April 2023 - National Poetry Month - Encouragers and Mentors

Saint Catherine of Siena by Lo Spagna (Giovanni di Pietro), c. 1512
Public domain; Art Institute of Chicago

 

Saint Catherine of Siena is a patron saint of nurses. I’m not a Roman Catholic, but I admire St. Catherine for her ministry to people who were sick, as well as those in poverty. I also admire nurses who offer loving care to their patients, often bringing some cheer into the room. Good nurses work hard and show a lot of love. The following poem honors a nurse who encouraged a young girl to write poetry. The following two poems honor poet mentors—both Wisconsin poets.

 

“Write Some Poetry”

Another hospital stay and more surgeries.
My parents visit me sometimes
But it is not enough.
I’d rather be at home.

Not here, with all of these
Doctors and nurses
And all of these other kids
Who must stay in the Burn Unit of the hospital.

But I need to be here.
My parents tell me that I need surgery.
My doctor tells me this
And so do the nurses.

One nurse is always so kind and smiling,
Always so happy to see me each time I’m here.
One day, she gives me a book of paper and says,
“Write some poetry.”

Does she see a poet within my young body?
I’m not even ten years old yet
But my favorite nurse encourages me to write poetry.

I have never written poetry before.
What is poetry? I take it upon myself to find out.
My soul screams “Challenge accepted!” and I begin to write.
I learn how to write poetry, and the pain and loneliness that I feel
Fade away into the words that I put onto the pages.

What a blessing poetry brings! What an escape from my misery!
I wrote poetry when I was sad, lonely, angry or scared.
I wrote poetry when I was happy, in love, grateful and strong.
Thank you, wonderful nurse, for coaxing poetry into my life.

~ Dawn Colclasure

 

Peggy Trojan, whose work has been published several times on The Poetry Challenge, wrote to honor her mentor.

Mentor

 

Seventy-seven, I enrolled
in a poetry class for seniors.
Jan Chronister, the instructor, told me
I needed to send in my work.

One assignment, “A Day I Will Remember.”
I wrote about the end of World War II,
submitted “August 1945,”
became a published poet.

 

For the past thirteen years,
Jan has continued to teach me
as a friend and fellow poet.
We attend conferences together,

often present joint readings,
edit each other’s work,
applaud publications and awards. 

 

When she talks, I hear:
     Be honest and brave.
     Get to the point.
     Cut unnecessary words.
     Write what you know and feel.
     Don’t get cute. Keep it simple.
     Send it in. 

 

It’s working for me.
I think in poetry.

- Peggy Trojan

 

The following poem, honoring Ellen Kort, the first Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, brought back wonderful memories. Ellen was a fine poet and a very special human being. She was also one of my mentors.

Waiting for Poems

Ellen covers the table with an Indian blanket
and a few sacred items from home.
Believing there is a poet's voice in each of us,
she lights a candle, then smiles
with quiet expectation.

When we read our “spillings” out loud,
Ellen honors us with attentive listening.
Ah! she says, in appreciation
we are not sure we deserve,
then invites us, Read it again.

Ellen has faith — 
faith in the creative force within us
faith in the poems themselves.
They will wait for us, she says,
and when we are ready to claim them
they will emerge.

~ Marjorie Pagel

This poem originally appeared in the 2019 Wisconsin Poet's Calendar, honoring Ellen Kort, Wisconsin's first Poet Laureate.

 

I also wrote a poem in honor of Ellen. It was published in Quill and Parchment in 2014. I attended her workshops at the Green Lake Writers Conference (which, alas, is no more) and several at The Clearing in Door County, Wisconsin (which still offers wonderful poetry workshops each year).

 

In Ellen’s Poetry Class
        for Ellen Kort

Ellen really believes
when she turns
holding the lit candle
we will receive light

Even if today
I doubt the power
of symbol
of ceremony

my pen
catches the spark

~ Wilda Morris

 

Hopefully you will find a way to honor those who have encouraged you to write and mentored you as a poet. Check back on May 1 to see what the next poetry challenge will be.

These poets retain copyright over their own poems.

