Tag: poem

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.

“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.

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.

Poetry Out Loud ’24

To celebrate National Poetry Month, the Tioga (NY) Arts Council sponsors a series of recordings of local poets reading a poem of their choice.

I’m pleased to say that my poem “The Bridge” is part of this initiative this year. You can listen to my recording here.

You can find the 2024 Tioga Arts Council recordings here, including offerings from fellow Grapevine Poets Merrill Douglas and Jessica Dubey.

Enjoy!

19 years ago

About my friend Angie.

(Hearts graphic by Angie Traverse)

Nineteen years ago today, my friend Angie died from lung cancer. She was only 54. She had never smoked or lived in a house with high radon or worked in a place with known carcinogens but, by whatever combination of genetics and living, cancer appeared and was diagnosed when she was fifty.

She was treated by some great doctors locally and in Boston and she fought hard for four years and some months, but passed away on Good Friday, 2005.

There have been a lot of developments in cancer treatment since then, some of which are advertised on television. I often wonder if any of those medications would have helped Angie live longer and better.

For years, I made contributions on March 25 and on Angie’s October birthday to the charitable fund established in her memory but, a few years back, the online page went away. Now, I just remember and write an occasional post. One of my favorite Angie posts is this one, written when I turned 54.

That year, I also wrote a poem about Angie, which was published by Wilderness House Literary Review:

Fifty-four

We were the October Babes,
You from 1950,
Me from 1960.

On your fifty-fourth birthday,
You managed coffee ice cream with hot fudge
Despite the metastases in your neck.

On my fifty-fourth birthday,
I raise a solo toast with your favorite Coke-with-a-lemon-wedge
To the October Babes being fifty-four together.
*****

This October, God willing, I will turn 64.

I wish Angie were still here, as an about-to-be 74-year-old grandma, mom, artist, and dear friend. The world could use her compassion, creativity, and spirit right now.

Reblog: Marilyn McCabe on Gail DiMaggio

Marilyn McCabe and Gail DiMaggio are original members of the Boiler House Poets Collective, which is how we met. I am pleased to reblog this post from Marilyn’s blog, O Write, in which she offers her reflections on Gail’s poem, “Metta for Judy who Loved a Biker”.

I don’t want to steal any thunder from Marilyn or Gail here, but urge you to check it out.
*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/23/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-23rd-2024/

Angelus

During Just Jot It January, I thought I’d share some of my previously published poems that have been out for a while, as I did on New Year’s Day. I usually don’t put poems within posts when a poem is first published so that people will visit the site that has been so gracious in publishing my work. I will, though, always include the link, even though I am putting the poem in the post.

Today, I’m sharing the poem “Angelus” that I wrote in February, 2020 in response to an Ekphrastic Review Writing Challenge. I wrote a post about it at the time. I constructed a narrative inspired by The Angelus, the 1859 painting by the French artist, Jean-Francois Millet, shown below. I used part of the Angelus prayer in my poem. My home parish when I was growing up rang Angelus bells three times a day as a reminder to pray this prayer. Our pattern was to ring the bell in three groups of three followed by a group of nine. The Angelus rang at 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM, which I used in the poem. I have no idea what the tradition was in France at the time of painting but it worked for the poem, so poetic license?

Angelus by Joanne Corey

The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

At the six o’clock bells, she pauses.
Her hands that had been preparing
breakfast, now clasped in front of her, drift
down to rest over her womb,
which, like Mary’s, conceals 
a miracle.

And the Word was made flesh,
And dwelt among us.

As everyone in the market stops
buying and selling to pray
at the noon bells, she reflects
that another’s flesh is forming
within her, dwelling
in mystery.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

The evening Angelus rings
across the field. As she stands
bowed beside her husband,
she beseeches God that this time
the promised child
will be born.

*****
Join us for Linda’s Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/05/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-5th-2024/

New poem on POETiCA REViEW

I’m pleased to announce that I have a poem published in the special 20th anniversary edition of POETiCA REViEW. You can find my poem, “The Bridge,” by clicking on my name, Joanne Corey, on the first page of the pdf which opens at the link.

Many thanks to the team at POETiCA REViEW for choosing my poem for this special edition. Thanks also to Trish Hopkinson, who published the submission call and an interview with editor Mark A. Murphy. Mark had mentioned in the interview that they wished they had more submissions of ekphrastic poetry, so I happily obliged and suspect that that was part of the reason that they chose “The Bridge” for publication. I was pleased to see that the painting that served as inspiration for the poem, Claude Monet’s The Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool, Giverny, appears on the page with my poem.

I wrote the poem initially in June, 2023 in response to an Ekphrastic Review Writing Challenge. While it wasn’t chosen for publication in the responses to that challenge, I workshopped it with both the Grapevine Poets and the Boiler House Poets Collective to revise it to the form that POETiCA REViEW published.

