Local poets take the stage at Sun Alley

Award-winning poet L.I. Henley waits for the audience to settle down. Then she brushes back her long black hair and launches into her poem, a powerful childhood memory. As her mother explains that she is separating from the poet’s father, their Buick is caught up in a flash flood.

A drought     she thought     a walk across the Mojave

& then

water like thick honey from the comb

             I’ll know when it’s time she said

to go out the window

Henley (the “L” stands for Lauren) grew up in Joshua Tree.  The winner of many poetry awards, including the 2017 Perugia Press Prize, she writes spare, highly polished poems capturing the magic and the dangers of this beautiful and harsh landscape.

Since February 2017, Morongo Basin poets have been gathering around the Sun Alley stage on the second Sunday of every month to hear featured writers like Michael Dwayne Smith, Cynthia Anderson, Susan Abbott and, of course, Henley. 

The reading series is the result of poet Rich Soos’ efforts to support the high desert writing community. Soos publishes Cholla Needles, a monthly literary magazine launched at the beginning of 2017. He approached Space Cowboy Bookstore, located in the Sun Alley, about hosting a series of readings by poets that he publishes and the owners agreed.

“There is a very obvious tight-knit group who have been doing things together up here for many years,” Soos says, “and they are very open about allowing new writers into their fold and sharing themselves while listening to others. The respect they have for each other, and the support they show for each other, is an inspiration.”

Along with the featured poets, audience members can add their names to the sign-up sheet and read a poem of their own.

During the October 8^th reading, for instance, the audience heard from sixteen other readers, including Dorothy Baker, speaking in her persona as “The Queen.” Ellen Baird read her eleven-year-old son Lowen’s poem about betrayed trust, and writer Gabriel Hart related a nightmarish journey down the Morongo Pass in a gale force wind.

Regarding Cholla Needles, Soos says, “I put a small ad in the Hi-Desert Star and Facebook asking folks to send poetry and short stories. I wanted to print one magazine a month, and I was determined to print at least 6 books this year. So far we’ve published ten issues of the magazine, and 16 books of poetry, art and fiction by local writers.”

Soos has plenty of experience running small presses. In the 70’s & 80’s, while living in Monterey, San Diego and San Jose, he published over 200 issues of Seven Stars, a monthly magazine, and 100 books under the name Realities Library.

For his current book projects, Soos uses Amazon as his printer. This gives him flexibility in terms of the number of books printed at any time and offers speedy turn-around time.

Soos obviously takes great pleasure supporting local writers, and, for full disclosure, that includes me.  This spring, he published a few of my poems in the issue 5 of Cholla Needles, and I was one of those sixteen other readers on Sunday, October 8. High desert writers owe Rich Soos much gratitude for his love of poets and good books.

For more information about Cholla Needles, go to the website or pick up a copy at Rainbow Stew in Yucca Valley, Space Cowboy in Joshua Tree, and Raven’s Books in 29 Palms.

L.I. Henley and poet Jonathan Maule are editors of an on-line poetry magazine, Apercus. In addition, they feature visiting poets at the Beatnik Lounge on the 3^rd Friday of every month.