Category: writing

Poem in The Sandy River Review!

(Cover Art by Charlie Scalia-Bruce <3)

I’m pleased to announce that my poem “Confessional” has been published in the annual print edition of The Sandy River Review. I admit that I love seeing my poems in print; the edition will also be available online at a future date.

Many thanks to the Humanities Department of the University of Maine at Farmington, their Creative Writing students and faculty, and the editorial team for including me in this beautiful volume of poetry, prose, and visual art.

“Confessional” was written in response to a July, 2020 Binghamton Poetry Project prompt based on James Wright’s “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.” It’s about my first confession as a Catholic second-grader. In the spirit of no poem ever really being finished, a revised version is part of my full-length manuscript which I will begin submitting to contests and presses soon.

patience

They say that patience is a virtue.

Sometimes, I’m better with it than others.

I’ve been wanting to write a long, catch-up post for my Vote for Democracy ’24 series because so much has happened, but I haven’t had much good-quality brainpower to do it.

Sorry about that.

I hope you have more patience with me than I have with myself.

SoCS: Joyce’s chickens

One of the substacks I read regularly is Joyce Vance.

She is a lawyer and legal scholar whose commentary I hear often on television. She writes long and thoughtful posts about the current legal issues in the United States, of which there are many.

To lighten things, she also posts about her hobbies.

She will show us what her latest knitting project is, for example.

The thing other than law about which she posts most, though, is her chickens.

She and her family keep a coop with several varieties of chickens. She posts about what she is feeding them. Their interactions with the family’s dog and cat. Their new coop. What they are doing around the yard. How they hop up into her lap sometimes.

She will also occasionally post photos of their eggs. Because there are different breeds, the eggs are various colors and sizes.

The chickens bring Joyce comfort and joy, which she shares with her readers.

I admit that I have no desire to care for chickens myself, but I appreciate Joyce’s sharing her love with all of us.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “chicken or egg.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-29-2024/

Hearts 1st anniversary + Goodreads!

Today marks the first anniversary of the release of my first poetry chapbook, Hearts (Kelsay Books, 2023). It is available from either of those links or directly from me by emailing jcorey.poet@gmail.com. Bonus: I can sign or inscribe for you, if you wish.

The poems in Hearts center on my mother, mostly in her final years when she was living with heart failure. It is a chapbook, so it is only 21 poems. (Chapbooks are generally under fifty pages and are organized around a central theme or device.) One of the blessings of having the book out in the world is that so many people have told me that my experiences with my mother reminded them of taking care of their own loved one. I appreciate that my poems touch people’s hearts and minds and give them an opportunity to reflect on their own lives.

As many of you know, I returned to my childhood love of writing poetry in my fifties and my education in the craft has come largely through my poetry community, which includes the Grapevine Poets, the Boiler House Poets Collective, and the Binghamton Poetry Project, recently re-named the Binghamton Writers Project. At times, I’ve felt the learning curve has been steep, but I’ve managed to keep learning and growing as a poet.

What I didn’t fully realize before the publication of Hearts was how daunting the whole publicity enterprise is and how little I understood what it would entail. Kelsay provided a helpful packet of information and I initially sent out some queries to get reviews in journals, but no one responded, life intervened, and I dropped it. The thought of entering contests was bewildering. I made some attempts at getting my book into local bookstores but there was a persistent problem with listing at a distributor. I’ve gotten several cold calls from a scammy publicity company, even though I’ve asked to be removed from their call list. I’m grateful to have had a handful of signing and/or reading opportunities locally but I can’t wrap my head around what it would take to organize an actual book tour.

When my first annual royalty payment arrived, I realized that a good percentage of those sales through Kelsay or Amazon were from people that I knew who had ordered from them. I had sold more copies personally than had been ordered online, which was simultaneously a pat on the back and a stark reminder of my responsibility for marketing my book.

While I have (repeatedly) posted about Hearts here at Top of JC’s Mind and cross-posted on Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram, I’m pleased to report that, as of today, I am a certified Goodreads author. Many thanks to poet Samantha Terrell, whose review of Hearts on Goodreads led to my claiming an author page there!

Are you on Goodreads? If so, I’d be honored if you would follow me, Joanne Corey, there and follow Samantha Terrell, too. While it’s no longer National Poetry Month, it’s always a great time to support poets and poetry!

One-Liner Wednesday: “First Grandchild” on Silver Birch Press

Sharing that my poem about my mom, “First Grandchild,” is now part of the ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER series on Silver Birch Press; my blog post about it is here.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/05/22/one-liner-wednesday-let-the-confusion-commence/ (Check the link to learn about “up commas”!)

