I am pleased to share with you that the new issue of Mezzo Cammin: An Online Journal of Formalist Poetry by Women had just been published. It is full of work that intrigues and excites me by twenty different poets, each with a distinctive voice and approach to engaging with formal traditions. Here you will find excerpts from a sonnet sequence about Julian of Norwich (by poet Michelle Blake) to a pantoum for Frieda and a skillful modern example of a concrete poem (by poet Stephanie Noble), and so much more. I encourage you to browse in this rich field of words.

My own poems can be found HERE. The first poem, “Two Voices in a Starbuck’s,” was inspired in terms of tone, subject, and structure by Richard Wilbur’s masterpiece, “Two Voices in a Meadow.”  It is a poem I love, long ago committed to memory, and will recite any time, anywhere! Click HERE to see it as it originally appeared on August 17, 1957 when it was published in The New Yorker.  The other four–all sonnets–were sparked by small moments of insight below the surface of daily life. “Echo at Hug Point,” was sparked by a childhood memory of being with my father when I was eight or nine years old. “Speed on to Spica” mulls over ideas of light–celestial, human-made, and the kind conveyed by consciousness. “Magnetic Letters” sprang out of one of those surprises we all get when things that have gone missing are suddenly found. “For My Daughter, Leaving Home” was sparked when I was driving home one evening a couple of years ago from the Cities; Julia was with me, and, as we watched a flock of sparrows rise against the twilit sky, the rhyme “starling/darling” popped into my head.

Hoping your day is filled with joy and the deep, quiet beauty found in everyday life!

LESLIE

(Stairwell, Harry Houdini Museum, Appleton, WI)