One of the things that I appreciated about the interview that Trish Hopkinson did with Mark Murphy was the response articulating POETiCA REViEW‘s mission “to reach out to ordinary people, who might not otherwise consider themselves as poets.” This resonates with me as someone who does not have an academic background in poetry. I very much consider myself a “community poet” who has learned about poetry through my connections with the Binghamton Poetry Project; my local poetry circles, the Grapevine Poets and the sadly missed Sappho’s Circle; and the Boiler House Poets Collective, as well as through poet-friends and through reading a wide range of poems and articles about poetry.

I also appreciate POETiCA REViEW‘s tagline, “for the many, not the few.” I have found that my poems are more likely to be published by journals and presses that are seeking a more general audience. For example, Kelsay Books, who published my chapbook Hearts this spring, states in their submission requirements that “submissions should be accessible to a general audience.” I think that many people were scared off poetry in school, thinking they couldn’t understand it properly. I try to write in a way that invites people to bring their own experiences and memories to the poem so it doesn’t feel foreign or intimidating.

I hope you will enjoy the 20th anniversary edition of POETiCA REViEW and more editions available in their archive. Consider submitting to them, in keeping with their mission! And, as always, comments are welcome here at Top of JC’s Mind.

SoCS: a Christmas baking poem

It’s been a busy week and I didn’t look at Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday post until just now, early Saturday morning. (Linda puts it out on Friday so folks have a bit of a heads-up, although huge amounts of advanced planning, as well as edits, are against the SoCS rules.)

As it happens, my post yesterday goes very well with the SoCS prompt today, which is “bake.”

I wrote yesterday about a poem that was just published by Silver Birch Press, “My husband and daughters make Christmas gingerbread.” Yes, it’s “make” rather than “bake” in the title, but baking is definitely involved in the poem.

B has turned into the main baker in the house. This year, with no visits from extended family planned and just the three of us at home, B is not doing our usual Christmas practice of having at least a half dozen kinds of cookies available at once. Instead, he is doing serial baking. So far, he has made pfeffernüsse and pecan puffs.

No gingerbread yet, but I’m sure it will be coming…

Gingerbread Poem on Silver Birch Press!

It’s no secret that submitting poetry for publication is mostly an exercise in rejection, but this week is a time to share some successes. Yesterday, I posted about the publication of three poems in Emulate. Today, I’m happy to share that Silver Birch Press has published my poem “My husband and daughters make Christmas gingerbread” as part of their SPICES & SEASONINGS Series! Many thanks to Melanie and the Silver Birch Press team for including me in this several-months-long-and-counting series!

I submitted to the series back in late August and received the acceptance notification in early September, but assumed, correctly, that they would hold publication until Christmas-cookie-baking season. It’s fun and festive to have it appear now. (Photo is some of our gingerbread from 2010.)

This poem started with a prompt from Heather Dorn in December, 2015, when she was facilitating a women’s poetry workshop called Sappho’s Circle. The middle “action” section of the poem descends from that time. When the Silver Birch Press call for submissions came in this summer, calling for writing about a specific spice or seasoning, I immediately thought of that poem and set about revising it to “spice it up.”

B and I have often discussed how it is the amount of clove in these cookies that distinguishes them so that became the focus of the new opening and closing sections. I was also able to workshop the poem with my fellow Grapevine Poets before submitting to Silver Birch Press.

As it happens, Silver Birch published the poem on their site yesterday, so I was able to share it via social media then, while waiting to do the blog post today, given that I had already posted about the poems in Emulate yesterday and wanted to spread the poetic good news reporting out a bit here at Top of JC’s Mind.

Because of that, I’ve already had a number of comments on Facebook about the poem. One from my college roommate was especially touching, as she referenced her “unexpected joy” at seeing her mother’s words in the cookbook inscription in my poem. My eyes welled with tears, remembering our moms, both of whom died a few years ago.

In workshopping this poem, there was discussion about how much detail to leave in the poem and how much to cut. There is always a tension in revision on this point and I admire poets who can choose just the right detail to impact their audience. I tend to be guilty of too much detail, which sometimes leads to comments of “why should I care?” about some detail or other. I’m grateful, though, that I chose to leave that particular detail in this poem.

Granted, no other reader may have found that specific moment of joy from this poem, but, perhaps, there is another detail that struck them, that reminded them of family or baking or Christmas tradition. It’s not something that I’m likely to ever know.

This poem has been described to me as “lovely” and “charming.” I realize that others would term it overly sentimental or unsophisticated.

Perhaps, it is all of those things.

I do know, though, that it is authentic to who I am as a poet and as a person. I think – or, at least, I hope – that comes through to those who encounter my work.

As always, your comments are welcome, either here, on Facebook, or at the Silver Birch Press post.

Wishing you all a delicious treat that suits your taste!