Tag: poet

haiku for Renee Nicole Good

murdered poet gifts
words crowds magnify Renee’s
voice radiates Good

After finding out the day after her murder that Renee Nicole Good was a poet, I woke up Friday morning with the idea for this haiku in my head. I worked on it and sent it to the nearly-impossible-to-make-the-cut Rattle Poets Respond, which requires submissions by Friday midnight that relate to news from the last week and were written in that time.

After the anticipated rejection arrived, I pondered whether to try another venue or publish it here. I had the rare opportunity to meet with the Grapevine Poets yesterday and decided that I should share it here so it would be available in a timely manner.

I used to meet with the Grapevine Poets for early-evening workshopping every other week but haven’t been able to for most of the last two years due to my health situation. Yesterday, we had an afternoon craft discussion, which I could manage because I could muster enough energy and brain power at that time of day.

During this time of health struggles, I haven’t been able to write poetry very often, so I’ve seized this opportunity. I like writing haiku and tanka and those forms hold the additional appeal of being very short, which matches my limited energy and ability to focus. I haven’t shown this to anyone so this is just coming from my own head and heart.

A feature of this haiku is that I chose to forgo punctuation and capitalization, other than Renee’s name. This gives the opportunity to read the lines with pauses in different places, which places emphasis on different words. It also makes this haiku particularly dense. I’m not sure if this works for other readers or not, but I would appreciate any comments that anyone might like to share.

This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/12/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-12th-2026/

My Poem in Paterson Literary Review!

2025 Paterson Literary Review cover: Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Woman in Red Asian Shawl

Yesterday, I was thrilled to receive my contributor copy of the 2025 Paterson Literary Review. The link is to their site; the 2025 issue is not yet available to order but should be shortly.

For those of you who may not be familiar, the founding editor of the Paterson Literary Review is Maria Mazziotti Gillan, poet, editor, educator, artist, and Bartle Professor Emerita of English and creative writing at Binghamton University. I live in the Binghamton area and, while I never had the privilege of studying with her, many of the local poets that I have learned from through the Binghamton Poetry Project and through other local workshops were her students and often referred to her and used her books of prompts in our work together.

Having a poem in PLR is a dream come true for me. It’s an honor to be in the company of such distinguished poets. I’d start naming names but the post would go on too long and, with a 53 year history, I’d invariably leave out someone whom I should include.

My poem is “Giovanni” and is about my maternal grandfather. It’s part of my yet-to-be-published full-length collection, The Beyond Place, which centers on the North Adams, Massachusetts area, where I grew up and several generations of my family lived. The Hoosac Tunnel is part of the fabric of this poem.

Because of my health issues, I haven’t been able to do much poetry work, including submissions, for months. I submitted “Giovanni” last September and it was accepted in November, but, because the Paterson Literary Review is a huge undertaking to print – this edition has over 300 pages – it is just arriving now. It’s good for me to have a reminder that I am still acknowledged as a poet, even when I’m not able to do much work at the moment.

Thank you, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, for the honor of appearing in the Paterson Literary Review!

SoCS: two years of Hearts!

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!

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/

One-Liner Wednesday: Ross Gay on language

Rather than acknowledge the fact of male-centered or male-dominant or nonmale erasing thinking which the universal “he” enacts — magically, in his book, converting all imagined readers and writers into men — it’s magic, rally, how language stokes the imagination, and the imagination language; actually, it’s not magic at all — rather than pushing into language, pushing against it, dancing with it, so that it not only expresses the multiplicity of possible pronouns and genders and worlds but engages the language such that the difficulty, the richness, the loveliness of an author’s thinking might be contained and expressed.

Ross Gay, The Book of Delights, #32 Nota Bene

This very long sentence, showing off what a poet can do when writing prose, is shared with you through Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Learn more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/08/30/one-liner-wednesday-tough-week-so-far/

Carol Mikoda’s new book!

Poet-friend and fellow Grapevine poet Carol Mikoda has a new book forthcoming from Finishing Line Press, Wind and Water, Leaf and Lake.

