{"id":247170,"date":"2014-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/poetry-party-inspires-all-to-live-and-love\/"},"modified":"2014-04-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T07:00:00","slug":"poetry-party-inspires-all-to-live-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/poetry-party-inspires-all-to-live-and-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Party inspires all to live and love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cynthia Robertson | Uptown News<\/p>\n

With the arrival of the month\u2019s first Friday, local poets convened in Balboa Park\u2019s Santa Fe Room for their regular \u201cPoetry Party.\u201d At 2:30 in the afternoon, they greeted each other as they procured a cup of coffee and sat down at one of the room\u2019s long tables arranged U-shaped around a podium. As everyone looked through their sheaves of poems to read, sun streamed through the arched windows.<\/p>\n

\"Christopher<\/a>
Christophver R gives a passionate reading at the monthly Poetry Party in the Santa Fe Room in Balboa Park. (Photo by Cynthia Robertson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After getting his words in order, the head of the Poetry Party, Christophver R (his legal name) rose as the first to speak. He looked up at his fellow poets \u2014 with ages ranging from their 20s up to their 80s \u2014 and reminded them that the reading was practice as well as performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not criticize. We are all working to become better poets,\u201d\u00a0Christophver said. \u201cBetter poets make better lovers. We love to love life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exercising a routine refined since the group began in 2011, the intricate group of poets took turns reading for a few minutes each. Their work ranged wide, touching on love and death, calamity and heartbreak, mercy, God and children.<\/p>\n

Randi Hawkins recited her poem about the San Diego Opera\u2019s fiscal troubles, entitled \u201cOpera Blues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janet Bingham, who has written poetry for 20years, read \u201cThe Artist Pays a Price\u201d about how society views and misunderstands an artist.\"PoemParty2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The youngest poet present, Rudolfo Gonzalez, aka Rudy G, read a poem he had written about a frightening incident he\u2019d had on the trolley.<\/p>\n

As the party came to a close at 5 p.m., Christophver vocalized his appreciation for those in attendance that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoets are an elusive lot.\u00a0I never know who might show up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ruth Ann Turner, a first-time drop-in visitor to the group looking to try her hand at the craft, had come only to listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t too sure how I\u2019d like it, but this definitely rates a \u201810,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Newcomers like Turner only reinforce the need that Christophver and cohort Michael Turner envisioned three years ago when they first came together with a group at Balboa Park\u2019s Senior Lounge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought the lounge was just begging to become a coffee house experience,\u201d Christophver said. \u201cAll it needed was a poetry reading.\u00a0We put the word out, and have continued every first Friday since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just this year, the Poetry Party group moved their meeting to the Santa Fe Room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is such an emotional integrity in this group, I feel like I can really get to know and love the people,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

Turner proved a saying of Christophver\u2019s true: \u201cCaution: Poverty may be inspirational to your health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next meeting of the Poetry Party is May 2. For more information, call Christophver R at 619-569-4922.\"PoemParty1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cynthia Robertson | Uptown News With the arrival of the month\u2019s first Friday, local poets convened in Balboa Park\u2019s Santa Fe Room for their regular \u201cPoetry Party.\u201d At 2:30 in the afternoon, they greeted each other as they procured a cup of coffee and sat down at one of the room\u2019s long tables arranged U-shaped […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":749,"featured_media":247171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Poetry Party inspires all to live and love","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/749"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}