New poems are scheduled to appear in theSanta Clara Review, a publication of Santa Clara University, and the upcoming anthology, A New Season: Poems from a World in Flux. Edited by Vallejo co-Poets Laureate Jacalyn Eyvonne and Kathleen Herrmann, the anthology will highlight San Francisco Bay Area voices but “welcomes poets from all regions…” Due around the end of January.
Revision
In the last year or two, especially, I’ve come to enjoy the process of revision. There’s a certain perspective gained in seeing how a poem develops from point A to point B, and beyond. Of course, it helps if you’re not attached too much to the status quo. Case in point, I recently observed as one troublesome word changed from “rising” to “meandering” to “wilding” to “rewilding.” Of course that last change was what it should have been all along. Sometimes you just have to sit down in the chair at your computer or your writing pad and put in the time.
Those Winter Sundays
Born and raised in Detroit, Robert Hayden (1913-1980) “was the first Black American to be appointed as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress (later, U.S. poet laureate),” according to poets.org. One of his most memorable poems, “Those Winter Sundays,” evokes a “tumultuous” childhood but it also speaks of love’s austere presence. It appeared in A Ballad of Remembrance, Paul Bremen, 1962, and can also be found at www.poets.org.
Contests and Submissions
Ninth Letter, a print journal from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is currently accepting both experimental and traditional forms of prose and poetry. www.ninthletter.com
Publication in Booth Magazine and $1,000 will be awarded to the winner of the Susan Neville Poetry Prize. Submit up to three unpublished poems stories through December 31, 2025. www.booth.submittable.com
Ecotheo Collective accepts all forms of literary and visual expression for their print and website issues. They seek work that reflects “questions of ecology and spirituality from within and outside all religious traditions.” Publishes four times a year. www.ecotheo.org
Wishing you peace and joy now and in the New Year!
Born in 1905, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Stanley Kunitz lived to be 100 years old. His later poems, beginning with The Testing Tree in 1971, were less philosophical and more personal than his early efforts. Some of my favorites from this period include “My Mother’s Pears,” “Halley’s Comet,” “Snakes of September,” and “Days of Foreboding,” but there are many more; in “The Unquiet Ones” he addresses the deaths of his parents and in “The Round,” expresses his love of gardening, poetry, and life. Kunitz wasn’t averse to confronting the shadow side of the personality or the dark side of history — his father committed suicide before he was born and he commented that the Holocaust was “the basic subtext of much of his work.” Twenty-five years after its publication, The Collected Poems remains relevant in today’s polycrisis for its penetrating gaze at beauty, love, and loss. “What do we know beyond the rapture and the dread?” he asked. (The Collected Poems, Stanley Kunitz, W.W. Norton & Co., 2000)
Rewilding the River Basin
Thousands of native wildflower seeds, hand collected and planted by Yurok tribe members and volunteers, are thriving along the Klamath River after a spectacular show of color this spring. Over 2,200 acres, submerged for decades by four recently removed dams, are part of an ongoing restoration project along the river basin. Some of the flowers that can be found there are California poppies, lupine, buttercups, tiger lilies, asters, larkspur, and orchids. www.oregonstater.org, www.oregonstate.edu
Opportunities
Blessing the Boats Selections, sponsored by BOA Editions, is offering a $1500 prize and publication for a full-length collection of poetry by a woman of color who lives in the US. Named after Lucille Clifton’s award-winning collection, the series will be judged this year by Evie Shockley. Manuscripts must be at least 65 pages in length. (There’s no entry fee.) www.boaeditions.org
Stony Brook Southhampton is sponsoring a short fiction prize for undergraduates. The winner will receive a prize of $1,000, a scholarship to the Southampton Writer’s conference, and possible publication in the Southhampton Review. The contest is open to undergrads in the US and Canada. (There’s no entry fee.) www.stonybrook.edu
Palette Poetry, an online journal, is open for submissions year round for its Featured Poet category. Payment is $50-150 per poem. Aiming for diversity, they welcome “new and emerging” poets. (There’s no fee for this category.) www.palettepoetry.com
Assembling a Poetry Collection
For tips on assembling a poetry collection, see “Putting a Full-Length Collection Together,” June 6, 2021 and July 26, 2021, on this blog.
