In San Diego’s Civic Center Plaza, near the Civic Theatre Ticket Office, you’ll find these words:
Blooming is the wild body unmarred by the limits of this world
Its petals temporary but you’d never know it
The two lines were written by Paola Capó-García, San Diego Poet Laureate 2025-2027. A special City of San Diego webpage provides her biography.
Paola Capó-García lives in North Park. Her accomplishments and accolades as educator, author and journalist are numerous.
The thought-provoking words in Civic Center Plaza are actually the conclusion of her poem Wild, which you can read here. Her poem explains the difference between blooming and blossoming.
Are you blooming?
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San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso), whose fantastic studio is located downtown, is a creative dynamo. Even as he continues to work on his 100 Paintings project, he has begun to produce 100 Scrolls!
His scrolls are painted on fabric and utilize wood sticks he’s found, cut to size and sanded smooth. Unroll the scrolls and you’ll likely find something mysterious, symbolic, humorous or wise. (Possibly all four!) The art of James Watts often concerns aspects of mythology, religion or literature.
The scroll in my first photograph refers to two other works he has created, the Portal to Heaven and the Gates of Hell. Apple and cloud are accompanied by the words: It was not always like this. Seems everything changed with one bite of the forbidden fruit.
The next scroll in unrolled:
If only they knew.
The next scroll, filled with writing, was used by the artist for practice:
…we laughed and cried Oh what a night Who is to know the reason, the whys, the whats, the meaning of it all. To Love is to Love well…
As you can see, some images are created using sumi-e, which is Japanese ink painting.
We are all Broken. We must mend Ourselves.
What is understood Does not need to Be Explained.
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Waka poems are a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. A waka poem is unique in that it consists of 31 syllables.
An exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park contains examples of waka from Japan’s Heian period (794 – 1185) written in kana script. Each composition is beautiful, not merely as a poem, but as a visual work of art.
A sign in the garden’s Exhibit Hall explains: “Among the aristocracy of the time, romantic relationships often began through the exchange of waka… Since men and women had limited opportunities to meet in person, emotions were conveyed through poetry…”
Learn more about this exhibition at the JFG website here.
I was completely unaware of this type of poetry before visiting the garden today. Spellbound, I stood before the examples on display and read translations of each Japanese poem.
The English translations do not contain 31 syllables, obviously, but they definitely convey feelings indicative of romance. I noticed these wakas often employ metaphors taken from nature.
Here are a few of the translations:
There are many villages where the cuckoo bird sings. It’s a bird that I find attractive, but I don’t feel close to it. I like it, but it’s not mine, so I feel a bit jealous. Poet: The Tales of Ise
I won’t allow you to meet me, even if you imitate the crow of a rooster before dawn. Poet: Sei Shōnagon
I was dying to see you, but after I met you I want to live forever. Poet: Fujiwara no Yoshitaka
Should my heart waver and betray our love, then even the impassable waves of a tsunami would cross over the mountains. In other words, I would never be unfaithful. Poet: Author unknown.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Individual free expression took center stage today at the Compressed Zine & Music Fair. The event, organized by Particle FM and Burn All Books, was held at Bread and Salt in Logan Heights.
Writers and artists (and dreamers who are doers) gathered from around the San Diego region to showcase hundreds of their uniquely created zines. (And other printed works of art!)
What is a zine? According to Wikipedia: A zine is a magazine that is a… noncommercial often homemade… publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter.
As you might imagine, individuals printing their own zines can be boundlessly creative. They aren’t limited by the “demands” of societal acceptance or mainstream publication. Anyone with access to a copy machine or modest printer (and perhaps a stapler) can create a zine. It’s a cool way to easily get ideas out there and create something tangible that others can share.
You know those revolutionary pamphlets created by our nation’s Founding Fathers? In essence, they were zines.
Today’s zines can range from philosophically serious or politically satirical, to just plain silly or art for the sake of art. Some zines are love letters to people, places or things by devoted fans. Some are critiques. Many titles include wry humor.
Titles I spied while walking around the Compressed Zine & Music Fair include Copy Machine Manifesto, Shotgun Seamstress, Respawn Archive, Typical Natural Disaster, We Miss Jerry Garcia, This is a Critique of the X-Files, and My Feelings Are Not Wrong.
It appeared to me that the best part about making a zine is the simple joy of creativity.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Poetry lovers! All sorts of activities await you in San Diego’s wonderful Balboa Park!
Free to the public and open to anyone at least 18 years old, these Balboa Park Poetic Programs celebrate creativity and the power of the written and spoken word. The three ongoing programs are: Poetry Party, Otherwise Improvise, and Poetic Legacy.
Poetry Party is a fun event held on the first Friday of every month from 3 to 5 pm in Balboa Park’s Santa Fe Room, at 2150 Pan American Road West (across from the International Cottages). The description on one flyer: Read your favorite poetry, listen, or make the scene. Be bold, adventurous, and experience the power of the spoken word.
Otherwise Improvise is held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month from 2:30 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge (located in the Casa Del Prado). Be creative! Have even more fun!
Poetic Legacy is a workshop that involves readings and discussions of contemporary and historic poets. Taking prompts from featured poets, participants are then encouraged to write their own poems. This program takes place on the last Friday of every month, from 3 to 5 pm in the Balboa Park Senior Lounge.
The next Poetic Legacy workshop will be held August 29th and will feature poet Naomi Shibab Ney, recipient of numerous honors and awards for her work. In 2019 the Poetry Foundation designated her the Young People’s Poet Laureate for 2019–21.
Want more information concerning the Balboa Park Poetic Programs? Email SLemire@sandiego.gov.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
I met an artist in Balboa Park today who creates beautiful crocheted hats and heartfelt poetry. Her name is Espi Love.
