THIS IS AN INVITATION TO ALL POETS, WRITERS, READERS, AND LOVERS OF LITERATURE, YOUNG, OLD, IN BETWEEN, KNOWN, UNKNOWN, SUBMERGED, EMERGED AND EMERGING: Rhyming, free verse, expensive or expansive verse, reverses, metered, learned, unlearned, experimental—all varieties, styles and non-styles are welcome! The reading series, the J&J Sunday Poetry Jam (renamed in tribute to much-loved poets Joe Smith and Janferie Stone, who passed away recently) is located at the Cobalt Gallery, 430 Main Street in downtown Fort Bragg.

The readings are the 3rd Sunday of the month, 4–6 pm. The “inaugural” J&J Sunday Poetry Jam is Sunday, June 21, featuring Jabez Churchill, followed by open mic readings. There is a signup sheet and each poet reads for 5 minutes. Please get this around far and wide, as we’d like to reach all over Mendocino County and beyond. Any suggestions or ideas you have, including other people to invite, would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks to Flockworks—a community-based non-profit that provides “resources for artists, teachers, and community members to engage in arts-inspired activities and initiatives on the Mendocino coast”—who has graciously provided a space for the readings.

Look forward to seeing you Sunday, June 21st at the J&J Sunday Poetry Jam.

PEGASUS SOARS NO MATTER WHAT,
Larry Felson
510-684-8270

*Jabez Churchill

Former Poet Laureate of Ukiah, Jabez W., Bill, Churchill first started submitting poetry for publication in 1979, became a member of the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Circle in Berkeley, maintaining this affiliation to date. He has been a poet teacher with California Poets in the Schools since 1998, and teaches poetry at Mendocino Co, Juvenile Hall. As a bilingual poet, he writes in English and Spanish, and he has toured Spain and Cuba with a contingency of Bay Area poets. He has also been widely featured around Mendocino County, Berkeley, San Francisco, L.A. and Vancouver B.C. He is a single dad, but his sons now have families of their own, so now he is the grandfather of five! He is an avid water person and sails San Francisco Bay and swims with pinnipeds wherever and whenever they pop up to say hi. He wants listeners to know that he has a deep connection to the south coast of Mendocino as his great-great grandparents, John and Carrie Johnson arrived in Pt. Arena on a Norwegian lumber schooner from Oslo in the 1850’s.

The Final Measure

I have not seen
nor can I guess how it unfurls,
burnt offerings,
all that remain of last year’s leaves,
white flags
splayed across a bright and empty sky.
Perhaps in rests,
the widening interval between notes,
between breaths,
tick and tock of a dying clock
until it stops.
Perhaps in troughs
lengthening between crests
until they flatly mirror the reddened sun.
I cannot
upon these wax and feathered wings,
inheritance of my fathers,
fly unto the morrow,
what is yet
or not to come:
fire and ice,
perhaps another bloom.
Nor can my eyes,
however vigilant,
shortsighted,
see beyond the shadows
to what undoubtedly awaits,
the final measure
of yet another fleeting race
in geologic time.
I can only mark the end,
beginning of each day.
Rejoice!
marveling by night
at what is bravely written in the stars.

Jabez Churchill