Pasadena Rose Poets Poetry Collection 2022: Not So Perfect Storm

Our first publication, Pasadena Rose Poets Poetry Collection 2019 Reflection. Resistance. Reckoning. Resurrection. was published in September prior to COVID-19 initial invasion. To celebrate our 6th Anniversary, July 2022, we decided to launch our second book, Pasadena Rose Poets Poetry Collection 2022 Not So Perfect Storm. Our journey was shaped by unchartered terrain which caused us to keep adjusting and reinventing, laced with a litany of surprising challenges, chaos, and change. Not only in our communities, but all over the world. Illness and death snatched family and friends, economic hardships hunkered down; ravaging wildfires multiplied; January 6th riot erupted; murder of George Floyd and rare guilty verdict, protests mushroomed; appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown to the US Supreme Court joyful; and the continuing war of genocide in Ukraine.

We continued to read, write, publish, create, and stay connected with each other and our communities while exploring and observing new experiences within reach woven with threads of randomness. A bird fly so close you feel the warm air from wings enter your ear; walking stop, look down, a shiny dime glistens at your feet, and encounter a bear in your dreams as hint of danger dissolves when you say No! No! the bear walks away.

Not So Perfect Storm. Our saving grace is the urge and need to write, to document what we see, and feel since our work mirrors life real or imagined. The first gift of the day is the fact that we wake up.