Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo Challenge 2026

New York Library Lions & Context for Poem “Patience and Fortitude” (April 16, 2026)

Posted on by
Reply
Library Lions Bookends (Photo: Julia Braulick)

For decades before my first visit to the New York Public Library steps, I was enamoured of the Library Lions, those icons of literature that guard their entrance. These bookends, now in Julia and Andrew’s home, are ones I purchased forty years ago.

Yes, the lions’s dignified repose appeals to me. Even more, I respond to the names they acquired during the Great Depression: Patience and Fortitude–qualities I have been a long time in acquiring myself. In NYC, Patience looks to the south, toward the hallowed literary and artistic ground of Greenwich Village. Fortitude glances north, toward the glory of Central Park, an oasis of natural beauty with the incomparable Metropolitan Museum of Art in its center. One thing that I have learned is that to be any kind of an artist requires both virtues, and that one’s companions are essential in fostering them.

The New York Public Library’s website offers a wealth of history, fun facts, and whimsy surrounding this iconic pair, including reading lists for each, and a plethora of photographs of them bedecked with wreaths, wearing hats, and weathering time. There is even an invitation to send and/or create digital postcards with them at the center.

Here is a bit of swag I brought back for a friend, now a Northfield neighbor but for many years a resident of NYC.

Last September, I had an unforgettable first trip to New York City. Imagine it: taking a train from the country upstate, arriving at Grand Central Station to be met by an incredibly dear friend of the heart and the work, our first meeting in person! Then a few precious days of exploring at her side. Lynn knew that visiting the New York Library lions was high on my list. She led me there on foot, along a path I had never suspected exists: Library Way.

As we traveled from Park Avenue to Fifth Avenue along 41st Street, the marble facade of the New York Public Library’s flagship building gleams in the distance. Like a trail of fairytale bread crumbs, bronze plaques with literary gems gleam underfoot and led us on.

The full texts of all the plaques are available on the Library’s website. Each bronze is a unique artistic setting for a one-of-a-kind phrase. Below are a few images of my own favorites. (Who am I kidding? They are all my favorites!) And some images, too, of the rewarding journey’s end, appropriately at the base of more steps to climb.

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE

With Fortitude Close By (Photograph by Lynn Sara Lawrence)
Monumental Patience (Photograph: Leslie Schultz)

Tax Day Becomes Axe Day on My Block & Context for “Baraboo Haiku ” (Poem for April 15, 2026)

Posted on by
1

Yesterday, I snapped this picture of an ash tree on the edge of our driveway:

This morning, I awoke to the roar of chainsaws.

One never really knows what the new day will hold, what will suddenly topple or stand the test of time. Yet what occurs is always interesting to me, even if unsettling. Here is a bit of the downed tree I claimed from the pile in the street. It seems to me to comment on the hoped-for longevity of the porch pillars of our 1905 house.

Context for “Baraboo Haiku” for April 15, 2026:

Periodically, I stumble over my cache of vintage family papers. Remember when pencils and picture postcards and penny stamps carried the day? Antecedents for pix and pixels and posts on blogs such as this?

This postcard was sent more than 100 years ago from my father’s grandmother, Katherine Hinman Williamson Schultz to her daughter, Isabelle. Kate is an important daily presence in my life, although I don’t recall meeting her. I wore her dress when I married Tim. She was a professional musician–piano and organ–and was also the family poet. (Her high school diploma hangs on our living room wall and served as the template for the one we crafted for Julia.) I know her only through stories, through a few documents and photographs, and through lines written in her hand. (Her diary is in my possession. One of the last entries, in quavery ink, was on April 17, 1960, in which she notes meeting infant me.) Her kindnesses shine through the obscuring years between us. And this one ephemeral communication sparked today’s slight poem.

I think she would be happy to know that Julia, too, studied piano and voice, just like her own red-haired daughter, Isabelle.

In Kate’s honor, I wrote out the first draft of this poem in pencil. I hope those yoked camels wintered in arid Texas or Mexico.

Until tomorrow, and all it holds,

LESLIE

Local Trees and Context for Poem “Survivor” (April 14, 2026)

Posted on by
Reply

My understanding of the beauty and symbolism of the elm tree comes primarily from literature. Thoreau suffered when, in 1856, the Concord elm was cut down. Many novels and stories from earlier times cite the way elm trees arched over and shaded the streets of small town America. Sometimes their shapes were compared to fountains or wine glasses, green emblems of upward thrust and celebration.