I’ve been dipping in and out of You Are the Future: Living the Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke (Monkfish, 2024).Written by translator and scholar Mark S. Burrows and best-selling author Stephanie Dowrick, it reaches into the heart of Rilke’s poetry, stressing the value of living “the deep questions of our day.” The Austrian poet’s work was inspired by his mystical leanings and a need to come to terms with the suffering wreaked by WWI. “I am the stillness between two notes/that don’t easily harmonize,” Rilke wrote, and as Burrows observes, he “sensed that polarities are always with us, and within us — light and dark; good and bad; right and wrong — and that our work was that of integrating them.”
The poet’s yearning for wholeness is common to many people and it’s not likely to be fulfilled by outer means such as self-help fixes. It is, instead, “a call to open ourselves to what is real,” “to enter deeply into the soulful depths of your own life,” Burrows says. This isn’t so much about transcendence as it is a process of transformation, says Dowrick, a former psychotherapist, who cites this passage from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet: “Don’t search now for the answers; they can’t be given to you because you couldn’t yet live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps on some future day you’ll find yourself, slowly and imperceptibly, living into the answer…” Rich with insight and references, this is a book to savor. Not only is it a good resource for understanding Rilke’s writing and the context of his life, it also shows how poetry, in general, can nurture “soul work.”
April is National Poetry Month
Launched in 1996 by The Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month celebrates poetry with a series of special in-person and virtual events. This year, “Mindful Poetry Moments” offers “a chance to pause and reflect on poetry’s ability to encounter ourselves, the world, and the mystery of each other,” according to the AAP website. On Wednesday, April 9th, from 3-4pm EST, participants will gather virtually to write and share their experiences based on Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese.” For a full description with a link to register for this free event, and for a complete schedule, visit www.poets.org.
Power Lines
The Poetry Foundation honors the 25th anniversary of the Midwest anthology Power Lines this month with a series of readings, exhibitions, and performances. Dubbed “POWER LINES: Lineage as a Source of Collective Power,” the series focuses on “an energetic current connecting us to the past, fueling us toward the futures of our imaginations.” For a complete schedule visit www.poetryfoundation.org.
Contemplating Kinship
“Contemplating Kinship,” a free multi-media event sponsored by The Poet’s Corner of Maine, will take place on Zoom April 13th at 4:00 pm, EST. Exploring our connections with each other, nature, and the world, the event will feature writers Claire Milliken, Jane Pirone, Mikhu Paul, and David Baker. To register and to learn about other programs and opportunities sponsored by The Poet’s Corner, visit www.thepoetscornermaine.org.
