Tag Archives: Leslie Schultz photography and poetry

April 8, 2024 Eclipse Thoughts

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Garden Sunflower, 2021

What kind of event is it when a solar eclipse is, itself, eclipsed by cloud and rain? That is our situation here today. Elsewhere in the world, people are gathered for the rare show of the Moon passing in front of the Sun, a stately and celestial pas-de-deux.

To mark the occasion, I am publishing a poem that has not yet, I think, seen the light of day, but it was inspired by the solar eclipses in 2013, and by the Northfield Sidewalk Poetry competition held that year.

Is the Moon afraid
of its dark side?
Is the Sun proud 
of its flare?
Can I accept
my whole, wild heart
when it holds 
too much to bear?

Leslie Schultz

(I submitted three poems that year, including this one, and a different one–a celebration of pollination–was chosen, which can be seen below.)

Last week, I spotted this (below) posted in the Northfield Public Library–always a place for community and timely programming! Of course, wherever you are, when you look up into the sky, do protect your eyes from direct views into the sun.

May you see something rare today!

LESLIE

April 3, 2024 ECHOES & SHADOWS Poet-Artist Collaboration Tomorrow–And You’re Invited!

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(Excerpted from the FiftyNorth April Newsletter)

A special event is being held tomorrow from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at FiftyNorth, located at 1651 Jefferson Parkway. You can have a preview if you follow the above link and scroll down.

This year, inspired by the long-running Poet-Artist Collaboration (begun in Zumbrota, Minnesota, and now transplanted to Red Wing, Minnesota), FiftyNorth Program Coordinator Michelle Loken took the idea and gave it a local twist.

At the beginning of the new year, local poets were invited to submit poems, and then the sumbitted poems were selected by local visual artists who were drawn to create an art work inspired by their selected poem. One of my poems, “A Gesture of Peace,” was chosen by an artist I haven’t yet met, Pat Jorstad. I am looking forward to the Artists Reception in the Gallery, starting at 4:00 p.m., to reading my poem in Room 103 (Reading starts around 4:30 p.m.), to seeing and hearing the work of all these other artists, and to seeing some old friends and meeting a few new people.

As for my own inspiration to write the poem? The life and work of my friend, Kaz, who is currently in Japan on his own version of a vacation: first spending six days to walk the entire circuit of Shodo Island (120 miles; 88 temples) while praying for world peace; then traveling to the Noto Pennisula to help, through his skill as a doctor of acupuncture, those affected by the devastating earthquake that struck there on New Year’s Day.

One of Kaz’s Mobiles Hung from a Cactus Spine
Kazuhiko Watase
Dawn on Shodo Island (Photo: Kaz Watase)
Shodo Shrine (Photo: Kaz Watase)
Middle of the Journey (Photo: Kaz Watase)
Daisies on Shodo Island (Photo: Kaz Watase)
End of Journey (120 miles walk in six days) (Photo: Kaz Watase)
Kazuhiko Watas]

I greatly appreciated being able to follow Kaz’s progress on this journey through his texts, photos, and video clips. Thank you, Kaz, for your inspiring presence, and for your permission to share these stories and images!

LESLIE

An Annoucement on Celebrating Poetry Here in April 2024

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American Elm, April Sky

After eight years (2016-2023) of taking up the National Poetry Month Challange of writing and sharing one new poem each day, this year I will lie fallow. Why? After all, I have gained an octave of poetry-centric Aprils and twenty dozen–240!–new poems and been able to share them immediately. It has been exciting and truly enjoyable. I expect to return to this poetry-creation marathon next year, in April 2025.

This year, however, I am going to try something with a different shape of spontaneity.

Much as I enjoy the annual April challenge and have gained from it, for me it becomes a full time creative job for thirty days. A marathon. This novennial, I want to keep my creativity flowing, as it has been each day recently, into fiction, and I have realized (over the past two years of working on a long piece of fiction with Tim) that I can’t do both at the same time. This year, with 90,000 words towards a novel, and an upcoming novel-centric research trip scheduled for early August, I want to devote as much time as I can toward completing a (no doubt very rough) first draft without breaking that momentum. Yet, how can one ignore National Poetry Month? I can’t!

So, this year, I am going to share something here each day in April to honor poetry but in a more freeform way than I have before. I might share thoughts about a classic poem I love, or share a poem of my own written outside of the April Challenge context, or a prose passage I find highly poetic, or news about a poetry reading or publication. It is even possible that I will write a new poem during the month!

And, as of now, I plan to return in April 2025 to take on the Poem-a-Day Challenge with new vigor.

As always, thank you for your companionship and good wishes. May poetry enrich your life every month of every year.

NewsFlash! THIRD WEDNESDAY Publishes My Poem, “A Cache of Antique Postcards”

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I have long had a thing for old postcards. I suspect most of us do. When Julia was little, our dear neighbors, Corrine and Elvin Heiberg gave us many that they (and their parents) had collected on their travels or received. We enjoyed looking at them, front and back, deciphering the handwriting, admiring the vintage stamps, and thinking of future travels of our own. We even invented a geography game that probably only Julia can remember which morphing rules governed.

Lately, when I have looked at some of those depicting monuments and historical points of interest, my point of view about what is depicted and what it means to me has shifted a bit. I wonder how the past connects to the future and just where I fit in.

Third Wednesday Magazine is one of my personal favorites as a suscriber, and so I am so pleased to appear on their pages again.

If you would like to read my poem, click HERE. Thanks for reading this! LESLIE

News Flash! THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY Publishes My Poem, “Song for a Gown of Dust and Flame”

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This issue of The Midwest Quarterly is a powerhouse, and I am proud to have my poem included in it. My own poem centers on the Viking funeral Tim and I provided, on our anniversary, for the wedding dress, inherited from my great-grandmother and worn at our wedding. It was too tattered and fragile to be worn again, too precious to send to the landfill.

This issue arrived in my mailbox on Friday. I have enjoyed each of the poems, and I would like to call out “Aristeia” by Lynn Glicklich Cohen and “Fathering” by Patricia Clark for special praise. Each poem surprised me with its ending and delighted me with its language.

In the week ahead, I am looking forward to reading the scholarly articles, particularly the one by Daniel Dougherty titled “You Are Now in the Power of Stardust: Crime and Punishment in the Golden Age of American Comic Books.” (Coincidentally, I have been working this week on a rare-for-me poem centered on the figure of Batman, based on a photograph I took last summer of a Gotham-embellished pickup truck tailgage. I was a reader of Batman and Superman comics long ago, so I feel ready for scholarly insights on this topic.)

If you are interested in looking into this issue, copies can be ordered from The Midwest Quarterly’s website.

(For more images of the antique wedding dress of my own poem, please see these earlier posts: “Anniversary Poem and Wedding Dress Adventures” (published on August 7, 2013) and “The Wedding Dress Afield: LP Version” (published on August 28, 2013).)

LESLIE