{"id":164314,"date":"2025-08-21T17:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/164314\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T17:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T17:21:11","slug":"poet-brings-spark-of-hope-to-unhoused-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/164314\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet brings spark of hope to unhoused in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tOverview: Reading to the homeless<\/p>\n

The trip was part of an annual national tour where he recites poems and hands out his poetry books \u2013 all to bring encouragement and hope to those in life-threatening situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

EAST VILLAGE \u2013 Kevin Nowak<\/a> was in San Diego<\/a> this week for a whirlwind tour \u2014 not unheard of for an account executive from South Carolina<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of going to the San Diego Zoo<\/a> or eating in Little Italy<\/a>, he was visiting homeless shelters in East County<\/a>, East Village<\/a>, and Oceanside<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trip was part of an annual national tour where he recites poems and hands out his poetry books \u2013 all to bring encouragement and hope to those in life-threatening situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMe bringing poems is a way to bring inspiration,\u201d Nowak said. \u201cMaybe they haven\u2019t heard it before, and it may change things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Deacon John Roberts, who has arranged Nowak\u2019s trips to Father Joe\u2019s Villages<\/a> the past few years, the poetry readings are part of welcoming unhoused people and truly seeing them when outside they face judgment and rejection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all just a moment of levity,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we do something that lightens their load for a little while, it\u2019s worth doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At FJV on Tuesday, Nowak spoke to groups of people during lunch in brief sessions, sharing one poem followed by a trivia game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Poetry<\/a>Kevin Nowak, of South Carolina, recites a poem at a cafeteria inside Father Joe\u2019s Villages in East Village San Diego on Tuesday, Aug. 19. (Photo by Drew Sitton\/Times of San Diego) <\/p>\n

One woman who remembered Nowak from the day before requested that he recite \u201cLongshot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowak gave her a booklet containing the poem, which reads: \u201cI am the long shot, not considered strong \/ But they don\u2019t know me. They have it all wrong\u2026 \/ I am the long shot with hope that\u2019s unending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Showed an early interest in writing\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nowak always wanted to be a writer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He had a few short stories and published some poems with tragic endings, but a turning point came in 1999 when his grandma died from cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting was probably the best gift that I had, so I wanted to use it as a way to honor her,\u201d Nowak said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of the darker pieces he had been writing, he turned to hope-filled poetry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2000, he published his first collection of poems, dedicated to cancer survivors. He began visiting cancer support groups for speaking engagements, and to hand out books.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His dual mission of visiting unhoused people came later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a whim while in Las Vegas in 2005, he called up a mission to see if they would be interested in a guest speaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The audience was initially skeptical, but his second poem, \u201cDirections,\u201d prompted cheers and requests for the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He returns to Las Vegas Rescue Mission<\/a> each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added San Diego to his trip 15 years ago and branched out from there to both faith-based and non faith-based programs alike in other parts of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I\u2019ve spoken in every U.S. state and over 2,800 times,\u201d Nowak said. \u201cIt started by just giving something a try that was outside of my comfort zone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

His charity work is his true passion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nowak spends two or three weeks a year with people experiencing homelessness or cancer, plus weekend trips, in a rapid-fire schedule with up to 200 annual speaking engagements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want every moment to count,\u201d Nowak said. \u201cIt\u2019s my purpose here. It feels when I come here way more what I\u2019m supposed to be doing than it sometimes feels when I\u2019m doing my 40 hour a week job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hope in hard times\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nowak may have found his purpose as a poet for people going through hard times, but that does not mean the work is easy. Sometimes the poems of hope Nowak writes are messages to himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nowak has had people assume the hard part of his charity work is public speaking, being away from his wife and four daughters, or risking personal safety in the places he visits. For example, after wrapping up in Oceanside, he heads to Skid Row in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In reality, he says that the most challenging thing is seeing human suffering and knowing there is little that he can do. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of everything I go through, seeing other people struggle is harder than anything else I do on this thing,\u201d Nowak said. \u201cIt\u2019s so hard to see people in a bad spot and know that you can\u2019t fix it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visiting the same missions repeatedly means Nowak has seen people in rehabilitation programs back in the general population, meaning they faltered in sobriety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roberts, the chaplain, has seen the unsheltered numbers rise in San Diego.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Affordability in the sunny city seems ever more elusive. Yet Roberts continues his work, knowing homelessness may never be solved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still are called to try. And to be present to the ones today that we can be present to,\u201d Roberts said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Nowak, writing is the skillset he has, so he uses it to help to the best of his ability. Meeting spiritual and emotional needs can be as important as meeting needs for shelter, food, and healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your head is in the wrong space, it\u2019s really hard to to go out and be your best person. And so sometimes just giving someone something that can give them a little bit of an emotional spark can be just as good as a food spark,\u201d Nowak said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: Reading to the homeless The trip was part of an annual national tour where he recites poems…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,26307,26151,9619,94775,37601,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-164314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-east-village","12":"tag-father-joes","13":"tag-homeless","14":"tag-kevin-nowak","15":"tag-poetry","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}