A true highlight of this National Poetry Month happened yesterday afternoon for me in Red Wing, Minnesota. I read my poem, “A Gesture of Peace,” at the juried 23rd annual Poet-Artist Collaboration hosted by Red Wing Arts. On a rainy April day, the rooms of the Depot were filled with light and color and energy and good will–and amazing art, both literary and visual, all in conversation with each other.
Below is the text from my poem, along with a few snaps from the afternoon. The full-color chapbook for the event, featuring all the poetry and images of the visual art, and statments by poets and artists is splendidly designed and printed. Contact Red Wing Arts if you would like to purchase a copy–it is a lovely showcase and a keeper. And if you are in Red Wing, you can see the poems and art displayed, side-by-side, anytime the Depot Gallery is open, through June 9, 2024.
A Gesture of Peace For Kazuhiko Watase My friend has been folding cranes. Prayer flags of thin colored paper transform under his fingers into gentle shapes of longevity. Walking in the mountains above Albuquerque, he finds dried cactus spines—light, hollow, strong—brings them home. Now he is threading a needle, stringing lines of cranes into trembling flocks, each hanging from the thinnest support, each flock an aerial ballet of yellow and blue birds fluttering— like the silk of the Ukrainian flag, alive in the war-tattered sky. Leslie Schultz
I was impressed by the design and great skill of Sandy Bot-Miller’s art, inspired by my poem, as well as by her words: “Ironically and sadly, I completed this weaving on the exact anniversary date that Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago. I primarily concentrated on using the symbolic and meaningful cultural blues and yellows in the Ukranian flag, as well as the folded origami crane shape, as I created a response to the poet’s “A Gesture of Peace” poem. The poet’s haunting, but moving, image of yellow and blue birds fluttering…alive in the war-tattered sky”is what I emotionally focused on while creating this 23-inch circular weaving.”
Upcoming Poetry Reading:
Next Sunday, I will participate in a reading with seven other poets who participated in the 2024 Poet-Artist Collaboration. I am so excited to hear more of each person’s work and to be able to share ten minutes of my own. The event will flow as follows: Introductions by Heather Lawrenz, Assistant Director of Red Wing Arts, and then readings by Paul Schaefer, Ira Frank, Bill Quist, and Elizabeth Weir; following a short break, readings will continue with me, Jorie Miller, Walter Cannon, and then end on the high note, with poems by Joyce Sutphen. Joyce, a former Poet Laureate for Minnesota, was the poetry juror for the Poet-Artist Collaboration this year and opened yesterday’s event with a reading of one of my favorite poems, “Naming the Stars.” She is also the author of the poem on the banner displayed on the outside of the Depot, “Chickadees.”
If you can join us, that would be amazing! You can find directions on the Red Wing Arts website.
Along Red Wing’s river drive, I spotted this amendment to a traffic sign–some of my favorite graffiti ever. I hope today you spot some unexpected sign of love, hope, and peace. LESLIE
