Poetry Connection: Connecting with One Special Bus Rider

One of the notable connections I’ve made as Poet Laureate is with Lea (pronounced Lee) Williams. Lea is a wanderer, traveler, writer who specializes in letter writing, and graphic designer. I met her early in May, during one of my first events at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, where I had the honor of sharing the spotlight with our Youth Poet Laureate Madeline Miller at the Women’s Literary Festival’s Poetry Pairing. After the event, Lea contacted me and asked if I would be interested in collaborating with her to bring poetry onto our city’s buses. I was certainly thrilled with the idea because it aligned with my mission as Poet Laureate: to bring more poetry to public spaces and create more awareness to poetry in our community.

Since April, I have participated in more than 30 events, most recently at Bishop Diego High School. It always surprises me how little awareness there is for the position of Santa Barbara Poet Laureate. I’m happy to help local bus riders become aware of our current and past poets laureate through Poetry Passages, the project that will put poetry on our buses.

I also remember how thrilling it was when I went to New York and rode the subway and sat next to a poster of one of my favorite poems by Aracelis Girmay. Lea had a similar experience of riding the bus in Los Angeles and seeing poetry during National Poetry Month on the buses. 

She described seeing poetry on buses as a thrilling gift:

“When I lived in Los Angeles, one April there were ‘Poetry in Motion’ panels of classic poetry up on the buses. It was a thrilling gift. And I noticed how many riders, of every economic state, were entranced by those panels. That stayed with me — the pleasure and inspiration of poetry being presented for everyone. And the extraordinary engagement I saw over and over again. So grateful to the Poetry Society of America for launching this idea. We just chose to do it a little differently.”

Lea and I have been meeting since May to figure out how to make this idea into a reality for the Santa Barbara Municipal Transit District (SBMTD). There are several moving parts to this project, from getting approval of the SBMTD, to choosing poets and poems, to figuring out how to pay for the project.

Luckily, several of the pieces fell into place from having access to a wonderful translator in visiting poet Alexandra Regalado to wrangling eight poets laureate to contribute some verses to the project. If you’ve been following poetry in Santa Barbara, you know that we lost one of our own, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. While she was not able to finish her bus poem, she had chosen a coastal route and we were able to find an appropriate verse for her chosen bus line.

One of the most important parts was the opportunity to apply for a city grant to cover the cost of funding the project. The grant will allow us to pay the SBMTD, the poets, our translator, and fiscal sponsor. In addition to the task of choosing excerpts of each poem, there was also the issue of naming the entire project. Since we couldn’t use “Poetry in Motion,” we came up with “Poetry Passages.” Lea designed the poetry panels and a flier to let people know about the project. Download the QR in the flier and view the routes where you’ll find Poetry Passages during National Poetry Month in April. Here is my entire poem. Can you guess which couplet will be excerpted for bus route 11? 

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Bus Stop

by Melinda Palacio, 10th Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara

It’s the waiting that hurts,
Makes the day feel longer.

Smiles and relief when the bus arrives,
a satisfying thrill, seeing a long, lost friend.

She speaks in a woman’s voice, announces the stop
For Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.

Outside, Lowriders on parade turn heads.
Too tired. I’m glad I’m not driving.

So many rattling parts. The bus hums, squeals, exhales,
screeches to a false stop as it crouches to receive passengers.

As it gurgles forward,
I wonder if the bus is more tired than I. 

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Upcoming Poetry Events:

February 3: Poetry reading and book release party with Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Gillian Osborne, Monica Mody, and Michael Gardner, 5:30 p.m., doors open at 5 p.m. at Wylde Works (609 State St)

February 7: Poetry Night: Open Mic for Poets, 9 p.m., Wylde Works (609 State St)

February 7: Launch Reading for Salt V & VI, double issue, edited by Christopher Buckley, 4:30 p.m. at Blue Whale Venue, Unity Chapel (227 E. Arrellaga St.)

February 11: The Poetry Zone, Karpeles Manuscript Museum (21 W. Anapamu St.), every second Sunday at 1:30 p.m., open mic.