April 10, 2024 Announcing a Poetry Reading on 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at the Northfield Public Library–I Will Read with Poet Scott Lowery

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Leslie Schultz

A big thank-you to Tyler Gardner of the Northfield Public Library for constructing this banner, and to Raymonde Noer for my author photo!

One of the best things about having other poets as friends is that when they publish books filled with thoughtful, insightful, musical poems you can be delighted for them. I met Scott Lowery many years ago in his then-home city of Winona. It was the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Competition that brought us together. We both have had winning entries. Scott’s work–whether in traditional forms, like sonnets, or in more organic shapes–is truly stand-out. I am delighted that he arranged for a reading to showcase Mutual Life (Finishing Line Press, 2023) here in Northfield so that you can meet him, too.

Scott’s work is topical yet timeless. Each of the twenty-three poems in his new collection shimmers with specific observation and language that manages to be at once flinty, spare, and distilled, yet also lush, filled with melody, and extravagantly memorable. Taken together, these poems ponder how humans struggle through turbulent times, awash with keen (but often unarticulated) hungers for individual relevance and connection. This collection invites us to broaden our humanity, to look up and out, as well as deep within.

In addition to a selection of poems from Mutual Life, Scott will also share some of the poems in his award-winning collection, Empty-Handed, originally published in 2013 and recently reissued by its publisher, Northfield’s own Red Dragonfly Press. In fact, Scott’s idea is to make the event a little more “Northfield.” Scott and I realized that our work shares some key themes, including hometown life, a Minnesota sense of place, inspiration from the art of others, climate anxieity, and the lessons gained from family. When he asked me to share the podium for this event, we saw an opportunity for a reading in which our poems might have a kind of conversation with each other. It will be an experiment for us, and it is one I am looking forward to!

I hope that you can join us on Tuesday, May 7 to meet Scott and hear him read his wonderful poems. LESLIE

Northfield’s New Poem Steps

Posted on October 16, 2021 by Leslie Schultz

View from the base of the Poem Steps, Northfield, Minnesota

To move from the ideal to the material, Rob invited a number of local poets to contribute one line, and seventeen of us responded. Now the text of this new poem has been published–through the medium of paint and the industriousness of our by former and current directors of the Northfield Public Library, Teresa Jensen and Natalie Draper–on the steps leading up to Bridge Square from the Riverwalk in Northfield. The poem is the collaborative work of 17 local poets: Heather Candels, D.E. Green, Steve McCown, Susan Jaret McKinstry, Leslie Schultz, David Walters, Mar Valdecantos, Christine Kallman, Becky Boling, Marie Gery, Tayde Rodríguez, Lucy González Mirón, Diane LeBlanc, Alondra Pérez, Riki Kölbl Nelson, Karen Herseth Wee, and Toni Easterson. The poem was painted onto the Riverwalk steps in late summer this year. Below, you can see images of eleven of these poets near their own contributed line. (See the Northfield Public Library website now to see a photograph of a Poet Laureate Rob Hardy at the podium, and look again at a later date to see images of all the participating poets.)

We all need joyful news and celebrations of community spirit. Last year, our Poet Laureate, Rob Hardy (who is also a classics professor) conceived an idea to create a modern twist on the classic Greek form of the rhapsode, which literally means “to sew songs [together]”–a beautiful concept, one I imagine to be rather like creating a lyrical quilt.

As edited–or rather woven, stitched, and shaped–by Rob Hardy from the raw material of submitted lines, here is the complete poem:

We come to the river starry-eyed,

across bridges reaching out to neighbors

over the river’s rushing waters: nuestro río

está lleno de vida y vida para nuestras familias.

Two deer, silent as shadows, bend & drink.

Clouds tumble and lift, kiss and part.

Train sounds shape our dreams.

Linger here till the wind shifts,

under sun’s sweet touch and winter’s raw chill,

the funk of damp moss, sweet hints of sap.

In fish and flood, in unmoving stone,

the river remembers, stirring up the waves

of childhood, so melancholic and so eager.

Listen to the words of these speaking waters:

calling my name to the south, to the north calling yours.

Hermosas esas corrientes de agua que llevan

tantos recuerdos tristes y felices pero dan un placer

de verlas correr a través de nuestro lindo pueblo.

Listen. The river tells us where it needs to go.

Much more durable than a traditional quilt, this community effort is likely to endure for many years to come.

Postcard: November 25, 2019

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Leslie Schultz

2019 Sidewalk Poetry Celebration: A New Blending of Voices

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Leslie Schultz

For the ninth year in a row, Northfielders gathered in Bridge Square to celebrate poetry in our city. While much was familiar, including more than 100 poetry lovers and poets in attendance, able emceeing by Bonnie Jean Flom, of the Northfield Arts and Culture Commission, and the lively song stylings of Northfield’s own band, Bonnie and the Clydes, there were some wonderful new twists.

In the 2019 contest, for the first time, poems were able to submitted in Spanish as well as in English. This year’s judging panel chose ten winning poems, three in Spanish and seven in English. Poems will be imprinted into the sidewalks in the language in which they are submitted, but for the capstone celebration and for the City of Northfield website each poem is available in both languages.

