Walkin' with Joaquin

I have been kept from the actual Park too much this year, spending time instead online, elsewhere, doing research on it where there's better bandwidth!  This is a photo from April, our Poets on Earth event. But in planning this year's "Blanket and a Basket of Chow" (I was too busy tearing up Oaktoberfest to even post the event here), I found my sentiments perfectly expressed by the very busy Ina Coolbrith. Imagine her stuck at her day job, setting up our first library, pinching pennies and time to care for her mother and the three girls kids in her charge – not her own. Imagine her looking out the window onto crowded streets, and LONGING.     O aimless fret of household tasks! O chains that bind the hand and mind—     A fuller life my spirit asks! For there the grand hills, summer-crowned,     Slope greenly downward to the seas; One hour of rest upon their breast     Were worth a year of days like these. Their cool, soft green to ease the pain     Of eyes that ache

As we prepared to send in our proposal  to give the Fire Circle a makeover  last week, something wasn't sitting right with me. Was it seeing those little Wednesday outdoor school kids climbing around on the cracking, crumbling cement structure? Was it having somewhere to hang our CWC banner at our Earth Day poetry event? Was it the gentle backdrop to all those amazing poets (Nanette Deetz, Richard Loranger, Lucille Lang Day et al)? Was it the way Bob Stephens curled up like some drunken beat poet in the sliver of shade that slab provided? Yes. YES. So much yes! The way we all  interacted with the space—food on one side, poetry on the other—made me realize this spot was thoughtfully designed for parties. I listened to President Keith deliver his puzzled, hilarious description of meat shopping for meat , and while staring at the shapes behind him, realized... Those are ziggurats! Yes, this classical, geometric stairstep pattern is an iconic Art Deco detail. How had I missed that all

  For Earth Day this year, the whole CWC is coming up to the Park for a Write-in and an open mic . Here are all the important links! Location: Sign in at the Abbey and walk up lower Sanborn Road to the California Writers Circle. Audio Tour:   Download this track before you get there since signal may be limited. Start listening at the yellow gate, walk slowly, and pause at the statue. Start walking again when you hear "the castle-like structure." Music: We Awoke to the Sun by Merrill Collins. (Can't hear it? read it here .) Write-in 1:30pm There will be writing prompts available; bring a laptop or notebook and be prepared to get creative, focused, angry, inspirational! Planet Vs Plastics (check for links!) Poets vs Plastics Writing Prompts & Actions Reading 2:30pm There will be a sign-up sheet at the event, and some poetry by earlier voices to share. Our featured readers are: author, publisher and ecopoet Lucille Lang Day;  poet, teacher and literary community builde

  Walking down to the Big Trees Trail from Skyline, a racket of color caught my eye, a spot of blue and orange in the shade of tall redwoods. I heard voices and called out a hello.  The Friends of Joaquin Miller Park mural project, which has been in the works for nearly three years, means some of the Park's dank cement bathrooms (kept up largely by volunteers) are becoming a canvas for murals, which in the past 30 years have become  a signature of Oakland culture and style .  As I approached, the artists stood up from their work and waved.  Kristi Holohan  (of Dimond Gateway and Rock, Paper, Scissors fame) showed me around the building and  the famous,  Resta ,   former Oakland public property artist and  now a firefighter in training, provided a snazzy action pose.  There's another mural underway down by the California Writers Circle. Thank you to the artists and the donors and a huge shout out to Julie Mills! The FOJMP Development Committ

January First, 4pm.  The afternoon sun lights up bright green patches of grass between the tall tree shadows. I’m on my way to greet the new year from Lookout Point, where we all like to look out at Oakland. Pyramid hill glows with the indescribable color made by orange light on bright green grass. Beyond, the bay is shining, Lake Merritt glistens. The whole city looks quiet and clean from here, rinsed by last week's rains, ready to start a fresh new year.  A year ago today park was in shambles after the “cyclone bomb” of a storm that decimated this urban forest. A great number of Joaquin Miller’s trees are history now, the ones he planted 120-150 years ago to create a park setting on the Ohlone’s former grassland hunting ground. My 2023 photo album is  full of green devastation . I soothed my sorrow knowing that these hundreds of lost trees died a natural death— they were at the ends of their life spans and killed by nature. But I also still feel that they, and all the trees in th

The California Writers Club's annual literary picnic, "A Blanket and a Basket of Chow," was blessed this year by the first good rain of the season.  The last time, and every other time, writers have gathered in this space, we've been shaded by tall trees. This January, they fell like dominos in the devastating New Year's storm. It cost the city six thousand dollars to have all the wood removed.  Ten months later, the meadow looks as if it's always been open, the light is welcoming, and an enormous stump remains, a natural stage in its own right. Our event, which overlapped with the Friends of Joaquin Miller Park annual meeting, was the perfect occasion to re-christen the Fire Circle as the California Writers Circle . Plans are afoot to re-configure the Fire Pit, which was erected some time in the 1960s or 1970s, guessing from the modular cement design, but until then, a makeshift stage will do.  Three panels were constructed from reclaimed wood by a volunteer,