Reading at Zenith Bookstore in Duluth with Susan Jaret McKinstry

May started out with a blast of poetry and travel. Susan Jaret McKinstry invited me to read with her at a wonderful place in Duluth, Minnesota, Zenith Bookstore. For me, this reading was one of the highlights of the spring. We had a wonderful time connecting with poetry readers and sharing our work, and afterwards Tim, Susan, and I were able to go out with friends. Over the next two days, we explored the city, discovered a new favorite restaurant (At Sara’s Table Chester Creek Cafe–I have already made two recipes from their cookbook) and Wussow’s Concert Cafe, and visited three perennially interesting sites: Glensheen Mansion, Splitrock Lighthouse, and Gooseberry Falls. It was a trip I shall remember with pleasure for a very long time to come.

Another pleasure for me was to be able to read my poem, “Duluth,” written a long time ago, before I had seen this beautiful city, in the northern urban jewel. (“Duluth” is one of the first poems that I published after moving to Minnesota–in The Northern Review–and I was honored when the review asked to use the first line in a promotional campaign and sent me a complimentary sweatshirt. The poem is reprinted in my collection, Still Life with Poppies: Elegies, and also below.)

DULUTH


This is true north;
It is more fixed than heaven.
Beyond icy shallows
The deeps steam.
Anchors stay hidden.
Their chains seem to end
Where they touch the lake,
Yet these ships are linked to them
Tenuously
As dreams nearly dreamed.
Hulls full of grain
Float in a cold slumber.
I wonder why we've come,
Whether we're late or early.
It's Sunday.
The sun hangs
On the quiet derricks,
Sunk,
Leaking daylight.
We huddle in the car,
Holding black coffee
While our words dissolve.
Only the coast retains
An air of permanence.
We're lost.
A loon cries;
Its shadow rises
Like breath or smoke.


Leslie Schultz
Parking Lot Mural, Zenith Bookstore, Duluth, Minnesota

Happy reading! Happy travels! Leslie

April 29, 2025 Context for Poem “Announcement of Imminent Departure”

Today’s poem, “Announcement of Imminent Departure,” springs from daily life, spins a poem from a recent confluence of conversation and weather, and a recognition of the inevitable fleeting brevity of each moment. Here is a snippet of what I learned this morning, after I was alerted to the meaning of certain configurations of bird flight from my sister, Karla.

“Kettling apparently serves as a form of avian communication—an announcement of imminent departure—as well as a way of gaining altitude and conserving strength.”

As I wrote today’s poem, I was also thinking of how our mutual celebration of National Poetry Month draws to a close tomorrow, making way for something new.

Wishing you good weather and good cheer–LESLIE

Looking East After Rain

April 28, 2025 Context for Poem “Fashioning” & Some Highlights from “Art in Bloom” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

The influence on today’s poem that I knew at once was my visit yesterday with Tim and my sister, Karla, to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see the annual extravaganza that is Art in Bloom. Previous posts have featured past years’ intersections between the art in the museum’s permanent collections and the creativity of the area’s floral artists.

The influence I only realized as I was preparing this post was my love of a poem by William Butler Yeats called “A Coat.” If you don’t know it, or if you want to reread it now, it is available on the Poetry Foundation website HERE.

Now I am intrigued by “Miss Lily Place.” “Prodigious shopper in the Suq”! Really, one cannot make these things–even these names–up!

People watching is as much fun–maybe more fun–than seeing the permanent art and the ephemeral floral creations inspired by it. My favorite image is the penultimate one!

Why not flaunt your style today!

April 27, 2025 Context for Poem “Noli Me Tangere”

Today’s poem is a straight-forward seasonal inspiration from the garden. I always cheer to see these tiny, luminous spring ephemerals. Sometimes the timing of their blooming has coincided with Memorial Day and I have included them in bouquets I have made to place on the graves of Corrine and Elvin Heiberg in nearby Oak Lawn Cemetary. Now, researching them for this morning’s poem, I am aware not only of the power of their beauty but of their powerful poisons–not sure I will pick them again. If I do, it will be with caution and even more reverence.

Wishing you a day of discoveries without dangers!

April 25, 2025 Context for Poem “Common Yarrow”

Yarrow by Rollstein (Pixabay)

Again, I am filling in the gap left by Rosendahl (no entries for “Y” in his otherwise extensive glossary.) I think yarrow, a member of the aster family, is very beautiful, and I am drawn to its pungent scent. I also love that it can, warrior-like, hold its own against the juglone secreted by our black walnuts. Today’s poem, “Common Yarrow,” rises out of my explorations into the botanical name for common yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and the plant’s presence in human history in Europe and Asia. Thinking about the different histories and uses of this familiar garden flower helped me to get to know it a little better. I will be tucking a little more yarrow into our garden in the coming weeks!