Espi had many different colored hats that she has crocheted, and with her typewriter she was composing poems for passersby. She wrote a poem for me about her hat.
It’s about whimsy, silliness and being unafraid. It concludes: we should all be brave as a playful child
I can definitely identify with silliness!
I hope you might see her next time you’re in Balboa Park. Look for her smile, and expect words of wisdom tapped out from her fingers. You might like one of her whimsical hats, too!
And yes! She has a website with lots of cool stuff! You can order one of her fun “Minky” hats online! Go to her website by clicking here!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
The San Diego Writers Festival was held today in Coronado. Hundreds of writers, podcasters, publishers, aspiring authors and eager readers came together to enjoy inspirational talks, panels and workshops, not to mention book signings, entertainment, tasty food, and a chance to engage with San Diego’s extensive creative community!
The event was held at both the Coronado Public Library and Coronado High School across the street.
I had a great time and learned a whole lot, plus met a variety of interesting people!
A highlight for me was a performance by the Voices of Our City Choir, which is comprised of homeless and formerly homeless singers. Countless unhoused San Diegans have had their lives uplifted by connecting with this group. Their joyful music was possibly the most inspirational part of the whole event!
Here are some of my photographs. Check out the captions and click some of the links and perhaps you’ll be inspired, too!
In the Coronado Library’s Winn Room, an audience listened to a panel of authors and podcasters. They talked about Building a Following: How to Create Meaningful Connections. Some ideas when it comes to social media and marketing: engage with your readers by answering comments, be yourself, be human. Build trust, be persistent, have fun. Participate in book clubs, build email lists, encourage online reviews.Marni Freeman talks about How to Unblock and Become a Creative Force of Nature. She explained that unleashing your creative genius requires mindfulness, being in the moment, quieting a distracted mind. That’s when inspiration mysteriously arrives. Shut down the daily stress, be quiet, be aware of the world around you, be introspective, be self-confident, don’t fear failure or compare yourself to others. Take slow, rhythmic, deep breaths. Find your flow!The Voices Of Our City Choir perform at the 2025 San Diego Writers Festival. They just completed their first ever recording session! Perhaps you’ve seen their incredible, inspirational performance on America’s Got Talent. To view it on YouTube, click here!Lots of tables outside at Coronado High School during the 2025 San Diego Writers Festival!Two of many authors doing book signings.Organizations helpful to writers were present at the festival, including the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild.One of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Mathew Riek, after many difficulties, made his way to San Diego. He has co-written the children’s book At Least I Wasn’t Eaten By A Lion! His book inspires young readers to believe in the power of perseverance and kindness. He was at the Shaping Bright Futures table. They are a charitable organization dedicated to raising awareness of educational disparities found throughout the world. Check out their website here.Jacob Hubbard wrote Sounds of Yesterday, a novel. It concerns love, loss and empathy in a neurodivergent world. Neurodivergent means having a brain that forms or works differently, which Jacob personally understands. He’s a writing teacher who is not afraid to explore challenging, emotionally driven ideas about the human condition.Two big smiles! On the left is Esther Avant, author of To Your Health. To the right is Bookish Flights podcaster Kara Infante, who reviews and recommends books. To your continued success!I listened to this cool guy reading powerful poetry in Balboa Park almost 7 years ago! Chris Vannoy is the US National Beat Poet Laureate! Check out my old blog post concerning that past encounter here.San Diego Poetry Annual is one of the longest running poetry anthologies in the San Diego region. It features renowned poets and artists alongside emerging local voices. Learn more about it here!That’s Heather James Pond, yoga teacher, painter and author, smiling on the right! Her debut novel, MOXY, is about unspeakable pain, fortitude and healing. It’s an incredible true story of resilience and transformation! Thank you for sharing your bright smile and making the world a better place!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Why does a person enter a library? To read, write, think and dream.
That’s certainly what students do after walking through the doors of the Geisel Library at UC San Diego in La Jolla!
Indeed, the front entrance of the Geisel Library celebrates human thought and creativity with its four word proclamation: READ WRITE THINK DREAM.
I was surprised to learn that these words, together with the colorful glass doors and images of students at the library’s entrance, were the creation of an internationally important artist: John Baldessari!
Born locally in National City, John Baldessari would go on to become one of the world’s most recognized conceptual artists. His work would be featured in over 200 solo shows and 1,000 group shows in his six-decade career. His awards and the museums that have collected his pieces are numerous.
READ/WRITE/THINK/DREAM debuted in 2001 and is included in UCSD’s Stuart Collection of public art. Visit the webpage that provides a detailed description by clicking here.
Baldessari liked to provoke thought with his art. His works are described as open-ended puzzles.
With outside sunlight shining through, the primary colors of the transparent doors create new colors when they slide open and overlap. Combining basic elements into something that is different and new–that’s the essence of dreaming, creativity and discovery–isn’t it?
Perhaps you’ve seen another work of John Baldessari in La Jolla. I photographed his Brain/Cloud outdoor mural a few years ago and posted the images here!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Have you ever seen a ghost? Or something bizarre and inexplicable that you thought might be a ghost?
I’ve heard stories from various people over the years about ghostly experiences, including weird encounters at San Diego’s Whaley House, said to be the most haunted building in America. (You can read several of those stories, told by Whaley House Museum docents, by clicking here.)
I love to write bits of very short fiction. A couple days ago I published a short story about a possible ghost sighting.
I’ve written four of these “ghost” stories over the years. If you’re someone who enjoys thought-provoking tales and possibly a slight shiver, you might enjoy reading them.
Cool San Diego Sights! 