Monthly Archives: April 2016

Northfield Sidewalk Poetry 2016–Winners and Readings Announced

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Julia and Rusty Pump

The 2016 winners of Northfield’s Sidewalk Public Poetry Contest have been announced!  (Clicking on the above link will allow you to see the names of the winners AND their poems.)

The poet I know best is pictured above near the inspiration for her winning poem–a neighborhood icon.

And in April, National Poetry Month, there will be two chances to hear the poems read by and discussed by the poets. First, on Friday, April 15, 2016, many of the poets will be guests on KYMN’s(1080 AM) weekly radio show, ArtZany!, hosted by Paula Granquist. The show airs from 9:00 to 9:40 a.m. every Friday and is rebroadcast on Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. The past shows are archived and be accessed on line anytime at the link above.

Second, on Friday, April 28, 2016 at 7:00 p,m., the 2016 Sidewalk Poets have been invited to read their work at Content Bookstore — Content is Northfield’s independent bookstore located at 314 Division Street.

Can you believe it? This is Northfield’s 6th annual celebration of Sidewalk Poetry. This partnership of the Arts and Culture Commission, the Friends of the Library, the City, and SEMAC (with funding from the Minnesota Legacy Fund) has born amazing poetic fruit. Look for new impressions of old favorites around the renovated Northfield Public Library later in the year. Come August, join other poetry lovers at Bridge Square for the annual capstone celebration–stay tuned for a date on that.

And finally, don’t forget that many Northfield businesses and organizations, especially along Division Street, participate each year in the Northfield version of National Poem in Your Pocket Day! This year, it’s Thursday, April 21. Look for the red boxes, and be sure to take a poem home in your own pocket! Here is a photo from the very first Northfield celebration back in 2013.

Poem in Your Pocket Day 2013

Have a Great April!

Leslie

A Poem in Progress: #13– April 13, 2016

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Number 13

For My Sister, On Her Birthday

Though I’ve known you my whole life long,
my life cannot be not long enough
to know you well enough. This song,
though rhyme and measures are quite rough—
a little choppy, off-the-cuff—
could not be off-key, cannot be wrong.

I can’t count how many times you
have helped me, all unasked, true heart.
A thousand miles away, still you knew
if I were sad, mad, enthralled by art—
or pierced by remorse or conscience’s dart—
you’re always there to talk me through.

Your peerless art inspires me,
shows how to frame a quiet scene,
from orange dawn to turquoise sea
to forest’s heart of tender green.
Karla, you pour luck into “13”
like most pour a cup of tea—

routinely and effortlessly—
This morning, I want to say
I hope that everything you see,
everything chance brings your way,
gives sparkle and shine to your birthday,
as knowing you does, every day, to me.

Love, Leslie

happy-birthday-cake-picture-wallpaper-1050x700

Until Tomorrow!

Leslie

A Poem in Progress: #12– April 12, 2016

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Twelve

Kelmscott Manor, Attics
(platinum print, Frederick H. Evans, 1896)

So these inverted rafters and ghostly glow,
these soft-lit rough-hewn beams like
internal buttresses, and this empty space
with it twin invitations leading out—
on the left, the five white stairs ascending
to a blackened door; on the right, sunlight
over five shadowed steps inviting you in—
this is the enchanted land of echo and dust motes
that sheltered, like a silent Orphic chorus,
the fervent, fertile brain of William Morris.

Leslie Schultz

On our recent trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I bought a copy of their beautifully produced Handbook detailing highlights of their collections. This morning, I was idly leafing through it and became mesmerized by the photograph that inspired this poem. And I learned that this photograph, one of the very first of the museum’s now extensive holdings in photography, was the thin end of the wedge in winning “art” status for photography in Philadelphia.

gm_04609501-web

Even more intriguing, Arts and Crafts Movement luminary William Morris (painter, poet, textile designer, philosopher, socialist, publisher, an early establisher of the modern fantasy genre) rather disliked photography. Yet, he invited this photographer, Frederick H. Evans, to photograph his home and the home base for his publishing arm, Kelmscott Press. I have long been attracted to his personal motto: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris (1834-1986) I have yet to live up to it. This photograph makes me wonder what my limestone basement, now brimming with this and that, would look like empty.

Kelmscott_Manor_News_from_Nowhere

(Images from Morris and Evans in the public domain.)

Until tomorrow!

Leslie

A Poem in Progress: #11–April 11, 2016

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Number 11

Uncaging the Bas

It’s a grey-again Sunday
after mere hours of honeyed sun,
two weeks of rain and wind,
three sudden squalls of snow.

Donning my long, grey coat,
taking up my shears,
I see what is emerging
and wish to help it grow.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
known at home as “Ba”,
had to escape her girlhood
in foggy London,

where she slept like
Sleeping Beauty,
to flower fully
in sun-kissed Italy.

You, tiny daffodils,
you bring her name each year
up from the winter snow,
and I must cut away

these dead stalks holding you
down, help you proclaim
openly, openly
your fragments of sun.

Leslie Schultz

Yesterday was the first day I have been able to be out in the garden. It has been very cool here, though the grass is green and the scilla are ahead of schedule. I could see that the little daffodils are almost ready to bloom but they were overshadowed by the dried walnut leaves and the stalks of last season’s cone flowers. So I spent a few moments uncovering them–and I am hoping hard they don’t get hit by new snow.

Ba One

Ba Two

If all goes well, they will bloom exuberantly, as in past years!

Ba Daffodil Six

Until tomorrow!

Leslie