Category Archives: Laureate’s News

Where to find out what I’m up to.

by | May 30, 2012 · 3:59 pm

Off the grid: Writing residency at Villa Montalvo

The blog will be silent over the next two weeks as I unplug, unwind, and dig into my writing as an artist fellow at Montalvo Arts Center as part of the Lucas Artist Residency Program. I will live and write there and take part in the community of working artists from a variety of disciplines.

Not to despair for lack of poetry! What a great time to peruse the Favorite Poem posts here from the past year, and perhaps get inspired to read a full collection. One collection I’ll be reading (yes, reading is essential to writing) is former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins’ Poetry 180. It’s an anthology, or collection, of contemporary poetry he developed during his tenure as laureate. An anthology is a good way to discover your next favorite poem or poet. Maybe you’ll be inspired to write your own.

In the meantime, happy summering! I’ll be posting our last Favorites later in June.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

photo by Taylor Welty

4 Comments

Filed under Laureate's News

Tagged as

by | May 3, 2012 · 12:04 am

May it is~

What a busy National Poetry Month for me, and I hope an enjoyable one for you. There were poetry events galore, weren’t there, and a chance to read and admire the full collection of Poetry on the Move Entries as I posted them here. Again, what a privilege it’s been to read them all. Thanks to everyone who participated.

I started May off with a busy day of teaching yesterday, and then a visit today with the Los Gatos Lion’s Club. Speaking to various groups in the county, including community service organizations such as the Lion’s Club and the Key Club, has been another unexpected pleasure of being Poet Laureate. I appreciate their member’s interest and attention to what I have to say about poetry, and I so admire the tireless work such groups perform. In honor of Mother’s Day, May 13, and as a way to illustrate the Favorite Poems Project, I read them Clark Kepler’s submission, The Lanyard, by Billy Collins. You might want to read it to your mom!

Speaking of Favorite Poems, I will resume posting your submissions here. I’ll bet you can’t wait to see who turns up at the ending of the alphabet, both poet and neighbor. It’s a fun job and I’m glad to do it.

Onward!

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

Leave a comment

Filed under Favorite Poem, Laureate's News

Tagged as

by | April 29, 2012 · 4:46 pm

Winding through the end: Poetry on the Move finale!

We’ve got just two days left of National Poetry Month. It’s Sunday, a good day to relax and read local poetry. Once you’ve read this final selection, I hope you find  time to peruse the earlier posts this month. So much good work being written in Santa Clara County!

If you care to leave a comment, I know the poets would love hearing from you. It’s awfully quiet out there. Thanks for reading along~and bravo to everyone who participated in the contest.

Poetry on the Move is a project of the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. All poems remain the property of the authors.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

* * *

Silicon Valley

The showers of the sun
Gleaming through overcast skies,
The sequoias
Rising from the womb of fires…

Our hearts sing-
Life flows…
Our minds zing-
Creativity glows…

The valley of us –
Of smarts, arts
And the indomitable hearts…

Yoga Saripalli
San Jose

* * *

Silicon Valley

A living, self-creating entity composed
of brick, mortar, and silicon chips
fueled by sunshine and brainshine
where people and ideas are pulled
together in a synergy of mass and energy.

A paragon of possibility where
life is reinvented everyday.

Marjorie Schallau
San Jose

* * *

Silicon Vienna

If Mozart lived here,
new planets, discovered by
telescopes in space,
could inspire
another Jupiter symphony.
Mozart would throw down his quill and embrace the new keyboard
and its music notation software.
He would listen to the discoveries crackle through the air
like explosions of daring harmony.

Renee Schell
San Jose

* * *

These Beds We Live In

Creeks, trails, roads and rails crease our gypsy sheets.
Pillows plumped by labor boost business that competes.

Outside worrisome weathers spawned by nature and man
spin droughts, firestorms, job losses and stimulus plans.

We disrupt. We retrain.  We aim to get ahead.
We innovate together while we remake our beds.

C. Seney
Santa Clara

* * *

Progress

Trains came first.
Railed dragons
Roaring forward.

Autos followed;
Demanding roads and bridges
Line our landscape.

Then the telephone
Tied us together.
Our whispered words heard.

Soon electronics excited.
A deluge of gadgets
Raining down.

Today, iPhones
Cover our valley,
Tweeting like angry birds.

