Interview with Carla Joy Martin, featured poet at Dagny’s Open Mic on Friday, October 3, 2025
By: Portia Choi
Carla Joy Martin shared poetry with us from The Coffee Café, her second chapbook.
Other participants in the evening’s Open Mic were:
Q. What are two of the poems that you performed at the event?
Heat Stroke
It’s August, yet some brave souls
are lounging at the tables out in front
of the café, saying, F—you!
to the sun. I am watching the scene
from inside the window, frigid air flowing
on my back from the AC, heat
from outdoors radiating
through the plate glass. I’ve just arrived
after a day of teaching, relishing
the chance to relax and look around.
A pale girl sits outside with her back
to me, dark hair loosely arranged, tendrils
falling out like uninhibited thoughts. She inhales
her cigarette, lets the smoke out slowly.
Her tank top and mini skirt reveal
tattoos of a large panda on her upper
arm, a blood-red rose on the back
of her neck, anime creatures
on her calves, swirling up to her thighs.
Her bare feet are resting in the lap
of a guy with a buzzed head, wearing a t-shirt
that says, LET’S SUMMON DEMONS.
He chuckles as he paints her toenails black.
Across the table sits a guy in faded Hawaiian
shirt & shorts. Strumming his guitar, he croons Bob
Marley anthems of love and revolution to passersby.
Nodding to the music, eyes half-closed, is an older
man with a stained white beard. A hard-luck Santa?
These colorful companions create a fresh breeze
of non-conformity. I am a grateful receiver, too.
Q, What is the back story of this poem?
A. I still remember vividly the afternoon I sat inside Dagny’s and watched these people through the window. Such colorful characters, enacting a drama for all to see! I could sense they knew I was watching them—and they seemed to enjoy the attention. I wonder if they will ever read this poem and recognize themselves!
The Little Pilferer
Seated at my usual back table, I survey the café.
I’m enjoying a little pick-me-up after a long day.
A movement catches my eye—a little girl clinging to
her mother’s knee.
She wiggles like a bee in a honey-dance, gaping at the
saucer-sized cookies in the refrigerator case.
Suddenly she looks up and sees me looking at her.
Her eyes lock onto the chocolate chip cookie in my
hand, raised in anticipation.
Quick as a flash, she races over and takes a bite out of
my cookie.
Just like that.
Her face lights up with triumphant joy.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” cries her mother, yanking her
daughter back to a socially acceptable distance.
“That’s OK, I don’t mind.”
The little girl and I smile at each other in satisfied
commiseration.
I wanted to share anyway.
Q, What is the back story of this poem?
A. People often ask me, “Did that little girl really take a bite out of your cookie?” And my answer is, “Yes! She really did!” What a great interaction that simply made my day! That’s what I love about hanging out in coffee cafés—you never know what may happen.
Q. When did you first become interested in poetry?
A. I wrote my first poem when I was a third grader up at Camp Sky Meadows, sitting on a rock in the mountain stream, staring up at the canopy of pines towering over me, “Like the loftiest of cathedrals.” I used that poem for many assignments through the years, It wasn’t until I became an empty-nester and began frequenting local Bakersfield coffee cafés after work that poetry began pouring out again, I was experiencing so many emotions—loneliness, abandonment, searching for meaning, hoping for love—as I observed the other folks sitting around me in the cafés, I started wondering, “Why are they here? What are they studying? What are they hoping for—like me?” Looking, really looking at these people got me out of myself and my concerns, and I began to feel a kinship with my fellow café customers. Poems appeared, I went to an Open Mic at Dagny’s and read them aloud, a kindred soul came up to me, asked me to read some of his poems, and the rest is history!
Q. What poets have inspired and influenced you?
A. I am always returning to the poetry of Mary Oliver. The way she carefully observes nature and then weaves in a wise message about how to live your life just inspires me to no end. I also recommend the series on PBS called Poetry in America which has many 1/2 hour segments delving deep into poetry by some of America’s most iconic poets. I must have watched this series 5-6 times! I love to imaging, “How would they analyse my poems on this show? Wouldn’t it be marvelous to be included in the lexicon of great poets of our time?”
Q. What advice would you give to aspiring poets? What is your modus operandi?
A. My method is to sit at my computer screen, or my journal, and let every little worry, concern and meandering thought just flow out—don’t try to edit or censor. By the end of the second page of these flowing thoughts, most often the beginnings of a poem appear! When writing the poems for The Coffee Café—I jotted down impressions of the customers and then crafted poems, let them rest, reviewed them later. I must have rewritten that collection 4-5 times over the past 8 years! But I’m thankful the poems had a chance to mellow and mold into their present state—like rounds of delicious aged parmesan cheese!
Stay tuned to our Kern Poetry Home Page for the next Open Mic and Poetry Events!
