by Portia Choi | May 17, 2017 | Interviews, Pictures, Poems
The taste of a grape and the fragrance of a crushed mint leaf, help writers to compose poems. On April 10, Portia Choi facilitated a workshop on “Writing Poems of Awe and Wonder” at the Art and Spirituality Center of Dignity Health, 2215 Truxtun Avenue. Choi had the...
by Portia Choi | Mar 13, 2017 | Events, Featured Poet, Interviews, Pictures, Poems
Shanna O’Brien was the featured performer at the Open Mic on March 3. The Open Mic is held at Dagny Coffee, downtown Bakersfield, every First Friday at 6:00 pm. O’Brien has performed since 1980. A few of the places were the Mandarin Hotel in Singapore and MGM...
by Portia Choi | Mar 2, 2017 | Events, Featured Poet, Interviews, Poems
Night of Poetry at Levan Center, Bakersfield College The “movers and shakers” of poetry were together to read poems of nationally acclaimed poets at the Levan Center on February 16, 2017. Each of the presenting local poets read a poem by another nationally known poet...
by Portia Choi | Jan 25, 2017 | Interviews, Kern County Poet, news, Poems
Story by Portia Choi Nancy Edwards passed away on January 5, 2017. Nancy was a poet. She was also a professor of English at Bakersfield College from 1968-2009. When poets and friends of poets were informed of her passing, there was a profound sense of loss. This...
by Portia Choi | Jan 11, 2017 | Featured Poet, Pictures, Poems
story by Portia Choi On the First Friday of January 2017, the featured poets at Dagny’s Coffee were Joseph Mosconi, Barry Michael and Maryah Paige Chester. They read from their poetry books which were in themselves a work of art. Each book was unusual and unique in...
by Portia Choi | Jan 5, 2017 | Featured Poet, Interviews, Pictures, Poems
Story by: Martin Chang Photos by: Greg D. Cook and Martin Chang top box photo provided by Chris Fendt Chris Fendt is inspired by different aspects of life. For Fendt, a chance meeting with a stranger, his favorite music, or quiet moments in Bakersfield, can...
by Portia Choi | Aug 8, 2015 | Poems
When I was ten my art teacher said the pink and blue ribbons I loved were not beautiful, then showed us Mexican olla and said, “Now that’s beautiful!” and posters were beautiful. and vermillion with spring green. For years I bought ugly art and wore ugly prints that...
by Portia Choi | Aug 8, 2015 | Poems
(the woman asked the famed psychiatrist) The cat at night in Malibu Makes a soft sound As he moves along the ground, Echoes the rumble, the growl and pound Of the Cat to Cathay— When the Moon ruffles his fur In a silver streak down the dark, She is stirring, subduing,...
by Portia Choi | Aug 8, 2015 | Poems
Make me a poem A great white poem words full of rushing staccato measures patterns for flying and movement of grasses— or round, like the path of the tuning-fork’s sound, round and liquid and gold. Give me the voices of wandering people, let them incense me with...
by Portia Choi | Aug 8, 2015 | Poems
Do not remove the heart. Extract the brain through open nostrils, but leave the paradise within my heart of hearts. It is a point so hot it would burn your fingers. This pulse-point is the drum of Shiva calling Shakti –and when she dances my heart rises to the...
