Monthly Archives: April 2016

A Poem in Progress: #22 April 22, 2016

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Number 22

A Small Song for the Vast Mother
(Earth Day, 2016)

Fresh blows the wind on the mountain slopes.
Fresh the green lace on the maple boughs.

Sweet the scent of the waking soil.
Sweet the sound of the glassy rain.

Deep the roots of the growing prairie.
Deep the fires in the ancient seas.

Here, we are cradled in moonlight and starlight.
Here, we rise with the traveling sun.

Now, we turn, with wisdom and insight.
Now, we see what must be done.

Leslie Schultz

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day 1

Earth Day 2

Earth Day Six

Earth Day Four

Earth Day Five

Until tomorrow!

Leslie

A Poem in Progress: #21– April 21, 2016–Poem in Your Pocket Day!

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Number 21

Northfield Today: Finding and Keeping

The lark finds sweet music in greening trees
and carries a song in its yellow-gold throat.
Today, you can find such treasure with ease
to tuck in a pocket of a spring raincoat.

It’s Poem in Your Pocket Day all day long.
Like nests filled with eggs, red boxes are out.
Somewhere in Northfield, your own special song
is waiting for you as you fly about

running errands or sipping café-au-lait,
or buying a cupcake or loaf of bread,
or finding a book to brighten your day
as you dream of a story to read in bed.

It’s today! What new lifelong-friend-of-a-poem will leap into your pocket?
It’s waiting: your own portable,(zip-to-another-realm) word-rocket.

Leslie Schultz

Okay, so I know I get a little overly excited in April, and when Poem in Your Pocket Day arrives I can feel positively giddy. Honestly, though, what could be better than being a poet and living in a place where so many other people are also excited about how poetry enriches life?

Yesterday, I was out along Division Street and saw a few of the poems winging their way to us. Here is one:
Poem in Your Pocket Day 2016 2

This one is a new Sidewalk Poem by Lori Stolz, so it has earned a permanent place in the pavements in our town. For a limited time only, a paper copy can flutter into your personal library.

If you find that perfect-for-you poem on your travels today, please let me know.

Poem in Your Pocket Day 2016

Until tomorrow!

Leslie

Poems in Progress: #20–April 20, 2016

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Number 20

Gravitational Pull
(Or, Why I Am Drawn to Write Poems)

After the Big Bang of my own small birth,
That explosion into cold air and consciousness,
I yearned to experience life on this turning earth.
Like you, I became my own witness,

My own black box recording device.
I notice the joys of taking off, of soaring;
That confidence of cruising altitude
And the power of all engines humming;

As well the certainties of humdrum descent—
The end of a day, a current era—aware
Of one guarantee: one day going down
In flames, arcing to a place of no return.

Hoping only to leave one lingering word or two:
My shifting joys and sorrows, my point of view.

Leslie Schultz

I suppose this is a continuation of yesterday’s trio of brief images comparing flight and writing.

Sky Butterfly

Until Tomorrow!

Leslie

Poems in Progress: #18–April 18, 2016

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Number 18

Day Star
     for Jan Newman

Here in the dark, waiting
for the sun to travel again
over the curve of the earth,
its daily round,
and hearing pre-dawn birdsong,
I understand: the whole world
waits, as we did.

I think of traveling to your house,
so long ago, visiting.
Our garden chairs set beside
your red sub-tropical blooms,
the box of old negatives
at our feet, tea-dark strips of film
we layered into visors.

Laughing, we looked boldly
into the doubled dark
of that solar eclipse,
waiting,
certain as songbirds,
for the sun,
its radiant return.

Leslie Schultz

Journey Back

Journey Back

Until Tomorrow!

Leslie