Tag Archives: Poet Susan Jaret McKinstry

Readings to Share GERANIUM LAKE and Where to Find a Copy (Plus a Rare Video Clip)

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Books can now be ordered online from Kelsay Books and Amazon.com. (It amuses me no end that if I go to Amazon and search for “Geranium Lake,” there is a photograph of the cover of my book in a row of artist paints and pigments!!! Take a LOOK.)

In addition, the book can now be purchased at indispensible and always imaginative independent book store, Content Bookstore, located at 314 Division Street here in Northfield, or through their website.

I currently have two readings scheduled: a book launch at Content Book Store in Northfield, Minnesota on Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 7:00 p.m., followed by questions and signings, and on Wednesday, December 7, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at Mager and Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis at 7:00 p.m. The second one will be especially fun and interesting, because the reading will be shared with my dear friend and neighber, Susan Jaret McKinstry, who will also be reading from her amazing new collection of poems titled Tumblehome (Finishing Line Press, 2024.) I was able to read it in manuscript and was bowled over. Susan’s book can be ordered now, in advance of its imminent publication, from Finishing Line Press.

It would be wonderful to see you at one–or both–of these events.

Finally, last summer, when I was at Minnesota’s North Shore with my friend, Ann Lacy, I was delighted to learn that our waterfall hikes led us close to an actual place called the Flute River. Since this is the name of key poem in Geranium Lake, I had to see it. On our detour, Ann kindly agreed to film my reading of this poem with the Flute River behind me (and invisible but voracious mosquitoes swarming all around.) The poem is only sixteen short lines, the video under two minutes, but (for me, with my vestigial webmastering skills) it seems to take a long time to load and play–proceed with patience or disregard same.

Thank you for your enthusiasm! LESLIE

Photo: Timothy Braulick

April 11, 2022: Spotlight on the Poem, “Bird Wings,” by Rumi (translation by Colman Barks); Background on My Poem, “Ice Feathers”

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Mevlana Statue, Buca.jpg
Tomb of the Persian Poet Known as Rumi

I was introduced to the poetry of Rumi (1207 to 1273 C.E.) by my dear friend, LaNelle Olson. When she travelled to Turkey, she returned with a small Persian carpet for my doll’s house and a small jar of dirt from the base of Rumi’s tomb.

LaNelle Olson, September 2003, Carleton Arboretum

Rumi’s poetry has continued to uplift and inspire me. I am grateful to contemporary American poet and translator Coleman Barks for providing the lens through which Rumi’s words can speak to me across the centuries. More recently, my friend and neighbor, poet and teacher Susan Jaret McKinstry, taught me about the poem, “Bird Wings,” to my attention. At her suggestion, I kept it on the refrigerator door and read it at least once a day until I had it memorized. 

Bird Wings
 

Your grief for what you've lost lifts a 
mirror
up to where you are bravely working.

Expecting the worst, you look, and 
instead
here's the joyful face you've been
wanting to see.

Your hand opens and closes, and opens
and closes.
If it were always a fist or always
stretched open,
you would be paralyzed.

Your deepest presence is in every small
contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and
coordinated
as bird wings.

     RUMI  (translation by Coleman Barks)

I receive similar inspiration from the photographic artistry of my sister, Karla Schultz. Below is one of her recent soaring images.

Hawk Soaring (Photo by Karla Schultz)

Background on My Poem “Ice Feathers”:

Today’s poem is a small meditation on stillness and motion, ice and air, what is inside and what is outside.

Happy Reading! Happy Writing! Happy Meditating! LESLIE