Examples of reciprocity in nature are at the heart of indigenous wisdom, according to author and scientist Robin Wall Kimmamer . In The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (Scribner, 2024), she writes that “to replenish the possibility of mutual flourishing…we need an economy that shares the gifts of the earth, following the lead of our oldest teachers, the plants.” An enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmamer is the best-selling author of Braiding Sweetgrass and a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology. Pointing to the Serviceberry tree as a model, she observes that “Materials move through ecosystems in a circular economy and are constantly transformed.” The leaves of the tree draw carbon dioxide, which becomes sugar in the berry, which becomes food for the Cedar Waxwings, which animate their songs and colors their feathers, which become food for beetles, and so on. In this clear and concisely written book, Kimmamer spells out the risks of current practices based on profit alone and invites readers to “consider how you can reciprocate the gifts of the Earth in your own way.” Illustrations by John Burgoyne
Burningword Literary Journal
My thanks to the editors of Burningword for accepting the poem, “Lost Places” for their January issue. Established in June 2000, this is a quarterly publication featuring an array of poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, and visual art, according to their website. Issues are published in January, April, July, and October; selected work is included in an annual “best of” issue and nominations are submitted for both the Pushcart and Best of Net awards. www.burningword.com
“In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.” – Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere
Poetry Open Submissions
Frontier Poetry is currently accepting online poetry submissions in their New Voices category and welcomes “underrepresented and marginalized voices.” They also offer an optional editorial letter with one to two pages of feedback. Payment is from $50 to $150 per poem. www.frontierpoetry.com
About Place Journal is now accepting “artistic collaborations” of poetry and other genres that explore the experience of cooperative work. Until March 10th. www.aboutplacejournal.org
The Lascaux Review is open for submissions of poetry and other work (up to five poems) and will consider previously published material. They’re seeking accessible poetry “that can be appreciated without notation.” www.lascauxreview.com
Contests
The Harold Morton Landon Translation Award is for “a poetry collection translated from any language into English and published in the previous calendar year.” Submissions are accepted through February 15th. www.poets.org
The Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and Autumn House Press are co-sponsoring a contest for a first or second poetry/hybrid collection. The prize is $3,000 and publication; submissions will be accepted through February 15th. www.caapp.pitt.edu
Arts and Letters is now accepting submissions (up to four poems) for the Rumi Poetry Prize. The award is $1,000 and publication on their website. (They “prefer” that entries not be simultaneously submitted.) Through February 20th. www.artsandletters.submittable.com
As a friend of mine sometimes says, “The good news is that there is good news.” May we find it all around us in the beauty of nature, in the wonder of ordinary things and everyday activities. May peace prevail in the coming year and may love light our way forward.
Recent Poems
Gathering poems together recently for a “new and selected” volume gave me an opportunity to discover some recurring themes, as well as to reconsider work I’d forgotten about. Spanning over forty years, the new collection is underscored by a belief that we share with nature a “wise fecundity” for growth and healing. Two recent poems, Light of Day and Winter Pine, will appear in the next issue of EcoTheo Review (www.ecotheo.org > review).
Poem of the Day
You can receive a poem every day in your in-box just by signing up with the Poetry Foundation. Poems are selected by their editors from a 47,000-plus poetry archive and represent a diverse array of voices. (www.poetryfoundation.org)
A Selection from Refuge for Cranes
Eye of the Heart
1
Say you draw a circle around yourself
and walk freely there, surrounded by love.
Say you expand this circle,
farther than you’ve ever been.
2
The way a seed fulfills itself and fallen things
replenish the world — here now,
the ends of branches are bright with berries
and ripe for the feasting of blackbirds.
3
May you find yourself in a clearing after a light rain.
Refuge for Cranes, the title poem from the 2023 Wildhouse publication, appeared in the fall issue of Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry.
One Bright Pearl appeared in Braided Way (online) September 6, 2024.
darting ahead (haiku) appeared in Under the Basho, Fall/Winter, 2024
Deep Imagery
In the poem “A Blessing,” by James Wright, the language suggests a kind of magic is afoot as “Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass…” and two Indian ponies “come gladly out of the willows…” I don’t often reread this poem, but when I do, it’s always with a certain amount of anticipation. The music is low-keyed, the rhyme subtle, and by the time the last line arrives I’m completely under its spell. Critic James Seay, writing in the Georgia Review, commented on Wright’s work that, “I cannot recall experiencing anything like that keen sense of discovery which I felt in reading The Branch Will Not Break…” and…“what makes Wright’s poetry special…” is that “he has the gift of using language in a way that the human spirit is awakened and alerted to its own possibilities.”
The opening of another one of his celebrated poems, “The Jewel,” is also memorable: “There is this cave/ In the air behind my body/ That nobody is going to touch:/ A cloister, a silence/ Closing around a blossom of fire.” Known for the striking “deep images” of his work, this “blossom of fire” was no doubt hard won. “Poetry can keep life itself alive,” he has written. “You can endure almost anything as long as you can sing about it.” Winner of the Yale Younger Poet’s Prize, the Ohio- born poet (1927-1980) attended Kenyon College and the University of Washington where he studied with Theodore Roethke. Above the River: The Complete Poems was published posthumously in 1990 and won the Pulitzer Prize.
