Featured Member Artist
September 2026

Meet Member Artist Yvette Toko…

My name is Yvette Toko, and I am a resident of Apple Valley. I have worked as an elementary and middle school teacher for over twenty years. After the recent death of one of my children, I grieved deeply and wanted an “outlet” for my pain. I sought out a therapist that included art in the sessions. I’ve come to love drawing, painting and writing poetry as an expression to help me deal with grief and also express joy.

From my teen years, I enjoyed reading and writing poetry. My mother enjoyed reading poetry and suggested I journal my emotions. She was correct! It helped me get through high school English class. My father loved visual art and rock music. His father was a jazz musician. I believe they planted seeds of art all around me.

I’ve been searching for a space to display my art as well as continue to practice, improve and play. Savage Area Arts has given me the opportunity. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I can joyfully call myself an “artist” who reflects the world inside and outside of me. Art is life!

Enjoy some of Yvette’s beautiful poetry here…

From the Ledge (inspired by Jane Butkin Roth’s “From the Threshold”) by Yvette R. Toko

4/21/2020

Do not ask your sorrow to go quietly,
leave her tears on the brick,
not to fall.

Do not make despair
lumber away
until she begs forgiveness,
or force depression into a corner
hiding, like some memory
you're ashamed of.

Give Misery a song,
even when she moans,
when she yells,
give Torment her part to play.

Hand Emptiness a microphone,
especially because she's voiceless.

Then marry, yes marry-
sadness to joy;
bitterness to sweet;
confusion to clarity.
Bless them.
Welcome them all in matrimony.
And when you can, embrace them.

Let them hold hands in the hallway of your house.

Parrot’s Passage
by Yvette R. Toko
3/12/22

I have a parrot in me.
Perched on a branch.
Looking out into the world with an introspective eye.
A birdseye view.

I feel so many emotions akin to the colors on my feathers.

I am orange with energy.
I am green and full of life.
I am blue with serenity.

I am all colors combined into a Joseph’s coat of many colors representing wisdom about where my journey has taken me and looking ahead to where I will perch in the vast forest of tomorrow.

Poetry is…
by Yvette R. Toko
3/5/2022

Poetry is a snack
Poetry is an entree
Poetry is a love song
Poetry is a durgess
Poetry is an entry way
Poetry is a ledge
Poetry is everywhere
It’s overt and covert
It’s ancient, contemporary and always reinventing itself Poetry was
Poetry is
Poetry will be
forever in us and with us Poetry is a timeless,
eternal gift Poetry is God!

And God is poetry!

My Help is Prayer (inspired by Nancy Wood’s” My Help is the Mountain”)

by Yvette R. Toko 3/26/2022

My help is prayer
Where I take my burdens
The spiritual wounds
That I collect from others. 

Kneeling and calling up sacred texts
I find a verse that speaks
A word that encourages
And a psalm that gives me peace.

I stay in prayer
Until I have been transformed
The verses now running through me

And I see myself anew
Then I know that nothing truly can touch me
Nor make me run away.

 My help is prayer
That takes away my burdens
Words cure me.
Words express my woes.

Prayer strengthen me.
Prayer receive my sorrows.
Meditation wash away my sadness.
Meditation receive my worries.

Prayer make sweet my song.

View featured artists from previous months by clicking on the image or name below…

Featured Member Artists Archive

July 2026 - Gwen Chynoweth
June 2026 - Jean Johnson
May 2026 - Dar Brooks
April 2026 - Garrett Kopka
March 2026 - Corinna Gilbert
February 2026 - Colleen Johnson
January 2026 - Jane White
December 2025 - Dan Sawatzky
November 2025 - Tom Curry
July 2025 - Greg VanGompel
June 2025 - Adele Halberg
April 2025 - Patricia Kness
March 2025 - Denise Bunkert
February 2025 - Denise Sawatzky
January 2025 - Maureen Sorensen