Judith Shernock
San Jose

* * *

Friday Night Stroll

Standing at an easel,
paintbrush in hand, mixing
burnt sienna with a splash of white
to make sand the common ground.

On a special night of the month
art on display in galleries
in downtown San Jose´.

You might be the purchaser
who takes home a painter’s heart.


Mary Lou Taylor
Saratoga

* * *

Anake’s Undoing

Not a pill I took, but Ananke’s undoing I think.

Elements disassembled and reassembled into their other forms.

Steel, stone and plastics once clotted now dissolved in thick streams wandering a fruited valley. Orchards swallowed to the ground, now grasses covering a winter hillside where melted snow stole bare footprints.

James Thorn
Santa Clara

* * *

Dollar Dress, 2008

A Babylonian goddess pointed at me
and money, jobs, and houses
flew up in the air over Kansas
and suddenly I was a stripper
in a dress made of dollars,
peeling off a dollar to each beat of the drum,
until, in the finale, naked,
arms out to each side,
chin up, I cried,
‘Bring me my wings!
I have immortal longings in me!’

Janet Trenchard
San Jose

* * *

Invention

Silicon Valley a place where we invent
Some are wizards that are heaven sent

many faces
different races
from different places

could be me could be you
now you think now you can do

Silicon Valley a place where we invent
To keep on inventing is the wizards intent

Michael Uhila
Mountain View

* * *

The Joy of Transit

This change of commute is no accident.
In place of the many hours I’ve spent
Driving my car, being far from content,
Consuming gas by the dollar and cent,
The stress of the road has got up and went.
Here, there’s time to work, to play, to invent.

Larry White
Mountain View

* * *

The Movers

A couple of quarters jingle in my pocket.
Alright,
That’s all I need for a ride on the city bus—
A five, maybe ten, minute journey
To the next destination,
And a chance encounter with Inspiration.
Hop on up, say the movers,
Open your mind—
Leave the mundane world behind.

Kathryn Wong
Cupertino

6 Comments

Filed under Laureate's News, Poetry on the Move

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 27, 2012 · 8:28 pm

Coming atcha: More contest entries~

I hope you’re enjoying these entries of Poetry on the Move poems and the personal way each interprets the contest theme, “Invention.”

If you care to leave a comment, I know the poets would love hearing from you. Thanks for reading along~I’ll be posting these poems through the end of April, National Poetry Month, so stay tuned.

Poetry on the Move is a project of the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. All poems remain the property of the authors.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

* * *

Can you put it in motion without it?
found
launch
start
Can you act on it without it?
spirit
catapult
aim
Can you want it without knowing you want it?
ambition
fly
spark
Can you find it if you don’t don’t look for it? 
innovation
focus
spotlight

Ruth Pangilinan
Cupertino

* * *

Here, In the Valley

Give us a spot, unfettered.
A space for breathing, where the gears sing,
and static invigorates the skin,
where one craves the taste of metal on the tongue.
Where even in the tenuous bloom of exhaustion
the potential vibrates,
until molecules crash into being.
Birthed out of the synapse air.

Mary Pascual
San Jose

* * *

Silicon Valley Crop Version 2012

Rivers of asphalt
Flow past orchards of buildings,
Where chip designs bloom.

Michael Pelizzari
Sunnyvale

* * *

Oldman Coyote and Grandmother Spider say

Those who promote that they’re always wise
why believe such lies?

Meanwhile, we’ll continue to find new ways
to live, travelers from sea to mountain
and in your garden
as you travel in ours.

Consider this, that your question
and answer are the same,
a reinvented recipe for sweetening pain.

Robert Pesich
Sunnyvale

* * *

Techie Daughter 

I handed her a bag of broken glass
and said, “A stained glass window is the hope.”
She winked and worked and thought and on and then—
Voilà! My own online kaleidoscope.

Palmer Pinney
Palo Alto

* * *

Wherefore  

My Aunt Necessie
Is the mother of Invention.
I asked her once why she named
Her son Invention.  She said
She didn’t really have a choice,

Especially here in this Valley
Where technology grows its
Apps faster than cherries.
Want to see her garage?
It’s a museum now.

Dennis Richardson
San Jose

* * *

At the Crossroads:
37° N  /  122° W

I am a fancymonger.
Who are you?
Are you a fancymonger, too?
Ah, there’s a club for us.
Come along.