Connecting With Mystery
Poet Ada Limon observed in an interview recently that, “The connection between poetry and nature is that they both give us a moment to recognize what we’re going through. They give us space. They give us breath. They return us to ourselves” (Outsider, August 1, 2024). As part of her signature project as U.S. Poet Laureate, Limon has conceived of a coast-to-coast exhibit of poems engraved on picnic tables in seven national parks, including Mount Rainer in Washington State where visitors can ponder A.R. Ammons’ poem, “Uppermost.” On the east coast, Mary Oliver’s poem “Can You Imagine?” is engraved on a table located in Beech Forest, near Provincetown, Massachusetts. Limon invites everyone, poet or not, to share their responses to the poems and the landscape around them with the hashtag #youareherepoetry. “Poetry is a place that holds so much mystery…” “So often we stand in a forest and think, Oh there are no words, and that’s enough,” she said.
Opening of the River
An historic project to remove four outdated hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River was completed late this summer, allowing it to flow freely in its original channel for the first time in over a century. It’s hoped that restoration of the river, which runs for 257 miles from Central Oregon to Northern California’s Lost Coast, will enable endangered chinook and coho salmon to return to their original spawning grounds. According to water rights specialist Brad Parrish, it’s vital to reconnect “the features on the landscape that allow water throughout the basin to function naturally…” (“A Geography of Hope,” Earth Island Journal, August 8, 2024).
In Case You Missed It
In the article “Building Another Kind of Peace: How Poetry Can Help Calm Our Tumultuous Spirits” LitHub, September 4, 2024), teacher and writer Megan Pinto describes poetry as both a mindful and literary practice.
Contests
The Steve Kowit Poetry Prize offers $1,000 and publication in the San Diego Poetry Annual for a single poem. Judged by Ellen Bass, the deadline is October 15th.
The North American Review will award $1,000 and publication for a single poem. All entries will be considered for publication. Deadline is November 1st.
Mad Creek Books, of Ohio State University Press, will award $2,500 and publication for a poetry collection of at least 48 pages. Judged by Marcus Jackson, the deadline is October 9th.
“Wild” Exhibit
A year-long exhibit entitled “Wild” opened in June, 2024, at the U.K.’s Manchester Museum showcasing projects from around the world that have revived natural landscapes and saved wildlife from extinction. Curated by David Gelsthorpe, it includes films, photographs, text, and objects that tell the story of “some of the ways people are rewilding landscapes…” and “gives glimpses of how nature can thrive when given the opportunity,” Gelsthorpe has written in The Conversation (www.theconversation.com, June 4, 2024).
About Craft
I was up early looking at a poem I’d written the day before, instant coffee beside me at the laptop. I knew it wasn’t right and I wondered if I could fix it with a bit of cutting, some revising. Maybe get a whole new poem out of it. No such luck. This was one of those poems that needed more than revising and a few quick fixes. I saved what was left of it and moved it to another file, with some regret. But also with an appreciation for the process. I confess I love poems that write themselves, but most of them require attention, and really, that’s the whole point of poetry, isn’t it? Looking closely at our view of the world and self through the lens of language. This is how poetry saves us, I think. It teaches us to look deeply and with patience, and in doing so we open to uncertainty, to the messiness of the process, to disappointment, to loss. Here, I find a hint of the objectivity I could use more of, an appreciation for poetry and life as creative movement, as change.
Spotting the Redstart
As birder Dominik Mosur wandered around Pine Lake Park in San Francisco one day recently, he heard what sounded like the tick of a warbler. Peering through the foliage, he caught a glimpse of the red belly and black feathers of a slate-throated redstart. Commonly found in the southern hemisphere, from Mexico to Bolivia, this was the first such sighting in California, according to an article in SF Gate (“Mysterious bird never seen in California draws crowds to San Francisco park,” Amanda Bartlett, Aug. 6, 2024). Birders and biologists have offered various reasons the redstart might have ventured so far north, including global warming, monsoons in Northern Mexico that may have disoriented it, and the instinct to seek out new territory.
