A Muse Grows in Simi Valley : Widely Circulated Literary Magazine Produced by 3 Local Residents Is Nearing Its 3rd Anniversary

I dreamed I was buried at the

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Nancy rested on my left

Ronnie dozed far to my right

--Ron Reichick, A Testimonial

Yes, Virginia, there is culture in Simi Valley.

At least there is according to resident Ron Reichick, editor in chief of Verve, a small but ambitious literary journal that will celebrate its third anniversary next month.

Since 1989, Reichick and fellow scribes Marilyn Hochheiser and Mona M. Locke have spent their free hours reading, writing, editing and compiling short stories and poems for the quarterly magazine.

There may be similar publications around the county, but only Verve boasts a circulation that includes bookstores throughout California and even a few in New York City. Plans are also under way to distribute it in Chicago and Boston.

In addition to promoting the works of local poets, Verve has recently attracted scribblings from more established writers.

Featured in the current issue is a poem by Michael Blake, who last year won an Academy Award for the screenplay adaptation of his book “Dances With Wolves.”

The spring issue, due out in April, will include poems from Massachusetts author Marge Piercy, who recently published her 11th novel, “He, She and It.”

The magazine reaches about 500 readers with each issue, but Reichick said the important thing is that unlike other journals, Verve is distributed and sold at bookstores.

In addition to BookWorld in Simi Valley, it is found on the shelf at Small World Books in Venice, St. Mark’s Book Shop in Greenwich Village, New York, and City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.

The journal sells for $3.50 a copy, with an annual subscription rate of $12.

Although it costs about $3,000 a year to produce, Reichick said that he makes most of that money back through subscriptions, over-the-counter sales and poetry contests.

“It’s mostly self-supporting,” Reichick said. “Anything short comes out of my personal pocket.”

Reichick and Hochheiser said Verve is primarily intended to give young poets and fiction writers, whether they are from Long Beach or Oxnard, a chance to be published.

“I think there are writers everywhere if you just give them a chance to come out of the closet,” Hochheiser said.

Reichick, 46, came out of the closet in 1985, when he signed up for a creative writing class Hochheiser was teaching at the Simi Valley Adult School.

Employed as an electrical engineer at the time, Reichick said he had grown frustrated with his job and sought a creative outlet.

“My work was not really satisfying me--my creative side--and somehow I turned to writing,” he said. “I guess the right side of my brain finally said, ‘Hi, I’m here.’ ”

Reichick started out writing short stories but later turned to poetry. After receiving a few rejection slips from other literary magazines, Reichick decided to publish his own work. And so Verve was born, much to the delight of other Simi Valley writers.

“It’s really exciting,” said Leonore Schuetz, who has had a short story and a poem published in the magazine. “It’s nice to see people I know getting published. I think it’s helped revive poetry in Simi Valley and the Ventura County area.”

Diantha Ain, another Verve contributor, noted how the journal has grown in three years.

“They’ve been doing extremely well in attracting poets from all over the country,” she said. “The sad thing is, it’s harder to get anything published now.”

Though Hochheiser and Reichick are the only Simi Valley poets included in the recent issue of the magazine, they said editors are not given special treatment in the selection process. In fact, they said they are probably tougher in judging each other’s poems than outside submissions.

“We’ve turned him down a few times,” Hochheiser said, motioning to Reichick.

“We’re very demanding in the quality of work,” Reichick said. “I’ve rejected stuff from my mother-in-law.”

While each magazine has a theme, subject matter varies greatly, ranging from broken relationships to everyday struggles.

This is an excerpt from a poem titled “Praying (Symbolically)” by Oxnard poet Dane F. Baylis, featured in the current issue:

Real poetry is praying

That the check is actually in the mail

That the noise you just heard is not inside the house

That you haven’t lost your edge

That she did have a headache

That your kid doesn’t despise you

That this is all in your head

And you’ll be able to write it down

When the real poetry happens at 3 a.m.

This is from Hochheiser’s poem “The Siren”:

Touch me. I am the legendary sea

nymph, conceived in flesh. Beware!

My fingertips will sear your skin

like a hot poker. My torch songs

lure you from your humdrum wife.

Hochheiser said it is hard to be objective about her own work.

“Some of it I think could be important,” she said. “And some of it I think is not so good.”

The only complaint the journal has ever received came from a subscriber who became upset after reading the issue titled “Through the Eyes of a Child.”

The issue included poems covering a wide range of childhood experiences, including incest.

“The woman wrote me a letter and canceled her subscription,” Reichick said. “It wasn’t good bedtime reading for her.”

But he wasn’t bothered.

“At least we’re having an impact,” he said.

Reichick, who was recently laid off from his job as a marketing manager at an aerospace firm in Simi Valley, said his being out of work will not disrupt the publication of the magazine.

“I was out of a job a year and a half ago, and it didn’t affect it then,” he said.

Meanwhile, for the past 13 years, Hochheiser and Locke have sponsored the Simi Valley Poetry Series in cooperation with the Simi Valley Library. The series provides writers an opportunity to read their work in the presence of others.

The readings, which attract as many as 70 writers from Los Angeles and Ventura counties, are usually held every other month in the Community Room of the library.

“I just want our poets and writers to have an outlet, a place where they can go and be encouraged,” Hochheiser said.

“I always laugh when people say, ‘What’s going on in Simi Valley?’ because in my estimation it’s a very creative place,” she said. “There are the readings, Ron has his magazine, we have a theater out here. . . .”

“Yes,” Reichick said, “there is culture in Simi Valley.”