Thanks to Editor Barbara Leonard, MasticadoresUSA has published my poem “Screaming.” https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2023/05/09/screaming-by-luanne-castle/
Category Archives: Literary Journals
A 3rd Poem Up at MasticadoresUSA
A Love Poem to My Cat and #TankaTuesday
I had a poem published today in a cool Australian lit mag. It’s called Trash to Treasure Lit, and the idea behind it is that “every writer has a piece of ‘trash’ that we can treasure.” Look through your drafts, your poems you figured you could never do right by, and if you can write something that explains why this “trash” can be a “treasure,” they might publish it. In my case, I wrote a love poem to my cat Perry, who as you may know, suffers from a couple of terminal illnesses (so far so good in case you’re wondering). I hope you can tell from this poem that Perry is the real treasure.
https://www.trashtotreasurelit.com/publishedpieces/perry-by-luanne-castle
Colleen Chesebro’s prompt for #TankaTuesday this week is in celebration of her 65th birthday. (Happy birthday, Colleen!) We were to create a poetic form using 65 syllables.
I created a form I will call the aînée, which is the French word for a female elder. I was going to use the Spanish word anciana, but I didn’t like the connotations which seemed less positive. Plus I like that I am honoring the French language which is a language that has originated a lot of syllabic poetry. 65 syllables are arranged this way: ten lines of six syllables each, followed by a line of 2 syllables, and a final line of 3 syllables.
Decades to Medicare, or We Count Slower Later On
The first we play and learn,
then anguish for ten more.
Finally on our own,
we screw it up or not.
Next years we develop
into who we will be.
In our forties we whine
that we are now so old.
Those next decades are fine
for comfort in ourselves.
Now count
more slowly.
You might recall that I have been submitting a poem every month to Visual Verse for their ekphrastic challenge. Here is my April poem: https://visualverse.org/submissions/dont-look-back-2/ They showcase each poem next to the inspirational art.
Finally, here is another review of Our Wolves. This review addresses the issue of abuse in some of the poems. https://impressionsininkblog.com/2023/04/13/review-our-wolves-by-luanne-castle-poeticbooktours/
Poem Up at MasticadoresUSA
Thanks to Editor Barbara Leonard, MasticadoresUSA has published my poem “The Not Sonnet.” Of course, it is a sonnet.
This is the second poem of mine that Barbara has published. And there will be a third next month.
https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/the-not-sonnet-by-luanne-castle/
Cactus blossom season is here. The gardener took this pic. He is a much better gardener than photographer, but you can still see how beautiful the blossoms are.
Poem Up at The Field Guide
Thanks to Editor Amanda Marrero, The Field Guide has published my poem “A Wash is Not a Riverbed.” This poem is about the wash that runs right past my house. I think this poem would have fit in Rooted and Winged.
The poem is in six sections. Here is the first one:
I. From overhead see a route on an intuitive map. Scriven in earth, etched with blood and spoor. The route is wash. The wash is map. A kingsnake slides its stripes across the arroyo in the way that a T is crossed to finish the planet. It tastes the chemical scent of its prey. The stubbling of grasses amid stones optimistic in the hollow. We wish for custom monsoons a steady large-drop rain and little wind.
https://thefieldguidemagazine.com/luanne-castle/
These photos of our wash show the gates we had to put up (with permission) because the javelinas were too destructive and dangerous. But all the other animals get through.
Happy Passover if you celebrate. Happy Easter if you celebrate. Ramadan Mubarak if you celebrate.
My zoom solo poetry reading is Saturday at 5PM eastern and you are invited! https://writersite.org/2023/03/27/an-invitation-to-my-first-zoom-solo-poetry-reading-and-other-stuff/
Filed under #poetrycommunity, art journaling, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
Poem Up at Masticadores USA
Masticadores USA has published a new poem, “Before and Again.” A big thank you to Editor Barbara Leonhard. I hope you like the poem. This one is a little heavy.
Here is the first 1 1/2 stanzas:
The we of my belief lived in a land of easy comfort, brief and surface woundings, even when tussled by history that lasted a month on our portable television. We swept the broken pieces into piles Thinking our bonfires would destroy memories.
https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2023/03/10/before-and-again-by-luanne-castle/
Filed under #poetrycommunity, art journaling, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
February Poem at Visual Verse
I am continuing to submit ekphrastic one-hour poems to Visual Verse. Here is #3, “When We drove Up to the Lake Home Dad Just Bought”:
https://visualverse.org/submissions/when-we-drove-up-to-the-lake-home-dad-just-bought/
This one is another in a long line of Luanne’s lake poems. Makes sense since I grew up in Michigan on and around various lakes.
