Radomir Vojtech Luza: Patron saint of North Hollywood poetry (Photos)

“Poetry, art & life should come straight from the heart, straight from the soul.”

Author Radomir Vojtech Luza of North Hollywood is an avid supporter of poetry. As host of Unbuckled: NoHo Poetry along with Author Mary Mann, Luza has become what some might argue the Patron Saint of Los Angeles poetry. Quite fitting indeed that his poem ‘The Second John Paul’ was recently nominated for a Pushcart Award - The Best of Small Press Publishing and appears in the anthology ‘Meditations on Divine Names’.

In addition to a well-deserved Pushcart nomination Radomir Vojtech Luza is a contributor to the forthcoming anthology Men in the Company of Women: An Anthology of Praise & Persuasion due for release January 30, 2013. This publication is a surprisingly, candid, honest and cutting edge collective of contemporary literature written by men from across the globe. Each passage is an open door, highlighting the impact women have had on the male psyche.

Location: 10943 Camarillo Street

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Radomir Vojtech Luza possesses the devotion to literature the city of Los Angeles is hungry for. So many of our citizens have been silenced, be it through social stigma, language barriers or statistic. Luza’s ultimate goal is to bring literature to the frontlines of the community and back shadows of the less fortunate by visiting prisons, schools, shelters and libraries, and by offering Los Angeles a true presence and hope through artistic vision.

Over the last few decades the poetry community in Los Angeles has been growing, expanding and becoming a more widespread movement and Luza has been a huge contributor to this endeavor. Besides his poetry reading, he supports poetry readings all over Los Angeles and has been an enormous advocate of literacy and the arts.

There is a dire need to keep literacy alive in Los Angeles and across the globe and the freedom of creativity and the hunger for wisdom is the pulse behind the poetry community today. It is a tangible and passionate force, which is so important for citizens who may not have otherwise been exposed to the fine art of poetry and expression.

Radomir is a generous poet, one who pays it forward and leaves little breathing room for ego. Not only does he feature a wide range of poets and thespians to Unbuckled: NoHo Poetry, a first Saturday of the month series at T.U. Studios, he truly takes to heart the spirit of each talent. By offering his guests a brief commentary to welcome featured readers to the audience Unbuckled has become a truly unique venue and a NoHo Arts District staple. In addition, he also allows poets an avenue of publication through his column for the local Patch, an online media outlet.

Inspired by Sylvia Plath, Radomir’s work reads much like a velvet blade. Pairing intense imagery with soft accents and wordplay, many of his poems are equally beautiful as they are striking. The following poem “This Place” backhands readers with sharp pleadings & a searing unraveling; so intense in fact, it reads as a scene from a Dario Argento film, or perhaps more simply, a reader opening their mailbox…

This Place

The burning razor

Hanging on unpaid bills

And numbed laughter

I need to leave this place

And you who drag me

Through black semen

Like Dracula in the dark

The burden you lay

On these uncoiled shoulders

This browbeaten heart

Lays on the freeway

Like a dead dog

All red meat and hair

For half-a-mile

I cannot do this anymore

I cannot take this for one more

Moment

Bludgeoned and massacred

I come to you

Knees bare

Palms open

Asking for freedom

From the gargoyles in your bosom

The gargoyles here are grotesque, gnawing on the raw emotion behind “This Place”. Luza’s imagery is rich with calculated articulation and vivid with architecture and dimension which sets him apart from the urban detail of many LA writers. So many who call Los Angeles home have roots elsewhere and it is so refreshing to find a writer who embraces LA without losing the element of their original culture and heritage.

The brilliant irony in the next selection ‘Happy Poem’ is all in the title as the profound longing is apparent from the first line. In this poem Luza does not try to impress the reader with complicated vocabulary, he has a clear and precise statement, the language used is purely simplistic and the message is more humble than happy.

Happy Poem

I have searched for you wide

And far

The joy you bring

And the madness you diffuse

Often I think that

I am not capable of

Writing you

You are not realistic

Or pure

But then again

Cannot happiness be

Realistic

And ecstasy pure

I once ignored you

Now I attempt to

Summon you

The laughter in your

Vocal chords

The smile in your

Mountains and hills

Like a lark

I sing your succulent song

In Los Angeles, there is no absence of insanity no matter where you are or how passionately you absorb this city. The following poem is happy; happy like pills and cheap wine…happy like The Ramones singing I Wanna Be Sedated, but philosophical like sitting in a padded room with a cupcake pondering the chemical breakdown of icing, eating it and remembering a past lover…reminded no matter the circumstance, there is always a choice.

Mental Hospital Mongoose

They taught me freedom

Then took it away

Pill by pill

Freedom that took

Twenty years to build

Taken away by the sky

In sixty minutes

Of cuffs and candy

They told me

To say what I wanted

Write what I wanted