Poetry & Art

Poetry & Art 4/26/13

Charlene Baldridge at Poetry & Art
all photos by Liliane Choney

A report on my appearance to introduce my late daughter, poet Laura Jeanne Morefield. I began with introduction of blowup photos of Laura and of Laura and me.

 “How can she possibly do that?” was the question most frequently asked of my friends, stalwarts who accompanied me and helped me though my first live, aloud in public presentation of Laura’s chap book, The Warrior’s Stance.

It was my 79^th birthday, and, as a gift, my best GF Liliane Choney gave me an hour-plus with a make-up artist named Meleah, who transformed my clean but sere and weathered face and hair into something beautiful. Feeling that way certainly buoyed me up for the Friday presentation at Poetry & Art at the Museum of the Living Artist in Balboa Park.

The evening of poetry started late and host Michael Chung Klam decided to plow right ahead, with my presentation coming last, prior to what would have been the interval. 

With Michael Chung-Klam, our host

I sat there listening to others read, and it took me back to vocal competitions when I was a young woman, sitting through maybe 25 other lyric sopranos singing  the same aria I was about to sing. By the time it rolled around to me I was insecure and heavy of voice, and, sure enough, I never did well.

Last night, though, I was determined to lift the audience up with Laura’s words. Something magical happened. I introduced Laura and her story and as I read her works I found new music, drama and meaning in each of them, For the first time, ever, I realized that her poem “Selah,” ostensibly about blowing bubbles instead of praying that day, really concerns her tendency to be a control freak. In the poem she has no control: the bubbles go where they may and last not as long as the poet intends; but she finds beauty in their fragility. “….Some pop before they/ leave the wand and some wander to heights that amaze me so that I watch them ascend/until they are no longer visible or simply/no longer are.”

Rob and Charlene

Kay and Sharyn Lyon

Friends and I discussed the reading at a post mortem at The Crest Café. Those present were my stalwarts: girlfriends Liliane Choney and Kay O’Neil and my best friend Rob Wesley. I told them about the discoveries I made as I was reading. They felt them, too; as I read they discovered the revealed meanings,  a sign that Laura was definitely there, making herself clear to me, and, through me, to others.

Other poems I read were “Rain,” “Another Day,” “I Invented Body Surfing,” “If They’re Right,” “Living with Cancer,” “I Am Not My Cancer,” “I’ve Been Waiting” and “The Work at Hand.”

 

Poetry & Art attracts a large audience

How could I do that indeed? How could I possibly float my immense grief on a series of breaths and not melt into a blubbering puddle? I know only that I have told the story so many times that each time it becomes easier. Laura’s poems are universes of their own, explored differently each time they travel through my mind, escape my lips and fly on my breath. As I once wrote, “We breathed each other’s breaths.” Apparently that continues.

Next up, my friends, is the presentation of “our” theatre piece, The Warriors’ Duet, to be produced by the San Diego Fringe Festival sdfringe.com. It will play the weekend of July 5,6,7 at 10^th Avenue Theatre. Casting and times TBA.

Susan Hertzog and Charlene

Meanwhile, I will see if my feet bring me back to earth.

Charlene, baby Chung-Klam, Jennifer Chung-Klam and Christian Hertzog

Charlene Baldridge

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" -- Mary Oliver

Welcome to the world

Laura Morefield and Charlene Baldridge
Christmas 2008

Welcome 

Here are photos from the March 25 launch of Laura Morefield’s poetry chapbook, The Warrior’s Stance. All party images were made by New York-based photographer Ken Howard, who took time from his busy San Diego schedule to be there in honor of Laura.

With editors  Anthony King and Morgan Hurley
of San Diego Community Newspaper Network

Thanks to all who stopped by for refreshment and picked up a book, to Jen Sparkman for the food and to Rob Wesley and graphic designer Patty Kevershan who both pitched in to help. Also thanks to ion theatre’s Glenn Paris and Claudio Raygoza, who made their beautiful URBN CENTR4THEARTS available. It looked gorgeous.

The event was a fundraiser, of course. The entire proceeds of every book sale went to the Colon Cancer Alliance in Washington, DC. They’re still busy posting donations at ccalliance.org/laura.

