Author Archives: Leslie Schultz

SEEKING INTERPLANETARY POETS!: NEWS THAT IS OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD!

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Here’s a wonderful collaboration between hard-core science and light-hearted, grassroots art: NASA is inviting everyone to contribute a haiku to be considered to be carried into the Martian atmosphere. In addition to the three winning poems, the first names of everyone who submits will also be carried to the red planet’s atmosphere. Poems must be submitted before the end of June. For full contest rules, please go to http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/contest-rules/

And what’s more, the public gets to vote on winning poems—kind of like “Dancing with the Stars”.

Between July 1 and July 29, 2013, do visit http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/contest-rules/ to vote.Mars Rock II

Even though the odds are…well, astronomical…I can’t resist submitting one. Or writing five. If you would like to start voting early, I invite you to help me decide which I should submit. I will be submitting mine the last week in June. Be sure to get me your vote by June 22, 2013. You can vote in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Mars Haiku (by Leslie Schultz)

1)
We lie awake, Mars,
wondering: how did you make
ice? Your rock-red heart?

2)
Mars, we lie awake
wondering what lies under
ice caps, heart-red rock.

3)
Not strawberry, flame,
cardinal, antique barn door,
ruby. Still secret.

4)
red marble rolling:
blue marble comes calling now
across icy space

5)
Mars: humans fight fear,
laws of physics, driven by
curiosity.

And if you would like to publish your own Martian haiku here on Planet Earth, send it to me, and I will devote another post to Mars haiku in the long dog days of summer. Then sit back and know that, win or lose, your name will rocket into space later this year and next year will do an orbiting dance in the Martian atmosphere.

For someone who values words, this is literally as high as one can aspire: go for it!

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Other News 

MailboxMars and Earth images are public domain images which were found on the bitbox post, 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images

For a lighthearted take on Saturn energy, take a look at a new page on the ancient topic of labyrinths, a long term exploratory and publishing interest of mine. Click HERE to visit Winona Media’s new Labyrinth’s page.

Poem in Your Pocket Day in Northfield, MN

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There’s nothing wrong with jumping on a band wagon, especially it is already filled with friendly people who want to share outstanding poetry with you.

That’s how I felt when I learned last year about the American Academy of Poets (AAP) amazing idea: people communities all across the country come together on the same day in April, which, since 1996, has been National Poetry Month in the United States. Each community plans ways to share copies of poems they love or are intrigued by with anyone who is out and about and would like one.

I first heard about the program, which was launched in 2008, last year, but too late to organize anything in my hometown. This year, I was determined to try something small, just a “poetic beachhead” here. With moral support from the Arts and Culture Commission (of which I have the honor to be a member) and encouragement from some poetry-loving friends, I bought bright red boxes, small enough to fit easily on a counter, and targeted eight local places with high traffic: the James Gang Coffeehouse, the Northfield Arts Guild, the Northfield Public Library, Bittersweet Eatery, the Hideaway Coffee Shop, Monkey See, Monkey Read Book Store, and the Quality Bakery.

James Gang PIYPD 2013

Just the idea was enough to create a mini-band wagon here in Northfield. Mary Steil heard me talk about the event at a local reading and stepped up with her good cheer, fabulous ideas, and impressive desktop publishing skills. Between the two of us, we pursued the library of poems at www.poets.org, selected ones we both agreed on, contacted our targeted participants (who all said “Yes”) wrote and distributed a press release, printed poems and 100 commemorative buttons, filled the boxes, and delivered them. We considered copyright issues (a big thanks to Billy Merrell of the AAP for help in thinking this through) and appropriateness of content. We constructed signage and divided up tasks.

On April 18, we had a heavy, freakish snowstorm which slowed traffic. Nonetheless, more than one-third of the 1,000+ poems we set out went home in pockets. All our partners are enthusiastic are participating in 2014.

But here is the magical part: in 2013 there was grassroots enthusiasm for the project before it happened, causing lots of other people to craft their own versions: a volunteer at the hospital worked with staff to create Poem in Your Pocket Day in the long-term care unit; Nerstrand Charter School did a school-wide event; teachers in Northfield gave credit to students who went downtown and recited or read a poem in public; a Carleton professor brought them to her dance students on- and off-campus, the Northfield Public Library gave out copies of a local anthology of poets along with individual poems; and, at Carleton College, the faculty submitted their own picks (supplying an English translation, as well as the original, for those in other languages). Take a look at http://apps.carleton.edu/humanities/Poems/ to become reacquainted with an old favorite or find something you’ve never seen before.

Poem in Pocket groupPhoto Credit: Daphne McCoy

I’ve learned that when my heart is in it, volunteering is its own handsome reward. So you can imagine how shocked—and beyond-delighted—I was to learn that my efforts on the Northfield project was selected as one of five in the country to be recognized by the Academy of American Poets for going above and beyond. It even got me to reactivate my long-dormant Facebook account to see the posting:

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While it is wonderful to be recognized by name, I recognize that what is actually honored is the community effort.

Thanks, Academy! Thanks, everyone in Northfield! Can’t wait until 2014!

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Other News

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I’m excited to have new work, my short story, “The Damages,” and two poems, “Orpheus” and “Memento Mori” featured in Swamp Lily Review – a journal of Louisiana literature & arts. Click on the titles of my story and poems to read them online and be sure to check out Swamp Lily Review’s website when you get a chance! Swamp Lily Review also kindly posted my Bio which you can read if you click HERE.

To see other recent publications and media appearances featuring Winona Media, click HERE to visit our Media and Events page.

The Year Ahead: Life + Art

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Right now, on a sunny morning in May 2013, I hear a clang outside my window. It sounds much like a long-gone string of cowbells, one that used to hang from the ceiling of the front porch.

