Poet Laureate
GLENDALE’S POET LAUREATE PROGRAM
Raffi Joe Wartanian is the City of Glendale’s first Poet Laureate. The mission of the Glendale Poet Laureate program is to promote the art of poetry in Jewel City. Through community workshops, public readings, and other initiatives, the Poet Laureate utilizes the art of writing to serve as an ambassador to represent, engage, and nurture Glendale’s rich culture and diversity.
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Raffi Joe Wartanian was selected as Glendale’s first Poet Laureate in recognition of his accomplishments in poetry and his vision for the “Glendale Poet Laureate as someone who can utilize writing to promote self-expression, find common ground across communities, and foster solidarity that celebrates diversity while embracing individuality.” His poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Press, No Dear Magazine, h-pem, Ararat Magazine, Armenian Poetry Project, and The Armenian Weekly and performed live with the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and International Armenian Literary Alliance. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, University of Texas Press, Outside Magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald, and elsewhere. Raffi currently teaches writing with UCLA Writing Programs, and his work has received grant and fellowship support from the Fulbright Program, Humanity in Action, and the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. In 2017, Raffi collaborated with Abril Books, the Lakota People’s Law Project, and In His Shoes to launch Days of Solidarity: Celebrating Armenian and Native American Survival, a multi-day performance and workshop that united Armenians and indigenous American tribes in Glendale. Raffi currently serves on the advisory board of the International Armenian Literary Alliance and advises the Tumanyan International Storytelling Festival. www.raffijoewartanian.com
A Theory of Time
by Raffi Joe Wartanian
I have a theory
That time is
Circular
Cyclical
Sun and moon
Seasons spinning
Leaves browning
Push and pull of waves shoring
Clock hands circling
Time is not linear
Though time lines help us
Situate ourselves
Inside infinity
Within cycles of
Progress before our births
Progressing after our deaths
I cannot put a circle inside of a line
But a line can lay
In the loving embrace
Of a circle
More Poems by Raffi Joe Wartanian
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Doughy, warm, soft, flavorful metal
The scent of an elevator
The unexpected invitation
To an aromatic steel coffin
Approximating time travel
An oven where I enter and rise
Or fall
Arriving somewhere different from where I started
New location
Time morphs
Transformation everlasting
Even if I’ve gone nowhere
Even if the elevator has stopped
Even if I’m stuck
I’m stuck in the transformation
That I may or may not be ready
To accept
The aroma of transcendence
In Baltimore at the hospital where Baba worked
In Beirut where we entered with visions of severed limbs
In the parking structure
a seemingly meaningless ritual
the worker transmuted by a capsule of memory
laced with the perfumes of possibility
Previously published in 2023 by The Los Angeles Press
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Love is a Jewel
by Raffi Joe Wartanian
June 2023
Love is a jewel
Sappho’s ruby red rhinestone
Emerald of elegance
Encompassing countless forms
Love is the jewel that is
Straight, curved, crooked, supple
She is not uniform
She is not cruel
The jewel love, however, that bedazzled rainbow,
She might be twisted
By false prophets pedaling distortions
Their moral panic mimicking moral dissent
Hate speech dressed in free speech
Theocracy presenting as democracy
Outside agitators disguised as caring comrades
White privilege appropriating minority struggle
As in erasure festooned with righteousness
I love seeing through the disguise
For doing so reminds me
That knowledge is power
Power is love
And love is a jewel
Inside of us all
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Mama’s Dream
by Raffi Joe Wartanian
Lutherville, MD // 2010
My mother told my grandmother and me
About a dream she had
Last night.
Her deceased father
Visited
And said,
“Have you forgotten me?”
“No, I didn’t,”
My mother protested,
In her dream.
My mother is silent.
“What happened next,” I ask.
“That’s it,” she says with a shrug.
Then my grandmother inquires, “Did he ask about me?”
Originally published in 2011 by Ararat Magazine
Would you like to submit your poetry to be included in a publication of Glendale’s Poems? Are you a poet, storyteller, musician, dancer, filmmaker, visual artist, and/or organization seeking to collaborate around programming? Click the link below or email poetlaureate@glendaleca.gov to send the Poet Laureate your poetry and programming ideas.
Poetry Anthology Launch
Saturday, April 6th 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Library Connection, Adams Square
Calling all writers! The Glendale Poet Laureate Program invites you on Saturday, April 6 from 11am-2pm at the Library Connection in Adams Square for the next installment of our workshop-reading series.
We'll develop poems, explore craft alongside featured poets Alene Terzian-Zeitounian (Altadena Poet Laureate, '10-'12), Shonda Buchanon (Black Indian), and Matt Sedillo (Mowing Leaves of Grass), and we'll celebrate the launch of our anthology Jewel City Review.
This workshop is free and open to the public
Activities: reading, writing, workshopping, and discovery
Light refreshments provided
All levels of experience and language backgrounds are welcome!
Submit poems for the Jewel City Review volume 2 at www.eglendalelac.org/poetlaureate