On the Cruz: Poems of Santa Cruz
Felton Author Ron Lampi Releases Second Edition
By Julie Horner
Visionary poet-philosopher, astrologer, inspirational speaker, and White Raven coffee shop regular Ron Lampi celebrates the release this summer of On the Cruz: Poems of Santa Cruz, Second Edition. The volume is filled with stories and observations from the skyline to the sea filtered through the eye of someone passionately in tune with the ebb and flow of this vibrant locale. “I am the only poet that has written so much about Santa Cruz…and I’m not finished,” Lampi said. “I have three other manuscripts in the queue focused on Santa Cruz.”
With 17 published works since 2010, many of which are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online sellers, On the Cruz was first released in December 2012. The second edition has 70 additional pages that chronicle, among other things, Santa Cruz time-suspended by the pandemic and San Lorenzo Valley plunged into the sweaty surreality of fire and the existential elements inherent in living through evacuation and facing ‘what if’ and ‘what now.’ Called by one reviewer “a collector’s item for anyone who has grown up in or has developed a special love for this spectacular location on the planet,” Lampi ruminates on left coast life, and in his free-flowing, shifting prose pays homage to familiar sights, the natural environment, everyday people, and beloved venues.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, the former science major discovered that he was “too much of an artist” and that academia was too restrictive. So he let go of the sciences, got his degree in philosophy, and moved out to California in September of ‘76 to nourish his innate bohemian. He and his travel companion were supposed to move to Berkeley, he said, but they found it too stressful. Friends at the Experimental College at UC Berkeley turned them onto Santa Cruz. He found himself immediately attuned to the area. “California became the other woman in my life,” he said.
“Ever since I arrived in Santa Cruz, I’ve been a cafe writer and poet,” he said. In the 70s it was Caffe Pergolesi in Santa Cruz, later it was Norma Jean’s in Aptos. He moved to Felton with his partner Rhonda seven or eight years ago and that’s where you’ll find him most days pouring over his writing in a quiet corner at the White Raven in the center of town. “This is my hangout.”
Other books by Ron Lampi include Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Omnibus (January 2022); A Divine Psyche Manifesto & Other Poems (June 2016); and Poetry / Is: A Selection of Poems About Poetry & the Poet’s Calling (November 2013). Lampi’s The New Age Vision came out last summer. “I worked on it for 20 years,” he said. “All the spiritual gurus and teachers in the 80s and 90s seemed to be beating around the bush,” he said. Frustrated by what seemed too general and too abstract, he set out to write what he calls the definitive treatise on the meaning of the New Age. Bay of Monterey, a companion book to On the Cruz is next to be added to and re-released.
“…Oh, Santa Cruz-weird is the word, you know, a notoriously laid-back, surfin’ dude town, lots of your squishy soft, do-gooder, progressive liberals & time-warped flower children left over from the Sixties…But there is so much more about The Cruz…There is more, there is something quite other, something revelatory you had not expected, happening here.” — Ron Lampi, excerpt from “Santa Cruz the Bubble” from On the Cruz: Poems of Santa Cruz
Copies of On the Cruz: Poems of Santa Cruz are available locally at Bookshop Santa Cruz and at the White Raven, 6253 Highway 9, Felton.
Julie lives and works in Boulder Creek and is an active participant in the county's vibrant music scene. She loves the outdoors and is the go-to expert on Santa Cruz Mountains hiking trails.
