Being Together

It was early April, one of the first warm days in the San Francisco Bay Area when it really felt like spring, and I was out on one of my morning rambles. As I veered off the sidewalk and onto the narrow greenbelt that runs along the main road, I felt a sense of relaxation as the view ahead of me shifted from houses and lawns to a mix of wild grasses, orange poppies, and the first of the mantilijas — those white, saucer-sized poppies with the bright yellow center that looks like the yolk of a fried egg. The greenbelt was designed to attract pollinators, especially butterflies, and I could see why the varieties that were once so common here — monarchs, mourning cloaks, and swallowtails — might flourish in this setting. It wasn’t long before a young monarch drifted by, as if to say, “I’m here!” “I’m here!” I suddenly felt about twenty pounds lighter. Now on the “red list” of endangered species, the migrating monarch faces multiple threats, including the loss of native milkweed and winter habitats, pesticide use, and climate change. (See “How You Can Save the Monarch Butterflies,” by Peter Cowan, at https:// www.openspacetrust.org.)

New Books

Leaning Toward the Light

Poet Tess Taylor is the editor of a new anthology, Leaning Toward the Light: Poems for Gardens and the Hands that Tend Them, that captures the wonder and healing power of gardens. In a recent article (April 22, 2024, CNN), she observes that we’re “desperately in need of oases of pollinators” to nourish our “neural pathways” and “regulate stress,” as well as to provide support for struggling species. A diverse range of voices is gathered in this collection, including Ross Gay, Jericho Brown, Ada Limon, Garrett Hongo, Mark Doty, and Naomi Shihab Nye. Illustrations by Melissa Castrillon, a forward by Aimmee Nezhukumatathil, and recipes by some of the contributors add to the appeal of this well-curated anthology. (See the poets reading from their work at www.thepoetscorner.org.

You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World

In this anthology, United States Poet Laureate Ada Limon sought “to bring us back to earth and back to ourselves,” she says in an interview with Maria Santa Poggi (www.electricliterature.com.). Rather than assemble a collection of nature poems from the past, she invited contemporary poets to create work that spoke “not only to their wonder and joy and love of the planet, but also to some of the anxiety and fear” about today’s climate crisis. Here you’ll find fifty previously unpublished poems including Joy Harjo’s “Eat,” Dorianne Laux’s “Redwoods,” Jose Olivarez’s “You Must be Present,” Victoria Chang’s “A Woman With a Bird” and Patricia Smith’s “To Little Black Girls Risking Flower.” The Los Angeles Times calls it, “A lovely book to take with you to read at the end of your next hike” but it’s more than that. You are Here succeeds both in showing nature as an intimate part of our daily lives and in mirroring the anxiety around environmental devastation, a kind of dread that some are calling “eco-grief.”      

Writer’s Conferences

This year’s Summer Poetry Workshop of the Community of Writers will take place June 17-23 in the High Sierras and will include workshops, individual conferences, readings, lectures, and discussions. Now in it’s 50th year, the program is founded on the idea that “when poets gather in a community to write new poems, each poet may well break through old habits and write something stronger and truer than before.” Featured poets this year include Blas Falconer, Major Jackson, Brenda Hillman, and Sharon Olds. For more information visit www.https//:communityofwriters.org.

The five-day Sonoma County Writer’s Camp will feature “Meditative Dream Writing,” a “BIPOC Fellowship,” “Generative Exercises and Guidance,” and ample opportunities for socializing. Hosted by published novelists Ellen Sussman and Elizabeth Stark, the event will take place July 24 – 28 in Occidental, CA, and includes both food and lodging. For more information and testimonials, visit www.sonomacountywriterscamp.com.

Poetry Contests                                                                                                        

Palette Poetry is now accepting entries for The Sappho Prize for Women Poets. Judge Megan Fernandes will select three winners. “I’m interested in the scenes of real and imagined reunion…” she says. The winner will receive $3,000 and publication in Palette Poetry while second and third place winners will receive $300 and $200, as well as publication. Send up to three unpublished poems by June 16^th (www.palettepoetry.com.)

Poet Dorsey Craft will serve as the judge for this year’s May Sarton Poetry Contest, sponsored by Bauhan Publishing. Poetry manuscripts should be between 50 to 80 pages. Winner receives $1,000, publication, and 50 copies; closes June 30^th. (www.bauhanpublishing.com)

Omnidawn Publishing is now accepting entries for a chapbook contest to be judged by T.J.Anderson III. The prize is $1,000, publication, and 20 copies. Submit a collection of from 25 to 45 pages by June 14^th. (www.omnidawn.com/contests-omnidawn)