On Saturday, February 21st, my poetry partner, Nancy Lynée Woo and I will be joining authors from all around Southern California for the 2nd Annual Pasadena Author Fair. We will be talking on a panel about our books and offering our insights about this surreal journey we’ve been traveling. The Fair is from 10 am to 2 pm at the Pasadena Central Library, 285 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA. You can follow the Pasadena Library page on Facebook to find more information.
I’m thrilled to be a part of the annual San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival! Last year, I attended this festival and not only discovered many new poets, but made many new friends. My dear poetry mother, Ricki Mandeville, made a prediction that I would be featuring in the next year. This year, I am honored to be reading among many poets and authors I admire and respect. The two day festival, February 21-22, features writers from all over Southern California and beyond, held at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona. I’ll be reading on Sunday February 22nd, at 4:30 pm. There will also be open reading time slots, so bring some of your own words to share. Check out the SGVLF Facebook page for more details, a full schedule, and updates. You can also RSVP on the Facebook event page. They could also use your donations to help cover the costs of this amazing free event. Go to their website SGVLitFest.com for more information.
If I ever have children
they will never know me in my thirties
the woman checking it off
all the things-to-do
like a master’s degree
and home buying
like falling in love completely
and writing a book of how it ends
finding new community
and loving her whole body flawed
flinging open all the doors
and surrendering to the unknown next
If I ever have children
they will never know me in my twenties
the woman fighting against it
to save her own soul
find her own belief in God
and lose her given self
venture out from community
live alone, love alone
sort through the old baggage
give them names and abandon them
find focus for talents and energies
and heal the damage at all costs
If I ever have children
they will never know me in my teens
young girl trying masks
on and off each year
like too many friends
and partying far too young
like black dyed-hair and boots
sinking down through the cracks
sharp turn into a Christian life
and a radical-faced community
stepping through the windows
where she’d press her face to the glass
If I ever have children
they will never know me as a child
a broken girl holding
a green Picasso heart
running with one parent from the other
always leaving school early
memories in paper bags stashed
in the trunk of a broken-down car
with walk-in closets for the skeletons
and attics for hiding and running free
words swallowed in torn pieces
forcing her destiny as a poet
Originally published in The Mayo Review, also included in The Unnamed Algorithm.
Listen to the poem on SoundCloud, from Anchors CD.
On February 5th, I get to read poetry with some of my favorite people at this really great venue, Manazar Gamboa Theater in Long Beach, hosted by Felicia Cade. The P.O.W. (Power of Words) Open Mic will have my two favorite things: poetry and music. I’m planning on a special set of poems for the month of love. You are all invited to come down and share a song or poem of your own. 1323 Gundry Ave. in Long Beach. Begins at 7 pm! Including performances by JL Martindale, Keayva Mitchell, Alex Hattick, Fernando Gallegos, and more!
A ten year old girl
stood in the alleyway
in white buckled sandals
that made her feel too tall—
like someone twelve not ten
like someone more carefree,
sandals for a girl who could just
be a girl and not—
one begging her mother not
to walk away,
pleading her only parent to stop
going farther down
into the alleyway dark.
Heels slightly wobble and tilt
on bare red ankles
on ten year old legs
always ready to run.
4-20-13
(Originally published in Disorder: Mental Illness and Its Affects)
In the spirit of Christmas, I decided to put together a new chapbook from many of the poems I had published in 2014 for my friends and family. The title comes from the first poem in the book, “Love Letter No. 1: To My Pit-Bull Self”. Most people don’t know how mathematically my mind actually operates. At the same time, I rely on my intuition daily. I do not see them as contradicting. I see it as an automatic calculated procedure, or algorithm, my brain carries out to make many decisions the same way we breathe without having to tell ourselves to breathe. I have grown to depend on this more and more as I have Life less and less planned out. The cover art, by the ridiculously talented Fernando Gallegos, is a spiral staircase which also has mathematical meaning and beauty.
It’s a small chapbook with only 28 pages. I have some limited edition copies with a vellum-layered cover available by special request or in person. The perfect bound, matte cover version will be available through the Sadie Girl Press website soon.
Issue #2 of In-Flight Literary Magazine is now available for your viewing pleasure! I am very pleased to have two poems I am especially fond of included, “Paper Airplane” and “Gill Growing”. The feature poet of this issue is fellow Gutters & Alleyways contributor, Anthony Khayat. In addition to poetry, this site also features fiction pieces. Take some time and read some creative work with your new year. Get inspired and send them some of your own for the next issue!
Sarah Thursday 