Whew! Launching into the last written post of Linda’s Just Jot It January ’24! There is one more day in January, but I’ll be posting a quote tomorrow for One-Liner Wednesday, which means no running on about things.
Thanks once again to author Linda G. Hill of Life in Progress for offering this opportunity to get the blogging year off to a good start by posting every day in January.
I’m grateful to have met this challenge again this year, although I can’t carry this posting pace into the rest of the months. I’m planning to spend a lot of time through mid-April revising my full-length poetry collection in preparation for work with a professional editor, which will probably be followed by another round of revisions before a decision point on next steps toward publication. I should probably also devote some time to doing single poem submissions. I tend to be diligent about that for a bit and then fall off the wagon and go for a few months without putting work out to journals and presses. The places that are still actively considering my work have dwindled so I guess it’s time to get back on that.
Thanks also to the other Just Jot It January bloggers and readers. I appreciate having a blogging community for support and inspiration.
Write on – in whatever way works best for you – and let’s all meet up at Linda’s for Just Jot It January ’25! Don’t forget, though, that Linda coordinates One-Liner Wednesdays and Stream of Consciousness Saturdays year-round. While I don’t manage those every week, I do them often so I hope to meet you there sometimes, too. ***** You can find out more about Just Jot It January and join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/01/30/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-30th-2024/
My family is not that big on taking photographs all the time. I am particularly disinclined to selfies, so there are not a lot of close-ups of me.
As a poet, though, one often has to submit headshots to accompany poems and bios, so…
I was lucky that relatively early in my publishing experience I wrote a poem on a prompt from Silver Birch Press for their MY MANE MEMORIES series, which was about our hair. My poem was called “Crowning Glory.” We had to send a close-up photo of ourselves, illustrating the poem, so spouse B and I went into our backyard on a sunny day to show off my silver locks in the sunshine.
Since then, I’ve used this photo whenever I needed to submit a headshot. It’s appeared in a number of journals and is on the back cover of my chapbook, Hearts (Kelsay Books, 2023). It’s the photo that is used here at Top of JC’s Mind and on its Facebook page. When I don’t have a more relevant photo to go with a blog post on Instagram, I use this headshot.
At this point, this close-up is a bit out of date. After cataract surgery, I no longer wear glasses on a regular basis. Due to some dental issues that required using orthodontia to correct my bite, my smile looks a bit different. I have a few more smile wrinkles now.
I really should have a new close-up taken.
Still, I’m so attached to this one and have spread it around to so many places, I’m not quite ready to replace it.
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.
I’m pleased to share the online version of Emulate Magazine Fall 2023 (Volume 5, Issue 1), which includes three of my MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts) ekphrastic poems. Many thanks to the Emulate Magazine team at Smith College for including my work in this issue! Smith is my alma mater, so being chosen for this publication is particularly close to my heart.
The theme of the issue is “Metamorphosis.” I was excited to discover that the editorial team had chosen my poem, “Time/Rate/Distance,” to open the issue! This poem is based on Richard Nonas’s Cut Back Through (for Bjorn), which is a long-term outdoor installation on the MASS MoCA grounds. It is comprised of three large granite chairs and five footstools. I suppose “Time/Rate/Distance” could be considered an American sonnet, because it has 14 lines, with a turn between lines 8 and 9, like an Italian sonnet. (Just throwing that comment in to address the common criticism that I don’t write enough in received Western forms, like sonnets, villanelles, and sestinas.)
“I Must Speak My Poem” (page 11) is based on Stephen Vitiello’s sound installation All Those Vanished Engines, housed in the Boiler House at MASS MoCA. My beloved Boiler House Poets Collective recorded our first reading there and we always visit when we are back for our reunion residencies. I was disappointed this year that we weren’t able to climb all the way to the rooftop, which offers a spectacular view of North Adams and the surrounding hills.
“Translation” (page 26) is a haiku based on the works of Justin Favela, whose pieces translating landscape paintings by José María Velasco using the paper and glue techniques of piñata art were part of the MASS MoCA Kissing Through a Curtain exhibition (2020-2021). I especially love that this poem appears on the page with a striking photograph by Avery Maltz.
All three of these poems are part of my chapbook manuscript of ekphrastic poems based on current and past exhibitions at MASS MoCA. Two of them are also included in my full-length manuscript centered on the North Adams area. I will, of course, add Emulate Magazine to my list of acknowledgements and my author page, joannecorey.com.