Into the Clear Blue Sky
July 22, 2024 was the hottest day on record on earth, according to NASA, caused in part by human activity and the proliferation of greenhouse gasses. Climate Scientist Rob Jackson’s new book, Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere (Scribner, 2024) presents an attainable vision for the future, pointing out that while cutting harmful emissions is essential, we also need to reduce carbon dioxide and methane to pre-industrial levels by such means as “direct-air capture” and “enhanced weathering.” Chair of the Global Carbon Project and a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, Jackson believes that this goal can be accomplished in a lifetime with the help of nature and technology, and it’s our moral duty to attempt to do so. Publisher’s Weekly calls Into the Clear Blue Sky “an exceptional inquiry into the fight against global warming.” Kirkus sees it as “A useful handbook for reducing one’s carbon footprint and encouraging neighbors and communities to do the same.” (Jackson is also a well-published poet, with poems in the Atlanta Review, Cold Mountain Review, LitHub, and elsewhere.)
For many people, one of the primary functions of the poem is to reaffirm a sense of wholeness, to restore. It’s a way of seeing the bigger picture, or at least to gain some semblance of objectivity about our experience. Is this why I write poetry? To say that I do it as a form of self-care seems true enough, but that would be to isolate it from its other parts. Poet and essayist Reginald Shepard cited a variety of reasons for his writing habit from the observation that, “I write because I would like to live forever” to the call to “never forget beauty, however strange or difficult.” (Orpheus in the Bronx, by Reginald Shepard, University of Michigan Press, 2007). In her poem, “Why I Write Poetry,” Leah Kindler offers that one of her reasons is “Because I could say my friend’s exes live in a swamp in my heart/ and no one would ask what it means” (from Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School, Penguin, 2022). In the coming weeks I’ll be looking at some of the reasons we read and write poetry and how it can serve as what Robert Duncan called an x-ray of the psyche.
One Bright Pearl
A new poem, “One Bright Pearl,” will appear in an upcoming issue of Braided Way Magazine. It was inspired by an observation of 9th century Zen master Xuansha Shibei, “In all the ten directions, the whole world is one bright pearl.” A publication of the non-profit Spiritual Quest Foundation, Braided Way aims “to cultivate and nurture people to become open and accepting of different spiritual perspectives and practices…” www.braidedway.org
Exploring Suisun Marsh
and Grizzly Island
Ground broke last June, 2023, on the new Pacific Flyway Center located on Suisun Marsh, about 6 miles from the City of Fairfield in Northern California. Originally home to the Suisunes, the site is a sanctuary for over 200 species of birds including snowy egrets, quail, pelicans, and hawks, and serves a stopover for thousands of waterfowl as they migrate annually from Alaska to Patagonia. Phase One of the project, scheduled to open in 2027, was funded by a $5 million donation and consists of restoration work and a “marsh walk” that will meander through 15 new habitat ponds. Phase Two will see the construction of an interpretive center consisting of three buildings. Meanwhile, visitors can take advantage of 75 miles of existing roads and paths while the nearby Grizzly Island Trail offers educational signage, benches, and an overlook area. Summer temperatures often hover in the 90’s here but can reach the triple digits. Late fall days are generally cool, with foggy mornings and breezy afternoons.
“A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His bill will hold more than his bellican.”
– Dixon Lanier Merritt, 1910
Nature and Health
In the new book All in Her Head: How Gender Bias Harms Women’s Mental Health (Greystone Books, 2024), author Misty Pratt writes that quality time spent in nature is vital for health. Dr. Melissa Lem, a family physician based in Vancouver agrees. Lem studied evidence showing the benefits of nature-time on mental health and physical conditions such as diabetes, blood pressure, and stress hormone levels, and began making changes in her own busy schedule. Now, she’s part of a growing movement by doctors and health care professionals who recommend time in nature to their patients. “I think it’s important for nature to become routine advice during a health care visit — diet, exercise, sleep, and nature time,” Lem says. She calls these the “four central pillars of health.” See The Fourth Pillar of Health: Nature Time – YES Magazine Solutions Journalism (yesmagazine.org).