Poet D.E. Green, who has had a total of five winning poems since the program’s inception, translated his own English-language submission into Spanish, and after Doug read his English language poem, the Spanish version was read by his wife, Becky Boling, Emerita Professor of Spanish at Carleton College (and also a poet with several winning Sidewalk Poems.)

The other translations were crafted by Angelica Linder, Outreach Program Coordinator at the Northfield Public Library, who was present to read her translations at the capstone celebration after each poem was read in its original language. Ms. Linder also provided simultaneous translations of remarks made in English throughout the evening. In addition, the musical offerings were in both English and Spanish this year, offering a third way that Spanish and English were blended together.

2019 Winning Poems–Each in Spanish and English

My own poem, with translation by Angelica Linder

Since not everyone could be present on August 29, I am rerunning the photograph of those poets who were interviewed in April on Paula Granquist’s KYMN radio program “ArtZany.”

Northfield Sidewalk Poets 2019 From left: Brendon Etter, Bonnie Jean Flom (Arts and Culture Commission), Constanza Ocampo, Ellie Zimmerman, Paul Fried, Anne Kopas, Mar Valdecantos, Taide Rodriquez Marcial, Leslie Schultz, Paula Granquist (Host of ArtZany) (Not pictured: D.E. Green and Alekz Thoms) Photo by Hector Ocampo

Bonnie and the Clydes (left to right: Scott McMillan, Bonnie Jean Flom, and Bill McGrath)

Photo: Heather Lawrenz Poets D.E. Green and Becky Boling with Bonnie Jean Flom (left) and Angelica Linder (right)

I am amazed to know that in its nine years of existence, this program has attracted a total of more than 1,000 poems from hundreds of people who live in Northfield or attend its schools. Most of these poems were new work, generated specifically in response to the contest. To date, 81 poems by a total of 54 poets have won the right to be impressed into our sidewalks, to be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. I feel very proud of my city, and very humbled when I think of the many thousands of hours of artistic and volunteer time devoted to this one project on the part of so many, many people who care about poetry, our town, and each other.

Sidewalk Poetry is, for me, a dream come true. I feel so happy that in its ninth year this dream has become enlarged in such a meaningful way. It is a personal thrill to see my own words rendered in the beauty of the Spanish language—something I surely could not do on my own—and it was wonderful to be part of a civic event that embraced and celebrated English and Spanish side-by-side within the context of poetic language and civic enhancement.

Thank you, all! Muchas gracias! Leslie

Video by Timothy Braulick

CONCERTINA: Update on an Evening of Poetry and Music

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Leslie Schultz

Hengel Concertina (Photo: Bonnie Jean Flom)

Rob Hardy, Northfield Poet Laureate, with Leslie Schultz (Photo: Mattie Lufkin)

On May 9, 2019, Hot Spot Music was the site of a combined poetry reading and concert. Jake Minar Bastyr, of New Prague, opened the program with tunes played on a Hengel concertina he had made with his grandfather, Jerry Minar. Then Rob Hardy, Northfield’s Poet Laureate, introduced Jake and me, and I read a selection of poems from my new collection, Concertina. Poems were followed by uplifting melodies from Jake, refreshments, and conversation. There was even some singing along, and some toes tapping, along with a few heels kicked up, during the course of that lively evening!

It was a warm-hearted and unforgettable evening for me, that’s for certain. If you were not able to attend, here are some photos and video clips that will give you the flavor of the evening. LESLIE

(This video begins with Jake playing and has some poems as they were read. Below, following the photographs, are two more short clips of Jake playing on May 9.)

View from the Stage (Photo: Leslie Schultz)

Floral Artist Mattie Lufkin (Photo: Leslie Schultz)

Tim Braulick and Leslie Schultz (Photo: Mattie Lufkin)

Refreshments and Floral Art (Photo: Mattie Lufkin)

Patricia Smith and Kristin Kasten (Photo: Mattie Lufkin)

Eric Johnson with Lin and Bob Bruce (Photo: Mattie Lufkin)

Tim and Luke Braulick (Photo: Bonnie Jean Flom)

D. E. Green with Cahrene Dimmick and Leslie Schultz (Photo: Mattie Lufkin)

Becky Boling and Jake Bastyr (Photo: Mattie Lufkin)

Reading of CONCERTINA by Leslie Schultz
and Music with Jake Bastyr
for May 9, 2019, Hot Spot Music, Northfield, MN

“Under the Murmur”
“Marches”
“Concertina”
“Lapis Philosophorum”
“Goldfish, Oboe, Paintbrush, Guitar”
“Minou”
“Simple Beauty”
“Silhouette”
“Sonnet Despite Rain”
“City Rain”
“The (Not-So) Easy-Bake Oven”
“Music So Loud We Can’t Hear”
“In the Produce Aisle”
“Antique Absinthe Glasses”
“Prayer in Stillness”
“Weather”