Five Poems

Alexandra Umlas will serve as Poet Laureate of Orange County, California, for 2027–2028 and is planning to curate an Orange County focused poetry Substack and a first Tuesdays of the month poetry reading at Blackbird Books and Coffee in Huntington Beach, CA. She holds an MFA in Poetry and an M.Ed. in Cross-Cultural Education and is the author of the poetry collection At the Table of the Unknown. As both a poet and educator, she is especially interested in poetry’s place in helping students encounter language with greater attention, imagination, and wonder. She lives in Huntington Beach, California, with her husband and two daughters.