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 16th (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 30th. (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 14th. (www.omnidawn.com/contests-omnidawn)
I’ll be reading selections from Refuge for Cranes in tandem with guitarist Jos van der Wilk on Saturday, April 20th from 2 to 3 p.m. at “Books on B,” 1014 B Street, Hayward, CA. Please join us for this impromptu event in celebration of Earth Day and Poetry Month. (You can place an order or sign up for updates at http://www.booksonb.com/)
On Spiritual Verse: A Seminar with Kaveh Akbar. This online Zoom event will take place on two Wednesdays, April 17 and May 1 from 7 to 9pm, Eastern Time. Registration is required. Akbar is an award-winning poet and editor of the anthology, The Penguin Books of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine. https://www.poetrysociety.org
Goddess Art and Poetry, a program dedicated to “poetry lovers who appreciate the goddess archetype, as well as the gifts and stories that women bring,” will take place Saturday, May 18 from 4 to 6pm, Pacific Time. To apply to be a reader or for more information about this online event contact author and organizer Georgia Reash at https://www.georgiareash.wixsite.com
Haiku Notes
A new haiku (first line: “night jasmine,”) will appear in the spring/summer edition of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America https://www.hsa-haiku.org.
A haiku on the theme of “transforming paths” was recently selected by the 2024 Golden Haiku annual competition (https://www.goldentriangledc.com). It will be displayed along with others on signage in a 44 block area of the Golden Triangle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. through April and on the website (first line: “lifting a stone,” haiku #73/142).
Books
The Poetry Home Repair Manual
The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets, by Ted Kooser (University of Nebraska)uses examples from the former U.S. Poet Laureate’s own work and that of others to demystify the process of writing and revising. There’s also some helpful life advice here and a dose of good humor. My only quibble is with the title; this book isn’t just for beginners, but seasoned poets and readers, as well.
Writer’s Conferences
The 42nd annual Napa Valley Writer’s Conference will take place July 21 – 26, featuring poets Jane Hirshfield, Jan Beatty, C. Dale Young, and more. The application deadline is April 22nd. https://www.napawritersconference.org
The Las Vegas Writer’s Conference, from April 1 – 13, is notable for being all virtual and features writing sessions, Q & A opportunities, agent and editor sessions, and tips from industry experts. For more information visit https://www.vegaswritersconference.com.
This month, Mark S. Burrows continues his exploration of poetry and the wisdom of the heart, Richard Blanco reads selections from his latest collection, and Gloria Heffernan offers a free poetry workshop on the power of place.
Homeland of My Body: New & Selected Poems. Join Richard Blanco and friends of The Poet’s Corner as he reads from his latest book, Sunday, February 11, 2024, 4 – 5:30 pm ET. Visit www.https://thepoetscornermaine@gmail.com to register for this free Zoom event.
Sacred Journeys: An Evening Reading And Writing About Place with poet Gloria Heffernan. February 12, 7 -8:30 pm ET. Visit the Raft at www.https://phylliscoledai.substack.com to register for this free event.
Heartwork: Exploring Rilke’s Poetry. Poet, scholar, and translator Mark S. Burrows facilitates this online workshop that explores “how our own heart-work might guide us into greater resilience and authenticity.” Thursday, February 15, 2024, 2 – 3:30pm ET. Cost: $25. Visit www.https://thepoetcorner.org to register.
Aubades: Morning Online Poetry Discussion, Mulberry Street Library, Thursday, February 22, 2024, 10 – 11am ET. Visit the New York Public Library site at www.https://nypl.org to register for this free online event.
