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 8th 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 3rd
Friday of every month.