If you dream in What-If
and speak in Why-Not.
If you fashion Never-Before
out of Never-Could.

You belong.
Come along.

Christine Richardson
San Jose

* * *

King of the Hill

Competitors across the choppy seas
ready to stomp you down

But you raise yourself from the sodden ground
Young minds
New ideas
Lifting you higher still

Innovation keeps you
King of the Hill

George Rinaldi
Sunnyvale

* * *

Gems in the Valley

Inventions pop from

a matrix of failures,

gleaming like garnets.

David Ring
Palo Alto

* * *

Sight

Tonight, I stare outside, seeing.
Straining through the haze, through the dark.

I blink, and the haze disappears.
The darkness vanishes. And now I can see.

Enlightenment dawns precariously upon the clearing dusk.
Now, It has no doubt, as it envelops the world.
Because there is always more to see.

Manasa Sanka
Cupertino

Leave a comment

Filed under Laureate's News, Poetry on the Move

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 25, 2012 · 9:03 pm

More poets on the move: More Entries!

I hope you’re enjoying these entries of Poetry on the Move poems.  I love to see how each interprets the contest theme, “Invention.”

If you care to leave a comment, I know the poets would love hearing from you. Thanks for reading along~

Poetry on the Move is a project of the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. All poems remain the property of the authors.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

* * *

Converted

Like an abbey of monks
hunched in work cells,
a huddle of believers
obsess over lines of
code.
Dry eyes gaze at
scrolling screens.
Iteration after iteration until
the powers deem it one point oh.

Lisa Liu
Saratoga

* * *

Silicon Valley

Gone are cherry and prune orchards
Silicon grows where farms were plenty
Farm machinery rusts under the Pacific sun
Wafers and chips now sell like apricots

Seed money is worth millions
The local farm stand is now a start-up
Markets now are global
Apples are products you can never eat

Denis Lynch
Campbell

* * *

In the Beginning

Creating something out of nothing—
like magic—is an illusion
of newness, while ghosts of
the original lurk in shadows
in the luminosity of new ideas:

New skin like new shoots reappear.
Embers glow rekindled.  Words
scrabbled—bring new meaning.

Pushpa MacFarlane
San Jose

* * *

Art is jealous:  it keeps me awake. Intent on making the summit before sunrise, I imagine watching the first light pearl along the ridge and silver the high valley lake. Thirst overtakes me. I shoo water-striders from the running brook and sip the cold; the top is within my grasp.

Patricia Machmiller
San Jose

* * *

The Birth of an Invention

Be it sudden inspiration
Or insight born from frustration
Ideas from either source
Can change history’s course
When fueled by imagination

Nancy Madison
Palo Alto

* * *

A Wonder

No tree so straight and leafless stood
beside this trail
the last time I passed by.

No spider ever spun a web
so long and strong
or hung it up so high.

It must be that the White Man came
and left it there
and me to wonder why.

Loren Meissner
San Jose

* * *

Seed

See the tiny seed

Oh Valley of Heart’s Delight

Water the future.

AkeemMostamandy
San Jose

* * *

Life’s Journey

Keep on going.
Going no matter what,
one step after the other.
Walking. Wandering.

Farther and farther,
leaving one home.
Reaching another one.
Jogging. Jarring.

Coming back again.
Someday. Someway.
Completing life’s circle.
Running. Racing.

Srivarsha  Nandula
San Jose

* * *

My Writing Rock

My writing rock is my special place
Nestled in it, I create my space,
On it is where I belong
My thoughts surface, clear and strong.

Creaking windblown trees
Mockingbirds’ calls tease,
Staccato swoosh of the forest stream
All create the backdrop for my dream.

Susan Paluzzi
Cupertino

* * *

New Fruit                 

Programmers in cube farms toil
Pulling all-nighters, facing IPO’s, racing
To foreign fields, cross-pollinating
Crops of iPads, iPhones, interfacing.

Once orchards graced this fertile soil
Valley of our Hearts’ Delight.
Now webs of silicon we weave
Bursting forth from that first byte.

Natalie Panfili
Mountain View


Leave a comment

Filed under Laureate's News, Poetry on the Move

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 23, 2012 · 4:43 pm

Wonderful entries: More poets on the move~

And the poems just keep coming! For your enjoyment, here’s the next installment of Poetry on the Move contest entries to keep up with National Poetry Month.

