Poetry Connection: Nature, Art, and Poetry in Santa Barbara

The Poet's Perch, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Melinda Palacio, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate

Every year, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden hosts an open call for “Casitas” to be built in their backcountry, the area of the garden where kids can touch plants and art and have fun. This area is where many summer camps romp and there’s a tire swing and children can learn about nature. Colleen M. Kelly was one of the recipients of the Casitas grant. 

 

For her project, she designed a Poet’s Perch, in homage of cherished Poet Laureate Emerita, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle (1943-2023). The late poet would have celebrated her 81^st birthday on Monday, August 26. Along with Rod Rolle and several of Sojourner’s close friends and colleagues, Colleen M. Kelly unveiled her Poet’s Perch. The art installation consists of a tall, 12-foot, upside-down tree, salvaged from the Botanic Garden with a kite that reads Joy (Sojourner’s given name) and Sojourner’s poem, “Hosanna,” originally published in What Breathes us: Santa Barbara Poets Laureate 2005-2015, Gunpowder Press 2016, wrapped around the top. The art installation includes colored staffs, made of painted tree branches with designs and colors that mimic the bright scarves owned by the poet herself. The space invites poets and children of all ages to find inspiration and creativity.  

 

Rod Rolle was on hand with his camera, documenting the process of the installation and its unveiling. Colleen said they both felt Sojourner’s presence while installing the homage to her. The casita honors both the poet and nature. The Poet’s Perch blends into the backcountry, as if it has always belonged there. The installation will be up for two years. 

 

Colleen M. Kelly chose Sojourner’s “Hosanna” because it’s a poem dedicated to artists, and Kelly likes to think Sojourner had her in mind when she wrote it. Colleen and Sojourner have been friends for decades. Sojourner collaborated with Colleen and wrote ekphrastic poems for her show, “Naked Under Clothes.” Colleen enjoys spending time at the Poet’s Perch and answering questions from people visiting the garden’s backcountry. She often will ask people if they live in Santa Barbara; and if they don’t, she introduces them to Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. 

 

When a family interacted with Poet’s Perch, Colleen felt as if she had done her job. A family stopped by and started reading the entire poem, moving around the tree as the poem is wrapped around it. With lines such as, “a dancer lifts one bare foot mocking the slow/deliberate step of a blue heron: /raising a bare leg in the manner of a Sandhill Crane, lifting a jointed limb like the graceful Snowy Egret, as if we humans could take flight”, the poem invites the reader to participate in the poem. 

 

“I was really pleased to see how a family from Southern California interacted with the installation. A father and son took turns reading Sojourner’s poem while mom enacted what she was hearing. Mom must be a dancer.”

 

At last week’s installation and opening, I had the pleasure of reading an ekphrastic poem I wrote for the exhibit. The poem was inspired by the last days I spent talking to Sojourner while she was in hospice last November. She opened her eyes and said two words to me, ‘Oh My.’ Many people have shared how important the words are of people who are in the process of transitioning or making their final journey on this earth. I recall that Poet Laureate Emerita, Perie Longo told me that I should write a poem based on those two precious words I heard from Sojourner. It wasn’t until Colleen M. Kelly asked for a poem for her Casita project that I sat down to write it. 

 

 

For today’s Poetry Connection Poem, I am sharing the poem I wrote for Poet’s Perch, as well as Sojourner’s poem, Hosanna, originally published in: What Breathes Us: Santa Barbara Poets Laureate 2005-2015, Gunpowder Press 2016. Thank you to Gunpowder Press for Permission to reprint Sojourner’s poem. 

 

Hosanna

By Sojourner Kincaid Rolle 

For the Artists of Santa Barbara

In the quietest of spaces,

On a twig in the hedge;

near a cone at the top

of a Torrey Pine tree;

one chirp begins the sound of day—

the downbeat for a symphony.

 

On a hillside,

high above the morning wave,

Pacific water rushing in and easing out;

a first brush-stroke begins the great unfolding—

the plein air narrative of this moment.

 

Somewhere on the land beneath the rocks

where massive middens of abalone and debris

evidence our ancient places on coastal shores,

a dancer lifts one bare foot mocking the slow

deliberate step of a blue heron;

raising a bare leg in the manner of a Sandhill Crane,

lifting a jointed limb like the graceful Snowy Egret.

as if we humans could take flight. 

 

We poets place words in the mouths of crows;

create a language of our own imaginings.

We imagine song as if sparrows were singing.

We imagine dance as if shore birds could touch the sky.

We view the painter’s renderings as evidence

of our meanderings—our longings made visible.

 

Sending up our praises, our hallelujahs, our hosannas.

We embrace the musicians, the dancers, the painters, the poets, the sculptors, the weavers of thread…. 

We who create hold common cause. 

We honor all that is beautiful.

 

 

 

Ode to Joy

 

          For Sojourner Kincaid Rolle and the Poet’s Perch, art installation by Colleen M. Kelly

By Melinda Palacio, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate

 

Oh my, she said on her deathbed. 

Two words, an epiphany, as if to declare her world 

Of accomplishments flashed before her eyes.

 

Oh my, as if her hardships before Santa Barbara called to her,

Beckoned her to remember a grandmother who shared an 

Appreciation for trees and the word. 

 

With eyes closed you may run to your grandmother

who taught you your first verse in the holy book,

the matriarch who encouraged you to recite. You, 

small child with a loud voice and louder beating heart. 

 

We, us, and all the black poets and gospel singers you claimed,

Are here to claim you. 

 

Oh my, oh my.

As you sit in limbo, you open your eyes for a second and see faces

You have touched in your home in Santa Barbara and beyond to Marion,

Your North Carolina birthplace.

 

As the people’s poet, the city’s Poet Laureate, the town leader, uplifter 

Of connected communities like Olympic rings, bearing peace and unity,

A trained peacemaker, your sunflower face forever turned to light,

Now returns to nature. 

 

Your seeds scatter in letters. Your gracious voice with its Southern lilt

Rings truth. North Carolina dreaming dipped in California Chocolate 

Spells a four-lettered word only you could pronounce P-0-E-M,

Poem. Let your words sail on heavenly wings for this is your hosanna.

 

The beginnings of praise and creativity for you who gave so much. 

May this space, known as the Poet’s Perch, inspire joy in flower and song.

We delight in how you soar higher than a king palm to catch a shooting star.

And like your beloved tortoise, you have won your race.

 

Oh my, you said as you slowly soared above us. 

Oh, my Sojourner. My oh my. 

Oh, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. 

Oh joy.

*This column was originally published in the Santa Barbara Independent