The Poetry of Life

Love is like a piece of chalk

First it’s brand new

Never been used

Then

With time

It fades away slowly

Until there is nothing left

But a small, tiny piece

That cannot be held anymore.

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That forlorn and aching observation by a 13-year-old poet is one of 25 introspective poems by teenagers, collected and illustrated by husband-and-wife New York artists Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd in their first book collaboration, “The Pain Tree and Other Teenage Angst-Ridden Poetry.”

The artists and a few of the youthful poets will be at Storyopolis on Saturday to celebrate National Poetry Month in the art gallery-bookstore’s fourth annual Storyopolis Poetry Cafe, an event for all ages.

Author-illustrator Calef Brown will also appear, reading from his wacky new rhyming book, “Dutch Sneakers and Fleakeepers, 14 More Stories.” Two comical TV celebrities will be on hand to deliver poetry readings too: Kathy Kinney, “The Drew Carey Show’s” outrageous Mimi, and Wayne Knight, who was Newman on “Seinfeld” and plays Officer Don on “3rd Rock From the Sun.”

Budding poets ages 5 to 17, though, are the real stars of the day. They’re invited to share a favorite or original poem in the “Kids Only” open-mike session. They’re also welcome to bring musical accompaniment and “Beatnik-y” accouterments--berets, shades, bongos, even fake goatees.

The performances by celebrity participants Knight and Kinney help “get the kids motivated and have fun coming up themselves, which is what it’s really all about,” said Dawn Heinrichs, Storyopolis’ co-owner.

“We tell stories in every medium at Storyopolis,” she said, “and we think poetry is an important part of storytelling, especially for children who at a very early age love the whole nature of rhyming.”

The Poetry Cafe has been “a huge hit because it’s all about interactive creativity,” she said.

“We’ve had kids rap poetry, sing poetry with instruments--it’s been an incredible forum for them.”

Heinrichs stresses that this year’s event is for young children too. Participating author-illustrator Brown, for instance, who wrote the best-selling “Polkabats and Octopus Slacks,” appeals both to the “Barney” set and to adults. He explores wildly quirky new territory in “Dutch Sneakers,” tickling funny bones with poems about “groovy” wooden shoes, a “Runaway Waffle,” a sneaky “Tattlesnake” and “Donut Beetles” on a “Sugar Beach.”

Adolescents and any adults with clear recall of those difficult coming-of-age years, however, will appreciate the brooding intensity of “The Pain Tree,” poems written from the gut and from the heart by 13- to 18-year-olds.

Watson and Todd, twentysomething artists whose edgy illustrations have appeared in magazines from the New Yorker to Seventeen, gathered the poems from Internet sites and teen magazines. Obtaining permission from the young poets, the pair collected a varied selection about love, isolation, suicide, sex, racism and violence. Brief biographies of the authors are included. “We e-mail them all the time and let them know how the book’s doing,” Todd said.

The book’s 20-by-30-inch original illustrations, acrylic paintings on paper, will be exhibited in the Storyopolis gallery Saturday, along with Brown’s work. The paintings have a stream-of-consciousness, graphic novel feel. Todd illustrated the boys’ poems and Watson did the girls’, but the artists’ styles are strikingly alike.

“There are a lot of similarities and overlaps,” Todd said, “because we usually work side by side in the studio. It fluctuates. At times mine is more reined in and I do work on the computer and kind of more flat stuff; and then sometimes I do work that is more painterly. And she’s kind of the same.”

The couple worked on their painted illustrations off and on for six months, and they were surprised by what they were inspired to do.

“Traditionally we work with a sketch first. We do a black-and-white line drawing and get approval, and we have to do several ideas before we go ahead with the final,” Todd said. “In this book, we didn’t even do a sketch, we just started painting on the pieces. We thought that was more like poetry in a way, where it was very spontaneous. If we didn’t like it, we painted over it. Some of the paintings were done within an hour, but others took a week.”

Watson has written two books for young children: “Talking to Angels,” inspired by a sister with autism, and “The Adventures of Jules and Gertie,” about a cowgirl and her talking horse. Todd’s first children’s book, “Start Your Engines,” will be out in the fall, and his next, tentatively titled “What Will You Be?,” is a Halloween book for 2001.

This creative young couple--Watson is 26; Todd, 29--who met at Pasadena’s Art Center, have other collaborations in the works too: their first young adult novel and, due in November, their first child.

* Fourth annual Storyopolis Poetry Cafe, Storyopolis, 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Plaza A, Los Angeles, Saturday, 11:30 a.m. $5 per participant. Reservations: (310) 358-2512.

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Dragons and Strings: The Magellan String Quartet and storyteller Denise Iketani will perform a fanciful children’s concert of Asian music and tales of heroes and dragons on Saturday at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena.

Part of the Da Camera Society’s Children’s Concerts in Historic Sites series, the concert will feature selections from traditional and new Asian music, including segments from Tan Dun’s Eight Colors for String Quartet. Concert-goers can also explore the museum’s authentic Chinese garden, a replica of a Chinese Imperial palace and other Asian art exhibitions.

* Magellan String Quartet and storyteller Denise Iketani, Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, Saturday, 10:30 a.m. and noon, $18 per adult; $12 per child. (310) 954-4300.