Be sure to check out this issue of Emulate Magazine! It is chock-full of poetry, prose, and images, all centered on metamorphosis and the myriad ways it manifests.
I’m pleased to share the December post from the Kelsay Books blog that features the three of us on our MASS MoCA adventures. While Jessica and I live near one another and are long-time members of the Grapevine Poets and BHPC, this was our first time meeting Mary Beth. Although Mary Beth, as a Massachusite, was already familiar with MASS MoCA, we were thrilled to welcome her to BHPC and look forward to her return next fall for our 2024 reunion residency.
Mary Beth was the first of us to publish with Kelsay. Her debut collection, Winter at a Summer House, was published in November, 2021. Jessica’s second chapbook, All Those Years Underwater, followed in November, 2022. (Jessica’s first chapbook, For Dear Life, had been published by Finishing Line Press in May, 2022.) My first chapbook, Hearts, appeared in May, 2023.
I love this photo of us taken by fellow BHPC member Wendy Stewart! Wendy managed to catch not only, from left to right, me, Mary Beth, and Jessica, with our books and smiles but also a reflection of part of Natalie Jeremijenko’s Tree Logic, the iconic art installation at the main entrance to MASS MoCA. Commonly referred to as “the upside-down trees,” the maples had graced the courtyard since April 1999, with the trees replaced occasionally so that they could re-orient themselves and spread their roots. The image of the upside-down tree had come to symbolize MASS MoCA and was featured on a number of items in the gift shop.
As I was heading home from our residency, I was shocked to read that Tree Logic was ending its almost 25 years on exhibit in just a few days. The final trees are transplanted on the MASS MoCA campus along the Speedway. I’ll make sure to visit them next October when BHPC is again in residence, or, perhaps, I will make it back to the Museum next May for the 25th anniversary celebration.
I know the trees will be reaching for the light in their new orientation, their roots expanding to anchor them to the site of so much change over the decades. Over time, they will straighten, although they will always bear some remembrance of their time of inversion.
Yes, it’s been over a month since I returned home from the Boiler House Poets Collective residency with The Studios at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts) in North Adams but I am finally getting around to a wrap-up post. I did post a couple of times during the residency, about Marika Maijala and our reading at the Bear & Bee Bookshop, although that was a far cry from most of our years in residence when I would post daily. Things were very busy, so posting took a back seat and this past month has been loaded with other commitments, such as the launch of the Third Act Upstate New York working group and the first concert of the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton’s 45th anniversary season. I also needed time to reflect on the residency and what it meant for the future of the Boiler House Poets Collective.
Until this year, the Boiler House Poets Collective reunion residencies had always had at least half of the participants being members of the original group that met in 2015 as the first group of poets in residence brought together in a collaboration between Jeffrey Levine of Tupelo Press and The Studios at MASS MoCA. For 2023, the number of participants went from eight to ten, with only myself and Kyle Laws planning to return in 2023. (Sadly, last-minute health complications prevented Kyle from joining us, so I was the lone “original” in 2023. I’m hoping to have this be a one-time occurrence.)
I had inherited the role of liaison with The Studios but also wound up acting as an organizer for this year of transition. I was determined to assemble a full complement of ten and to provide for all the elements that had been part of past residencies, including studio time, museum visits, daily workshopping, a group project, a public reading, and discussion/social time (often accompanied by food and drink). Because, in prior years, we had always had a core of originals, adding in new participants from among our poet-friends as slots became available, we hadn’t felt called to define who we were as a group. I thought, at this juncture, we needed to be more intentional about our identity and our goals. I let people know that we would be having an organizational meeting near the end of the residency to talk about what was important to us and what our plans would be going forward.
I admit that I was really nervous about how things would work out with so many people who had never met each other. For the first time, we had a member who was not herself a poet. In 2022, the BHPC residency overlapped with the residency of Nancy Edelstein, whose work centers around light. With that inspiration, I had designed our group project around the theme of light, inviting each person to contribute work that had to do with light. I had expected a group of poems but the amazing thing was that people began to notice light in new ways. One of our members was inspired to take photographs showcasing light and shadow. We were able to share our light-themed work with each other. It’s not yet clear whether or not we will produce some conglomeration of these that is shareable with the public. If we do, I’ll be sure to share it here.
