Category Archives: Poems & Stories

April 17, 2025 Context for Poem “Encounter”

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(Photo: PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay)

This was another day of searching on my own for an appropriate botanical candidate inspired by the letter “Q”, since Rosendahl did not have any entries for this letter of the alphabet.

I love both of these plants. Juglone in our garden (yes, those black walnuts) prohibit us from planting a quaking aspen, much as I would like to do that. Queen Anne’s lace can probably tough it out, but I have never seen seeds for sale or nursery plants, perhaps because here they are prevalent ditch flowers. Perhaps, someday, I will find some of those to admire up close and often.

In terms of poetry, each of these plants reminds me of a splendid often-read poem. I include links here, in case you want to refresh your own memory of them. The first, featuring Queen Anne’s lace, is the splendid “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich. Until I sought out links for this post, I did not realize that this poem is having a moment–search on it and you’ll find many treasures, including a laudatory assessment from A. O. Scott of the New York Times from last month and YouTube videos of Rich reading her masterful work.

In a similar vein, from a much different poet, aspen trees always call to mind for me Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1832 masterpiece of Arthuriana, “The Lady of Shallott,” particularly these two lines:

Willows whiten, aspens quiver, 
Little breezes dusk and shiver...
(Photo: mcmacin; Pixabay)

Never before, or since, have I seen “dusk” used as a verb–just one detail that makes Tennyson’s incantatory poem continue to repay reading and rereading.

Wishing you splendid views today, everywhere you look--LESLIE

Susan Jaret McKinstry and I Team Up Again–Reading at Zenith Bookstore in Duluth on May 1, 2025

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Susan Jaret McKinstry and I will be reading at Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, Minnesota on the first evening in May–an appropriate coda to National Poetry Month 2025. Zenith Bookstore was founded by former Northfielders Bobby and Angel Dobrow. If you–or a poetry lover you know–will be in Duluth that evening, we would love to see you there.

Full Details:

Thursday May 1st, 2025 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m

Here is some text from the Zenith Bookstore’s Event Page. (Please feel free to share!)

“Join us as we welcome educator and poet Susan Jaret McKinstry and author and poet Leslie Schultz on Thursday, May 1st at 7pm. Susan will share her new chapbook Tumblehome and Leslie will read from her latest book Geranium Lake: Poems on Art and Art-Making. They will discuss their books, poetry, and answer questions from attendees. Books will be available for purchase at the event.”

Tumblehome by Susan Jaret McKinstry is structured like a musical composition. It moves in three sections as it interweaves and deepens themes of home, time and loss. The poems contemplate vast human history and the small space of our lives in distinct voices and episodes, with closely-observed objects – coins, stones, birds, water – reappearing and echoing to create a harmonic poetic travelogue.

Named for a bold pink pigment that fades over time, Leslie Schultz’s vibrant collection Geranium Lake: Poems on Art and Art-Making is an ekphrastic extravaganza as well as a meditation on age, time, and beauty. Schultz’s refreshing curiosity is evident as she engages with individual works of art and with larger issues of looking, curation, and display.

Susan Jaret McKinstry is a professor of 19th c British literature, narrative theory, journalism, and creative writing at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She has published poems in Plain Songs I & II, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, and many others. Susan yearns for the sea and has been lucky to teach and write in Ireland, Scotland, Norway, London, Florence, and Moscow.

Leslie Schultz has six collections of poetry. Her poetry has appeared widely in such journals as Poet Lore, Mezzo Cammin, Midwest Quarterly, and others. In addition to poems, she publishes photographs, essays, and fiction; makes quilts and soups; and happily mucks about in a garden plagued by shade, rabbits, and walnut trees.

April 16, 2025 Context for Poem “Pome Fruit”

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First Kiss Apple with Winona Pear

Rosendahl’s entries for the letter “P” held many attractions for me. I was able to work in two of my favorite into today’s offering: “pyriform” (pronounced “peer-i-form”), an entirely new word to me that means “pear-shaped;” and ‘Pome,” which already held associations for me though the botanical connection was delightfully new.

Previous? The title of a poetry collection that James Joyce published in 1927: Pomes Penyeach–which I have assumed was his thumb in the eye to “correct” British pronunciation and spelling–and a monthly local event at our public library that goes by the acronym P.O.M.E. or Poetry Open Mic Event.

(As for the use in botany of the word, “pome,” I believe that today’s poem, emailed to you if you requested it, explains that.)

Wishing that you, too, make delightful discoveries today in the worlds of letters and growing plants–LESLIE

April 15, 2025 Context for Poem “Spring Whirling”

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Today’s prompt word is “ovate” meaning egg-shaped. That made me think of spring and the various egg associations at this time of year. Might be time to munch some jelly beans.

LESLIE

Egg Sauna, American Swedish Institute (Photo: Bonnie Jean Flom)

April 14, 2025 Context for Poem “Poppies, Yes, But…”

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Each year, I wait for the emergence of the delicately dazzling snake lilies. When I saw the term “nodding” today, in Rosendahl’s glossary, these early blooms are what I thought of. These images are from last May.

Last year, too, these special small flowers appeared in an April post, with a poem inspired by their humble strength, and the courage it takes sometimes simply to exist.

LESLIE