Just as dusk chased away the last daylight beyond the large windows in the 3th floor of the Moorpark College Library Learning Center a crowd of students and aspiring and accomplished poets settled in to learn, to listen or to read.
Los Angeles Poet Rick Lupert and Moorpark Poet Joelle Hannah delivered their poetic writings with the ease of established performers. The first monthly event of the Poetry Reading Series took place on Jan. 19at 5:30 p.m.
The event’s organizer, Sandra Hunter, encouraged all participants with a simple phrase. “The word poetry should not scare you,” she said.
Several attendees of Joelle Hannah’s poetry workshop warmed up the listeners with insightful or humorous poems of their own.
Hannah recited her poetry by heart, which reflected daily life. Especially poignant was her delivery of a poem enticed by her two young son’s discussion in the back seat of her car. Their mispronounced words in toddler talk, perfectly repeated by Hannah, greatly amused the listeners. She stimulated the budding poets in the audience with the advice to just jot down what’s on their mind in the simple form of a “haiku or off the cuff poem.”
“I never get used to be called up as an artist,” said Lupert, a 20 year veteran of the Los Angeles poetry community who has had 13 books published.
Lupert read an assortment of his published and unpublished work, including some from his latest book, “Sinzibuckwud”. The title translates from the native Canadian language into “drawn from wood.”
Lupert’s delivery was tranquil and even which accentuated the often hilarious thought process in his poems and was rewarded with outbursts of laughter and applause from his audience. His witty comments seamlessly bound the individual poems together.
An hour later, satisfied listeners like Martha Sanchez and Salvador Nungaray, both students of Hannah’s English class left with a renewed appreciation for poetry. “It was funny and amusing,” said Sanchez. “Though I like rhyming poetry, he [Lupert] is very interesting,” added Nungaray.
On Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m. the second event of the Poetry Reading Series will take place on the third floor of the Moorpark College Library Learning Center. Admission is free for students, faculty and members of the community. The room will resonate with lyrics from featured Poets Candace Pearson and Kim Young.
Pearson can’t remember when she didn’t write, first as a journalist, then a short story writer. She gravitated to poetry because she loves to make music with words and has composed for the last 15 years. Pearson is the author of Hour of Unfolding, which garnered the 2010 Liam Richter First Book Prize for Poetry. Inspiration for her lyrics comes from life and an “obsession with nature and science.”
“I’m excited to be paired up with Kim Young,” Pearson said. The two poets attended workshops together. Young is the editor of the online literary journal www.chaparral.com.
Rick Lupert was the featured local poet at the Jan. 19 event of the Poetry Reading Series. (Photo by Christina Steiner)
