Review with Photos, Video & Interviews
Video
Participant Poets in the evening’s Open Mic were:
Review – Video/Photos/Interviews
FIRST FRIDAY – KERN POETRY OPEN MIC at DAGNY’S – SEPTEMBER 4th
Interviews with Fidel Martinez, Carla Joy Martin, Christopher Nielsen, Portia Choi — First Friday Open Mic at Dagny’s, September 4th, 2026
By:Carla Joy Martin
Dagny’s was packed with poets and musicians on September 4th! We heard from the following performers (names taken from the sign-up sheet, so some do not have last names): Joe (guitar), Heather Rose, Darius Picar, Saxon Peavler, Francis, Fidel Martinez, Alex with the Blue Guitar, Brian, MJ, Christopher Robert Craddock, Taza Meier (guitar), Andrew (guitar), and Jesse Rivera (guitar).
Fidel has created numerous books of poetry. At Open Mic, he told us he just published a new poetry book on the theme of bees. We were intrigued to how he came up with this topic. Hence, the following interview:
Q. What inspired you to write your poems (about bees)?
A. There is a book called “Robbing the Bees” that tells and explains the history, the mythology, and the keeping of bees throughout history. After reading that book, I was fascinated with how bees impact the world and I realized how important such small things are to humans and to the world. I read a Blessings of the Bees – A Prayer that deals with the belief that bees are messengers to the divine.
Blessing of the Bees-A Prayer
The messages I ask you carry
Little messenger
Healing one
Is for clarity
For understanding
The patience
That good and peace are possible
That all will be fed and made whole
From the least of us
And each of us
To be healed of hate
To be honey filled with love.
Q. Do you like to read poetry? If you do, what poets have influenced you? Who have messages you connect with, or styles you admire?
A. Definitely, the list is rather long. It ranges from T.S. Eliot, Stevenson, William Carlos Williams, Sylvia Plath, Lucille Clifton, Ann Carlson, and Mary Oliver. I like to read a poem every day. It is good for the soul.
Q.Describe your journey from writing poems to writing song lyrics and collaborating with Ernie Lewis to create songs.
A. I began writing poetry when I was in fourth grade. By eighth grade, I had started writing poetry with a good friend who played guitar and I played piano. We wrote throughout high school. In college I majored in English Literature as well as finance. I continued my writing of poems and songs, expanding the people I wrote with, including Steven Rummelsburg, Ian Perry, and Ernie Lewis.
Q. What should a poet keep in mind when creating song lyrics from their poems?
A. To be as laconic as possible, distilling the essence of the poem into a more direct message by using monosyllabic words and compressing it as much as possible.
Q. What are things to keep in mind when collaborating with a musician?
A. Always keep in mind the rhythm and the meter as well as the structure of the lyric that will assist in setting the melody.
Q. What has the experience of creating a CD taught you?
A. I have been involved in the creation of at least ten albums over the years. I have learned that working with musicians to create these albums is like herding cats, but it’s a lot of fun.
Q. Carla Joy, how did you become involved with Kern Poetry?
A. Back in 2015, I joined Writers of Kern and there I met Portia Choi.
We were in a Poetry Critique Group together. She told me about Open Mic at Dagny’s on First Fridays.
I used to love performing in plays in high school, so I thought, “You should go try it out! You’ll love it!”
I felt so nervous, but as many of you know, after you perform, you feel so relieved and happy! I was hooked.
Then on First Friday of November 2017, after Open Mic was over, here, in this very room, a kind-looking gentleman with serious blue eyes came up to me and said,
“I enjoyed your poem. Would you like to read some of mine?”
He handed me a binder with about 70 poems.
I took them home that night, and poured over his verses that told a tale of love for his late wife so deep, her death almost destroyed him.
Turns out he was her sole care-giver as she suffered from cancer, faithful to the end.
His tender verses were so different than the come-ons from men I’d met on Senior People Meet that were in-between their 4th or 5th marriages, living in trailer parks with their dogs.
His name was Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.
I wondered, What would it be like to journey down his road?
I will now share with you the final poem in my book, The Coffee Café, which is called “Moonstruck”.
