Gerard Sarnat
Portola Valley, CA
Poet-aphorist Gerard Sarnat is widely and internationally published. He has been nominated for a Science Fiction Poetry Association Dwarf Star Award, won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest/Poetry in Arts First Place Award/Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for handfuls of Pushcarts and Best of Net Awards. Gerry is widely published in academic-related journals (e.g., University Chicago, Stanford, Oberlin, Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Pomona, Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan, University of San Francisco) plus national (e.g., Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, MiPOesias, American Journal Of Poetry, Poetry Quarterly, Free State Review, Poetry Circle, Poets And War, Cliterature, Qommunicate, Indolent Books, Pandemonium Press, Texas Review, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, The Los Angeles Review and The New York Times) and international publications (e.g., Review Berlin and New Ulster). He’s authored the collections Homeless Chronicles (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014), Melting the Ice King (2016).
He is a Harvard College Medical School-trained physician who has built and staffed clinics for the disenfranchised, a professor at Stanford and a healthcare CEO. Currently he devotes his energy/resources regarding climate-justice by serving on Climate Action Now’s board. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with his progeny consisting of four collections (Homeless Chronicles: From Abraham To Burning Man, Disputes, 17s, Melting Ice King) plus three kids/six grandsons — and looks forward to potential future granddaughters.
featured work
Not So Wide Or Hard-Hitting Home-Hardening
Town Center organized an Earth Day symposium
On how to mitigate fire risks
In forest-rich Northern California Portola Valley.
I’m impressed & overwhelmed
With expert gung-ho-ness DIY Preparedness Panel
Neighbors spending $75K easy.
TMI sesh, which sadly was attended on Zoom by 7
Includes few presenters/looks like
Less than 5 in-person, clearly didn’t reach masses.
At end when wrapping up, emcee
Who didn’t seem to mean or appreciate her humor
Queries, Any burning questions?
Man asks if large animals evac’ed to Cow Palace.
(Slide said to be borrowed from City of Beverly Hills)
responding to SIGHTLINES
My hybrid piece dwells on our local difficulty in dumbing-down actions so they are practical for wide-scale, strong-as-the-weakest-community-link implementation and includes an image with sightlines for wildfire resistance.
more from Gerard's perspective
These are a variety of indoor and outside sightlines from Gerry's Northern California home on 2.3 acres in a wild oak forest. His family's fire risk is very high: the local fire chief, who inspects the property every few years, says fire's approach is a matter of WHEN and not IF so they are mindful to prepare the landscape nearby.