I am grateful to the Eunoia Review for publishing two of my poems. One of them is quite grumpy but tangential to Scrap. That is “Goulash.” The other one, “Loss, The Word,” is even grumpier. It’s just plain grumpy as all get out.
Feel free to share this post on your social media if you relate to one of these poems.
Filed under #ScrapSalvagingFamily, Health, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing, Writing
A while back Zingara Poetry Review held a daily prompt challenge for a month. Then we were encouraged to submit poems written during that time for publication. I submitted this poem for the challenge JOURNAL MINING where I mined my old journals that I discovered in a suitcase. Thanks to EIC Lisa Hase-Jackson.
The gardener and I watched Hudson overnight, so I’m going to take a nap now!!!
Thanks to photographer https://unsplash.com/@mrcalvert
Filed under #poetrycommunity, Grandparenting, Literary Journals, Poetry, Publishing
Looking for a new poetry book? Look no further than this beautiful collection by Candice M. Kelsey within this stunning cover.
The chapbook was published in March 2024 by the publisher, boats against the current. The cover art is by Matt Kish.
Find it at Amazon here:
My Review of Postcards from the Masthead
Reading the poems in Candice M. Kelsey’s new chapbook, Postcards from the Masthead, feels a bit like finding your stride on a boat deck, as you learn to move with the waves, enjoying your place upon a vast body of water. The reader must navigate between the life of our planet and the life of the body which “dresses itself in courage / to face the morning / bastard glow.” There is a sense of connection between the larger, public world and the individual. These poems are fraught with angst over the dangers of climate change. At the same time, they investigate corporeal dangers and desires. The striking imagery and perspectives unique to Kelsey are a warning cry against our endangered lives.
Here is a sample poem:
Meditation on the Pinky Toe, Port Side
Broken again littlest
one throbbing pink
loud the big toe shifts
like my father in a chair
Sunday sessions
mandatory for the EDU
a daughter in treatment
circle of silent frescoes
and he's unhappy as
the third mate's cat
Blue who bounds over
white cedar bulwarks
where I lean with today’s
galley of oranges
halved she capsizes
a feline Michelangelo
painting the Sistine
or God dabs my toe wet
with paint-drop nose
she too knows injury
touches the gnarled-speck
perimeter of my foot
now a flesh canvas
cathedral ceiling scene
where I am broken
by a hundred Adams
awful fools busy naming
the garden of my body—
we catch ourselves
on the world’s harpoons
such sharp edges protrude
to hobble us with small
private dislocations and yet
like this little piggy
some of us make it home
somehow I make it
all the goddamn way
Filed under #amreading, Book Review, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Writing
This post was originally published when I was thrilled to have a new poem up at Nine Muses Poetry. This poem was written about my occasional time spent writing poetry at Magpie’s and named, appropriately, “Tuesday Afternoon at Magpie’s Grill.” The journal is long-since out of business, but before that happened the editor, Annest Gwilym, nominated this poem for Best of the Net.
I decided to open my book Rooted and Winged with the poem because it fit so well my theme of the tension between the metaphorical desire to fly and our earth-bound lives.
Since the poem can no longer be found at the site of the journal, here it is:
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.
Filed under #AmWriting, #writerslife, Poetry, Publishing, Writing
“Note how the red rose,velvet worn by early frost,clings confidentlyto its own treacherous stem,never accursed by mirrors.” Luanne Castle Welcome to …
Season 5 Episode 14: Luanne Castle on A Poet’s Voice
Colleen at Wordcraft poetry suggested writing a syllabic poem about the mythological Phoenix or Thunderbird.
Because I live in Phoenix, Arizona, I wanted to write about the city. Phoenix was named after the bird of myth, but is often associated with it because of the extreme heat of the summers. In reality, it earned the name because it was a new city built on the ruins of the Hohokam civilization. I wrote a double tanka so I could work with both notions.
