Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Love Is

Image by Rik Pagano
  • A box of voices, a butt,
  • a nose, a touch, a song, a
  • torso’s twist; love is
  • her sticking with me
  • though I hurt her, what
  • remains after burning
  • through the lies and
  • tentativeness and fear
  • of risk and that terrible
  • load of disappointment,
  • leaving only the pure,
  • hot glow of what it is
  • we’ve got....

On the day of the late Wanda Coleman’s memorial service in Los Angeles, Red Hen Press published The Love Project: A Marriage Made in Poetry, a sequence of poems by Wanda Coleman and Austin Straus, who would have celebrated their 33rd year together on May 1, 2014. Austin, who worked with Amnesty International for several years and was also an adjunct professor of literature and composition in Los Angeles, was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. An accomplished painter, printmaker, and book artist, he has work in many private collections. His stunningly original one-of-a-kind books combine poetry and graphics and are in collections at the Athenaeum Arts Library, Chapman College, the New School, Occidental College, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Stanford University’s Special Collections as well as in other art collections. He co-hosted Pacifica Radio’s Poetry Connexion with Wanda Coleman on KPFK between 1981 and 1996. His other poetry collections include Drunk with Light and Intensifications, both from Red Hen Press. “Love Is” is reprinted with permission.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Yo-Yo Ma, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky come to San Diego

Next Article

Hip-hop artist Don Elway makes movies for his music

Not Ordinary EP tells a story of life on the streets
Image by Rik Pagano
  • A box of voices, a butt,
  • a nose, a touch, a song, a
  • torso’s twist; love is
  • her sticking with me
  • though I hurt her, what
  • remains after burning
  • through the lies and
  • tentativeness and fear
  • of risk and that terrible
  • load of disappointment,
  • leaving only the pure,
  • hot glow of what it is
  • we’ve got....

On the day of the late Wanda Coleman’s memorial service in Los Angeles, Red Hen Press published The Love Project: A Marriage Made in Poetry, a sequence of poems by Wanda Coleman and Austin Straus, who would have celebrated their 33rd year together on May 1, 2014. Austin, who worked with Amnesty International for several years and was also an adjunct professor of literature and composition in Los Angeles, was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. An accomplished painter, printmaker, and book artist, he has work in many private collections. His stunningly original one-of-a-kind books combine poetry and graphics and are in collections at the Athenaeum Arts Library, Chapman College, the New School, Occidental College, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Stanford University’s Special Collections as well as in other art collections. He co-hosted Pacifica Radio’s Poetry Connexion with Wanda Coleman on KPFK between 1981 and 1996. His other poetry collections include Drunk with Light and Intensifications, both from Red Hen Press. “Love Is” is reprinted with permission.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps
Next Article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.