Gerda Govine Ituarte

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