Retired Globe carpenter Tom Hammer, and actor TJ Johnson 

Writer Shari Lyon and Charlene

With Performances Magazine Editor Sarah Daoust

With noted author/grief therapist Ken Druck

With music critic David Gregson

Updated news: I’ll present The Warrior’s Stance at 6:30 pm Friday, April 26 at Poetry & Art:

On Friday, April 26, Poetry & Art Series 2013 features arts writer and poet Charlene Baldridge, poet and executive director of San Diego Writers, Ink (SDWI) Amy Locklin, and Poetry International’s managing editor and poet Jennifer Minniti-Shippey. These renowned authors will read with select Poetry International MFA poets and select poets published in SDWI’s 2013 anthology A Year In Ink, Vol. 6. 

This arts and culture event takes place in the Museum of the Living Artist, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for treats, refreshments and live music by Ben Chung. Members are free; $5 at the door, or guests may bring wine to share and get in free.

Biographies

Theater critic Charlene Baldridge is an award-winning poet, journalist and columnist.  Her poetry has been set in two song cycles by American opera composer Jake Heggie (Moby-Dick and Dead Man Walking). Most recently, Charlene edited and produced The Warrior's Stance, luminous post-diagnosis poems of her late daughter Laura Jeanne Morefield, a lifelong poet who seldom sent her work out. Thanks to the generosity of Daniel Morefield, the entire sales price of this chapbook goes to support the Colon Cancer Alliance.  Poet Laura Jeanne Morefield (10/8/1960-7/17/2011) graduated summa cum laude from Pepperdine University, was married to Daniel Morefield, and enjoyed a career in banking. She wrote short stories, poems, screenplays, and a political column. Her poems are incorporated in The Warriors' Duet, a piece of theater to be produced in the San Diego Fringe Festival in July. 

Amy Locklin edited the anthology of speculative short fiction Altered States and has begun to edit a second anthology, Law and Disorder. Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in journals including Clementine Magazine, Quarter After Eight, Maize, and Main Street Rag, as well as the anthologies And Know This Place: Poetry of Indiana and Dots on a Map: Stories from Small Town America. Her work has won honors in the Robert J. DeMott short prose contest, the Academy of American Poets Prize, the Associated Writing Program’s Intro Journal Project, and the Lois Davidson Ellis Literary Award. A recipient of Indiana Arts Commission grants, she earned her MFA at Indiana University, where she directed the IU Writers’ Conference for four years. She teaches writing and literature, writes and performs music, and is executive director of San Diego Writers, Ink. Her poetry chapbook The Secondary Burial is available from Finishing Line Press.

Jennifer Minniti- Shippey is the Managing Editor of Poetry International literary journal, and an adjunct professor at San Diego State University.  Her previous chapbook, Done Dating DJs, won the 2009 Fool for Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Munster Literature Centre of Cork, Ireland.  Her work has appeared in Tar River Poetry, Jackson Hole Review, In Possee Review, Pure Francis, and San Diego Poetry Annual, among others.  She teaches horseback riding and co-edits the football blog Halftimes with Dean & Jenny.  She lives in San Diego with a wonderful German shepherd and a patio full of potted plants.

Poetry International is an annual literary journal published by SDSU with Ilya Kaminsky as editor-in-chief.

San Diego Writers, Ink is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that offers classes, groups, workshops, readings and other literary events at The Ink Spot and other locations throughout San Diego County.  SDWI publishes A Year In Ink, an annual anthology of poetry and prose by regional authors.

Following the reading, there will be open mic for writers or painters who would like to share a few pieces of their work.

Ben Chung will provide live music.  There will be treats and beverages as always. Please contact host Michael Klam with any questions: 619-957-3264 (cell) or 619-236-0011 (museum).

Writers/artists who would like to read on the open mic can sign up ahead of time at mkklam@gmail.com or sign in on the night of the show.

News

March 24

Now that tomorrow's book celebration is about to be history, it's time for a few announcements. But first a bit of explanation. The Warrior's Stance is the title of Laura Jeanne Morefield's poetry chapbook. It contains pre- and post-diagnosis works. As you know, Laura (October 8,1960-July 17, 2011) assigned this task to me, her mommy, prior to her death, knowing that I would fulfill her request. The book's publication was made possible through the generosity of Laura's husband, Dan Morefield, and the entire sales price goes directly to the Colon Cancer Alliance in Washington, DC. I'd also like to thank book designer Patty Keverhan and web site designer Kelley Worrall.