And if you care to leave a comment, I know the poets would love hearing from you.

Poetry on the Move is a project of the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. All poems remain the property of the authors.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

* * *

A Dream of You

You dreamed a dream, and
A dream dreamed of you

You never let go, and
The dream kept hold of you

Step by step you grew,
You and the dream,
You grew

What could never
Have been dreamed alone
By either your dream
Or you

Ann Justice
Palo Alto

* * *

Eyes in Santa Clara

When the padres named the Mission
after Santa Clara, Patron Saint
of Sore Eyes, they did not know
the eyes in this valley would not reflect
the light from the wings of snowy egret
and Our Lady of Guadalupe River
but from IMacs and IPads.

Esther Kamkar
Palo Alto

* * *

Commute-I-cation

I commuted
to the Ocean
in search of
the big SEE

I followed the Summit
so that I could
just Be Free

When all I truly needed
was a sojourn
with Thee

Kim Karloff
Los Gatos

* * *

Verdant

I’ve invented a self-tossing salad.
I expect to make millions.
Doesn’t that sound about right?
Lettuce is socially redeeming.
And like money, so green.

Muriel Karr
Sunnyvale

* * *

Invention is
the ultimate
form of luck
visited upon
the well prepared and
the open minded.

Anne Halley Kel-Artinian
San Jose

* * *

    Invention

Now Google, Facebook

e-mail, blackberry, ipod, texts

Silicon Valley

Mitsu Kumagai
San Jose

* * *

Invention

Oh, wild paper
Quivering, wrinkled, dog-eared
Barely a white edge left

They want to fence you out
Make you extinct
With scorn, machines, electricity

Hide, paper!
Wait in a cave
For the return of the pen
And black drops
Like rain
Like blood.

Lita Kurth
San Jose

* * *

Adventures in venture capital

I am a baby company, early stage and shiny.

They tell me we’ll grow then harvest for an IPO. I learn this means I will no longer exist.

Equity sounds like it should mean ‘equal’ and that they are sharing with you. They are not.

Heather Larrick
San Jose

* * *

“Made in America – Imagined in America” *

To this Valley
of gold-flecked hills,
scrub oak and madrone
dreamers have come.
Backdrops of
peach and cherry orchards
welcome more—
Founders of microchips and mobile apps
heads in virtual storage clouds
riding fast on information highways—
this vast harvest of invention
imagined right here,
starting with you.

(*Thomas L. Friedman)

Brenda Lee
Santa Clara

* * *

What Will Be

Children with their little voices
won’t remember how smart phones were
or the way to kindle an e-reader.
Android? What was that?
They will grow up with new inventions,
amazing creations: a flying train perhaps,
or floating to a friend’s house by tapping
a butterfly band on their wrists.

Cheryl Levinson
San Jose

* * *

Changing Valley

Sunrise in the valley of trees
Enriching the peaches and nectarines
Soil so fertile envy the world knows
Bounty of plenty to our nation homes

Fifty years later with silicon trees
No more peaches or nectarines
Building after building Silicon giants compete
Has life really improved with technology?

Darrell Lewis
Santa Clara

Leave a comment

Filed under Laureate's News, Poetry on the Move

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 23, 2012 · 3:48 pm

Last day to submit: May 1st.

Sorry to have created confusion. In my excitement to get out the word, I posted the wrong due by date. I’ve fixed the original post, but hope this new post catches more attention.

The last day for teens to enter the Santa Clara County Library Teen Poetry Contest 2012 is actually May 1st.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

Leave a comment

Filed under Laureate's News

by | April 23, 2012 · 3:31 pm

Calling Teen Poets: Santa Clara County Library Contest 2012!

While reading the Mercury News this morning, I discovered that there is a poetry contest for ALL teens living in the County currently underway in honor of National Poetry Month. While the Campbell branch is doing the good work of getting the word out, teens from any of our 15 cities in the county can apply. There are categories for both middle and high school age levels.

The last day to submit entries is May 1st, so spread the word. If you have students at home, send the link to their English teachers. Only 20 entries have been received so far.

Full details can be found at the Santa Clara County Library link. Good luck, poets!

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

Leave a comment

Filed under Laureate's News

by | April 21, 2012 · 5:07 pm

Wonderful entries: More poets on the move~

Here comes another installation of Poetry on the Move contest entries to keep National Poetry Month moving.

