Griffith Observatory Workshop

(back) Deborah P Kolodji, W. Gregory Stewart, Lois P. Jones
(front) Samantha Henderson, Kendall Evans

On Saturday, the Southland Poets of the Fantastic held its first poetry workshop at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

We met in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Zoo to take the shuttle up to the newly reopened Griffith Observatory. After our arrival, we refueled on coffee and passed out index cards. Each person was given 45 minutes to explore the observatory exhibits with the assignment to write down three poem prompts.

We regrouped in a circle on the Observatory lawn, shared poetry we had brought from home, and exchanged index cards. Everyone then had an hour to write a poem based upon the poem prompts they were given. After the writing time was over, we met on the outdoor patio of the Café at the End of the Universe and read the new poems we had written as the sun began to set spectacularly over Los Angeles.

Afterwards, some of us stayed and had dinner (where we were joined by Karen Romanko and her husband Bob). Samantha and Debbie stayed even longer and star-gazed through the observatory's 12-inch Zeiss refracting telescope and various telescopes set up on the lawn by a local astronomy group.