A Fall Poem

Wild Turkeys    

                1.

 Rumors from the north country
 favor bobcat sightings.
 Here we have neither fat bear
 nor spindly moose
 but a family of wild turkeys
 crosses the driveway
 at dawn, the young ones
 scrabbling along the stones --
 beaks down, eager for
 acorns or nuts. The two females
 dull-brown, strut briskly
 as they scan for shelter.
 Soon enough they cross
  over to woodlands,
  a flock of feathers
  disappearing into brush.

         

    2.

   In mid-October
   the signs of change
   are everywhere.
   Red ferns, goldenrod,
   shy asters.
   When I burn the leaves
   of the aster plant,
    I drive away
    the evil spirits
    of the cold.
    Let the season
    begin. May the dry leaves
    leap and spin
     in the wild air.

                3.

    Autumn takes her

    first hostage,
    my delicate she-cat.
    No cry, no thrashing 
    in the underbrush. 
    Simply gone ...
    The shades of coyotes
     like the spirits of summer
     roam the edges of woodlots
     and forest paths.
     A blackened bush,
      victim of child’s play,
      belies the russet-colored leaves.
      Winter when it comes
      will swallow everything
       in shrouds of white.
                    
                   4.

     When a young turkey 
      goes missing
      the whole flock stops,
      waiting for the little one
      to return.
      Like them,
      I search the golden fields,
      the grassy inclines
      for that one moment
      when I spot the beloved,
      the world gone mad
      with the frenzy of my longing
       then a stalled breath,        
       then quiet, then
       fog lifting
       over the dark earth.

(From Dream of the Antique Dealer's Daughter, published by Word Poetry, 2013)
                    

Poetry Group Update: Planning for Fall

One of the magical things about having a poetry group is sharing with my fellow poets. The Steeple Street Poets will celebrate its fourth anniversary next month and I have the satisfaction of knowing a good thing when I see it. Our group has grown, adding new members each month, and the energy and enthusiasm has swelled as the group has gotten larger. We have a core membership, perhaps ten to twelve poets, with other people jumping in when they have free time. Since the Cape is a seasonal place, there are also poets who join us in the summer months but head home when cold weather is on the horizon.

Our August meeting was a time for meet and greet, as well as for planning out the coming year. Our group is unique in that we alternate leaders each month and have different subjects introduced. In the past, we have worked on persona poems, line breaks, titles that work, etc. For the fall, we have some interesting projects to tackle. Often, we’ll be asked to bring in poems to workshop that fit the theme for that month.

In September, poetry member Kathleen Casey will talk about her time taking a workshop with Robert Pinsky on "how do you read a poem." She will take notes to share with us about her experience. Next, in October, dancers Samm Carlton and Karen Klein will explore poetry of movement and expression. They may introduce prompts for us to work with during the meeting.

I will be leading the group in November with poems relating to fairy tales. This is a subject dear to my heart. In fact, I have a section of fairy tale poems in my book Dream of the Antique Dealer’s Daughter entitled “Once Upon A Time.” My hope is that poets will bring in poems either reworking fairy tales or somehow referencing them in their poems. I plan to bring in examples by famous poets (for example, Olga Broumas and Anne Sexton) to share with the group.

In December, co-founder James Kershner will ask us to write poems of origin (where we come from). He was fortunate to attend a writing conference at Wild Acres in Little Switzerland, North Carolina, this summer where he was asked to write an origin poem.

His poem was descriptive, funny and heartbreaking. I already have ideas for mine.

In the end, it’s all about feeling comfortable reading our poems together, doing an honest critique, and forging a community of like-minded poets. 

A Summer's Poem

The Art of Levitating

-- South Cape Beach, Mashpee

In between the swimmers,

and far off, a lone sailboat or two,

is a man floating.

His face and palms, lifted

to an orange sun,

are a supplicant to light.

For many minutes he drifts

and seems suspended in water,

as in an earlier century,

Daniel Danglas Home

floated in the air eighty feet

above ground, then glided

through an open window

and sat to chat with friends.

But here there is no Tolstoy,

no Elizabeth Barrett Browning,

no applauding princes or queens

to watch our swimmer

weightless in water.

The waves lift, fall –

his globed face upturned.

For this moment, he escapes

to lightness, to buoyancy,

to the moment between lifting up

or sinking

blissful in the embrace

of forgetting.