With flat-roofed houses
and white adobe mission,
they built a city
on the ancient vill ruins
of the Hohokam nation.
In celebration
of the fiery eponym
the city’s named for,
every summer it burns
to ash, then rises in fall.
###
Fall brings perfect weather, new and colorful flowers, and relief after the hellish summers.
As we move into summer, though, we do have lovely cactus flowers.
When I take Theo out I try to walk in shade because I am very aware of the danger of heat to his paws.
I’m excited to be author and blogger Robbie Cheadle’s May guest for her monthly Treasuring Poetry article on Writing to be Read. She had some wonderful questions for me about writing, and I enjoyed answering them! You can find the publication here: https://writingtoberead.com/2023/05/17/treasuring-poetry-meet-poet-and-blogger-luanne-castle-and-a-review-poetry-poetrycommunity-bookreview/. Robbie has also posted a beautiful review of both Rooted and Winged and Our Wolves.
With son and DIL living here, we have their dog Theo here as well. He’s such a little goofy guy, and I get to let him out when his mom and dad are both gone for three hours or more. I can’t physically handle walking him on a leash, although in a pinch I can take him on the driveway on a leash because he’s very good for me. But I like to let him roam the backyard, which is fenced. He’s very loved and what’s rewarding for me is that he loves his Grandma! In his photo you can see a very typical expression he gets on his face as he is always trying to figure out what’s going on.
I maybe have shared when my poem “Waterland” was first published by Open: Journal of Arts and Letters. Then it became part of my new full-length collection Rooted and Winged. Today I’m really tickled that editor Christine Klocek-Lim has published it in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily. She expresses her thoughts about the poem at the end. I’m grateful for her enthusiasm for the poem.
https://autumnskypoetrydaily.com/2023/02/21/waterland-by-luanne-castle/
This is the photo that inspired me to write this poem. Yes, that’s baby me with my pretty mom.
Filed under #poetrycommunity, Poetry, Poetry book, Poetry Collection, Publishing, Rooted and Winged
Don’t miss my interview yesterday with poet Millicent Borges Accardi: https://writersite.org/2023/02/06/from-mrs-virtue-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-an-interview-of-millicent-borges-accardi/ Millicent talks about the teacher who instilled her love of poetry as a kid. It so happened that the teacher was the daughter of a famous poet. She talks about her Portguguese heritage, both generally and the literature as well.
In January, I had another ekphrastic piece, this time a poem, taken at Visual-Verse. I neglected to mention last time that we only get one hour to write these to the art prompts. It’s a very intense process. https://visualverse.org/submissions/the-tournament/
Are you interested in a Giveaway for Rooted and Winged? LibraryThing is running one right now. https://www.librarything.com/ner/detail/46725/Rooted-and-Winged
Main Street Rag has published my review of Justin Hamm’s Drinking Guinness with the Dead. While I can’t post a copy of the review as it’s a print issue, I can tell you I give it two thumbs up. Hamm’s work is really tied to the Midwest and its vast once-farmland, so while anyone would love it (I think), Midwesterners would especially cherish it.
My daughter’s wedding was a year ago this coming Sunday. So look what I made for daughter and son-in-law. A wedding junk journal.
I had to find this nifty little suitcase after I realized that with the fragility of the book (cuz junk) and their lifestyle the book wouldn’t last long without protection. I was able to add in their wooden ring boxes, little place cards, extra photos, and the napkins from their previous courthouse wedding where we drank blue prosecco and ate cookies. Last year’s wedding was the whole shebang because that’s what they like.
See inside on the left? That’s a little clutch I made out of plastic grocery bags to store the cassettes of their wedding music.
That project was loads of fun, but now I’m about hearted and laced and sweetthinged out.
I did post about the beautiful review of Rooted and Winged by Elizabeth Gauffreau in the new issue of Anti-Heroin Chic. Now Liz has recorded a poem from the book–and it’s such a treat! She published it on her post with her link of the review.
