Tag Archives: Leslie Schultz Poetry

April 9, 2021: Spotlight on THE ODE LESS TRAVELLED: UNLOCKING THE POET WITHIN by Stephen Fry; and Context for the Poem “Unicursal”

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Stephen Fry is a man of many talents, that much is clear. Four years ago, during NaPoWriMo on April 21, 2017, I included a video clip of him as Jeeves, instructing his employer, Bertie Wooster, in how to accentuate the syllables of Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to add context to that day’s poem, “A Question of Style.

I often reach for Stephen Fry’s  peerless book on prosody, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (Gotham Books, 2005). Like his perfectly realized Jeeves, Fry is a master of rhythm and rhyme. Fry’s book is filled with lucid and succinct summaries of elements of poetic form presented with Fry’s devastating wit, with each poetic form illustrated by custom-made examples by Fry that edify as they amuse. (The occasional screamingly funny but x-rated quips make it unsuitable for the under-sixteen set, in my opinion, except in excerpted form.) If you are of voting age and curious about the ins and outs of iambs, or want to distinguish meter from rhythm, or crave an algorithm describing the sestina–this is the go-to book.

This book is not only a treasure trove of prosodical pearls, it is page-turning prose. No one has mastered the concept of “voice” on the page in quite like Fry. In sum, this gem is never dry, often wry, always totally “Fry.”

Regarding the Poem for April 9, “Unicursal”

Me, in the center of the now-vanished labyrinth at 114 Winona Street

Given today’s unlooked for poem, perhaps labyrinths are done with me yet!

Wishing you a lovely day,

LESLIE

Third Wednesday Magazine Publishes My Poem, “Energy Audit”

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Since it arrived a few days ago, I have been reading–savoring–the most recent issue of Third Wednesday Magazine. As you likely know, this quarterly journal couples diversity of form and subject matter with high quality in poetry, prose, and visual arts. This magazine, now in its 13th year, is also generous to writers and readers in making electronic copies freely available. (Paper copies, beautifully printed and bound, are available on Amazon or through a subscription.)

I am very pleased to have my poem, “Energy Audit,” appearing amidst so many other poems that give me pleasure and I know I will read again. This issue also contains the winners of the magazine’s annual poetry contest–you won’t want to miss these!

From rainy Northfield, Minnesota, wishing you happy reading and writing on this fourth Wednesday in March and every day!

LESLIE

HAWAI’I PACIFIC REVIEW Publishes My Poem, “Hunters”

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I am very happy to share that Hawai’i Pacific Review has just today published my Shakespearean sonnet, “Hunters,” in their ongoing online journal.

Orion is a frequent visitor this time of year. We can watch this constellation on any clear night from our south-facing living room windows. I am always intrigued by the story-cum-myth backdrops that pattern what we perceive in the night sky, and that preoccupation gave rise to this poem.

Happy sky-watching! Happy reading!

LESLIE

(Photo of Orion by Crushman of Pixabay; used with permission.)

Poet Lore Publishes My Poem “For a Moment at Night”

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When I first learned about Poet Lore, in 2014,I read a current issue in the Carleton Library. Then, I descended into the stacks and found bound issues. Dipping into these, I found a curious treasure: a hard-bound set of Poet Lore issues from 1918. The work reflects its time, but many pieces transcended the literary fashions of the Great War. They felt fresh and relevant nearly a century later.

I deeply admire Poet Lore’s commitment to poetry; what other journal could claim one hundred years of service on the day that the Berlin Wall came down? More importantly, how many journals continue to stay fresh and relevant, to evolve and yet remain unswerving in their mission to ” Published with the conviction that poetry provides a record of human experience as valuable as history, Poet Lore’s intended audience is broadly inclusive.”

Founded in January 1889 by two ambitious young Shakespeare scholars (and life partners), Charlotte Porter and Helen Clarke, in order to serve as a forum to compare the work of poet Browning, who was then still living, to that of Shakespeare, the nascent journal soon sought to publish new work by living authors. From its early days, it has attracted distinguished work. (Click HERE for more on Poet Lore’s history.)

Today, Poet Lore is the oldest continuously published poetry journal in the United States. I applaud the tradition Poet Lore carries, and I am grateful now to be a small part of it.

I am also completely enjoying–savoring, really–the poems in this issue. I suspect that a reader in a hundred years would say the same. A few–just a few–of my own favorites are Joan Mazza’s “Ephemera”, Erika Meitner’s “Nudie Selfie Ode” (as well as her four suggested writing exercise, which I plan to give a try), and a mysterious prose poem called “To the Uncle I Never Met” by the duet of Joe Fletcher and Chris Murray.

Leslie

(To purchase a copy of the most recent issue, click HERE.)

Third Wednesday Magazine Publishes My Poems “Assemblage”, “Preserving”, and “Punting”

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“Duck with Reflections” (Photograph) by Lisa Yount of El Cerrito, California

Lately, I have been thinking about continuity and longevity. Third Wednesday is now a teenager–no small feat in the world of publishing. (Perhaps this musing has been triggered by a significant birthday of my own? Hmmmm….)

I know that I am very grateful that my friend, Stella Nesanovich, whose own poems have often graced the pages of Third Wednesday, suggested that I submit work here. In the past five years since, I have become a subscriber and a devoted reader of this journal. And the editors have often–though certainly not always–said “Yes” to poems I have submitted to them. The three included in this issue (diverse in tone, subject matter, and form) bring the total number of poems accepted to a full baker’s dozen of thirteen.

More important, my relationship with this gem of a journal has several times sparked new ideas and occasioned new work, and even occasionally encouraged me to see an older poem–first drafted in a different decade–in a new way. This is true of the one of the three they took for this issue. One arrived in first draft form about thirty years ago, one about ten years ago, and one very recently. Does one’s voice evolve within the continuity of one’s life as a working poet? It is a question I am mulling, and that questioning is aided by seeing work from different periods of my life in print, side by side.

As usual, I am keenly interested in the work of other poets, fiction writers, and visual artists in this issue. You will have your own favorites, of course. (And I would love to know which ones you respond to!) For me, the one that struck me most keenly this time is by a young student from the Detroit Public Schools, Reyann Aldais. The poem is called “Who I Am” and begins: “In Arabic, my name means/the door to Paradise.” It is fresh and sure and soaring, and I am very glad to have encountered it through Third Wednesday’s participation in publishing selected work from the InsideOut Literary Arts Project that has fostered and promoted the life-transforming creativity of young Detroit students since 1995.

I hope that your summer is unfolding with serenity after the convulsions of last spring, and I hope that you are finding ample time to read, write, sing, dance, imagine, picture, and dream.

All my best, Leslie

Click HERE to see all the poems in this issue and/or to purchase copies of the print issue.