PITS Poets and Friends Read At Casa Reyna

Michael Sedano

For years now, La Bloga-Tuesday has promoted the idea of inviting poets and other writers into one's living room or backyard to celebrate friends and food and Floricanto. Circumstances dictated my abandonment of the celebration, so Altadena Poet Laureate-emerita, Thelma T. Reyna, picked up the initiative. 

Reyna has for many years hosted numerous gatherings in her exquisitely landscaped backyard, her Casa Reyna Poetry Garden. In recent years, Casa Reyna took the lead to continue the Pasadena sessions of Backyard Floricantos, including a memorable afternoon featuring Richard Vargas.(link) Despite this summer's record heat wave, Reyna hosted a dual reading floricanto featuring PITS, Poets in the Schools professionals, joined by members of Don Kingfisher Campbell's Saturday Afternoon Poets series. Given the heat and sun, the poets gathered on the shaded backyard porch.

The acronym, PITS, stands for (California) Poets In the Schools (link). I like the metaphor of seeds at the heart of luscious fruits, pits. That's what PITS does, it engages kids K-12 to blossom and develop their poetic center that enriches their own literacy, develops empathy and understanding, and write poems that matter. 

Does your child's school nurture creative sensibilities through reading, analyzing, writing, performing and publishing poetry? PITS' mission statement offers "opportunities for professional development, peer learning and fundraising assistance for Poet-Teachers in California. We also cultivate relationships with school districts, foundations and arts organizations which can fund and support our members’ professional practices."

The program brings poet-teachers into classrooms to work with the students, and the teacher, to exercise a kid's creative writing through workshops that enrich the classroom experience. "The Poet-Teacher leads students in discussion of poetic tools, including image, metaphor, rhythm, line, stanza, alliteration, and wordplay. Most of the workshop is devoted to a writing exercise that follows from examples and discussion. Students are encouraged to share their new poems aloud and to respond to each other’s creative efforts in thoughtful and positive ways, to learn from each other’s work, and to approach literature with an insider’s—a writer’s—appreciation and understanding."

Click this link to explore the possibilities of bringing a poet into your school. It's not free, nor a one-day event. Programs run 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 sessions, starting at $375, topping at $5400. PITS staff will explore funding with a school or district.  

Sadly, one of the invited PITS readers cancels with a case of GOPlague. COVID is back, gente, have a care!

In addition to sharing their own work, the audience enjoys readings of several Poets in the Schools students, and it's La Bloga's pleasure to share a sampling today.

Gia Civerolo shares fire poems from South East High School in South Gate, California:

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Fire

Burned so bright

The street lights had no purpose

Million of sparks turned into fireflies

The smell of being around a campfire

But there’s no camp

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The look of surprise spread across my face as I saw the fires. A sense of fear flooded by mind as the snow storm of heat engulfed the streets. Anything and everything flammable is consumed but my feelings and hope will not be taken by this fire.

Nancy Lynée Woo shares Helena Donato-Sapp's artivist poem recounting the beginning of the nation's ongoing nightmare.

The Day After the 2024 Election

By Helena Donato-Sapp

 

I went to bed sad

I went to bed depressed

I got a little sleep

I got a little rest

I woke up determined

To protect my spirit

The work continues now

And I’m the one to do it

 

Injustice means opportunity

To use my smarts and skills

To fight for what is right

To work with all my will

 

I will not choose despair

And stand under that gray cloud

I will choose to shout

And say my truths out loud

 

I say, “Can you hear me?”

You say, “I want a better world!”

I say, “Will you join me?”

You say, “And make our voices heard!”

 

A Spirit hovers over us

This Spirit of community

This Spirit of collectiveness

This Spirit of collaboration

 

I say, “How do we fight against injustice?”

You say, “Together we fight against injustice!”

I say, “How do we fight against hatred?”

You say, “Together we fight against hatred!”

I say, “How do we fight against dehumanizing?”

You say, “Together we fight against dehumanizing!”

 

Together we cry

Together we fight

Together we rise

In the Spirit of justice

 

I went to bed sad

I went to bed depressed

I got a little sleep

I got a little rest

I woke up determined

To protect my spirit

The work continues now

And we are the ones to do it

Author’s Note: I wrote this poem the morning after the 2024 election.  I went to bed so fearful and worried.  I asked my two dads, “Will we still be a family tomorrow?  Will they take me away from you?  Will you still be allowed to be married to each other tomorrow?” I felt filled with despair when I laid my head on my pillow that night. But, when morning came on November 7th I had to make a decision.  And this is the decision I made. This poem is influenced by the strike lines I have walked on and the rallying calls that strikers chant.  

Helena Donato-Sapp is a 16-year-old scholar, activist, keynote speaker, and poet who believes in the power of youth voice and uses her own in the work of equity and justice. She is an accomplished activist and educator internationally recognized for her work in Disability Justice. She has been the Poet Laureate of The National Institutes for Historically-Underserved Students since 2019. She was a Long Beach YPL Ambassador in 2023-2024, the Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate in 2024-2025, an L.A. County YPL Ambassador in 2024-2025, and is currently the 2025-2026 Runner-Up for the Los Angeles County YPL and a 2025-2026 YPL Runner-Up for the Western Region of the United States. Find out more about Helena at https://www.helenalourdes.com.

Portraits of the Poets At An Afternoon Backyard Porch Floricanto 

Gia Civerolo

Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl

Don Campbell

Marvin Louis Dorsey

Mani Suri

José Enrique Medina (winner of this year's Rattle chapbook contest)

Nancy Lynée Woo

Michelle Smith

Marc Cid

Soul Stuff (Christian Perfas)