Walkin' with Joaquin

The CWC tabled at the Earth Day work day this year, with a simple writing prompt for all participants:  Write an Earthday Haiku! Because haiku as we know it has a direct lineage to Joaquin Miller Park! Learn why here . Crafting a haiku is something you can do while your hands are otherwise occupied. All you need your fingers for is to keep track of syllables. One hand plus two fingers.  In the back of my mind as I invited passersby to write a haiku, or to read poems written on this land by Joaquin Miller, I cranked them out. Once you start forming 5-syllable phrases, it's very hard to stop! (And yes, oops, I did bring a patch of it home!) Every so often, someone would come back to the table and write down a haiku they'd created. I'd tape them along the table's edge. This one was hilarious! It felt so special hearing each person read their poem out loud to me, heartfelt, among...

Our Friends of Joaquin Miller Park annual meeting and "In the Hights" Literary Arts Festival last October was an epic revival of great traditions. There's a video coming, but until then, taste these delicious highlights. We shared a pot of crowdsourced “bandit stew” (everyone brought an ingredient) prepared by chef John Farais of Indigenous Edibles . The audience--which included all of the readers--was treated to a cascade of historic literature read by local lights! The first reading was by a Rachel Royce,  president of the  Metropolitan Horseman's Association . From atop her horse, Harry Potter, she read a rollicking excerpt of the poem "Joaquin Murietta" -- the poem that shaped Joaquin Miller's destiny. Miller's horse, by the way, was named  Chief. The purpose of the program was to entertain and educate the public about the first and second wave of  California Writers who lived at or visited The Hights, Joaquin Miller's art colony that later ...