None of this is part of my own visual vocabulary. I recall my girlhood confusion at the denuded city streets named “Elm,” yet it seemed I encountered one in every town. Perhaps that is why the title of Wes Craven’s 1984 film, “Nightmare on Elm Street,” has an eeriely apt echo of the macabre?

We are lucky to have a single example surviving on the boundary line between our property and the lot next door. Elm trees can live, they say for hundreds of years unless brought low by fungal pathogens. I hope this one outlives my human span. I’m pleased to say that the prognosis is good.

(The image above is of an ailing ash tree on the southeast corner of our driveway.)

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE

Northfield Parade of Books & Context for Poem “Birthday Banner for Karla” (April 13, 2026)

Posted on by
2

My sister, Karla, is celebrating her birthday today, and it is a banner year for her. The poem for today hints at her many talents, kindesses, and wisdoms — each one better than the next. Happy Birthday, Karla! Many Happy Returns of the Day!

I thought a good companion post might highlight Northfield’s new public art, an actual banner of books created by a local artist, Rocky Casillas Aguirre, in conjunction with the Northfield Public Library and the City of Northfield’s Art in Public Places Program.

The 170-foot long mural is made of individual panels. It is designed to celebrate Northfielder’s love of writing and reading books, to screen the site of the demolished Archer House, and (once the current lot is built upon) to be able to be displayed in other locations, panel by panel, and to be stored easily. The line-up of more than 100 titles by authors with Northfield connections spans more than 100 years and every genre imaginable. I love walking by it and spotting works by people I know and being surprised by titles by authors whose Northfield connections were news to me. And I am thrilled to have one of my own titles included.

For more background on the artist, and recent thoughtful local commentary, as well as splendid photos, take a look at this article from SE Minnesota. Aguirre has work in the Paradise members show opening…today! …in nearby Faribault’s Paradise Center for the Arts. He is also the executive director of a visionary local non-profit called Sharing Our Roots. Their website explains that “Sharing Our Roots envisions a world where food and agriculture systems are profitable for farmers, fair to workers, beneficial to consumer health, restorative for rural communities, and regenerative for the environment.”

Below are a number of images of the banner and its vicinity. How many titles have you read?

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE

Considering the Craft of Couture & Context for Poem “Mock-Up” (Poem for April 10, 2026)

Posted on by
4

The word “couture” has buried within it the root words for “suture” (or “thread”) and “com” (or “with,” “together”). I have been fascinated by this art form from afar for decades. For the first time, I am exploring it in an up close and personal way.

I tailor-make texts all the time. I design one-of-a-kind quilts for myself and for the people I love, and knit socks to fit unique feet. With garments, however, I have lived off-the-rack–department store, boutique, occasional consignment chic, but mostly catalog fare leavened by accessories.

Last autumn, pondering what to wear in my solo appearance as a mother of the bride next month, I decided I wanted to explore out of the box options. I was so very fortunate to learn of MHD Couture in Saint Paul, and my second fitting is today. Maggie Dayton, the couturière, is a true artist and an adept listener (to the said and unsaid). She is helping me (well, doing all the work!) fashion an outfit of separates (skirt, blouse, jacket) that will rise to the occasion of a wedding but can be worn in different ways afterward. The goal is an ensemble that fits not only my particular form at this stage of my life but, just as important, express my own quirky sense of style. I can report from the muslin fitting that is it an incredible pleasure to experience molding something “almost” into something exactly right in terms of fit. A perfect body? Never was or will be my experience. But a perfect fit–that is achievable.

Below are a few places you can, if you like, learn a little more, as I have about the technology and techniques. Muslin Fittings are used in couture, while Mock-ups are used by all kinds of designers mainly to acquire feedback from users. Mock-ups address the idea captured in a popular engineering one-liner: “You can fix it now on the drafting board with an eraser or you can fix it later on the construction site with a sledge hammer.” Love that! The couture version is a cloth-centric translation of the carpenter’s adage: “Measure twice, cut once,” where the cutting is twice but only once with the expensive shantung silk from Ginny’s Fine Fabrics in Rochester, Minnesota.

Shantung Silk
Ginny, of Ginny’s Fine Fabrics
Trusted Fashion Consultant

In a loosely related aside, I am thrilled to know that Meryl Streep and Co. are releasing a sequel to one of my very favorite movies. This May 1, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” will open in theaters all over. I already have plans with a fellow arm-chair fashionista and Vogue reader to rewatch the classic 1995 send-up, “The Devil Wears Prada,” and after, come hell, high water, or even high heels, to see the new release on the big screen!