OF OMENS THAT FLITTER by Karen Kelsay Is Now Published

For the past two weeks, I have been dipping again and again into an exciting new collection of poetry. Here is a book one actually can judge by its arresting cover. The poems within (a mix of traditional forms and free verse) appeal to the outer eye and beckon toward inner experience beneath the surface music.

I am simply dazzled by Kelsay’s technical versatility while being consoled, just as I am uplifted by her compassionate intelligence regarding human frailties and strengths. (Some of the most moving poems to me focus on how Kelsay comes to new clarity about her elderly parents.) Her humane vision is set within a context of natural beauty. The poems speak of heart break and healing, of pain but also of faith in the beauty and goodness of life and art, and always with a precise (and often downright humorous) language that helps the reader see the commonplace with fresh-rinsed eyes.

In “Retired Breaststroke Swimmer Finds a Pool,” the speaker enacts a transformative encounter between a human body and the water to which it returns, briefly and actually, as well as metaphorically. An iambic meter and an ABBA rhyme scheme create the rhythmic encircling motion–as well as the therapeutic effect–of the swimming stroke described, as the middle stanza illustrates:

“My body finds its lost propulsive motion;
each muscle lengthens in a surge and glide,
my forearms reach to semi-circle wide–
I breathe, I kick, releasing all emotion.”

In one sonnet, “A Californian Views British Soap Operas,” the speaker examines underlying cultural assumptions about physical attractiveness. The contrasts in attitudes are heightened by the use of rhymed couplets, including the inspired use of “plastic” paired with “sarcastic.”

Even in Kelsay’s free verse poems, there is a engaging musicality. Take, for instance, these lines from the character sketch titled “Atomic Tiki Man”:

“His shirt is splashed with ruby
flowers that echo a suburban
shangri-la chair cushion. His hair
is an hibachi of charcoal curls.”

One’s ear easily picks up the internal rhyme “chair” with nearby “hair,” and both sound and sense are amplified because these rhymes echo “long haired beachy girls” three lines earlier.

The sonnet, “Lady of Shallot,” manages to redact and mirror Tennyson’s long, incantatory ballad in a mere fourteen lines. Kelsay examines how the Lady’s careful making–her art–is unmade by unvoiced and therefore unacknowledged love of the world outside of her control. It also manages to add something modern and new concluding with an appropriately jarring slant rhymed couplet that links “distraught” with “Lancelot.” (If you love the original poem, as I do, you really must seek out Kelsay’s homage to it!)

I have spent much of the past two years working on poems about family and distant ancestors. Perhaps that is why “To Lucette, in a Field” might (might!) be my very favorite poem in this fine collection. It can be viewed in its entirety on Amazon, and I urge you to “Look Inside” and read this finely balanced encounter between an awareness of personal history and a calm acceptance of shared mortality supported by the web of life on earth.

All these poems–sometimes wry, sometimes painterly, sometimes anguished–lead the reader to surprises of insight and delight. They seem to come from a heart sometimes ravaged by but always engaged by the worlds of human relations, nature, and art.They render each subject–from tiny plant forms and creatures to sweeping vistas, from  individual human characters to great works of literature and painting–with keen confidence and startling freshness.

Of Omens That Flitter is filled with poems that sing and question and console, and I know I will return to them often.

You can learn more about Of Omens That Flitter, read the first two poems, and purchase your own copy by clicking HERE. (It is available both in Kindle and in paperback.) And you can learn more about Kelsay’s other work by visiting her personal website, Quiet Poetry. Kelsay is also the founding editor of the online journal, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and is the visionary publisher behind Kelsay Books, whose motto is: “We turn manuscripts into works of art.” The Kelsay Books website has links to several interviews with Kelsay–thoughtful, surprising, lively conversations and musings.

Author Karen Kelsay

HAPPY READING!  LESLIE

 

Supernova News Flash! My Collection of Poems is Published

Books Arrive Seven

It is here at last! This book of poems has taken my whole life to distill. Here is a closer look at the front and back covers.

schultz Da

schultz back cover feb 25

Poet and publisher Karen Kelsay, who helms Kelsay Books and its imprint, Aldrich Press, did an incredibly beautiful job with the photo and text I provided. (The photograph was taken last summer in Lanesboro, Minnesota.) Her company’s intention is to “transform manuscripts into works of art.” Take a look at her other publications; her lists are filled with wonderful titles to choose from, including Sally Nacker’s Vireo (2015), one of my very favorites.

Four of the elegies included in this collection have been published on Winona Media this spring (take a look at “Poems for Northfielders”.)

If you would like your own copy, you can order one on Amazon (and peek inside at a few poems.) Or join me at Content Bookstore in Northfield on Thursday, May 5, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.– Content Bookstore has instituted a monthly poetry reading/open mike series. I will be the featured poet for May, reading a number of selections from this book. If you like what you hear, you can take home an inscribed copy. You can even step up to the podium and read one of your own poems if you’d like to!

Thank you for sharing my excitement–I will be sharing word of another poetry endeavor for April– National Poetry Month — later in the week.

Leslie

Book on Piano

VIREO by Sally Nacker Published

It is a thrill and a privilege to watch as a new book takes shape. Last week, I was able to hold in my hands the first book by a long-time friend, poet Sally Nacker. It is beautiful inside and out.

Most of these poems were written in the last few years, while others began to take shape long ago. All share the same clear voice. Each surprises with its own music and insights.

VIREO Cover

VIREO Back Cover

(Regular Winona Media readers will recall–and might want to re-read–Sally’s lushly illustrated and sensitive letter to another poet, Amy Lowell, posted on May 23, 2014.) Sally will be reading at the Fairfield University MFA reception at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference on April 9, 2015 in Minneapolis. She will also be a featured poet at Kim Bridgford’s Poetry by the Sea conference in Madison, CT on May 26, 2015.

This lovely volume, Vireo, was published under the White Violet Press imprint of Kelsay Books. The cover art  is an original watercolor by artist Kathy Michaud.(Scroll down for more on Kathy.) You can find Vireo for purchase at Amazon.

CONGRATULATIONS, SALLY!

Wishing you all well, Leslie

Violet for Sally

 

Kathy Contact Info

Kathy Snow Image