Wordsmiths share heartfelt musings
COD event part of worldwide effort to celebrate poetry
By Nelsy Rodriguez
The Desert Sun
March 29th, 2004
PALM DESERT -- Stephanie Hilpert read into a microphone in the warm Sunday afternoon. Suddenly, she tripped on a word. Catching her voice, Hilpert continued reading her poem, "An Apology for Racism and Slavery."
Hilpert, from Palm Springs, has been writing poetry for years, but this was the first time she’d read her work aloud.
"Walk hard," she read. "Until you tell my children we are forgiven."
Hilpert was one of 15 local poets sharing their work with another 35 or so who came to listen to Dialogue Through Poetry, at College of the Desert in Palm Desert.
The readings were part of a coordinated event occurring in about 150 cities throughout the world.
Poets everywhere from Madrid, Beijing, Moscow and Africa will gather in similar events this week to celebrate their craft, said Lawrence Jaffe, coordinator of the event from Los Angeles.
Reading selected works from Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, COD professors honored the renowned poet before opening the floor for local poets to share their own words.
And at the third event of its kind in the desert, poets read on a variety of topics.
Poetry topics ranged from Jewish resistance to Nazi oppression to sensual Costa Rican shopping trips.
But the Coachella Valley poets were universal in their belief in the power of poetry.
"I grew up in a racist family and I needed to do this," Hilpert said before reading her poem. "It’s a lot of healing."
Other local poets, like Harold Jacobs of Palm Desert, read poems on political activism.
Richard Wentworth of Cathedral City, read about a silent, white star suddenly sinking.
Jaffe also read some of his work.
"I think it’s a poem that has a lot of strength and refusal to bow down to oppression," Jaffe said about a poem entitled "Cattle Car."
It was about members of a Jewish organization who resisted Nazi terror.
In it, Jaffe describes the powerlessness of people subject to torture.
"I cannot see myself riding the rails of a cattle car packed inside like human sardines and someone else holds the keys to my future," the poem reads.
Nelsy Rodriguez is a reporter for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at 360-6881 or by .
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