Kath Abela Wilson has been writing poetry  incessantly since the age of five. She is the creator and leader of the band of "Poets on Site," a performance group of poets collaborating with dancers, musicians, artists and scientists on site of their inspirations. Poets on Site has produced 20 books and performances at museums, galleries and gardens in Southern California. The poetry audio tour Poets on Site created for the permanent collection of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena has won a MUSE award from the American Association of Museums, 2010. She has poetry published and forthcoming  in many print and online journals including Atlas Poetica, Astropoetica, Badlands, Behold the Pirate Pig, The California Quarterly,  Kyoto Journal, Shakespeare's Monkey Review and Star*Line among others. Kathabela travels the world to mathematics conferences with her Caltech professor husband, Rick Wilson, listens poetically to science lectures, and sketches portraits of each speaker. They've recently traveled to Iran, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Turkey, Slovakia, Croatia and Europe. Kath Abela is also an artist, jeweler, singer, percussionist, and dancer.

Flight from Yazd
 
the heart
has no name
no address

it only pretends
to be in
the body

it hides there
in the chest
curled up like a fetus

not knowing
how big
it can get

the heart
is always
ready to escape

it is not
man or woman
animal or bird

the heart
is always
waiting

tapping  its foot
in the queue
from beginning to end

always
taking off or landing
applauding the pilot    

Yazd, Iran, 2009
Kyoto Journal, 2010                                                 

The Source
 
here at the source is my mother
I wish my mother could last forever

she is the Nile her birthplace
its lily multi-flora strong stemmed

she is power of the water
exoticism of her past

hopefulness of her future
she is always blue

her closet bulges with blue blouses
blue dresses her signature

she is quiet as the Nile before anything happens
and deeply expectant like the reed ready to be paper

she has written her name on the water
I am the first ripple

Abela of the Nile
back to the silent source her blue becomes

white clouds shaped like a woman
in blue sky deeper than the Nile

I wish my mother could last forever

 
Poets on Site inspired by the Art of Milford Zornes
Chaffey Museum, 2008

Found in Mendocino

in the cove where ocean's loud
deep sound has made a hollow
there is another voice
delicate enticing ongoing

in its own time
it sings its own improvisation

it falls from the gray stone cliffs
with a sweetness that has grown
rich moss and a profusion of leafy vines
and unexpected blooms

amidst the crowd of dark wood forms that gather
one slight creature
sprung from its green nest
lifts its head listens and hears no oceans roar

but only one light watery voice
that has transformed this place


Mendocino CA
Prism, Spring 2006

© 2010 Kath Abela Wilson