Transcript: Poems on Air, Episode 74 - Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

The following transcript is provided for accessibility only. Layout, formatting, and typography of poems may differ from the original text. We recommend referring to the original, published works when possible to experience the poems as intended by their authors.

[Music intro]

LYNNE THOMPSON: Hello! My name is Lynne Thompson, Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles and I’m so happy to welcome listeners to this installment of Poems on Air, a podcast supported by the Los Angeles Public Library. Every week, I’ll present the work of poets I admire, poets who you should know, and poets who have made a substantial and inimitable contribution to the art and craft of poetry.

LYNNE THOMPSON: Continuing Poems on Air’s support of Nicole Sealy’s challenge that readers “read books by marginalized voices and buy their books from local independent bookstores”, this week’s nod is to Southern California poet and educator, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke. A Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, Hedge Coke is the author of six collections of poetry which frequently address issues of culture, prejudice, Indigenous rights, the environment, peace, violence, abuse, and labor. Her collection Look At This Blue was published in 2022.

LYNNE THOMPSON: Today’s poem is an excerpt from Look At This Blue by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke.


Behind us Limoneira, a town of a camp
			now some suburbia development,
then all sorts of workers, growers, since 1893,
Rancho Sespe, Flores y Cantos, la Lucha we would go—
			Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru
Oxnard strawberries, Saticoy records, Ventura gold beaches
			hot peppers shouldering Blood Alley Ventura Freeway, 126
oleanders, eucalyptus, rhododendron.
			I came from the camps. Not these, but I served these
children. Decades ago, one Olivelands seven-year-old
			girl wrote,
			my eyes are the green of August.
I still see her eyes, her August, now.

LYNNE THOMPSON: The Los Angeles Poet Laureate was created as a joint program between the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Public Library and this podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

[Music outro]

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    • DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding. Transcript provided by the author.

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