A Different Slant
In her review of Refuge for Cranes (Tupelo Quarterly, December 14, 2023), author and poet Aline Soules has written: “On the surface, it would be easy to read these poems as accessible descriptions of the world of ordinary things, to enjoy the beauty the poet highlights from the garden or the woods or the land and creatures around him. But let each poem linger in the mind and their subtle complexity emerges…” www.tupeloquarterly.com
Seven Poems from Refuge for Cranes
Morning Song
I started writing “Morning Song” early one morning and finished the draft within an hour or so. I’d recently seen a yellow grosbeak, unusual for this part of California, and that entered into the stream of things, as did a reference to a “camel inside a camel,” which I think comes from Rumi. The last line was a surprise. I don’t remember giving much thought to loving the unloving before, and these words felt like an opening to begin to see everyone as equally deserving of love. Another way of looking at the last line is as an invitation to love all parts of oneself, so the poem might serve as a prompt for self-care.
Walking Under Redwoods
This poem was brewing on some level even as I was walking through a redwood grove with a friend one crisp December day. As I remember, it was the day after Christmas. Everything was so still and quiet, I almost felt like an intruder. For some reason, our walk prompted my friend to talk about some of her regrets I guess you could call them, and I began to see my own experience through a similar lens. The redwoods seemed to take it all in. Nature, after all, is the best listener. Writing this poem reminded me of the value of silence in our lives, and that includes the silence between words and sentences, the silence of the trees, and the silence of our footfalls on the soft ground. Even the dim rush of the nearby creek was enhanced by that silence around us.
Sites of the Shutdown
I suppose we naturally look for something positive to come out of the negative, and that was true for me about the pandemic and subsequent shut-down of so many things I took for granted. This poem came out of that sensibility, and it reminded me that what I seek isn’t outside myself, that whatever satisfaction I may find isn’t strictly in the outcome of things but in my response to it. It’s true that the pandemic did acquaint me more with solitude, and it’s not over yet as of this writing. But it also taught me to value even the smallest interactions — at the checkout counter, on the bus, or ordering a meal, for instance. None of these would be possible without our mutual participation.
Earthbytes
This poem was a conscious attempt to put into words the need for an active involvement in the environmental crisis, without being “preachy.” I really wanted to write a poem that encourages commitment to conservation and mindful living. This isn’t necessarily that poem, but it’s a start. It began with a fragment of a line from several years ago, “like the bulb that from darkness emits the bloom,” and evolved from there. Yes, the current crisis is dire but I believe we can make a difference. It won’t be easy, but what’s the alternative?
Enquiry
As I get older, the list of things and people I’m grateful for continues to grow. Sometimes, spontaneous memories of the kindness of friends come back to me. (I lived rent-free in the attics of two different friends for over a year.) It’s a wonderful feeling to thank those special friends once again and to feel reconnected on a deep level, one that transcends time and place. But there’s also the spontaneous feeling of gratitude that arises in everyday activities — gratitude for the cup for holding the coffee, and for the bowl for containing my cereal in the morning. Occasionally, we come across beauty in nature in the least expected of places, as this poem recounts, and these moments are worthy of celebration.
Eye of the Heart
This title came to me long before the poem did and wouldn’t let go. I liked it but wondered if it wasn’t a cliché. But in my initial research, I didn’t find any titles exactly like it. I wonder if the subject might have stemmed from some of my childhood art projects in which I took a black crayon and made curvy lines that crossed and re-crossed each other, creating irregular spaces that I filled in with various colors, finally drawing eyeballs in some of the spaces. It was my version of modern art. The surprise of this poem was the last section. I didn’t see it coming. There’s a tangible joy in the practice of wishing others well that benefits both the sender and the recipient.
It reminds me of the metta meditation from Tibetan Buddhism that begins, “May all beings be well, may all beings be happy, may all beings be free.”
We, Cranes
What I like to call the “happy we” is introduced as the narrator here. The voice includes both poet and cranes, blurring the distinction between observer and observed, subject and object. Although brief, this poem is probably my favorite in the collection. There’s something magical about these creatures, and they seem to invite us into an almost mythical world in which language feels unnecessary.
Jerome Gagnon Blog 