Tag Archives: Leslie Schultz Poetry

THE ORCHARDS POETRY JOURNAL Winter 2022 Issue is Published; “Stalking Beauty,” My Poem, Is Included

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It has arrived! The newest issue of The Orchards Poetry Journal is here, just in time to bring color, cheer, and interest to darkening winter days.

I am particularly happy to have included in this issue a poem I wrote on April 13, 2022 in honor of my sister’s birthday and my contribution that day to the celebration of National Poetry Month. This poem Karla, inspired by her art, is titled “Stalking Beauty.” It is found on page 121. The poem is fourteen lines, not a sonnet but a variation that I call a “sonnet-like object,” and is a tribute to Karla’s work as a photographer.

This issue–the longest I have seen yet, packed with interesting work, and available on paper in both hard and soft cover, as well as online or in a pdf–offers plenty of indoor diversion for snowy days and evenings. I have enjoyed seeing new work by some familiar names, including fellow Minnesotan Susan McLean (“Takedown” on page 24) and longtime friend Sally Nacker (“Lantern Light” on page 38) from Connecticut and discovering some favorite poems by poets new to me, such as the poem “Photograph” on page 141 by Thomas DeFreitas, a Massachusetts poet, and the masterful sonnet with a marvelous twist on a modern topic, “Selfie,” (on page 88) by Jane V. Blanchard who lives and writes in Georgia.

I hope that you will find something in this issue to brighten your day, no matter how grey or filled with chores is might be! LESLIE

Dawn: Garbage Day on Winona Strret

Sunday, June 5–You’re Invited! LITTLE PATUXENT REVIEW Is Hosting a Zoom Reading to Launch Their Summer Issue; I Will Be Reading!

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The newest issue of Little Patuxent Review is going live on June 5, 2022. It will be available in paper and digital formats. In addition–and I am so happy about this!–this fine journal is holding a virtual launch, also on Sunday, June 5 (from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time) with some of the poets, fiction, and non-fiction readers each offering a five-minute sample of their work. It is free to attend the Zoom Launch event for this issue, but registration is requested. To register, click HERE.

I will be reading two of my own poems: “The Craft of Poetry” (published earlier this spring by Blue Unicorn) and a quartet sonnet sequence for my Uncle David called “My Godfather” (published in this recent issue of Little Patuxent Review.)

Based in Maryland and drawing its name from its nearby river, Little Patuxent Review has been publishing thought-provoking and well-crafted work since 2006. In whichever way works for you, I hope you can spend a little time enjoying the contents of the newest issue!

LESLIE

Uncle David, Age Three

April 30, 2022: Spotlight on W.B. Yeats’s Poem, “The Wild Swans at Coole”; Background on My Poem, “Swan Song”

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Image by Andreas Glöckner from Pixabay

I didn’t encounter William Butler Yeats‘s poetry until the year after I was graduated from university. At first, I didn’t like it. Decades on, however, I cannot imagine my life without his work and without his example of steady workmanship despite the persistent ups of downs of personal and communal life. Like some of the other poems I have shared this month, this poem is one that I spent time committing to memory. 

The Wild Swans at Coole


The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?


William Butler Yeats
Image by panimo from Pixabay

In searching out a photo of Irish swans, I couldn’t resist sharing the image above that I stumbled upon.

Background on My Poem, “Swan Song”:

I know that Yeats has set the bar very high–stratospherically high–in not one but two magnificent poems deploying the force of swan imagery and mythology. (The autumnal elegaic one above, in all its calm and stately melancholy, contrasts markedly with his sonnet “Leda and the Swan.”) Nonetheless, there is always room closer to earth for another swan poem. This very wet spring, Tim, Julia, and I have seen a surprising number of swans along the Interstate resting on the ephemeral ponds created by snow melt and rain. My poem for today reflects these sightings.

Image by Andreas Senftleben from Pixabay
Image by romavor from Pixabay

Thank you for joining me on this April journey. Here’s to seeing new poems all year long!

LESLIE

(Photo: Leslie Schultz)

Newsflash! I Will Be Reading My Poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Koan,” at the PENSIVE Launch on April 21, 2022–Attendance in Person or on Zoom

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I am very excited to be included in the pages of the fourth issue of Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts. The journal was launched in 2020 as a project of the Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. The link will take you to the home page, and from there you can look at the first three back issues. That issue will be published on Friday, April 22, 2022. The evening before Pensive is holding a hybrid launch party, and I was honored to be asked to participate by reading my poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Koan.” If you would like to tune in, the link to the Zoom event is: https://northeastern.zoom.us/j/99958817522 or you can use the QR code above.

(Please note that the times listed are U.S. Eastern Standard Time.)

Red Wing Arts–21st Annual Poet-Artist Collaboration–Reading on April 29, 2022–I Will Be Reading “Echo from Hug Point”

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Initiated by The Crossings in Zumbrota, Minnesota, in 2001, the Poet-Artist Collaboration has been continued under the aegis of Red Wing Arts since 2020.

Back in 2010, I learned of this collaboration when I saw a flyer posted at the Northfield Public Library, and I was lucky enough to have had five poems selected to be re-interpreted by visual artists between 2010 and 2017. (Here are some posts I did in 2017 on the event, before and after.)

This year, I was pleased to hear that my poem, “Echo from Hug Point,” was selected for the 2022 Poet-Artist Collaboration. I am happy to be part of this celebration of literary and visual arts again in a new setting. It is especially nice to be included in a group of thirty-six poets, many of whose fine work is already known to me, including Rob Hardy, Diane LeBlanc, D.E. Green, Becky Bolling, Mac Gimse, Marie Gery, and Larry Gavin of Northfield, and Emilio DeGrazia, Ken McCullough, and Scott Lowry of Winona, Minnesota, as well as Joyce Sutpen, (whom I was able to hear reading her work at Content Bookstore a few years ago.) I look forward to the seeing the visual art created from all of the poets work (the art works are on exhibit at the Red Wing Depot Gallery) and to hearing everyone read at the St. James Hotel on April 29. Many of the poets are also participating in small readings during April. For a full list of who, when, and where, please see the website for Red Wing Arts.