Poetry Reading at Florey's Books Tonight

A month of poetry events at concludes tonight with Pacifica resident Paul Totah.

Totah, a longtime English professor at St. Ignatius College Preparatory and the school’s director of communications, will be reading poetry he wrote during a writing course he teaches there.

“The class asks students to develop a sense of place, explore their interconnections with the natural world, and then learn to become better stewards of the planet,” said Totah.

Totah writes along with the students during the class which takes place outside. Students learn new ways to communicate how they see and experience the world we live in.

“I am amazed at how much my students teach me, always, to see the world as if for the first time,” said Totah.

You can find some of Totah's poetry here.

Totah co-created the class, called “Nature/Nexus”, ten years ago with Jim McGarry, Religious Studies teacher at Mercy High School in San Francisco.

The Florey’s poetry readings were McGarry’s idea. He has a history of collaboration with each of the poets featured.

“The poetry series came about as a chance to celebrate Pacifica, Florey’s Books and poetry,” said McGarry. He added that he and the other poets are very grateful to Aaron Schlieve (owner of Florey’s Books) for hosting the events.

McGarry has been writing poetry for many years and some of his newest works celebrate local landmarks like  and Pedro Point.

“My poetry is a lifelong passion subject to (almost) infinite revision and is (almost) never published,” said McGarry, though he did enjoy seeing one of his poems turned into a children’s book, illustrated by his sister.

McGarry moved to Pacifica three years ago and is married to longtime Pacifican Kathy Curran (see photo) whose aunt, Sister Patricia Ryan – a Roman Catholic Sister of Mercy – was the featured poet at Florey’s on Feb. 11.

Sister Patricia read poetry that she wrote over a span of 50 years, from her collection Also Born of the Fire (2008) that features poems based on quotes from some of her favorite authors.

“I had a very enjoyable time at Florey’s with friends and fellow poets,” said Ryan, who read for 40 minutes. She’s grateful to Aaron, who, she said, “is a very lovely person.”

The poetry month kicked off on Feb. 4 with former long-time Pacifica resident Giancarlo Campagna, an active poet who curates a poetry reading series at San Francisco’s My Corner Café. He and McGarry once staged a reading of two poets from the Middle East – Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish and Israeli Yehuda Amichai – in which Totah also played a role.

“I am obsessed with peace in Palestine and Israel,” said McGarry. “If we can do it there, the rest of the world will be a snap.” 

McGarry read his poetry at Florey’s on Feb. 18 and included poems about his family, choking up over his own description of his sons playing with Legos together. He’d like to organize more poetry readings in Pacifica and continue to support Florey’s Books.

“I love working with fine poets like Giancarlo, Paul and Sister Patricia,” he said.

Tonight's event begins at 7:30pm. For more information, visit the Florey's Books blog.

Jim shared the following poem with Patch readers:

Linda Mar
by Jim McGarry

           I

The fog waits all day at the ridge

comes in as the sun sets

forms a bow of vapor

just above the waves

The creek that cut this valley

eases into the sea

along a path of grass

over a field or rocks

The old traverse road

overgrown with brush

climbs above the eucalyptus

to the granite summit

                 II

The striped bass are running tonight

surf fishermen are out

waders and rubber boots

The upwelling this spring was strong

winds blowing the warm water

let the cold up

diatoms and krill,  the whole food chain

In abundance

The sand at shoreline in cusps

creek runs through the valley

below the mountain

and pushes out into the sea

Maybe now the patient steelhead

Can muscle their way up to ancestral headwaters

To spawn and restock the world