Poetry Connection | Connecting with Spooky Spirits and Poetry

Next week, poetry becomes spooky with the Halloween season edition of Spirits in the Air: Potent Potable Poetry. Poet Laureate George Yatchisin has been offering the yearly event since 2015. This year he says, “How can you beat getting to have double the spirits fun for Spirits in the Air?” 

The format will be the same, 20 poems in an hour. George says they go down easy. “You will laugh; your heartstring will get pulled; you’ll be out on the streets by 7:30.” For several years, this event has brought a SRO crowd to the Good Lion. It’s the type of community event that brings in people who don’t regularly attend poetry readings. 

In the spirit of fun and the season, George has also asked readers to come up with an appropriate nom de plume. I know the spooky names of two of the participants, Old Man Scratchisin and the Barbarous Witch of Constance. If you can’t guess who these poets are, you’ll have to attend the reading. 

Arrive early for the mingling poetic happy hour from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., followed by the poetry reading. Poets will read two poems, one that is not their own. It’s always fun to hear which poems the readers choose and see which cocktail they will imbibe in. George says his Spirits in the Air standard has been Greenpoint Cocktails with rye, yellow Chartreuse, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters, orange bitters, and a lemon twist, but for next week’s Halloween edition, he might opt for a Corpse Reviver #2, which just might be his favorite cocktail. 

With an approximate finish by 6:30 p.m., there’s still time for poets, writers, and other creatives to go to the Blue Owl afterwards. That Tuesday, Trish Fancher, founder of the LowState Writing Salon, returns to offer fun and quirky writing time with a theme she describes as “Spine Tingling Stories.” 

It’s great to see our community show up for poetry. Last month, a full house attended the Blue Room reading, featuring the anthology of poetry by Santa Barbara poets inspired by Patricia Chidlaw’s paintings. Blue Room is edited by David Starkey and published by Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery. I had the pleasure of reading my poem “By the Grace of Red Shoes” in response to Chidlaw’s painting, “Red Shoes, 2019.” The photograph is of a Flamenco dancer. When I showed the poem to my flamenco dance teacher, Rosal Ortega, she was impressed by how much flamenco vocabulary and culture I have absorbed in addition to the dance training. In turn, I had the opportunity to tell Rosal about the ancient tradition of ekphrastic poetry, where poets respond to art with a poem. 

Any poets interested in following in my footsteps and learning flamenco may attend a free flamenco open house with Rosal Ortega Flamenco on Sunday, October 11, at 2 p.m. at Inspire Dance, 4141 State Street, upstairs above the barber shop and El Rincon Bohemio restaurant. Olé!

By the Grace of Red Shoes

by Melinda Palacio
After Patricia Chidlaw’s “Red Shoes”

Tonight my heart and feet stomp in sixes for Sevillanas.
In the mirror, I picture the entire dance and my classical solo.
Without my baby sister, the world is out of compás.
Every measure ends flat on a false note.

I started dancing because she said I needed a hobby,
something to show me there was more to life than a paycheck.

The show was supposed to be her moment, her Sevillanas, her solo.
But a bicycle crushed her once perfect leg.
The face I see in the mirror is not my own, but hers.
Nenita, my youngest sibling, the family’s natural born flamenca.

Her peacock mantoncillo with the long pink fringe
takes on a life of its own in her fluttering floreo hands.
The red peineta to crown my head, this black slip and dress,
all borrowed, except the red stained shoes.

Who could fit into your tiny dancer feet and expansive dreams?
No one, and anyone, brave enough to wear red shoes.

Pile red begonias high on my head, channel your breath, your gunfire
rhythm rains steady. All will be redeemed with red suede shoes.
At every mirror, I envision you whole again.
By the grace of red shoes, you will dance again.

---

Upcoming Poetry Events

Tuesday, October 13
Spirits in the Air: Potent Potable Poetry. Halloween Edition. Ten invited poets will read their work and the work of others, about libations at the Good Lion, 1212 State Street, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Poetic Happy Hour, reading 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, October 13
Low State Writing Salon. Writing prompts, writing time for the community. 7-9 p.m. at the Blue Owl, 5 West Canon Perdido Street.

Sunday, October 18
The Poetry Club. Goleta Valley Library. Read a favorite poem or one of your own. 2-3 p.m.

Sunday, October 18
Let’s Chat About Poetry with Laure-Anne Bosselaar. Join local poetry professor and poet laureate emerita, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, for a reading of favorite poems. 4-5 p.m. at Domecil, 1223 State Street.

October 30 Deadline
Poems on justice sought. The Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Santa Barbara is proud to present the 2027 Essay and Poetry Awards Program. This annual initiative invites students to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through original essays and poems that reflect his timeless values. The theme for this year’s application is: “It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.” Send entries to the MLKSB Essay and Poetry Program.