Gerda Govine Ituarte is the author of four poetry collections: Poetry Within Reach in Unexpected Places (2018), Future Awakes in Mouth of NOW (2016), Alterations |Thread Light Through Eye of Storm (2015), and Oh, Where is My Candle Hat? (2012). She established the Pasadena Rose Poets in 2016. In February 2017 she instituted poetry reading at Pasadena city council meetings. Her poetry has been featured in exhibits at Art Produce, Avenue 50 Studio, California Center for the Arts Museum, El Gatito Gallery, New Americans Museum, The Front Gallery, and Vromans. Her work is included in the Altadena Poetry Review, Coiled Serpent, Dryland Arts and Letters, Journal of Modern Poetry, Ms. Aligned, and Spectrum. Selected readings include Avenue 50 Studio, Beyond Baroque, Huntington Gardens, LitFest Pasadena, Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art, The Last Bookstore, and The World Stage. She resides with Luis Ituarte, her artist husband, at El Rancho Alegre (Artist Dreamland) in Jamul, California.
Her work has been shown at the New Americans, California Center for the Arts, Bonita Museum, and The Front, and she has curated two international art exhibits at Avenue 50 Studio. The KPBS Audio Podcast “Only Here” featured Dia de los Muertos, her and her husband’s project journey from Baja, California, to the 2018 California Center for the Arts Escondido Museum Exhibit “Des Escondido No Longer Hidden.”
Excerpt from “Boy Child”
I didn’t realize his loudest cry for help was silence
Boy child quiet
Boy did not bother anyone
Boy child slow
Boy child withdrawal peaked at fourteen
Boy child scared to talk on phone
Boy child wanted to be a neuroscientist
Boy child isolated
Boy child attended college
Boy child never hurt anyone
Boy child communicated by email
Boy child visits home slowed down
Boy child disappeared
Boy child bought guns
Ms. Aligned 