Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “something that opens.”
Something that opens is my first chapbook, Hearts. In a shameless exercise in self-promotion, I’m using this post to draw attention to a post that I just finished about the second anniversary of Hearts.
Check it out!
A little over two years ago, Hearts, my first poetry chapbook was published by Kelsay Books. The poems center around my mother, concentrating on her final years as she lived with heart failure.
I know that many people are unfamiliar with the term “chapbook.” A chapbook is a short book that is usually organized around a central theme.
As someone who didn’t pursue poetry until later in life, I am honored to have a book in print. There are several ways to buy a copy: directly from Kelsay Books, from Amazon, on special order from any bookstore that has access to Ingram, or directly from me, in person or by mail. (Please send me an email at jcorey.poet@gmail.com to make arrangements.)
People who have been following my history as a poet know that I had very little formal coursework in poetry; I have developed my skills through the generous sharing of my poetry community, including the Binghamton Poetry Project, the Grapevine Poets, and the Boiler House Poets Collective.
What has been more difficult is developing the publicity skills needed to promote a book. I am by nature an introvert and struggle with self-promotion. I’m also not great with asking people to spend money. Unfortunately, there have been other obstacles in the form of personal and family health struggles that have kept me from doing a great job at selling my book.
I am very grateful for the friends – and the people who are unknown to me – who have read my book. I especially appreciate those who have reached out to me about Hearts, often sharing stories about their own loved ones. I write in order to connect with others and am deeply honored that my work resonates with them.
One thing that I hadn’t anticipated was what it feels like to lose friends who have read Hearts and written or spoken to me about it. It adds another aspect to their loss. I also wonder what will become of the copies that they had, especially when they are inscribed. I somehow imagine someone picking up a copy in a secondhand bookstore and wondering who the prior owner was and how I was connected to them.
I still hope to publish another book some day/year but I will always be pleased that my first book was about my mom.
And every time I see bleeding hearts, I think about Hearts and about her.
Photo Credit: Ellen Morris Prewitt
On December 7, 2024, I shared Ellen Morris Prewitt’s essay about the 150th anniversary of the Vicksburg Massacres.
Ellen is the granddaughter of the main instigator of the Massacres and has been sharing her experiences as she has researched her family’s involvement and grappled with the continuing legacy of racism.
Now, Ellen has a powerful essay entitled “Granddaughter of The Instigator” in the Juneteenth special edition of Salvation South, which delves further into her witness to the legacy of the Vicksburg Massacres on a community and personal level. This essay is an excerpt from her memoir-in-progress, Loving My Hateful Ancestors. You can read a post about the publication of the essay in Ellen’s Very Southern Voice blog and, while you’re there, subscribe to her newsletter and/or follow her blog.
I just realized that I keep referring to Ellen Morris Prewitt by her first name, as though we were acquainted in real life, but we only met each other through blogging. Her writing is so vivid and heartfelt, though, that I feel as if we know each other through our posts and our comments on each other’s blogs with a side of occasional personal emails.
I’m a fan of Ellen’s and invite you to join me!
I don’t drink coffee or alcohol or tea or soda, due to health issues. If I drink juices, I need to dilute them.
One of my more abstract poems is on the topic of drinks. It was published by Mania Magazine and you can find it here.
* Join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Linda’s prompt this week was “drink.”
My calendar used to be filled with meetings, volunteer gigs, poetry workshops and readings, family events, and music rehearsals and concerts.
Now, it’s mostly medical appointments.
I am still holding on to singing with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton. We are coming up on performance week, which will be a challenge with my diminished energy.
Maybe this next round of tests and specialists will get to a full diagnosis and some kind of treatment to improve my situation. I know that it is unlikely to be fully reversed but I’m trying to retain hope that I can bring back the most important abilities and activities I can’t manage now.
If that happens, maybe my calendar will have somewhat fewer medical appointments and more poetry – with some more travel to see family and outings with friends.
Maybe that can even happen later in 2025.
It depends on what happens with the tests and doctor visits that are in those calendar boxes this spring…
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Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “calendar.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/03/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-22-2025/
I remember reading Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday yesterday and thinking that I would pass this week because absolutely nothing came into my head, but, this morning, as I lay crumpled on my bed because taking a shower was too tiring and I’m trying to rest so I can participate in a poetry reading this afternoon, I thought I should post because I thought the prompt word was crumple but it was actually crackle, so never mind.
Yeah.
Brain fog.
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Please join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Details at the link above.
Last Sunday, I shared Rattle Poets Respond offering “The Skaters” by Dante Di Stefano.
This Sunday, editor Timothy Green has chosen “Two-Hour Delay” by Abby E. Murray, which, to me, expresses perfectly the state of mind of these harrowing times in the US. (Link will open in a new tab, so you can read it right now or listen to the audio clip of Abby reading it. Make sure to also read Abby’s note that accompanies the poem.)
The opening lines are:
It’s February and already
I’ve overspent my budgeted bewildermentfor the year, most of it on deep & constant
sorrow…
It’s true.
Interestingly, both Abby’s poem this Sunday and Dante’s poem last Sunday feature the counterpoint of a young daughter, enjoying the wonderment of winter, playing against the hard reality of current events.
It is my privilege to know both Abby and Dante, who each earned PhDs from Binghamton University. When I first joined the Binghamton Poetry Project, a community outreach program founded by Nicole Santalucia, Abby was our director. I was honored when Abby agreed to write a blurb for my chapbook, Hearts. It is so beautiful that I still tear up when I read it.
Mid-poem, Abby writes:
Belief is the new disbelief. Grief, not shock,
is this year’s renewable resource, and baby,
the harvest looks plentiful.
I’m really feeling it.
Thank you, Abby, for giving voice to what it is to be dealing with our present times.
I had to share this heart-breaking poem from fellow Boiler House Poets Collective member Deborah Marshall in the Silver Birch Press ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER series. Anyone who has been a care-giver for a loved one with dementia will likely find resonance with this achingly real scene.
This has been one of the longest-running series for Silver Birch Press. You can find my post about my own entry here.
I had planned to not post today, taking a rest after the long streak due to Just Jot It January, but had to share this new poem, “The Skaters” by Dante Di Stefano, which is this week’s choice for Rattle Poets Respond, an ongoing series in which poets submit work written in response to something that is currently happening in the news.
Dante Di Stefano often blends elements of his family life into his work, as he does here. I experience this poem as both heart-breaking and comforting, as it expresses so intimately what it is to be a parent. I am also amazed by Dante Di Stefano’s ability to quickly craft something beautiful. Due to the nature of Rattle Poets Respond, poets submit work anonymously that has been written in response to something that happens from Friday to Friday, so there is not a lot of time to ruminate and edit. Di Stefano’s poems have been chosen for this series multiple times, attesting to his talent.
It is my privilege to know Dante, who did his PhD at Binghamton University and lives, writes, and teaches locally. He facilitates the reading series at the Tioga Arts Council where his spouse, Christina Di Stefano, is Executive Director. He has been unfailingly kind and generous to me as I make my way as a “late-blooming” poet.
If you would like, you can hear his voice reading “The Skaters” at the link above.
Thank you, Dante, for sharing your heart with us once again.
Is anyone else having problems with the WordPress editor? Sometimes, when I’m working on a draft, it won’t let me go back to a previous paragraph to make edits. It seems to freeze on the paragraph I’m in. To get out of it, I usually have to look at a preview of the post and hit edit from there to open it in a new tab.
I’ve tried asking WordPress for help but no luck so far. Just wondering if others are seeing this happen.
Join us for Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/13/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-13th-2025/
Joanne Corey 