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Everything Everywhere: A Night of Poetry

Thursday, May. 5, 2011
In the past two years Carroll Kearley ’52 has published two collections of poetry: Deity-Alphabets and The Armenian Watchmaker (Tebot Bach, 2009 and 2010), which both portray vivid portraits of humanity from varied spectrums.
 
In the first, Kearley depicts the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles and evokes themes of endurance, creativity, and beauty. For his second collection, he takes to a global stage to emphasize the fortitude of the human spirit amid a century strife with tragedy.
 
Kearley is an emeritus professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, where he taught for 30 years and currently resides in Los Angeles.
 
Folks in the LA area: Hear Kearley read on May 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center located at 681 Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291. General admission for the event is $7, students/seniors/children are $5 and members are free.
 
Here's a taste of Kearley's work, from Deity-Alphabets:
 
 
Sleeping Arrangements
 
I have known numerous homeless:
here for a while, most move on.
If you talk about them,
Tell it right or tell it not.
 
Just find an overhang,
a space for crawling in,
a doorway to an establishment
where somebody says, “Okay.”
 
Pulled each day by necessity’s
gravitation, each lodger
seeks a place for night-long rest,
before getting on the next day.
 
Like boy scouts on a weekend trip,
many sleep in the open air.
A few have a bed inside somewhere,
but many roll up in a sleeping bag.
 
Billy D is not a pleasant person.
“Life sucks,” is his appraisal.
“You ask where I sleep a night?
Right here, in my godamned wheelchair.”
 
He leans back rigidly defiant,
speaks his mind, keeps
direct eye contact, beyond deception,
no frills of customary propriety.
 
“Right here on this stinking sidewalk.
Nobody takes care of me.
An extra buck would be a sign
of your genuine concern.”
 
 
 
 
— Liz Carney '11
Santa Clara Mag intern

 

Posted by Liz Carney

Tags: Armenian Watchmaker, Beyond Baroque, Carroll Kearley, Deity-Alphabets

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