuki Teikei Society Membership Anthology

After strolling through garden tranquility, we met at the viewing platform where Michael Dylan Welch explained the writing exercise we were going to do on our ginko walk. We were to write haiku on the theme of sound.

For awhile though, the only sound I heard was the whine of camera zoom lenses and the clicks of shutters.

garden ginko
the page empty,
the camera card full

( Read more... )

On Saturday morning, Michael Evans and I were back at the Bremerton Ferry dock, ready for another ride to Seattle. Since my last visit two years ago, Bremerton has renovated its waterfront, the highlight being the new waterfront park with fountains and sculptures.

It even has its own miniature Stonehenge!



Bremerton Waterfront Park
June 28, 2008


( Read more... )

Port Orchard, Washington
near the foot ferry bound for Bremerton
June 26, 2008


There’s something about Puget Sound that really appeals to me. I can close my eyes and almost imagine myself living in a place where I could catch a ferry each day for a job in Seattle. But then, it usually rains and I realize I’m truly a Southern California girl at heart. So although it’s a fantastic place to visit, I’m not altogether sure I could live in a place where people sometimes need light therapy.

imported sunshine
my college roommate decorates
in primary colors

( Read more... )

Mt Adams from the air
June 30, 2008


layers of ice
cover once volcanic
hot-headedness –
we no longer argue
but it doesn’t matter

-Deborah P Kolodji
(c) 2008

I went home at lunch to discover that I've sold a haiku to Mayfly for $10!

So, I'm tossing confetti around and dancing on the table because I've always wanted to sell something there.

Unfortunately, the haiku was inspired by a $178 speeding ticket coming back from the Yuki Teikei teahouse reading in May.

So, I guess I'm still out $168.

Some of my haiku can be found in the summer issue of Riverbed Haiku:
http://www.riverbedhaiku.com/Summer2008.html#Kolodji

city lights below
as we fly towards
sunset
the warm feeling inside,
that place called home

- Deborah P Kolodji
(c)2008

I will be attending the Haiku Society of America Quarterly Meeting hosted by Haiku Northwest in Seattle next weekend. The events are free and open to the public, so if you like haiku and will be in Seattle, I'd love to see you there.

Friday, June 27, 2008

5:00 p.m. No-host dinner at Boom Noodle restaurant at 1121 E Pike Street (near Hugo House), phone 206-701-9130

7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
SEATTLE HAIKU NIGHT
Hugo House Cabaret, Richard Hugo House, 1634 Eleventh Avenue, Seattle
Welcome by Michael Dylan Welch, with a round of open haiku reading, a memorial reading for Robert Major, “Music and Sound” haiku performance by William Scott Galasso, Connie Hutchison, Curtis Manley, and Marilyn Sandall, with music by Dejah Léger. Results of the Francine Porad Haiku Contest sponsored by the Washington Poets Association, Margaret Chula, judge, announced by Angela Terry, contest coordinator. Elizabeth and John Falconer on koto and shakuhachi: “Wind in the Bamboo: Four Seasons of Haiku and Music.” Open-mike haiku reading.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
HAIKU SOCIETY OF AMERICA NATIONAL MEETING
Hugo House Cabaret, Richard Hugo House, Seattle

9:00 a.m. Welcome and introductions, round of open-mike haiku reading
10:00 a.m. Haiku Society of America business meeting and announcements, led by Lenard D. Moore, society president
10:30 a.m. Connie Hutchison: “Haiku Northwest: Celebrating 20 Years”
11:30 a.m. Break for lunch at nearby restaurants (on your own)
1:00 p.m. Announcements, another round of open-mic haiku reading
1:30 p.m. Ce Rosenow: “‘Precious Records of Human Beings’: The Senryu Tradition in America”
2:20 p.m. Break
2:30 p.m. Michael Dylan Welch: “Cracking You Open: The Joy of Haiku”
3:30 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. Ruth Yarrow: “Emotion in a Moment: Painting Watercolors and Writing Haiku”
4:40 p.m. Announcements and clean-up
5:00 p.m. End
5:30 p.m. No-host dinner at Cafe Stellina restaurant at 1429 12th Avenue (near Hugo House), phone 206-322-2688

Sunday, June 29, 2008

10:00 a.m.
HAIKU DAY AT THE SEATTLE JAPANESE GARDEN
1075 Lake Washington Boulevard East, Seattle (in Washington Park Arboretum)
$5.00 admission to the garden

10:00 a.m. Ginko talk by Michael Dylan Welch, then a ginko (haiku-writing walk)
11:30 a.m. Kukai talk by Carmen Sterba, then a kukai (poem-selection party)
12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Optional guided tours of garden
1:00 p.m. Lunch at nearby restaurant (to be determined)
1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Koto and shakuhachi performance by John and Elizabeth Falconer

(Note: Photo of Seattle was taken from the Ferry on my trip two years ago).

Sunset Poets Reading, June 22, 2008
Hill Street Cafe, Oceanside, CA


Even an overturned trailer blocking three lanes of traffic on the 5 in San Juan Capistrano couldn't stop the migration of poets from Pasadena down to North San Diego County. Poet Ruth Nolan even drove in from Palm Desert, escaping the 118 degree heat out there for refreshing ocean breezes.

The reading was very well attended between all of the San Diego, Pasadena, and Palm Desert poets who were there. The readers included Mary Torregrossa, Toti O'Brien, CaLokie, Don Kingfisher Campbell, Mina Kirby, Michelle Angelini, Sharmaigne Leland-St. John, Radomir Luza, Ruth Nolan, Bruce Tridel, Naia, Elizabeth Yahn Williams, Sandy Carpenter, Jon Wesick, Dorothy Moreland, Jim Babwe, Clifton King, and me, among others whose names I didn't catch (If anyone who was there knows the name of anyone I've left out, please post it in the comments!).

It was a great afternoon of poetry!

For whatever reason, it completely escaped my notice that my poem Fin Fit was one of Marge's editor's choices for the Mar/Apr 2008 issue of Star*Line.

It can be found here along with mtrimm1's poem The Masquerade. The other editor's choice was The Grocer's Daughter by upstart_crow.

On Sunday, I'm going to be down in Oceanside for the Sunset Poets reading:

Date: Sunday, June 22, 2008
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Place: Hill Street Café
524 S. Coast Highway
Oceanside, CA

I will be participating in the feature by the Emerging Urban Poets. An open mike will follow. EUP participating poets are Gloria Alvarez, Michelle Angelini, Theresa Antonia, CaLokie, Don Kingfisher Campbell, Marvin Dorsey, Mina Kirby, Deborah P Kolodji, Sharmagne Leland-St.John, Radomir Luza, Ruth Nolan, Toti O'Brien, Abel Salas, and Mary Torregrossa.

So, if you're going to be in North San Diego County on Sunday, please come on by!