Lois P. Jones and Kathabela Wilson
An interview with local poet, Lois P. Jones, host of KPFK Poet’s Cafe, co-host of a longtime LA Poetry reading series “Moonday Poetry” and a beautiful published poet.
By Kathabela Wilson
A telescope on the artist
How do you see the artist in the world, what can she give, and how do you see yourself doing that?
To be a guardian of one’s perceptions, to care for them as the most important part of a human existence. To be open to the chiaroscuro that is life from its softest light to the impenetrable darkness, which one must still permeate and render into beauty.
I challenge myself to write work which not only moves me but calls me to read it in my next decade.
A microscope on the Arts
Lois P. Jones
What are interior qualities of your artistic life, what makes you an artist?
There is a certain empathetic quality to being a poet which is both exquisite and painful. There is no day you are not a poet, even if you do not write for years. Being a poet is a point of view. It’s like any other muscle. Everyone possesses it, whether or not they choose to exercise it. All artists are poets rendering the ineffable into different forms – painting, sculpture, dance or music. This for me is the essence of poetry.
A compass on the Arts
How has “place” influenced your art — where you live especially, in our area, a force in your art, color — and influence your work?
South Pasadena offers surprising access to nature so even walking from the street to my house can be a communal experience. Place is a powerful aphrodisiac for the muse. I sometimes dream of living in a stone house in France, or a casita in South America or even in Yakutsk, the coldest city in the world. A poet wants experience and that often comes from travel. Of course there are poets like Emily Dickinson who never travel beyond their immediate vicinity. This means of course that a good poet does not need distance or change of environment to see the world, but only an astute inner eye and a way to bring that vision into being.
A microphone to the poet
Lois P. Jones at KPFK
How do you connect with others, share your work and the work of others?
Very hard to answer because there are so many layers to your wonderful question but you want concision so I went for that. I connect by listening. Being a host of Poets Café is about the voice of the poet I interview. It is about engagement before, during and after and their satisfaction and enjoyment in how their work is presented to the listening audience. Their work for a time, becomes me. It influences my life and my own writing.
I and my co-host Alice Pero, love to feature great local, national and even international poets at our Moonday reading. It is important to serve the local community. On a broader scale, there is Kyoto Journal where I am poetry editor. This serves a deep need for aesthetic heartwork – our articles, art, interviews and poetry reach into the Asian community and beyond to bring in-depth exposure to the social, political and cultural events and persons of our time.
I also enjoy attending poetry workshops locally and internationally. My favorite is the San Miguel, Mexico Poetry Week which I’ve attended five times.
Under the Canopy
by Lois P. Jones
Everything flows through me
but nothing is lost, not a drop of wine,
nor any excuses. Across the wooden table
you speak as if you know the meaning
of my name, pour yourself like sun storm
on a thirsty riverbed. You ask me to bear this,
to remember the scent of apples and the green heart
of the poplar growing in endless rows.
I try to lose you in the gaucho’s ballad,
let the guitar soften time in our bones
but you spill another river of wine in my glass,
shake your head and smile at my refusal.
Your voice, smoke of the asado,
I cannot reach out to you, nor let you go.
Today is a glass half drunk, an instant
of knowing how you pour, how you pour.
________________________________________________________
I didn’t jump on your bones then
cuz my spirits where vacationing
elsewhere
which happens more often
than my other self wants to admit.
I’m happy to have rediscovered
…. a soft place to land… again.
lol
Lois is one of the kindest, most intuitive poets I know. Her softness and graceful style brings forth an honest introspect in those she interviews. Her poetry is simply enveloping.
Thank you Dalton. Your comment really struck my heart. Even more than writing or reading good poetry I should like to be intuitive. Yeah just that one word would do it.
The deeply beautiful Lois!
Thank you Joyce x