Carol’s nature poems have great depth. Of the book, James Crews writes, “The tender, attentive poems of Carol Mikoda show us how to look up and outside of ourselves to notice the intricate aliveness at play in clouds, leaves, and water—to feel the whole world.”

Through August 25th, you can pre-order your copy so you will be among the first to read it in October when it is released. Bonus: you will receive $2 off the list price!

Order today by clicking on the link above!

One-Liner Wednesday: postage

Yesterday, I mailed a copy of my chapbook, Hearts, to the Poetry Center at Smith College, my alma mater, for their collection of books by alumnae poets, using an assortment of old stamps I had on hand.

Please join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/06/07/one-liner-wednesday-how-smoky-is-it/

One-Liner Wednesday: Hearts!

My first poetry chapbook Hearts is now available from Kelsay Books and Amazon!

This joyous announcement is brought to you through Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/05/31/one-liner-wednesday-sorry-3/

SoCS: imposter syndrome

So, here goes one of those dangerous Stream of Consciousness Saturday endeavors…

When I read Linda’s prompt yesterday, which is to use sink/sank/sunk in some way, I did not really have a thought in my head about it and assumed I would not participate this week.

This morning, I was reading this article in Highly Sensitive Refuge on imposter syndrome among the highly sensitive population and it really resonated. Not that every point feels true to my experience, but most do.

I have a tendency to sink into imposter syndrome from time to time. Maybe frequently? Maybe less now than in my younger years? It’s really hard to say.

The point is, with my book Hearts soon to be available from Kelsay Books, I have been consciously trying to fight off the feeling that I’m “just” a community poet who doesn’t really deserve to be considered just, well, a poet in her own right.

Part of the issue is that I was brought up with a deep respect for academic achievement. I truly respect all the years of study that go into degree programs in English or writing. Most of the poets I know and the vast majority of poets I read have these credentials and are much more able to bring that knowledge base into their work than I could ever hope to be. I am grateful for all that I’ve learned from the Binghamton Poetry Project and all the other workshops that I’ve been blessed to be a part of, but, for example, our leaders in Binghamton Poetry Project are all graduate students from Binghamton University, so you get the point…

It’s also not that I don’t get loads of support from other poets, both those with academic credentials and those, like me, without them. The vast majority of poets I interact with are encouraging and wonderful in their support of my work and of me personally. I truly appreciate that and use their voices when I’m in an imposter state of doubt, but one of the things about being an HSP is that you notice and take seriously all reactions around you. When I get into my imposter mode, those negative voices are amplified in my head and feed into my own doubts. Even though the voices that are supportive are more numerous, it takes a huge effort of will to beat back the negative.

I am having some success in breaking away from the imposter thoughts as I do my final preparations for my book launch. Instead of sinking into doubts, I’m reminding myself of what I am actually accomplishing. It’s been a bit easier to do after the very successful reading that Merrill and I did earlier this month. It’s easier when I hold the proof copy of Hearts in my hands. It’s easier when I’m dealing with the wonderful team at Kelsay by email as they finish the final steps in the publication process. I’ve learned so much going through all of this and I’m trying to bring that sense to the next new thing I’ll be doing, which is trying to market and sell my book.

Yikes! That is scary!

You need to be able to center yourself and put yourself out there as being a worthy recipient of someone’s money.

Yikes!

Yeah.

Imposter syndrome.

SoCS: reading

I’m overjoyed with how well Merrill’s and my poetry reading went this afternoon! We had a wonderfully receptive audience and I’m very grateful to Tioga Arts Council for inviting us.

Many thanks to director Christina Di Stefano and to her poet-spouse Dante Di Stefano for creating such a welcoming space and for their kind words.

There may be another post after I’ve had a bit more processing time, but, for now, I think I will contentedly settle in for the evening at home.

[Update: Full post on the reading here.]
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is a word that starts with over. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2023/05/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-13-2023/