Straight black and unadorned: local poet keeps it simple

Poet and editor of nationally known Solo Café magazine, Glenna Luschei was the featured reader last Friday night at the first annual Winter Celebration Reading. The evening was a showcase of local poets reading works from Luschei’s publication as well as poems by the Plein Air Poets of San Luis Obispo.

English professor and creative writing director Kevin Clark, also a poet, orchestrated the event, and described it as “one great poet after another,” with a talented lineup including San Luis Obispo County’s first poet laureate, Ray Clark Dickson, and 2003 laureate Kevin Patrick Sullivan to name a few.

Solo Café Press was created by Luschei some 45 years ago and she has been editing the poetry journal ever since. It was during a stay in South America that she came up with Solo Café as the name.

“Café solo means, in Spanish, coffee without any cream or sugar,” Luschei said. “I wanted my editorial policy to be straight and black and unadorned.”

She considers herself a lover of words in every language, and tries to incorporate a bilingual tone to her work. Her talent for writing was noticed early on by her mother, who told Luschei that she spoke in iambic pentameter when learning to talk. Growing up, though, she said that there was not as a large of an emphasis on creative writing as there is today.

“I have always tried to make up words and rhymes,” Luschei said. “I think words create a different way of looking at the world, so I like to play with them. As the years go on, I try and gain some mastery over language, which I think is hard to do.”

If mastery of language were difficult for Luschei, you would never know by the ease and fluidity of her poetry. Having just come back from attending the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., she displayed a sort of energetic glow which she attributes to the dawning of a “new era” for the country.

Her poetry however, was laden with raw emotion and angst that allowed the audience to feel what she feels and see what she sees. The bold yet delicate portrait painted by her words was displayed in full force as she read. It was clear by the tone of her voice and the look on her face that her poems came from the deepest part of her soul. Luschei said that she writes many poems about her mother and women.

“I think every time I have some kind of a trauma in my life, it rivets me to poetry again,” Luschei said of her poetic inspiration. “When I have been at a loss, it is what brings me back to what is important to me.”

She grew up in Iowa where she worked as a corn-tassler and bean-walker, as well as a perfume sales person behind a counter, a memory she speaks of fondly. Luschei got her masters in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her Masters in Spanish at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has worked in the field of language ever since.

Luschei said that some of her poems are the products of daydreams, and her favorite subject to write about is the land, family and regeneration. She considers the essence of poetry as “going off on a tangent,” and ending up in a place you did not expect in the writing.

“I do think you do need to have some alone time and some privacy to mull things over,” she said of her writing process. “I’ll come up with something and think, ‘I always wanted to say that,’ and it finally came out. You have to veer off in order to get to the surprise.”

Clark added that Luschei is a very well known poet and editor who has been able to showcase local talent mixed with recognized poets in her magazine. He has been published by Luschei, and gives her credit for trusting his longer poems. Luschei has been a source of encouragement to many, including Clark, and the night was not complete for Luschei until he read his latest work for the crowd.

“I think most of the people on the Central Coast who know Glenna have found that their own reputations have gone beyond the area because of the work Glenna has done,” Clark said. “She is an entrepreneur of poetry.”

Clark said that Luschei’s subjects in her works are widespread, some of which he is astounded that she is able to channel such intense and painful happenings into “beautiful poems.”

“Glenna’s resilience is remarkable,” he said. “She is capable of taking her emotions and transforming them into art even in the most difficult circumstances. She is like Robert Frost; the poems have a melodic flow that takes fairly simple words and gives them a much greater richness.”

The entire reading enraptured the audience, and various attendees made remarks about the collective energy that was felt in the room.

The Plein Air Poets provided an original poetic look at the county after being involved with land use issues. Paula Lowe, Plein Air poet, said that the poetry was created when the group would visit the same site and write about it, producing various vantage points of the same area. Clark said that it was remarkable that such a political subject could produce beautiful and restrained poetry without lecturing the audience.

Lowe said that it was exciting to have so many Central Coast poets in one place, and remarked that she “loved hearing Kevin Patrick Sullivan,” poet laureate for 2003.

“It was fun for us Plein Air Poets,” she said. “It was a pleasure to have people come together and celebrate poetry and honor it because it is its own story telling, and its own world. Everybody has a little of that in them and they can bring that out and enjoy it.”

Michaelann Dimitrijevich, poet and songwriter, is a personal friend of Luschei and considers her an inspiration.

“I have always loved her poetry and she has been very encouraging to me to become more active with mine and get out there,” she said. “I adore her and feel privileged to be at the same podium.”

Dimitrijevich said that it was an honor and privilege to be included with “such a wonderful group of people and celebrated poets.”

“It’s always so inspiring to hear everyone’s souls,” she said.

Clark said that he was deeply impressed by all of the poet’s work, and Luschei said that the evening held a magical feel to it.

“I had the feeling that everyone was so tuned into it,” she said. “Just such a community feeling. Maybe there is just that feeling that there is something ominous, a kind of regeneration. We come out of it feeling different than when we went in.”

Luschei currently resides with her husband on a ranch in Carpentaria, raising avocados.