“First Grandchild” on Silver Birch Press

I am honored that my poem “First Grandchild” from my chapbook Hearts (Kelsay Books, 2023) is featured today by Silver Birch Press as part of their ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER series. Many thanks to Melanie and the Silver Birch Press team for including me in this series!

The first grandchild in the title is my daughter E, shown in the photo above holding baby ABC with my mother, known here at Top of JC’s Mind as Nana, and me.

You can read a bit more about the writing of the poem in the author’s note at the link above.

Having this appear at this time is especially poignant. May 16th would have been my mother’s 92nd birthday.

Tomorrow, May 22nd, will be the fifth anniversary of her death.

It’s a good day to remember the immense love and care that she showed for all of us for so many years.

Her love lives on.

Recording of Fall Forever

(Photo credit: The Fenimore Art Museum website)

The recording of the staged reading of Eva Schegulla’s Fall Forever is now available on the Fenimore Art Museum YouTube channel for a limited time. It will likely be taken down mid-June 2024.

I wrote about the staged reading here. I know through reading Eva’s blog, Ink in My Coffee, that she has already completed revisions that grew from the staged reading and that she is submitting it for fully staged production. I’ll be sure to keep you posted when it debuts so that you can attend if you are in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, enjoy the recording for the next month!

National Poetry Month wrap-up

April is National Poetry Month in the United States and I had a busy time this year, so I thought I’d do a post with links for those who wanted to catch up.

On April 14th, I sang with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton in a concert entitled America Speaks. We sang settings of poems by American poets with readings by members of S.T.A.R. (Southern Tier Actors Read).

On April 2oth, I travelled to Cooperstown for the Write Out Loud 2024 performance which included my poem “Some Time Else” from my chapbook, Hearts.

On April 27th, I read with the Grapevine Poets at the Broome County Arts Council, where their POETREE was on display.

Throughout the month, my poem “North Adams Public Library” was part of their National Poetry Month display.

I contributed to the Tioga Arts Council’s Poetry Out Loud series with a recording of my poem, “The Bridge.”

On April 30th, current US Poet Laureate Ada Limón read at Smith College, which, though I could not attend in person, I wrote about here.

One thing that was missing from April this year was attending workshops with the Binghamton Poetry Project, which is in the process of being re-organized as the Binghamton Writers Project. I missed the chance to learn from Binghamton University grad students and other community poets who attend these workshops.

I took another step forward with my full-length poetry collection by sending a revised draft to April Ossmann for review. April has sent me extensive feedback so there will be more revisions and then a new round of submissions. Stay tuned for updates!

Early May bonus is that poet Samantha Terrell is featuring me in the SHINE section of her website.

I love it when National Poetry Month goes into overtime!

I’d love to hear in comments about others’ National Poetry Month experiences this year. Stay tuned for more poetry news – and more eclectic musings – here at Top of JC’s Mind.

Ada Limón at Smith College

About the featured image: Ada Limón, as poet laureate, has begun an initiative called Poetry in Parks in conjunction with the National Parks Service. To complement this project, she invited poets to write new work centered on our relationship with nature. In April, Milkweed Editions published You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World as a testament to that enduring relationship.

Ada Limón, 24th poet laureate of the United States, gave an amazing reading at my alma mater, Smith College, on the last day of National Poetry Month, April 30, 2024, followed by a conversation with Matt Donovan, director of the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith.


So many things struck me about the reading, many of which resonate with my own poetic sensibilities. The sense of place and relationship with the natural world. The vast possibilities for poems that surrounds us. The exquisiteness of short poems, just long enough to offer what needs to be said. The way the mind seeks myriad connections. That there are poems written for oneself that may never be shared with others. The interest in received forms without the compulsion to write them for public consumption. The honesty and authenticity of her work and of her speaking between poems and responding to questions.

I was not able to be there in person but I know John M. Greene Hall, where the reading took place, well, having spent many hours there as a student rehearsing and performing with choral groups and practicing the organ. It’s a cavernous space, which seats about 2,000 people. I was awed at the intimacy that Ada Limón was able to project, as though she were reading and talking with a small circle of friends in a living room after dinner.

I wish I had been able to be there.

Maybe, someday, I will hear her read in person.

SoCS: notes and notes

As a musician, I think first of musical notes. How many thousands of them have I seen in piano or organ scores, choral music, hymnals, study scores, the Sesame Street Songbook still sitting on my piano, even with no little ones around?

Of course, I think of written notes, too. I still write myself reminder notes or notes to leave on the kitchen counter for the rest of the family when I need to go out. I used to write long-hand notes to people quite a lot, although many of those have been replaced by email at this point.

Does email still qualify as a note?
*****
Linda’s prompt from Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “note.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/05/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-4-2024/