The fire where John Steven McGroarty placed his many irons must have been quite a blaze.  His titles include first mayor of Tujunga, California State Senator, California State Poet Laureate, playwright, journalist, and author.

His pageant drama The Mission Play ran for over 20 years before an audience that totaled over 2 1/2 million viewers.  The San Gabriel Civic Auditorium was built to accommodate the crowds that came to see the McGroarty's romantic depiction of California's Mission era. Critic Henry van Dyke, a Princeton literature professor said, "The Mission Play stands as the greatest of all the world's pageant dramas."

He was also a defender of the rights of Native Americans long before it became a popular cause.  In his call (H.J. Resolution 114, January 12, 1937) for the abolition of the ineffective office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, he proposed an Indian Emancipation Commission and called attention to the plight of Indians on reservations and the abuses of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  He also spearheaded movements for the restoration of Olvera Street and the Missions, the reforestation of the San Gabriel mountains, and the construction of flood control dams throughout Los Angeles county.

It was by an act of California's state legislature that McGroarty was proclaimed our Poet Laureate.  Below is his most famous poem, one that thousands, perhaps millions, of California school children were required to commit to memory.
 
 

Just California  'Twixt the seas and the deserts, 'Twixt the wastes and the waves, Between the sands of buried lands And ocean's coral caves; It lies not East nor West, But like a scroll unfurled, Where the hand of God hath flung it down the middle of the world. It lies where God hath spread it In the gladness of His eyes, Like a flame of jeweled tapestry Beneath His shining skies, WIth the green of woven meadows, The hills in golden chains, The light of leaping rivers, And the flash of poppied plains. Days rise that gleam in glory, Days die with sunset's breeze, While from Cathay that was of old Sail countless argosies; Morns break again in splendor O'er the giant, new-born West, But of all the lands God fashioned, 'Tis this land is the best. Sun and dews that kiss it, Balmy winds that blow, The stars in clustered diadems Upon its peaks of snow; the mighty mountains o'er it, Below, the white seas swirled-- just California, stretching down The middle of the world.

OTHER JOHN STEVEN MCGROARTY POEMS:
The Navajo
The Captive Coyotes
The Dead Gun Maker

Visit these sites of
Verdugo Online's
Past Featured Poets:

Marlene Hitt, Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga
Shari Borders,  "Singing in Tongues"
George Raabe,  "Solving Fermet's Last Theorem"
Gen Krueger,  "With Jagged Light"
Elsa Frausto,"The Width of Dreams"

 

Sunland-Tujunga's Poet Laureate, Marlene Hitt, publishes a monthly newsletter of her and others' poetry.  Several local organizations are now including her poems in their bulletins and newsletters.  To obtain her newsletter or to arrange a speaking event with our Poet Laureate, please  Contact Marlene