Featured readers included host Nathan Hassall and former Malibu Poet Laureates Ann Buxie and Ricardo Means Ybarra
Malibu Poet Laureate Nathan Hassall and the local poetry community gathered at Malibu Library to welcome poet Sophie Klahr as the featured reader of Caffeinated Verse on Dec. 16.
Klahr captivated the morning’s guests, reading poems from her two latest published books, the self-written “Two Open Doors In A Field” and the co-written with collaborator Corey Zeller, “There Is Only One Ghost In The World.”
Klahr was excited for the opportunity to share her work with a community eager to support her work and the work of their peers. Despite being the featured reader, Klahr expressed a feeling of honor to be present for the reading of poetry from local poets.
As happy as she was to share her poetry, she was equally happy to enjoy and discuss the poetry of others who attended the event.
“It was fantastic! It’s so exciting to see people come out to be engaged with creativity on a Saturday morning,” Klahr said. “I’m so shy as a person so it’s such a pleasure and a privilege to see people get up and read their own work in front of the community. I find it so inspiring and lovely.”
Klahr who has traveled the country and has shared her work across the country and shared poems capturing themes of cross-country travel, emotional and physical wandering, loneliness, love, and existentialism.
Hassall asked Klahr about her notable use of a sonnet style for her poems, pointing out her unique ability to capture complex themes of wandering and motion in a structure of poetry that corrals these themes in a powerful, straight-foward way.
“Sonnets are particularly well-suited for writing about trauma and things you can’t hold on to,” Klahr said. “Traveling in a car, listening to the radio, I have an element of unexpectedness. Seeing landscapes I expected and did not expect, driving for 14 hours by myself was unyielding to say the least. Having 14 lines in which to describe that felt like a great comfort.”
Klahr also described the process of collaborating with another poet to co-write a poetry book.
Written during the pandemic, “There Is Only One Ghost In The World” was written by Klahr and Corey Zeller, combining the perspectives of two artists, aligning the thoughts and emotions of each within each poem in the collection. Klahr called the experience very humbling.
“Writing collaboratively is powerful because it allows for a third voice to exist that doesn’t exist, and won’t exist, unless you’re doing that work, writing with someone else, creating a whole new being essentially,” Klahr said.
She said by creating a third voice made by two separate voices, a unique perspective is created, one not restrained by a physical body, a human voice, and definite truths.
“The experiences of the speaker aren’t consistent in the book. There’s no single character, there’s no single truth, all things are simultaneously true because there isn’t a definite identity of our voice,” Klahr said. “I think of it as a very queer book because it has all identities, all sexualities possible, all truths possible which is immensely satisfying. Being in one body, having one voice can be very submitting but working with another voice allows us to become something we couldn’t have before.”
Following the Q and A portion after Khlar’s reading, guests appropriately took a coffee break during this Caffeinated Verses session. Readers prepared for the open mic portion of the event, where readers included Hassall and former Malibu Poet Laureates Ann Buxie and Ricardo Means Ybarra.
Among the poems, readers shared original works that explored the beaches of Malibu, provided a humorous perspective of aging and old age, described feelings of shame and curiosity of the human body, and explained feelings of yearning for complex emotions and experiences.
Buxie shared a powerful poem likening updates of smartphone apps to optimizing and adapting to the modern world as an aging individual.
Ybarra brought the Malibu culture and experience, with a poem inspired by his swimming and snorkeling of the ocean off of our city’s coast.
The event was enjoyed by the guests and readers alike.
Hassall explained that he was pleased with the event.
“The energy of the room was awesome. There was a great mix of emotions in the poetry and there was a lot of laughter,” Hassall said. “Sometimes poetry could be too serious and if everyone is reading in one tone, poetry could lose its luster and its sheen. People felt joyous.”
Hassall looks forward to the new year as an opportunity to grow the Malibu poetry community and urged residents to give poetry a chance, explaining that the art form allows for creativity from anyone and provides art for all to enjoy.
Hassall urged the community to visit his website nathanhassall.com for further information on events and poetry resources to explore. Caffeinated Verse and Open Mic will return to the Malibu Library on January 20 at 11 a.m., when Hassall will spotlight poet Elena Karina Byrne.
Additionally, Hassall invites the community to “The Ripple Effect: A Generative Poetry Workshop” at Michael Landon Community Center on Saturday, Jan. 27, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Featured reader Klahr will also be growing poetry in 2024, hosting an online seminar called “Diving Into the Muck,” an online course on how to submit poetry, not get defeated, and get published.
“This is a way for somebody who decided 2024 will be the year they will publish poetry but doesn’t know where to start, this is a good course for orienting oneself into a positive outlook and getting their work out to the world,” Klahr said.
This online event will be hosted on Jan. 7 and those interested are urged to follow Klahr on her Instagram page (@sophieandthechoices) for more information.