Sunday, September 5, 2 pm, free admission.
Poetry Azul Reading Series, at Cafe Azul, 521 4th Street, Santa Rosa, features Ed Coletti, Armando Garcia-Davila, Toni Wilkes, Nancy Dougherty, Greg Randall, and Vilma Ginzberg. Performing with Coletti will be musician David Farrell. For more info call (707) 573-5935 or visit
Ed Coletti lasted longer than most.
Several years ago, he began a poetry reading series at the Sonoma Coffee Company in Santa Rosa, moved it to Toad in the Hole, and eventually settled in to Café Azul where he called it "Poetry Azul." It's been a good long run, but at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 5, Coletti will turn over the scheduling nightmares, the cancellations and last-minute changes, the set-up and take-down and all the unpredictable complications that come with being an unpaid poetry-events coordinator and master-of-ceremonies. Andrew Mayer will continue to host the series at Cafe Azul. Thank you Ed! Thank you Andrew! You give local poets a space, a place, even an audience for poems out loud.
When he created Poetry Azul, Coletti tried an unusual format. Rather than focus on two featured readers and an open-mic, he invited six featured readers to present their work in 12-15 minute time slots. This proved popular and he often had audiences of between 30 and 50 lovers of poetry. “People love the diversity,” says Coletti, noting that he has “discovered that poets and the community really regard this venture as a service.”
And what will Coletti do with his hard-won liberation? Well, the retired counselor, teacher and Viet Nam vet has plenty of interests and talents to stay busy, not least of which is writing and painting.
In the early 1960s, Coletti was an English major at Georgetown University. But he says he didn't "begin more serious writing" until he found himself in London in 1967. During the 1970s he earned a creative-writing masters' degree at California State University, San Francisco, studying with Robert Creeley, Nanos Valoritis, Stan Rice, Leonard Wolf, and Mark Linenthal. He was writing prolifically in the course of those years.
Then, life sneaked up on him. His energies turned instead to raising and supporting a family. It was his wife, Joyce, who suggested at one point that the once-prolific poet should find friends in the local area to share his love of the art. So, in his retirement, he launched a writer’s group, started the Poetry Azul series, and committed himself to publishing his work and writing two poetry blogs. His most recent book is Jazz Gods, reviewed in the Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review.
Coletti is also a visual artist (you can see some of his watercolors at his blog-sites: http://edcolettip3.blogspot.com/ and “No Money in Poetry” at http://edwardcolettispoetryblog.blogspot.com). And through the years of hosting Poetry Azul, he has become well-integrated in the Bay Area’s larger poetry scene. Some of his Sonoma County compadres are his favorite poets: “Katherine Hastings is a good friend and excellent poet" and David Madgalene, he says may “be turning into this generation’s Walt Whitman." The Sonoma County area has "an amazingly rich poetry scene," says Coletti, "with readings and events so numerous that no one can attend them all."
It is clear that his years of writing and working in the area's poetry scene have brought him many friends and supporters; among them he especially acknowledges David Bromige and Richard Denner. Now, that he is relinquishing his duties of running the Poetry Azul series, there will be time to read and write. He looks forward to reconnecting with some very old friends: John Donne, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, and Robert Creeley among them.
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