Another thing that was new for BHPC this year was that we workshopped some pieces that were not poetry, including an essay, scene from a play, and excerpt of a radio play. It was interesting to expand our literary horizons. While we expect to remain grounded in poetry, it’s good to have that flexibility to serve our members’ needs.
I felt that the group had a good vibe from the time of our opening night dinner when we were first together but I was nervous for our organizational meeting when people would be assessing how things had gone and if they wanted to return in 2024. I was thrilled – and a bit teary – when all but one person immediately said they wanted to return next year; the remaining person hopes to but lives across the country, creating a lot more complications than those of us within easy driving distance. People enthusiastically volunteered for organizational roles, including inventing some duties I would never have thought of on my own, so that I will be able to concentrate on just doing the liaison role. I even have a deputy who is shadowing me and can take over if I’m sidelined for any reason. This new constellation has embraced being a collective in a wonderful way and I am immensely grateful.
On a personal level, I appreciated how supportive people were of my work. As regular readers here at Top of JC’s Mind may recall, I grew up in the North Adams area and have two manuscripts, a full-length and a chapbook, that I am submitting to presses and contests. I’m at a crossroads with the full-length collection. I have a contract offer from a hybrid publisher but I’m not sure that is the way I want to go. One day over lunch, people were listening to my concerns and offering suggestions, which were very helpful and have led to my scheduling a manuscript consultation with a professional editor next month. I’m hoping that will help me clarify the path I need to pursue.
I also appreciated that people took my work seriously. One of the poets said that my poems were important in preserving the history of the area. That was so gratifying to me, even though I seldom dare to think in those terms. I do think about those poems as being ones that only I would write, given my perspective as someone who grew up there but that has lived elsewhere most of my adult life. It’s a sort of inside/outside perspective that would be difficult to replicate in quite the same way. I don’t tend to think that my following the dictum to “write what you know” would seem important to someone else, so it was nice to hear. It makes my search for a publisher and my wish to have the book be as strong as possible feel more weighty.
So, I have joyfully marked the dates for the 2024 Boiler House Poets Collective residency on my calendar for next October. I’m looking forward to being among this remarkable group of women again, but I’m also grateful to know that, if something happens that prevents me from being there, the group will go on without me.
When I saw that Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week was “prime,” the first thing that leapt into my mind was Gail DiMaggio’s first book of poetry, Woman Prime, which won the Permafrost Prize from the University of Alaska.
Gail was one of the original members of the Boiler House Poets Collective, now retired from attending our reunion residencies, but still a much-admired legacy member. I especially admire her ekphrastic work and her remarkable ability to write about difficult topics with insight and grace.
I invite you to check out Woman Prime or Gail’s other work and experience its power for yourself.
Yesterday, my new poem “drinks” appeared in Issue Two of Mania Magazine. Mania Magazine is “a small, independent literary magazine dedicated to your 3AM works!”
It’s ironic that it came out on the opening day of our residency because this poem was written during the 2015 residency with Jeffrey Levine of Tupelo Press at The Studios, only a few weeks after residencies began, that gave birth to the BHPC. (Anyone who is curious can read my blog posts about that experience.) The short version is that I was in waaaaaaaay over my head, and was not sleeping well and overwhelmed most of the time. I did not write this poem at 3 AM but my brain was definitely in that mode, resulting in a somewhat atypical poem for me. I’ve sent it out a few times over the years to journals that had a more expermimental or quirky bent but it has never been picked up until Mania arrived on the scene.
This is only their second issue and I’m so pleased to be included. There’s prose, poetry, art and photography – and you can read and enjoy at any time of the day or night.
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!
My poem “Grandpa’s pipe smoke lingers on the stoop” has just been published in Issue 3.2 of The Purposeful Mayonnaise, a Canadian-based bimonthly literary and art journal-platform. The theme for this issue is “Home.” It’s available for free download at the link above. Make sure to view all the amazing art and writing, including an interview!
My poem is part of my currently unpublished full-length collection that centers around the North Adams area and my family’s experiences there. I wrote it during the 2019 Boiler House Poets Collective residency at The Studios at MASS MoCA.
Its original title was “122 State Street.” For those of you who know North Adams and who would like to be oriented physically, the location is right before heading over Hadley Overpass toward Main Street.
This poem is about my maternal grandparents’ home when I was in the lower grades of primary school, over fifty years ago now. Remember that your comments are always welcome here at Top of JC’s Mind.
Joanne Corey 