Tresha Haefner: Winner of the 1st Los Angeles Poet Society Summer Poetry Contest!

Join me in congratulating our winner, Tresha Haefner, of the Los Angeles Poet Society Summer Poetry Contest, sponsored by Writers' Row!

Tresha's poem, I Will Arise Now and go to Los Angeles, is honest with each line nurturing the next. The ending is like a soft melody that punctures you with truth, and inspires contimplation of the intricacies of this city, and our bonded human experieince.

It also happens to beautifully answer this years' question: "Why did you come to LA?" 

Thank you to all who entered! Please stay posted for the launch of the Los Angeles Poet Society web space where notable entries will be published!

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I Will Arise Now and go to Los Angeles

After William Butler Yeats

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles

where the lip gloss is leopard print

and the eyes of women shine like jewels waiting

to be excavated from an urban jungle.

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles

where they sit on towels that have hundred dollar bills printed across the terrycloth,

and dream about coconut water and hours of easy money

they can make in their sleep.

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles

where everyone spends their Saturdays driving 40 miles an hour

around the cliffs of the Palisades,

where the windows are always open and the sun lands soft as a smile

on their tan legs and two dollar bottles of coke.

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles

where everyone walks in the surf on Venice beach

and watches the water skiers ski, and prays for a sign of dolphins,

or listens to Raga music, and eats organic pumpkin seed muffins

while someone burns incense in the breeze.

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles

where everyone can read poetry at an open mic,

or see live comedy for five dollars a ticket,

or run into a minor celebrity buying day old croissants at Starbucks

and pretend to be cool for not asking for an autograph.

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles,

where four a.m. wake up calls and want ads and asphalt

pull everyone from their beds like music.

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles

where even the homeless

are the blessed of the earth, soaking up rays of the sun, and spending their days

juggling rainbow colored hackey sacs for cash.

I will arise now and go to Los Angeles

where everyone can go to a party on a rooftop of lights

and meet a stranger with red hair, who says she’s an actress

with rose petals crushed into her pocket,

or talk to a boy who pays rent by playing songs

on his sad red American guitar,

or stop on their way home to stand outside of Mann’s Chinese Theater,

and put their feet where the stars have stood,

and watch the Magnolia blossoms open and fall like spotlights

someone is casting down for them alone. 

by Tresha Faye Haefner
(c)2012 All Rights Reserved to Author

Tresha Faye Haefner is a native Californian. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in several journals and magazines, most notably Blood Lotus, Pirene’s Fountain, and Poet Lore. Recently her poem, “A Walk Through the Parking Lot at Midnight” won the Robert and Adelle Schiff Poetry Prize from The Cincinnati Review.