Merril Smith and a couple of others poets I know also have lovely poems in the February issue.
Here are some new tags I made for my art journals.
Make it a great week!
Filed under #poetrycommunity, art journaling, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
Poem-A-Week at Sims Library of Poetry
I’m thrilled to have my poem,”Inside the House We Lived In When Dad Went Broke,” published as part of the Poem-A-Week project at the Sims Library of Poetry.
Sims Library of Poetry is a fabulous resource for inner city Los Angeles. This is a description from their website: “We are the first black-owned poetry library in the state of California. We aim to engage with the South L.A. community by offering a space to read, write, study, perform, and appreciate poetry.”
Here’s the poem:
https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/paw23/inside-the-house-we-lived-in-when-dad-went-broke
I’m so happy that Sims found my poem important enough to feature for a week on their website.
I’m taking a year-long art class with weekly lessons. This time I learned new ways to create depth in an abstract. I did this one in my journal.
Perry is taking lots of meds and supplements, and so far he doesn’t realize he isn’t well!
Filed under #poetrycommunity, art journaling, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
A New Interview and a Worthy Journal (and a flash)
Thimble Magazine was founded by the multi-talented Nadia Arioli. Nadia, a poet and artist, is also editor-in-chief of the journal.
Check out Thimble’s interview of me in their newsletter of Patreon supporters. It was really fun to respond to some new questions!
https://mailchi.mp/6f9b64c0d540/five-questions-with-luanne-castle
If you would like to help support (for as little as $1/month) a deserving poetry journal, I can’t think of one I enjoy more than Thimble. Nadia is a delightful person with excellent taste in poetry. I think the statement on the journal’s website is very telling: “THE THIMBLE LITERARY MAGAZINE IS BASED ON THE BELIEF THAT POETRY IS LIKE ARMOR. LIKE A THIMBLE, IT MAY BE SMALL AND SEEM INSIGNIFICANT, BUT IT WILL PROTECT US WHEN WE ARE MOST VULNERABLE.” https://www.patreon.com/thimblelitmag
Thimble seems a magazine by the people for the people. I love it.
Speaking of literature journals, I’m part of the community surrounding the magazine Verse-Virtual. VV held a book party the other day for VV poets who have new books out. I read from Rooted and Winged. Nine others read from their books as well, and thanks to that reading, I bought four new poetry books! I start to read at 2:20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR2xh0R1rNEpauOqIscRoZsbOcBbODRNsTEveIjcej0ApPq-jP8z5Z58qLQ&v=nLYpTk-HAQQ&feature=youtu.be
Guess what I just discovered? I wanted to start to submit to Visual Verse to practice writing ekphrastically. So for my first try I wrote a flash piece about the art Visual Verse used as a prompt. I didn’t know they published mine, but I just found it: https://visualverse.org/submissions/the-mess-of-mindfulness/
Without saying anything else (because what can be said is endless), I just want to place this link for Tyre Nichols’ photography.
https://thiscaliforniakid2.wixsite.com/tnicholsphotography/portraits.
Two Poems Up at The Wise Owl
The January issue of The Wise Owl is devoted to the poetic form, the haibun. I really like this form because it’s a prose poem that is completed by an ending haiku. I like how the prose poem goes into detail and then the haiku has the ability to comment on or reinforce the prose poem.
Two of my poems are published in this issue–a big thank you to Editor Rachna Singh. The first one, “When You Knew,” is a poem about my father being a twin. The second one, “Chicken Vision,” began because I became fascinated with the fact that chickens have mono-vision, which means that the left eye is far-sighted, and right is near-sighted. Isn’t that the coolest piece of info?! Here is the link (and ignore the bio which is somewhat incorrect–especially the word especially).
https://www.thewiseowl.art/luanne-castle
Filed under #poetrycommunity, art journaling, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
New Poems Up at Book of Matches
I’m so happy that Book of Matches has published two of the poems from my upcoming chapbook Our Wolves. A big thank you to editors Kelli and Nicholas! These are both persona poems–one from the perspective of the wolf in the Little Red stories, the other from that of the so-called rescuer character–in this case, a woodsman.
Here is the link to “You All Been Waiting for a Wolf Confession” on page 6 and “I’m a Woodcutter, Dammit” on page 39. Here is the link so you can check out the whole issue which is chockful of good writing:
https://online.fliphtml5.com/qoqiq/drun/
Here are screenshots of my poems for your convenience.
While I was eager to kick 2022 to the curb (as I know a lot of you were), I had news at the end of 2022 that will make 2023 a pretty grim year again. It’s about my boy Perry, and here is a link to that story.
Filed under #poetrycommunity, art journaling, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
