Category Archives: Poems & Stories

Point Arena Lighthouse, Labyrinth, and the National Art Line Project

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Last August, in celebration of our anniversary, Tim and I traveled to California and Oregon. It was a many-faceted trip. We started in the Bay Area. After a live-changing lunch at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, we drove up the coast to spend a couple of nights at Point Arena Lighthouse. Why? My friend, Marilyn Larson, a labyrinth designer, collaborated with her friend, labyrinth designer Lea Goode-Harris, to create plans for a labyrinth for the Outdoor Museum at the lighthouse. (If you scroll down a bit, you can find information about this amazing site.) This outdoor artwork, installed to help encourage inner-and outer peace, is the western start (or terminus, depending on your orientation!) of a transnational line of such imaginative places that can all be found along the 39th parallel, including the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio and flowing to Cape May, New Jersey.

As you can imagine, I took lots and lots of photos. Tim also took a 360-degree short video of the labyrinth. Upon our return, Marilyn and Lea urged us to write a bit about our encounter. We did, and it can be found online: HERE is a link the an article Tim and I wrote.

And to learn more about the Art Line Project, HERE is the link. (Many thanks to Toby Evans of Sagebrush Exchange for her excellent summary of the Art Line Project.)

If you are ever near Point Arena, California, this is a delightful place to stay or to visit during a free hour.

LESLIE

Celebrating Independent Bookstores! Beagle and Wolf Books and Bindery in Park Rapids, MN

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Thanks to our friends, Tricia and Bob, my new book is in a great independent bookstore in Park Rapids, Minnesota. First, they introduced us to Beagle and Wolf Books and Bindery in Park Rapids a few years ago. Recently, on our fourth visit to this independent bookstore as customers, encouraged by these friends, I also asked the bookseller–who showcases poetry in the first display one sees upon entering the store!–if she would consider carrying Geranium Lake. Guess what? She said yes!

Photo by Robert Benson
View across the street from Beagle and Wolf
Bob Benson Outside Beagle and Wolf Books and Bindery

I have been rather diffident in the past about asking bookstores to care my own books, but with the encouragement of friends, this was actually rather fun for me. I have made a vow to myself to be a bit more outgoing when it comes to approaching booksellers and reading venues.

Question: Do you know of a great bookstore in your area that might be open to carrying a new collection of poetry, or a venue (library, bookstore, school, club, coffee house) that might like to have a poetry reading? If so, would you let me know? I will take it from there!

Thank you for your enthusiasm and your help!

LESLIE

Photo by Robert Benson

Happy Halloween 2025

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Googly-eyed Jack-O-Lantern at Just Food Coop
House-swallowing Arachnid Across the Street

Here in Northfield, a dusting of snow was predictied this morning, just to keep things interesting. (It looks like the prediction has been down-graded to very cold rain. Yesterday, it was nearly 80 degrees!)

Wishing you all the fun of this spooky-magical-imaginative time of year! Stay warm! Stay dry! Have fun!

LESLIE

Reading at Content–A Few Images From A Wonderful Evening

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Photo by Timothy Braulick

A very big thank you to Content Bookstore, especially to reading organizer Ellie Ray, and to all the friends who attended my first reading from Geranium Lake last Thursday evening.

Despite the torrential downpour that began half-an-hour beforehand, it was a really good crowd, both in the store and on Content’s livestream via Facebook. I was buoyed up by all of your friendly faces and your excellent questions and comments afterward.

Thank you!

LESLIE

(Note flowers sent by a kind friend!)
Photo by Timothy Braulick
Raincoat, Reading Copy, and Roadmap, i.e., Lineup of Poems to Read!

Content Bookstore Reading Tomorrow Will Be Livestreamed on Facebook!

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I have just learned that tomorrow evening’s reading at Content Bookstore in Northfield, Minnesota will be livestreamed, and anyone can be in the audience long-distance, as it were. To join me, simply click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/ContentBookstore tomorrow evening (Thursday, October 24, 2024) at 7:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time. The event will last about an hour.

Wishing you a splendid week,

LESLIE