Luanne Castle’s 2022 poetry collection Rooted and Winged was a Book Excellence Awards Winner. She published her chapbook Our Wolves (Alien Buddha Press) in 2023. Kin Types (Finishing Line Press), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the 2018 Eric Hoffer Award. Her first collection of poetry, Doll God, winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, was published by Kelsay Books. Luanne has been a Fellow at the Center for Ideas and Society at the University of California, Riverside. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside (PhD); Western Michigan University (MFA); and Stanford University. Her Pushcart and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, American Journal of Poetry, Pleiades, River Teeth, TAB, Verse Daily, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Saranac Review, and other journals. An avid blogger, she can be found at luannecastle.com. She lives in Arizona, where she shares land with a bobcat and her intrepid cubs.
BEST OF THE NET
Nomination for “Tuesday Afternoon at Magpie’s Grill” Nine Muses Poetry, 2019
Tuesday Afternoon at Magpie’s Grill
Flickering afternoon light slatted and parsed.
At 3PM, the booths empty except for me
and my notebook.
Would I notice if not for my companion,
my need to recognize and remember?
Without a record, will I hear the ice crashing
into the sink, the Dodger talk at the bar
at the end of the room under the Miller Lite
neon confident and beckoning?
My mother used to say about me,
In one ear and out the other, as if the words
flowed through me without stopping,
without truly entering me, leaving little
effect, as if I had no memory
of all the little parental transgressions.
Why am I not under the sycamore I spot
through the blinds in this Tuesday sunshine
listening to the very song with the shady tree?
What have I done with my life? When
I should have written a poem, I didn’t.
When I did, I didn’t get it quite right.
How can a poem do so many things:
wishing for the shade and thirsty for a beer,
feeling an urge to move my pen and noting
the tiny feet and brush of cuticle,
the solitary fly on my bare arm, while
imagining the chattering of the birds that swoop
from sycamore to jacaranda as if the parking lot
and dumpsters and broken bottles don’t exist.
No matter what I notice,
no matter what I record, I will never
capture the ease of wind-filled wings,
tail feathers a translucent backlit fan,
as my hollow bones jettison the detritus
to fly upward against the source.
Nomination for “The Secret Kotex Club” Longridge Review, 2018
KIN TYPES
DOLL GOD
Hi Luanne, I’m a friend of Rudri’s and I learned about you through her (I was the one she tagged on her writing process post). I’d been meaning to come by for some time now and I look forward to reading through your posts!
Well, here it is almost three years later and I’m finally responding. I am so sorry. For some reason, I haven’t been getting my “Behind the screen” comment notifications! So HI CECILIA!
Haha, I love that you responded, Luanne!!
Your blog is so beautiful as is your writing.
Commented on your blog instead ;).
The memoir just has to be an interesting read! Nice to meet you, Luane. 🙂
Hi Luanne! Love your blog and your writing is wonderful. Thanks for stopping by little food blog! Hope you’re getting some sun in California (or Arizona!). It’s pretty cold in Melbourne 🙂 Chrissy
I used to work for the National Solid Wastes Management Association. Garbage men. I can relate completely.
Hah, I just saw this. Beautiful!
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Wonderful blog! Thanks for following mine. 🙂
Bravo, Luanne on all your wonderful accomplishments!!!!
I’m honored by your views on my blog! Thanks so much!!!
I can tell you really care about your blog because it really shows 🙂.
What an attractive blog you have here!