Enjoy! And if you care to leave a comment, I know the poets would love hearing from you.

Poetry on the Move is a project of the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. All poems remain the property of the authors.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

* * *

Something In Us

We grew from ORCHARDS and Sand in this VALLEY.
In HOME garages, great minds CONNECTED us.
ELECTRONS streamed, re(e)-inventing the way we view the world.
Here, the World comes to us, not because of lines that have crossed.
Because something in us Changes lines to include the All in US.

by Nick Butterfield
San Jose, CA

* * *

State of Mind

California
Golden State
Land of Invention
Reinvention
Mother of Invention
Innovation
Promised Land
Land of Opportunity
Promise
Future

by Debbie Ford-Scriba
Sunnyvale

* * *

Going Home
People come from everywhere and wind-up on Stevens Creek,
Some talk to friends on their cell phones, while others, they don’t speak,
Some read a book, others sleep as down the road they sail,
I’m happy to be headed home today on the light rail.

by Stan Garber
Los Gatos

* * *

The Little Spider

Designer and builder
No degree from a school
She builds what she needs
Without blueprint or tool.

Climbing, rappelling
Trailing silk all the way
Constructing radials and circulars
It’s done in a day.

Apprehending a fly
She binds him up tight
Using loops of her silk
He’ll be dinner tonight.

by J. Richard Gaskill
Los Gatos

* * *

Invention

An inventor invents a tool
with the one shape that fits.

An artist invents light
with the right shade of blue.

A mother invents a soup
with her last scraps of food.

A child invents the world
with the ants in the sand.

by Kathleen Goldbach
Campbell

* * *

Antiques

Alas, I have another fear:
Antiques get newer every year.
Computers now are getting old—
I must accept that, I am told.

I guess I mustn’t make a fuss
When they include my old Mac Plus.
I’m sure I’ll see, before I drop,
An iPod in an antique shop.

by Jack Hasling
Cupertino

* * *

Invent-ory

On the train,
in the bus,
no need for defensive
driving.
In the quiet,
scenery passing,
“what if’s” rise to the top.

The best thinking
not always in the shower.
The wheels turn,
the mind’s wheels turn,
replenishing the invent-
ory of ideas.

by Bonnie Home
San Jose

* * *

On the Right Track

It’s a mouse that cruises all day,
in Silicon Valley it finds its way.
You can Google the traffic right around the area
or take the historic trolley without the hysteria.
“Take us to Great America”,
as they jump and scream in euphoria.

by Nicandro Ilagan
Milpitas

* * *

Ode to an Electric Motor
(Powering a VTA Light Rail Car)

Oh Motor — How quietly you propel through busy sanity;

Silently laughing, almost smirking at auto profanity.

Oh Motor — Ever driven forward – Faraday’s electrons pulsing overhead;

Your safe, warm transport sometimes forgotten as dreams turn dread.

Oh Motor — Powering things big and small, keep us on-track through life’s inhumanity.

by B. Johnson
San Jose

* * *

Silicon Valley 3.0

Once dubbed Valley O’Hearts Delight
begat Shockley’s transistors
a silicon birthright

The Farm seeding
ventures to be
computing solutions the fruit of HP

NeXT Jobs and The Woz
thought differently
Macintosh truly an extension of me

iPhoney friends only in numbers grow
#Quantifed-self a friend or a foe?
Crowdsourced solutions IS Valley 3.0h

by Edward Jonathans
Campbell

Leave a comment

Filed under Laureate's News, Poetry on the Move

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 20, 2012 · 7:17 pm

Poetry on the Move: An official commendation!

San Jose City Council Commendation, April 18, 2012

Here I am with project artist Joe Miller receiving our commendations from the City of San Jose for our work to bring Poetry on the Move to VTA for National Poetry Month. Joe holds the purple car card, and members of the Arts Commission are holding the others. Vice Mayor Nguyen and Councilmember Sam Liccardo are on the left.

Why is everyone laughing? Are City Council meetings always this fun? I have just described to the audience that the competing poets had to limit their poems to 50 words or less, and suggested that the City Council try the same thing sometime. Guess I struck a nerve.

Joe and I are grateful for the project’s success and appreciate the honor bestowed.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

2 Comments

Filed under Laureate's News, Poetry on the Move

Tagged as , ,