It’s not, though. The current sound emanates from a brand-new harbor bell, manufactured in Maine and sent to us at Christmas by our Uncle Bill and Aunt Shirley. It has been so icy and snowy in Minnesota that it was April 30 before we were able to hang it up, just in time for six inches of snow on May 1! Even in Minnesota, that is extreme. The snow eclipsed the blooming scilla for a time.

Scilla mean spring in Northfield. Every year, blue pools of tiny blooms flood the greening lawns. Only in one place have I seen them mixed with a white version (see photo above). Since those original bells fell and I wrote the poem below, so have sixteen happy years dropped, like beautiful ripe fruits, into my memory.

A lot of slow and quiet changes can happen in a year’s time. This year marks a new adventure for me: embracing the concept of weekly posts, on Wednesdays, seeing what I can do with the format and seeing whether or not I enjoy it. I plan to alternate poetry with short essays on a variety of topics. The common thread is always artistry from the heart. Each week, I will also share photos and brief thoughts, along with news.

To subscribe to Winona Media weekly posts, go to www.winonamedia.net, at the bottom of the page enter your email in the field above the subscribe button, and then click the subscribe button. You will then get a quick email asking you to confirm your subscription. That’s it!

I hope you’ll stay with me as we see how it unfolds!

 

 

 

 

 

A Year

Summer

Cowbells
hang on a rust-
colored string, silent now,
listening.  Blue wisteria.
Bees drone.

Autumn

Sunlight
filters through leaves.
Gold litters brittle grass.
A squirrel springs, the silent bells
bounce, clang.

Winter

Glazing
coats the cowbells.
Three blue-white shadows fall
quietly to snow.  Only bitter
cold cracks.

Spring

String snapped
in the last storm.
Bells fuzzy with rust lie
in warm mud surrounded by sweet
pale green.

Leslie Schultz (1997)

Your Own Words
for William Warden, Jr.

One little arrangement
could sound after you, when
you are long gone; your words,
placed just so,
could clang like the harbor bell
calling
“Home.
Home.
Home.”

Leslie Schultz (2013)

On Style

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“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.
I’m half-crazy over the love of you.
It won’t be a stylish marriage. I can’t afford a carriage.
But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.

“Harry, Harry, this is my answer true:
I’m not crazy over the love of you.
If it can’t be a stylish marriage, and we can’t afford a carriage,
Then I’ll be danged if I’ll be hanged on a bicycle built for two.”

This is the version of the popular song I learned as a child. The tune is catchy, and for a while I sang it every chance I got. Slowly, though, I started thinking that the eponymous Daisy Bell was unpleasantly superficial in spurning the love in favor of material goods. (Lately I have learned that the answer portion was not part of the original and that there are many variations of Daisy’s answer, some of which find her joyful accepting Harry’s ride.) In any case, as happens with fads, I stopped singing the song but it has never left my consciousness all together. This morning, I awoke thinking that maybe Daisy showed uncommon self-awareness in her answer, making a wise choice for herself and the young man.

Imagine a recent afternoon in New York’s Central Park. Suppose Harrison drops to one knee and says, “Marguerite, I love you. You dazzle me with your brilliant mind and well cut suits. Be mine forever! Come live with me in the country. Give up your oncology practice. We’ll be so happy on my organic farm, and you’ll look so sweet in a pair of bib overalls.”

Put’s a different twist on it, doesn’t it? Could two people with dreams of such different lifestyles ever be happy together? I think not.

Style is an enormously vibrant word. Our style expresses not only who we are but who we want to become, our deepest dreams. Literally, style is a form of emotional bravery, of wearing our hearts on our sleeves.

Style is one way to resolve the ontological paradoxical imperative simultaneously to be and to become. Substance and style are closely related in our minds. Think about it: no one wants a big red shiny apple that tastes of wax outside and is mealy inside, an apple that has traded degraded nutritional content for a toxic stew of herbicides and pesticides.  It’s true that shiny surfaces can be designed to deceive, and we’ve all made Snow White’s mistake of being drawn to the surface without checking under the hood. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean that your beautiful bowl of signature minestrone soup, gleaming with fresh organic vegetables and your homemade pesto, garnished with a little Italian parsley and sprinkled with a few pine nuts, isn’t superior in every way to canned soup. Any canned soup, no matter how meticulously sourced or documented its nutrients. That’s because your soup is your own, sublime, never-to-be-repeated magic worked on local ingredients and served with love. If you serve that soup with imagination and flair – in  pretty china bowls with  silver spoons and cloth napkins, perhaps a candle on the table and a welcoming smile, you’ll have created a meal that will ignite cheers and nourish the dreams of others. You will have been true to yourself and shared yourself with others.

The truth is that we need the organic farm and the city sophistication to be married. We don’t want either/or dichotomies but a synthesis. Sometimes, whether we are talking about personal style or lifestyle shared with others, that happy marriage can be hard to achieve. Like ambitions, personal style should evolve but should never be sacrificed.  Style is the essence of substance, the outer expression of inner qualities and ideas. Like architecture, we develop our style and then it helps us to develop in the direction of our dreams.

I believe that there is a strong correlation between one’s style and one’s authenticity. So, my advice is not to shy away from your style. Embrace it, and follow where it leads…even if that means today you are following a different drummer, peddling down a quiet road on a bicycle built for one. That’s okay. The crowd will catch up. Meanwhile, enjoy the view.

Meet the Illustrator: Heather Newman

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Heather NewmanHomeschoolLiterature.com has just done an interview with the illustrator of The Howling Vowels, Heather Newman. It was fascinating for me to learn about her artistic process for the cover. I am so happy with the way she has brought the characters to life. Take a look at her website to see more of her work.