Moonstruck
I write responses to all of Christopher’s poems,
how they moved me, images that painted
pictures in my mind, words that resonated.
Hit “send” and wait, heart fluttering,
hope rising.
His email arrives! He happily answers
my questions, his comments make me smile,
our stories start to flow back and forth,
creating a tapestry of multi-colored memories
that wrap around our awakening souls.
After another Open Mic, we meander under a
full moon, along deserted streets on crumbling sidewalks, Old brick buildings watch silently as we share about past disappointments and dead ends.
Comforting words flow forth, new-found
companionship warms our hearts.
I ask him, Would you be mad at me if I asked—could we be more than friends?
No, I wouldn’t be mad.
He leans in and our lips touch,
so soft, so gentle,
sending an electric zing deep within.
* * *
It’s been many years since that moonlit night,
still traveling with my Saint Christopher—
brought together by poetry,
blessed by the café community.
Creating is cathartic—this much I know is true,
and if you’re brave and honest, it can bring joy to you.
Visit the coffee café often, my friend,
you never know what may happen in the end.
Q. Christopher Nielsen, how did you become involved with Kern Poetry?
A. A friend Ezekiel told me about Kern Poetry when I asked him if he wanted to read some of my poems. This was the first time I ever heard about Kern Poetry. So, I went to Dagny’s in November 2017 to see what is going on with Kern Poetry. I listened to poems by poets there. Found out who Portia is. I met Carla Joy and told her I liked her poem she read. Asked her if she would read my poetry and she did. We became fellow poets and so much more. I never knew that I would fall in love again. So glad Carla Joy and I met each other this way. This made our lives better in so many ways.
Portia asked me if I wanted to help with the website and I was glad to do that. Helping with the website, social media and graphics, whatever needed to be done. Carla Joy, myself, and we became a team with Portia that is Kern Poetry. The mission of Kern Poetry is to enrich the lives of others with poetry. Very happy to be a part of this. Many thanks to poetry and Kern Poetry.
–
My poem:
Kern Poetry
Where is poetry
in the city
of Bakersfield?
Ezekiel says:
Go to the coffee shop
where the poets
hang out.
Reciting their poems
share with
other writers.
drink espresso
or fizzy waters
beat on the tables,
if needed.
Tell about love
their lives,
maybe a rhyme
or two.
Maybe think of
San Francisco.
In the ‘50sor the “60s.
Beat poets
could be Howling
or a sad love story.
Even here
in Bakersfield,
actually literate
poems
and poets.
Go there!
You should
go there.
At Dagny’s Coffee
find out
what is
going on
there.
Yes
I did
go.
Listening to poems
by poets.
Eventually shared
my poems.
Became a part of
Kern Poetry.
Fell in Love
with another poet.
Carla Joy
has joy.
Life is
so much
better.
As says Portia –
“Poetry Lives!”
Q. Portia Choi, how did you become involved with Kern Poetry?
A. Portia Choi started Kern Poetry in 2010 encouraged by Bakersfield poets Lee McCarthy and Helen Shanley. Since April 2010, Choi organized poetry events annually during National Poetry Month in Bakersfield, California. In time, there were monthly Open Mics at Dagny’s Coffee on the First Fridays. Poets and musicians are enhancing the vital growth of poetry and performance. Kern Poetry is now blessed by the leadership of Carla Joy Martin and Chris Nielsen.
This is the poem Portia shared at Dagny’s Open Mic on September 4, 2026:
REMNANTS OF HELEN
by Portia Choi
Words on paper,
from over fifty years ago
paper, yellowed,
the corners crumbling-dried and frail.
Words faded on onion-skin paper
smudges of oil,
from fingertips- Helen’s and mine.
Remnants of Helen
as real as her ashes in an urn.
No, more real:
Helen’s words,
Helen’s thoughts,
Helen’s feelings. . . .
In her poems.
KERN POETRY
–
POETRY LIVES!
Open Mic hosts were:
Carla Joy Martin
Portia Choi
Photographer, Videographer and Video Editor:
Juan Rico
Stay tuned to our Kern Poetry Home Page for the next Open Mic and Poetry Events!
