LITERARY EVENT Southwestern Chula Vista

SOUTH WESTern CHULA VISTA LIBRARY 389 Orange Avenue, and telephone number is 619-585-5755 SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15th

Take the 805 Freeway from either direction (north or south) and take the Olympic Parkway/Orange Avenue exit. Go west on Orange Avenue for about 2 or 3 miles. There's a huge DIP at one of the intersections with a stoplight, so watch out for it. The library will be on the left, with a very Santa Fe color scheme.

Thank you to Joy Whatley, the SouthWestern Chula Vista Branch librarian

Please note I have taken the liberty with the address usually referred to as  SW

 

I am speaking on a panel about contemporary poetry. We should be lively and ready for your questions. This is not a dead poet’s society.

I also will be reading from my book, The Lucky Boy

 

   I am looking for audience members who are willing to be part of my band to perform a work that I have not yet published and will be the first time heard.  No musical ability required. I will be providing recorders, whistles and sound makers for my band members to partake.

 

DEBUT:

The Last Southwestern Willow Flycatcher

Kern River Reserve California

 

 

To give you a background, I will publish the written piece here Friday night.  It is a work in progress. The story is about an endangered bird. The particular bird came to my backyard first in 2009. I took a couple photographs of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher in my yard and posted them. This brought on a chain of events that is spoken about in the poem.

Birdwatchers contacted me and ended up staying in my yard to document that the lone bird stayed in Orange County, as there are thought to be only eighty of this particular type of bird remaining.

I learned that the number one place they inhabit is nearby Kernville, California a place where my children’s great grandparents first lived. My children are ninth generation Californians. This connectivity raised my interest in visiting the private reserve where these birds settle and to discover how events, places and our time can become part of something bigger than our self. It is also about conservation. Not only conserving our ecology but appreciating every precious moment on this earth.

 

 A video is in progress with a game for the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher and I hope you will enjoy the debut of this poem.