HARK!
I hear…a community…
An often-underrepresented aspect of creativity is its ability to pull people together.
Take a place like SoZo Coffee.
Take a young poet like Aeriel Martens.
It was almost inevitable that the two would come together, though, as she grew up and went to college in Montana, Martens hardly knew about the coffeehouse, nor the city where it is located.
Sozo calls itself “Coffee with a Cause…We are a coffeehouse in Chandler giving proceeds back to the community and world in order to make a difference…
“At SoZo, we invite you into the most unique and inviting coffeehouse experience in Chandler, while also being a part of impacting the community and the world for good.”
Good deeds aside, the coffeehouse in a strip mall on Alma School and Warner has an electric, eclectic buzz that almost screams “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?--GET CREATIVE!!!” at you.
There’s plenty of mind-twisting, funky art–even in the bathroom, with a wall painting of a UFO sucking up a dolphin as a dragon looks on lustfully….
It’s not just the atmosphere that second-hand influences creativity: SoZo mindfully recruits writers and musicians, opening up its stage for a variety of events. Thursday, June 2, open poetry. Friday, June 3, Songwriters Circle open mic.
Saturday, June 4, music with the Aidan Barzee Band. Tuesday, June 7, Open Folk Jam.
And so on and on and on…
For times and other events this month, click here.
This is the kind of place Martens stumbled onto, shortly after moving to Phoenix for work two years ago.
Her timing was almost impeccably bad–” in the throes of the pandemic,” as she put it.
How does someone in their early 20s develop a social circle, in times of COVID?
Martens was almost completely isolated…until she ventured out to a poetry reading downtown. “I made my first group of friends,” she said, “a group of guys who adopted me.”
The circle widened and deepened when she started attending Ghost Poetry nights. The Ghost Poetry “slams” started at the Film Bar (R.I.P.), then, when that great moviehouse faded to black, moved to the Rebel Lounge. The next Ghost Poetry slam at the music-dominated Rebel is Sunday, June 5.
Though the slams have inspired and enlightened her, when HARK Valley met Martens a few weeks ago, she had yet to make her poetry-reading debut in Phoenix; indeed, she had only done one reading in her life, at a fundraising event while in college.
Like many writers, she’s more than a bit shy, with tendencies toward the classic introvert.
“A lot of my writing is when I am working through something,” she said, over coffee at SoZo. “When it feels more depressed and anxious than usual…”
She also does sewing, quilting and painting, often showing her work on her Instagram page.
Martens plans to write a novel, someday; meanwhile, when the Muse and/or mood strikes her, she grabs a notebook and lets her thoughts trickle or gush out in poetry.
Martens poetry is filled with technology references and other modern touches, yet has a clean elegance that makes her lines transform time; simple, powerful phrases that could exist in just about any decade.
The least I can do for myself is allow a meal
in the retro-themed diner
when I'm in this part of town.
Besides, it'll help me wait out
the morning rush.
The coffee doesn't drown out my thoughts of you.
If anything, I can see you in the foam.
My phone won't stop vibrating.
A defense mechanism,
a form of self harm.
I'll resemble it in an hour, after this caffeine.
Old friends & lovers chatter peacefully
around me. Regulars.
Surely they've been seated where I am
and are now case studies in
happiness by a stranger.
That feels reassuring.
The waitress keeps asking if I'm doing ok.
I know what she means, but I want to
know what happens if I say no.
Even my goddamn toast-to-go makes
me think of you.
……
I can see a couple dancing.
Socked feet and an oversized tee.
A record spins nearby.
It's too early to tell if it's you and I.
There's a familiarity, like
they've known each other since
the beginning of time.
They sway to the rhythms and
laugh with the rhymes.
The music playing could be anything,
could be nothing-
I sense they wouldn't mind.
Each one lost in the other's eyes.
A song ends, the next begins.
The needle stops and their arms don't drop.
Dancing in place, no concept of the
silence, time, or space.
Where is she going with this?
Will she continue to publish on social media--or get up on stage and shout out her poems?
In an email to HARK Valley this week, Martens said planned to make her Phoenix poetry debut at this week’s Ghost Poetry slam.
And then…on Thursday morning, she emailed again: “I unfortunately tested positive for COVID and am dropping out of Sunday’s slam.” But she hopes to be part of the Ghost Poetry event at the end of June.
Stay tuned….