"When I first caught sight of Mt. Shasta, over the braided folds of the Sacramento Valley, I was fifty miles away and afoot, alone and weary. Yet all my blood turned to wine, and I have not been weary since." - John Muir, 1874
Vacuums can appear as swirls on the distant horizon, or, all of a sudden, open at our feet, spin, pull us in.
Beauty, power, and danger: a trident of transformation pierces us, and we flip like caught fish.
Now, at the advent of tornado season, perhaps we are right to tremble. Change spirals in, never easy or complete.
We hang in flux, dynamic as clouds circling a sacred mountain, painting the sky with flying dragons.
Why does our deep wisdom fly before us? We call, answered by echoes, by rapturous
emptiness. And so, we sit. We become still as the mountain, holding firm, until the storm
passes, the green air departs, and we are flooded with peace as potent as sunset-colored wine.
Leslie Schultz
Photo: John R. SoaresPhoto: John R. SoaresPhoto: John R. SoaresPhoto: John R. Soares
Thanks for these incredible images go to the blog “Hike Mt. Shasta” which includes many other images and resources for visitors. The photographer, John R. Soares, is a lucid and lyrical writer, and the well-known author of hiking guides for the California region. His books can be purchased on Amazon.
Northfield Sidewalk Poetry Poets at KYMN Radio (2019) From left: Brendon Etter, Bonnie Jean Flom (Arts and Culture Commission), Constanza Ocampo, Paul Fried, Ellie Zimmerman, Anne Kopas, Mar Valdecantos, Taide Rodriquez Marcial, Leslie Schultz, Paula Granquist (Host of ArtZany) (Not pictured: D.E. Green and Alekz Thoms) Photo by Hector Ocampo
This past Friday (April 20, 2019) KYMN Radio’s premier arts and culture show, ArtZany with Paula Granquist, featured 2019 winners of Northfield’s Sidewalk Poetry Project. The entire show can be accessed through the link above.
This ninth contest was a watershed year for Northfield’s project.
The American Academy of Poets has honored our program by including it in the 2019 Event Spotlight, along with links to the text of all the Northfield Sidewalk Poems, the map of poem sites, and Paul Krause’s documentary.
Here are some excerpts from the Arts and Culture Commission press release:
“The Arts and Culture Commission (ACC) of Northfield, in partnership with the Friends and Foundation of the Library, is pleased to announce the winners of the City’s ninth annual Sidewalk Poetry Competition: DEJA TU HUELLA / MAKE YOUR MARK. Chosen from among 126 poems submitted for judging, ten poems have been selected for imprinting in city sidewalks. In the first year of opening the contest to submissions in Spanish, three such poems have been selected by the judges, with seven English poems among the winning entries.
“The five contest judges were drawn from across the community, representing the colleges, the City, the community, and published poets. Judging was completely blind, in that judges were provided no identifying information regarding the poets. Judges were: Diane LeBlanc, Director of Writing, St. Olaf College and a published poet; Angelica Linder, Northfield Library Outreach Coordinator; Becky Boling, Carleton Spanish faculty member and published poet; Joel Olson, Northfield Schools Activities Director; and Rob Hardy, published poet and Northfield’s Poet Laureate.
“The winning poems will be on display at the Northfield Public Library and City Hall, posted on the Friends and Foundation of the Library and City websites, and shared with local media. Beginning in the spring and continuing through the summer, poems will be installed in City sidewalks, as weather permits.
“This project is funded by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) through the Arts and Culture Heritage Fund, as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature, with added support from the Friends and Foundation of the Northfield Library.”
Over the nine years of the program, more than 1,000 poems have been submitted. A total of 81 poems have been selected from 54 poets. To date, there are more than 200 impressions of poems in Northfield sidewalks.
Mark your calendars now for the ninth annual capstone celebration at Bridge Square: Thursday, August 29 at 7:00 p.m.!
Yep. Today, it is raining again, here in Northfield, Minnesota, but today I am looking on the bright side! Many thanks to model Mattie Lufkin–Mattie, you bring sunshine wherever you go!
LESLIE
“Rain, rain, go away” Noah’s Ark Quilt, Made for a Friend, 1994Carleton College Campus, New Student Week 2016
We have a singular one in our back garden at the foot of the elm.
Each spring it rises in a trio of tiers: leaves, sepals, petals.
It offers a time-lapse waltz of color change: white satin, berry pink, ash.
Leslie Schultz
I first learned about these woodland flowers when I was a child in Oregon. When we moved to Northfield, we planted one at the base of our American Elm. Both are still healthy! Our trillium should be blooming in a few weeks, and this year I intend to take some photographs of it when it is fully pink. (The first and second images are from our garden. The middle image was taken at the Northfield Post Office.) Until I was able to observe this single plant, I did not know how the starlight-white of the new trillium bloom turns pink as it ages. Botanically, I read that this results from self-generated anthocyanins–triggered by stress or aging–with the goal of reclaiming and conserving the nutrients in the petals that the trillium is throwing away. I don’t fully understand that mechanism, but I find myself wondering about the way humans seem to move oppositely along the color spectrum–from rosy baby to white-haired elder.
As evidence, I submit the following from a dozen years ago! Below is an image taken at Village on the Cannon. Julia and I are waiting for our Spanish lesson with Susan Hvistendahl and celebrating that a trio of my photographs are on the wall. Today, I note that my face then was rosier, my hair less threaded with white just a decade ago.
