Cyanotype-style artwork in monochrome blue, showing several silhouetted figures walking up a hillside path surrounded by oversized sunflowers, ferns, and other plants layered over the scene. Small figures continue further up the hill toward the sun, while a bird, lizard, and rabbit are faintly visible among the collaged foliage.
The cyanotype composite reflects the feeling of being surrounded by nature, often hard to come by in Los Angeles. It features all types of life: the black walnut tree, white sage, California sunflowers, a raven, desert cottontail rabbit, snail, lizard, and people. Beauty and bounty abound.
Neighbors Magazine1 min read8.5.2026

Beauty & Bounty

Former L.A. Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez shares a poem inspired by the local fight to defend Elephant Hill and its sacred water.

Poem by Luis J. RodriguezArtwork by Felix Quintana

Luis J. Rodriguez is a former Los Angeles poet laureate, author, founding editor of Tia Chucha Press and co-founder of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in Los Angeles.

Above the city, away from the fray, 
where songs nestle clouds and birds galavant,
you can see beauty that also makes sense, 
bounty in all directions,
while below we live as if we never have enough.

Beauty that makes sense, bounty in all directions

The hills remind us we are nature,
we are earth. Appearing as if we’re not,
we can forget—oh, self-deception!
Yet we can be vast in our smallness.
What we do matters, what we do shows:
We are the architects of abundance.

Beauty that makes sense, bounty in all directions

We too are necessary. 
We can be giants not in size
but in ideas, actions, in compassion.
There is no flowing and ample nature without us.
And we don’t need to be held in traps of our own making.

Beauty that makes sense, bounty in all directions

Just connect. Touch. See. Hear. 
Be one. Don’t let the concrete rivers overflow.
Keep our hills green. Keep them seeded.
Keep them alive. That’s our lifeblood. 

Beauty that makes sense, bounty in all directions

Cyanotype-style artwork in monochrome blue, showing several silhouetted figures walking up a hillside path surrounded by oversized sunflowers, ferns, and other plants layered over the scene. Small figures continue further up the hill toward the sun, while a bird, lizard, and rabbit are faintly visible among the collaged foliage.
This work was inspired by the hills and community of El Sereno, specifically Elephant Hill. The composition contains over 20 layers of images the photographer took in July 2026 over four sessions. The digital composite photograph was then printed as a cyanotype, a 19th-century photographic process once used to make blueprints and impressions of flora. The final artwork is a composite of six cyanotype prints.

To learn more about the Elephant Hill victory, read our original story here.We invite partners to share this article. To syndicate, please email info@livinginfrastructure.org.

Copy editing by Eleanor RobinsLuis J. Rodriguez is a former Los Angeles poet laureate with 17 books across multiple genres, including eight poetry books. He’s best known for the bestselling memoir “Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.” and its sequel, “It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing.” He’s the founding editor of Tia Chucha Press and co-founder with his wife, Trini Rodriguez, of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.Felix Quintana is a Salvadoran-American visual artist and educator. Quintana’s art practice spans photography, digital media, collage, and installation. Quintana received his MFA in photography from San Jose State University and bachelor’s from California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

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