Laura and Dan Morefield

The news is as follows:

1. During the final week of National Poetry Month, April 26 to be precise, I've been asked to present The Warrior's Stance at the Poetry & Art evening at Museum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park. Other featured artists are Jenni Minniti-Sheppey, managing editor at Poetry International, and SD Writer's Ink  executive director Amy Locklin. 
My longtime friend Rob Wesley will bring The Warrior's Stance, which you may purchase for $20 at the interval. The evening gets under way with munchies and wine at 6:30 and presentations begin around 7 pm. Admission is $5 or a bottle of wine to share. Host is Michael Klam  (619) 236-0011 or (619) 957-3264. To sign up for culminating open mike email mkklam@gmail.com

2. During the first week in July, San Diego Fringe Festival presents The Warriors' Duet, which is based upon some of Laura's poems. Exact times, dates and location are yet to be determined. Director is Ann Gehman. 

Stay tuned for further news. If you want more background on the relationship of warriors, go to http://charlenebaldridge.blogspot.com and for Laura's blog go to http://lauramorefield.weebly.com

Praise

Praise

by Charlene Baldridge

Laura Jeanne Morefield
Dallas, April 2010

I still keep your jewelry

separate from mine as if

any day you will reappear to

claim it, to wear it gloriously again.

Even in basic black you had such

style. I miss that elegance and

also the warmth and humor

that came with it.

For far too long now I’ve met you

only on the page. Spellcheck

and topography and precise

punctuation are fine, but

I long for your arms, your

lips, your voice, telling me

Atta girl, Mommy.

The bookseller and the blind woman

Today I sold a book to a blind woman. Lena is a regular at the coffee shop on the corner.

When I told her that The Warrior’s Stance had finally arrived, she asked, “Oh, may I hold it?”

I put the book into Lena’s hands and she said, “It feels gorgeous. What does it look like?”

The large section of the front cover depicts a Warrior. Lavender, his outline emerges from a rectangle the color of cabernet. The Warrior is dressed in ragged clothes, lunging into the warrior’s pose, one foot in front of the other, his weapon held high, poised for confrontation, is merely a slim tree branch with leaves still clinging to one end.

The model, drawn from memory, was a homeless man I saw in Balboa Park one day circa 1990. I never dreamed that his stance would one day come to symbolize my 48-year old daughter Laura Jeanne Morefield’s fight with stage four colon cancer. The Warrior’s pose adorns the cover of chapbook that Laura asked me to produce. It was during one of our mother-daughter afternoons two months prior to her death.

“And here on the back,” I told Lena, “is a lavender panel with handwritten passages from Laura’s journal reversed out in the cabernet color. And at the top of each page is a strip of cabernet each with a different handwritten entry taken from her notebooks. The poem titles are reversed out in white.”

“Oh,” said Lena. “It’s so beautiful.” She purchased a copy, intending to give it eventually to her niece. But first she will take it to the public library where they have a machine that “translates” copy into words so that she can “read” the entire book.

Before Lena left I read one of Laura’s poems aloud, the one titled “I invented bodysurfing.”

When Lena left, I wept, wanting to share the experience with Laura. “She knows already, Charlene,” said my wise friend Rob. “She knows.”

Laura Jeanne Morefield and her mom
2008

 

It's here!

The Warrior's Stance is here! 

Used to dropping boxes of publications at warehouses, the deliveryman from Neyenesch Printers was surprised to be greeted with tears of joy. After nearly two years of work, the boxes he dropped in a corner of my office are the fulfillment of a promise made to my late daughter, poet Laura Morefield two months before her death. Inside each book are her poems, mostly written after her diagnosis.

We need to talk, all of us, about loss. It is not a rare thing. It is something we all endure. The delivery man confided that his mother recently died. His nephew suffers from an awful, debilitating disease. We all lose; we all will be lost.

So put on your warrior garments and read this luminous, love- and life-filled work, so gorgeously produced by Neyenesch and so gloriously and lovingly designed by Patty Kevershan.

Proceeds benefit Colon Cancer Alliance, Laura and Dan Morefield's chosen charity. To obtain your copy and matching bookmark, send a check for $20 made payable to Colon Cancer Alliance to Charlene Baldridge, 3450 2nd Avenue, #12, San Diego, CA 92103. Postage is an additional $5. Or phone (619) 296-8044 and arrangements may be made for you to pick up your copy.

A celebration of the book's publication will be held between 4 and 7 p.m. Monday, March 25, at ion theatre's URBN CNTR 4THEARTS, 6th near Pennsylvania. Reservations are required. RSVP to charb81@cox.net