Her written words

Paul Saitowitz

Lois Riley Starbuck’s name is three words long -- a bit longer than

the average person’s name. Whether or not that has anything to do with

her penchant as a wordsmith may be left up for debate, but it seems that

someone who loves language the way she does wouldn’t be fit to have just

a two-word name.

Starbuck, a Surf City resident, has been writing ever since the skills

to to grip a pen and put it to paper descended upon her. She still has

poems she remembers writing in her elementary school days.

She may enjoy reading as much as writing, as she is a renowned

Shakespeare scholar who did research back in her college days at the

British Museum as a Fulbright scholar under the direction of Una

Ellis-Fermor, the editor of the new Arden Shakespeare.

Her family is descended from the Mayflower, which may have lead to the

roots of European literature planted in her from the beginning.

“I have always enjoyed reading and writing scholarly work,” she said.

She has been teaching Shakespeare at Pasadena City College for the

past 30 years.

“I have excellent students there, and I have so much freedom to teach

whatever it is that I choose,” Starbuck said.

In the past five years she has published more than 30 different poems,

and that eventually lead to her publishing “Journey Through Sun and

Shadow,” a collection of more than 100 poems.

“I went to a reading at Barnes and Noble and ran into someone who had

a book published through IUniverse, I contacted the company about it and

went from there,” she said.

The themes of the poems vary and basically are a conglomerate of

different life experiences and perspectives Starbuck has shared in.

“There are a lot of poems about things and people I admire, as well as

political issues and feelings of happiness and disillusionment,” she

said.

The final poem in the book titled “End of the Journey” is an

introspective way of looking at the end of a lifetime. It opens with the

line “I shall step into my grave as quietly as I step out of my door,”

and ends with “Trails the glories of a life well spent, shaped by the way

the successful journey went.”

“It is basically an adieu to the world,” she said.

Her poems are written in a more traditional sense and she is not

particularly fond of the less traditional poets like Bukowski.

“A lot of what I do is written in rhyme, but I do have some things

that are written in free verse,” she said.

Promoting any form of published poetry can be difficult, especially

coming from an unknown author. Starbuck has managed to get her words seen

by quite a few eyes.

“The book is part of the collection at the Mayflower in Plymouth and

is available at the Huntington Beach Library, the Springdale Country

Store and through Barnes and Noble,” she said.

As far as the future is concerned, Starbuck will never stop writing so

another book may be just around the corner.

“I go through phases, but when I do write I write a lot,” she said.

“The other day I think I wrote three or four poems.”