(from Dream of the Antique Dealer's Daughter, Word Poetry, 2013)

Finding inspiration in unexpected places

While cleaning out my desk at work recently, I found a note penned by my father. Since he passed away in November 2011, I know it was written some time ago. He writes “Thanks for all the e-mails and poems and stuff. I’ve been doing some writing and once in awhile I look at past writing. This little story “A Special Breed” was published in the Cape Codder about twenty years ago in slightly different form. Maybe you could pass it on to the editors of “Prime Time.” Maybe they could publish it. Hope so.” (Note: Prime Time is a magazine for people over 45 published monthly by the Cape Cod Times.)

I was struck by how persistent my dad was about his writing. He was always sending out queries to editors for his stories which he called “Wendell’s Briefs.” Some of these were published, but many were not.  Somehow, he never lost his faith that it was worth writing and sending out his work.

I miss my father and treasure this small letter I had tucked away for future reading. Now it’s time to carry on his tradition: write and keep sending out my writing. As Isaac Asimov said, “You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.”

Cape Cod Writers Center Conference 2015

One of the great opportunities for local writers is a chance to take courses at the annual Cape Cod Writers Center Conference each August. Once situated at the picturesque Craigville Retreat Center, the conference now takes place at the Resort and Conference Center in Hyannis. In the past, I have studied with poets William Wenthe, Donald Baker and Gail Mazur, as well as taking a young adult writing seminar with Jacqueline Kolosov. Each class gave me fresh insights on the writing process, as well as inspiring me to try new writing techniques.

This summer the theme of the conference is “Inspired Storytelling by the Sea.” The classes encompass many genres of writing, including fiction, memoir, screenwriting, and, of course, poetry.  For poets, there are several intriguing options. Kevin Pilkington will teach “Writing Publishable Poetry” and “Poetic Techniques for Prose.” He teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College and has won many awards.

Other classes that might appeal to poets include “Edit Yourself into Print” with Michael Carr, “A Premier of Self-Publishing,” with Stephanie Blackman and “Internet eBook Promotion”  with Steve Manchester. Local poet and playwright Gregory Hishak will teach in the Young Writers Program along with Scott Bladen and James Kershner.

The 53rd Cape Cod Writers Center Conference will take place August 6-9, 2015. Keynote speakers this summer are Marge Piercy, an award-winning poet who lives in Wellfleet. Her most recent book of poems is Made in Detroit (Knopf, 2015). Claire Cook wrote her first novel at 45; her second novel, Must Love Dogs, became a major Hollywood movie. The Keynote Presentations will be held on Friday, August 7 from 7-8 p.m. with Marge Piercy in the Bass River Room and Saturday, August 8 from 6:15-7:15 p.m.with Claire Cook also in the Bass River Room. Both events are open to the public. . Note: Participant readings will follow Marge Piercy’s presentation on Friday, Aug. 7 from 8:30 – 10 p.m.

There will be agents available and manuscript evaluation/mentoring. For more information and to register online, visit www.capecodwriterscenter.org. A limited number of scholarships are available. Among them is the Kevin V. Symmons Scholarship for Second Career Writers. You may submit a letter by June 19 stating financial need, a ten-page writing sample (send as email attachments in word or RTF format only) and a registration form indicating your suggested courses. Requests will be reviewed wiith notication by July 7.

This conference offers the opportunity to meet fellow writers, take informative workshops and get help with manuscript development. There is also a conference bookstore which sells books by faculty and Cape Cod Writers Center writers. If you have some free time this summer, I highly recommend this conference as a way to jumpstart your writing.

My Second Book Becomes a Reality

After my first book, Dream of the Antique Dealer’s Daughter, was published last year, my brother interviewed me for the Grub Street writer’s blog Beyond the Margins. The last 

question he posed was an interesting one:

DS: What’s next for you? Will there be a sequel to Dream of the Antique Dealer’s Daughter?

RSJ: I would love to try a chapbook next rather than another full-length book. And, who knows, maybe I’ll finish my young adult novel. For now, I’m enjoying being a first-time author.

Well, I’m still working on the novel, but I’m about to have my second book, a chapbook of poems titled Gale Warnings, published by Finishing Line Press out of Kentucky. It’s wonderful news and I’m still pinching myself from excitement.

This journey began last summer when I returned from a week’s trip to Texas. I had a few weeks before I started teaching again at the community college and a little extra time. I discovered that Finishing Line Press was offering a chapbook contest, so I began preparing a manuscript. The deadline was September 15 and I had to move quickly.

