Story by Portia Choi
Photos by Martin Chang
At the June 2 open mic, Norma Camorlinga performed her poems before moving to the East Coast.
She has been performing regularly at the First Friday poetry event since October 3, 2014. She first attended open mic to be supportive of another poet, Mateo Lara. Later, she started to recite her own poems.
Norma had her beginnings in performance in the theater. For her, performing poetry was different from the theater. “At open mic, it was different because in theater you perform someone else’s work. In poetry, you perform your own,” said Norma, “it is more intimidating. But it felt good, to get out and there is energy to share.”
Norma especially felt good to write a poem, “Altars,” about her Dad with allusion to “Day of the Dead.” The poem starts with:
Like time
I think distance is relative.
The three dance a number
Take turns twirling in and out of fragile realities.
The entire poem, “Altars” and the poem that Norma read on June 2, “Chaotic Particles,” is provided at the end of this story.
Of her beginnings in writing poetry, “I started writing in the 7th grade; my teacher had me enter a contest,” said Norma. “It was a poem about my family, how everyone felt about my grandmother. She was the root of the family.”
Another poet who performed at the open mic was Matthew Mendoza. He memorized his poems in the spoken word style. An excerpt from the poem that he recited at the open mic is:
“. . .with the borrowed voices of the leaves/ your laughter fills my chest.”
A poet who recited at the open mic, wanted to share this poem anonymously: “I’m a person. I am a human being. I am disabled. I will be a success story.”
Another poet, Walter Stormont, performed with a red cap to enhance his recitation of his poem “On, What is Love?”
Oh, What is Love?
(A Redneck Rime)
By Walter Stormont © 2017 Walter Stormont
Oh, what is love? Oh, what is life?
An empty ice box full of strife.
A flying fist you have to duck,
A rusty, worn out pickup truck.
The distant dreams and bouncing checks,
The prices at the multiplex.
A barking dog, an aching back,
Another pert-near heart attack.
A leaky roof, a storm above,
Oh, what is next? Oh, what is love?
A long-time friend, a caring spouse,
A kid who draws me Mickey Mouse.
A blooming, fruitful family tree.
A universe of unity.
I best slow down, like pop the clutch.
I never thought I’d think so much.
The two poems by Norma Camorlinga mentioned in the story are:
Altars
By Norma Camorlinga
Like time
I think distance is relative.
The three dance a number
Take turns twirling in and out of fragile realities.
The hours here nor there are real,
All a figment of the imagination.
You may think I am mad for stating such a ludicrous idea,
But when I sit next to you
Your heart is no longer where mine lives.
The fire that tethered it here has extinguished,
The dreams we pieced together have shattered,
And this happiness is long gone.
Time has swept away such precious moments,
They no longer have meaning to you.
I sit on your bed,
Bring you flowers
Patiently wait for you to speak,
Move,
Return to me,
Yet you remain still… Breathless,
Always six feet under.
I want this circle to break
For you to tear at the earth,
At the prison that surrounds you.
I want to erupt from this mundane pattern of birthing, losing, mourning, and complacency,
This colonized notion that it could be worse.
Even if I have to offer myself up to higher beings to have you back
I’d do it time and time again.
But… this is reality.
You left your mark on me,
On this world and
Now all we have to remember you is a monument that arrived too late.
Your is face slowly fading from my mind
Echoes of your voice faintly sing a tune
Your smile is slowly decaying
Your bones rattling a steady beat
Regenerating heat into this cold world.
You aren’t a zombie coming back to life,
So I sit by the altar Latinos leave for their dead
Placing silly ideas into boxes and rearranging them in my mind.
Sitting breathless,
Hopeful,
With a marigold flower in one hand
And my heart in the other to greet you when you return
“Chaotic Particles”
By Norma Camorlinga
They say that matter isn’t created nor destroyed
That the molecules we see today are remnants of a burning universe
Reorganized matter fused together, torn apart with time
Chaotic and unpredictable
Serendipitous and timely.
Perhaps, this is why your eyes burn a familiar fire,
A familiar fire, within my chest
Parts of an ancient past, a self once, once floating beside those dark brown pools on your face,
Like a pair of stars burning their way into my soul
And now, like those cosmos, you lay naked before me on sheets as white as cosmic ivory,
This dust is dreams,
So, You sleep
Filled with desire.
I connect the spots on your back
Constellations of black and blue fading red into soft skin
My mouth: their creator
Their celestial architect
Building an empire, stardust,
Let these cold hearts melt with lust.
Let the particles around our bodies become one
If only for a night or two,
Let us carve out unity,
Just this moment, be a lingering flame,
For Tomorrow we’ll rearrange this greatness,
We may become static,
But who is to say that the effects will not impact what we have created.
Like the Big Bang,
Catapult me into unforeseen futures,
Unforeseen sorrows
Inspire and caress my mind,
Be blind, but burst
Brighten my memories with clouds of stardust resting in your eyes
Idly waiting to fuse once again,
From the particles they once belonged.
We cannot create nor destroy,
but I’m suffering in this formation,
My eye sight begins to deteriorate with all the sadness in this world
Withering away into nothing
So let me build in the darkness of our space,
Where light cannot invade fast enough,
Let me cover your body in fading stars like braille
Small yet profound stars showing me the way
I’ll memorize them like some holy scripture
And learn to walk through the darkness
We can swallow these particles, though we won’t call it love,
We’ll only agree like the planets aligning with gravity,
To settle in this chaos.
