Ellyn Maybe: California Poets Part 9, Two Poems

Ellyn Maybe

December 22nd, 2025

California Poets: Part IX

Ellyn Maybe

Two Poems

Kafka

I saw Kafka lurking behind the Old-New Synagogue near Old Town Square.

He was beautiful, frail, an alphabet weaved through his hair.

When I told him how long the lines were at the Foreigners Police. he said same line since 1916.

Look closely. Someone's aunt is escaping the famines in Ireland.

This city of comings and goings.

Someone's leaving Prague. It's late '68.

It started with guitars and ended with calluses.

Smetana and I sit with opera glasses.

Heaven has box seats for the human condition.

We don't need a program by now.

History repeats itself more often than a cliché in a murder mystery.

Smetana piped in, we are walking in a city made both beautiful and tragic by people.

Don't you see the buildings full of paintings, sculptures and moonlight?

Our bridges, cobblestones, our stories unfurl as magnificent as a sailboat on the Vlatava.

We were given another chance.

Red is the color of blood, but it is also the color of velvet.

Kafka said my sisters wore the former.

He became transparent.

I watched all the emotion the body is truly made of from head to heart.

He said my father and I never saw eye to eye.

It was more stiff upper lip to quiver.

He said it's natural. Fathers don't understand.

They have a practical bone. A cruel bone.

Artists instead have a wishbone.

He smiled and shrugged as he walked past the Franz Kafka Cafe,

the Franz Kafka Museum and the Franz Kafka arcade.

He said artists may go hungry, but will never truly starve as there is always some wish to chew on.

Then he winked.

And was gone.

—Ellyn Maybe

An Ellyn Maybe Birthday Poem, July 10th, 2020

The summer I turned 20, I was dancing in the topography of museums and bakeries, subways and symphonies.

The Actor’s Studio, Village Voice and myriad others took me in as an apprentice.

I had left school and the Valley after a semester seeking a bohemia. I found humidity and lucidity.

I was given a typewriter I still have.

The summer I turned 40, I was swaying in the breeze of 14th century cafes.

Praha was full to the brim with tourists, I was there as a cinema student at FAMU.

Czech New Wave, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge

Living with a bouquet of maps, scattering petals throughout my psyche as history and memory collide.

Who knows where I will be when I turn 60?

—Ellyn Maybe

Interview

March 3rd, 2026

California Poets Interview Series:

Ellyn Maybe, Poet, Musician, Lyricist

interviewed by David Garyan

DG: Given your success in performing, I’d like to start with Rodeo for the Sheepish, the well-received 2009 album of poetry and music. There are elements of jazz, pop, and R&B. How would you describe the recording process—more improvisational or strictly arranged?

EM: First I recorded the poems, then the musicians created the music and then I re-recorded the pieces again with the music. There were some technical aspects in the process.

DG: The Ellyn Maybe Band was created as a result of releasing Rodeo for the Sheepish and that album was followed up by Skywriting with Glitter, recorded at the studio of Jackson Browne, who praised your work. Here you worked with composer Robbie Fitzsimmons. How did the production of this album differ from the one you recorded seven years earlier?

EM: Skywriting with Glitter for the most part was written in real time. I wrote the words as Robbie was creating the pieces musically. Myth already existed as a piece and then while reading it at a festival Robbie improvised the music which became the music we used for the piece. It was all piano and voice. Very acoustic.

DG: Word Troubadours is a collaborative poetry project with PJ Swift. The collection deals with the role of the artist, the turmoil of the twentieth century, myths in relation to society, and broader questions about the nature of life, such as the following from PJ Swift: “Who owns our lives? Who owns our age? Who owns our words? And who owns our rage?” What was the collaboration like? Did you exchange ideas line by line, poem by poem, or more spontaneous, non-linear ways?

EM: Each of our pieces is written separately but I think the curation that I did found the weave and sequencing which really enhances the collection.

DG: Which of PJ’s lines or specific poems are your favorites in the collection?

EM: There’s so many including "That Little Song," "War of the Arts," "Poetry House."

DG: Daniel Yaryan, editor of Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts and publisher at Mystic Box Commission is well-known for bringing poets together and forming communities through the events he creates. Could you talk about his role in the project and to what extent you had creative freedom in the collaborative process?

EM: A lot of creative freedom. No changes in content. He brought the cover to us and we loved it. He's very gifted in visuals so that truly enhanced the project.

DG: Word Troubadours in fact inspired Daniel Yaryan to create the Sparring All-Stars series, which is focused on bringing together two poets for a book. No small feat. How did you get the publisher’s attention and how did the project get off the ground?

EM: I had created a homemade chapbook of Word Troubadours and was hoping that Daniel would review it and instead he decided to publish it on his imprint!

DG: Let’s talk more generally about your work. In an interview with Mariana Zaro, you describe how “each poem has its own process.” Any given piece can have humor, politics, and be personal at the same time. In addition, you talk about the spontaneous nature of how poems begin for you. Given this, I’d like to ask about your editing approach. Do you revise heavily or do you tend to trust that first, aforementioned impulse?

EM: I trust the first impulse. The pieces tend to come quickly with very little if any revision.

DG: Given the large amounts of time you spend on the road, are there ample opportunities to write in-between shows, and if so, to what extent do the different environments influence the mood of your work?

EM: I would say I hardly travel at all these days but over the years various places I've lived have been very inspiring. During the two years I attended film school in Prague I wrote all the pieces from Rodeo for the Sheepish.

DG: What are you reading or working on these days?

EM: I’ve been writing Haiku.

Author Bio:

Ellyn Maybe, a Southern California based poet, United States Artist nominee, is the author of numerous books, and is widely anthologized. She also has two highly acclaimed poetry/music albums, Rodeo for the Sheepish (Hen House Studios) and Skywriting with Glitter (ellyn & robbie).  Ellyn Maybe & PJ Swift, aka Word Troubadours are collaborating on a poetry book soon to be released. (Mystic Boxing Commission)