I looked through folders of poems and began selecting ones that looked promising. I already knew I wanted to use my poem, “Gale Warnings,” as the title of my book. Cynthia Brackett Vincent, editor of the Aurorean, had selected me to be a feature poet for the Fall/Winter 2014-2015 issue. One of the three poems she picked to print was this one. As I whittled down a list of possibilities, I began to see connections between poems (ones of loss, striving. ocean and nature themes). I also included several of the poems I had written as part of my Mutual Muses pairings..

My full-length book is comprised of seven sections. By contrast, my chapbook is one long sequence of poems. I sorted by intuition and instinct. When I was finished, I went over it several times, printed out a hard copy, and sent it off. Months went by and I never heard another word about my fledgling manuscript until one day in February, I received the happy news that they wanted to publish my book! I had not won the contest but I was still in the runnng to have my book considered for publication.

The book is dedicated to my three sons and the cover art is from a pen and ink my husband Greg did in his early years. Like my first book which features cover art by my very tallented sister-in-law, Liz Smith, this book has personal connections as well.

Gale Warnings is now available for pre-ordering at Finishing Line Press.: If you visit their website – www.finishinglinepress.com, you can either access my book at the bookstore site or Preorder Forthcoming Titles..

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A Visit to the Massachusetts Poetry Festival

A week ago, I had the opportunity to attend the 7^th annual Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Salem, Massachusetts. The festival ran from Thursday, April 30 through Sunday, May 3. It has long been a dream of mine to participate in this event, so it was thrilling to get the opportunity to travel to a place celebrating poets.

Two Cape poetry groups were accepted to read at the festival, including our Mashpee poetry group, the Steeple Street Poets. Once arriving in Salem and receiving my presenter’s badge, I sat in on the Cape Smackdown. Cape poets, including Lauren Wolk, Chrstine Rathbun and Carole Stasiowski, donned sparkly capes and squared off against several Cape Ann poets. The poems were expressive, racy and explosive. In the end, the Cape Cod poets won by a small margin. It was a great start to my day.

Then, I attended a reading by young Asian-American poets called The Poetics of Construction in the Peabody Essex Museum. Using art from the museum and projecting it on a big screen in the conference room, the poets presented poems that highlighted their ancestors’ history and current events. The juxtaposition of visual and oral images was stimulating and emotional. My friend, Samm Carlton, and I were moved by the presentation.

Next, we traveled over cobblestone streets to the Old Town Hall. Our reading was to take place on the 2^nd floor at 2 p.m. Although the online schedule said our event was filled, the meeting room could easily have held 300 people. We had about 30 people in attendance, but it was perfect for our reading. Alice Kociemba, director of the Cape-based Calliope series, introduced us. Next, I stepped onstage to talk about the Steeple Street Poets and read a few poems. We had about ten poets reading including Sheila Whitehouse, Rich Youmans, Judith Partelow, Christina Laurie, Lorraine Brown, Samm Carlton, Laurel Kornheiser and Maeve Hitzenbuhler.. Since the theme of our reading was a sense of place, Alice finished by reading a Mary Oliver poem. We also had a few open mic readers, including David Surrette. The audience seemed appreciative of our poetic efforts, including a few folks who stumbled in and stayed to listen.

After the reading was over, I stepped outside into welcome spring warmth. I spent several minutes lingering in a local bookstore, then ambled down the street, perusing the local shops featuring psychic readings and spell enchantments. I felt as if I had fallen into Diagon Alley. Suddenly, a woman ran out to give me a hug. It was my friend and fellow poet, Regina Carreira from Falmouth. She brought me into a coffee shop where she was up as the next featured poet. I enjoyed listening to her poems about Cape summers and young love. Another poet, a 19-year-old woman, read from notebooks she picked up, then discarded as she read through her treasure trove. I loved the energy and passion of her poems. It was unstructured and electric.

Afterwards, I met up with fellow poets Christina and Judith. We went to a

reception for poets with wine and food to fortify our poetic appetites. It was fun to see so many poets enjoying themselves. Now it was time for the headliners. We joined fellow poets heading to the Universalist Church to hear Richard Blanco and Rita Dove. We were not disappointed. Richard went first, reading his three poems written for Barack Obama’s second inauguration. I found his poems personable and descriptive. Born in Cuba, he read poems of place that affirmed his sense of geography and sexual orientation. Next up was Rita Dove. Her poems were powerful and personal. After a fire destroyed her house, a neighbor offered to take all the people affected by the fire to a ball. This was her introduction to ballroom dancing and a new lease on life. It was a magical evening.

Now I feel filled up with poetry. I also think it was a boon to travel off-Cape and connect with a wider poetry community. With luck, I’ll be able to go to next year’s festival.