Winning poems

My Life is an Error so Lovely

BY GALILEO BERENSTEIN

My life is an error, so lovely,

The present is always Saturday

My heart is at the sunny beach

I imagine a foggy river in winter

I am in bed, in a tree

Reading a book and snoring the night away

Marz, Poem

BY CHLOE AVILA MARTIN

I’m going to fly off some day

To Mars

Watch the horizon amongst copper dust and ancient rock

Then maybe I’ll fly off again

Explore a new planet

Leave the solar system

Never to be seen again

They may call me a lost astronaut

Somewhere up in space; unknown

But I’m home right here

Among the stars

The ABC’s of School Shooting Massacres

BY HAL PRICE

Assault weapons in schools are too commonplace now!

Bloodstained walls in our classrooms are accepted somehow… Chaos rules our new nightmare, how can this be true?

Deadly weapons in hands of a misguided few.

Every day we watch lives that are stolen away.

Families cry out in horror…no words left to say!

Gun laws fall short, feeding lobbyists’ greed!

Horrific live coverage makes bereft parents plead!

Innocent victims shot down now with no chance to fight!

Just statistics and tears from this non-ending blight.

More than 70 enter local poetry contest

Of the 70 locals who submitted more than 100 poems to the Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center for its National Poetry Month competition, four took home top prizes: Galileo Berenstein, Chloe Avila Martin, Hal Price and Zachary Murphy King. Berenstein was the winner of the children’s poetry contest, with Ava Stengel, Derrick Gamo Rossignol and Olive Williams as honorable mentions, while Martin won the teen contest, with Daisy Gemberling as the honorable mention. Price and King tied for first place in the adult category, and Crystal Marshall took home an honorable mention award.

According to Lana Ziegler, arts center program coordinator, the poems were blind judged by Gib Johnson, Zoe Iverson, Jena Jenkins and 2021 Adult Poetry winner Dr. Christina Gessler.

Palate to Palette exhibit opens May 18

The Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center’s annual Palate to Palette exhibit opens May 18, with the exhibit’s fundraising gala scheduled for June 4. The exhibit, opening in the center’s Charles Lo Bue Gallery, features more than 40 artists; each donated their works for this exhibit, according to development director Jodi Wilson. The gallery is open from noon to 4 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays, at 865 Linden Ave. This center’s upcoming gala will feature a live auction, food and wines from over 20 restaurants, local chefs and vintners. Tickets are $150.

“A hearty thanks to all the artists, restauranteurs and vintners who donated to our Palate to Palette fundraiser. The generous donations help keep the arts vibrant and alive in Carpinteria… we can’t thank you enough!” Palate to Palette committee board member Kathy Dubock said in a press release on Monday. Learn more at carpinteriaartscenter.org.

Killing weapons bring suffering mixed with horror & pain, Lax rules and blind leaders make us face this again!

Mass shootings strike fear in those “captured” inside. Not a good place to stay when there’s no place to hide.

Our outrage lifts prayers Lord, but nothing has changed!

Precious lives lost in seconds, due to minds half-deranged!

Questionable actions take lives in ways vile and abhorred, Red Flag Laws in most states are all being ignored.

Silence drowned out by bullets and screaming galore, Teachers shielding their students with harsh cries of, “No More!”

Unbearable pain felt by those left behind.

Violence selfishly planned in this hideous crime.

Wiping tears from shocked faces, normalcy under attack!

Xenophobic crude actions, yet weak leaders sit back!

Yearning for a long life for each boy and each girl.

Zealots lay down your weapons…let us pray for our world!

Firearms have been the leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens since 2020, representing 19% of all deaths for children 18 years and younger in 2021.

“Претензий к человечку нет”*

BY ZACHARY MURPHY KING

Pronounced the doctor after long review of our space baby: tiny body magnified onto a screen, thru tiny sounds thru gel spread coldly on wife’s tum, to seen, slight outline of a wispy, chalky, perfect human being against the blackness of outerine space. Not even two inches long: a clot, a dot, but having already now a universe of flesh and bone: a face — “my nose, your froggy eyes” says spouse — a body, limbs and (count them!) toes and fingers, organs all, down to flowing blood, down to brain in butterflying form, down to the inner chambers of the heart.

All solidly within the norms of humanness. And though this child of ours is still unsexed a pelvic inclination brings our doctor to her find: A dyévochka. I translate it to her: A girl. And my love’s eyelids pour with wet-hot tears. A happiness in human half defined, meanwhile I calmly place a mental X upon one half of chosen names — for me our baby’s being hasn’t broken thru from cosmic visit down into the inner chambers of the heart.

Anderson takes home People’s Choice Ballot

Ben Anderson is the winner of the People’s Choice Ballot for the Artist Studio Tour exhibit, Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center Director Kristina Calkins said Monday. Anderson submitted two oil paintings for the exhibit: “La Calma” and “Cannonballer 26.” Anderson has had work displayed internationally and nationally in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Venice.

“On behalf of the Carpinteria Arts Center, congratulations Ben,” Calkins said Monday.

And so I translate on: the jargon, so much unknown. The doctor’s verdict: Preténzeeyee k chilavyéchkoo nyet: No faults to find with the humanette, all blissfully, god-blessedly fit. And here the doctor stays a pace her speech and waits for sixty-millimeter daughter, who’s turning in her amniotic bed, to come to rest. She settles down to nada. She opens first her mouth and then her father’s: Here, I saw her breathe; here, she stopped my breath.

*Russian, “No faults to find with the humanette”