 

Bios:

Ever since Dawn Colclasure was told to "write some poetry" at a young age, she got started scribbling poems and hasn't looked back. Her first poem was published when she was 11 and her first poetry book was published as a college student. She has authored several poetry books and her poems have appeared in PANIC! Poetry & Arts, Happy Insomniac, EOTU E-Zine of Fiction, Art and Poetry, and The Front Porch Review, among others. Dawn also enjoys hiking, exploring, baking and creating art. She loves to read, which is helpful as a book reviewer, and her experiences as a Deaf burn survivor continues to inspire her work. Her website is at https://dawnsbooks.com/ and she's on Twitter @dawncolclasure.

Wilda Morris, Workshop Chair of Poets and Patrons of Chicago and a past President of both the Illinois State Poetry Society and Poets and Patrons, has published numerous in anthologies, webzines, and print publications. She has won awards for formal and free verse and haiku. Recently she has written more haiku, senryu and rengay. Wilda has published two books of poetry, Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant (RWG Press) and Pequod Poems: Gamming with Moby-Dick (Kelsay Books). Her third book, At Goat Hollow and other Poems, is scheduled for publication this spring.

Marjorie Pagel, a retired English teacher living in Franklin, Wisconsin, enjoys practicing the craft of writing poetry and short prose. She has two published collections: The Romance of Anna Smith and other stories and Where I'm From. Ellen Kort was one of her earliest mentors.

Peggy Trojan's new release, a collection about her father, titled PA, won second in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook contest in 2022. It won Honorable Mention for the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for 2022.  Her previous release, River, won second in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Chapbook contest in 2021. It also won an award of Outstanding Achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association. She is the author of two full collections and five chapbooks. Her books are available on Amazon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 2021 Challenge: When I Die

 

 Photo by Karin Addis

For the February Poetry Challenge, you can take inspiration from these poems:

these feathers

seem innocent
even pure
like nothing hard or bad
ever happened
they lift off the slate-slabbed trail
float their way to the bay
where whitefish think they have found
a new mother or maybe a cousin
I want my leaving
to be this
of course blood and bones and guts
but in the end
to know
we really are family

~ Maryann Hurtt

From Poetry Hall, 3:1 (April 15, 2020).

 

When The Time Comes…

            for me to go
let it be spring—
season of my arrival

            but give me first
a wrapped-up gift of years
four score and more

            and let there be
a cocky young row of crocuses
singing at my exit door

~ Jeri McCormick 

From Hummingbird, XXX:2 (2020), p. 29.

 

Probably the best known poem by Ellen Kort, first Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, is “If Death Were a Woman.” Kort begins by saying “I’d want her to come for me / smelling of cinnamon. She tells us what she and death would do together before finally posing for pictures “in the last light.” You can read the whole beautiful poem at https://www.versewisconsin.org/Issue111/poems/kort.html.

 

The February Challenge:

PLEASE NOTE: THE SUBMISSION ADDRESS CHANGED RECENTLY.

ALSO, please follow the guidelines carefully. For example, if your name is at the top of the page or under the title instead of at the bottom, I might accidentally miss it when preparing to send the poems to the judge, and your poem could be disqualified as a result. If it isn’t under your poem, I might mistype it. Also, if you don’t follow the directions in how to write the subject line of your email, your poem might be missed.

The challenge for this month is a poem about “when I die.”

Each of us will die someday. How do we want it to go? How should death come? When? What instructions would you like to leave for those you leave behind? Comedian Steven Wright has been quoted as saying, “When I die I’m going to leave my body to science fiction.” What do you want to leave behind, and for whom? Use your imagination, your creativity, your spirituality. Write a poem that takes death seriously but not morbidly. Or be humorous in your approach.

Title your poem unless it is in a form that discourages titles. Single-space. Note that the blog format does not accommodate long lines; if they are used, they have to be broken in two, with the second part indented (as in the poem “Lilith,” one of the May 2018 winners), or the post has to use small print. Put your name and bio under your poem. Please keep the poem on the left margin (standard 1” margin). Do not put any part of your submission on a colored background. Do not use a fancy font and do not use a header or footer.

You may submit a published poem if you retain copyright, but please include publication data. This applies to poems published in books, journals, newspapers, or on the Internet. Poems already used on this blog are not eligible to win, but the poets may submit a different poem, unless the poet has been a winner the last three months.

The deadline is February 15. Poems submitted after the deadline will not be considered. There is no charge to enter, so there are no monetary rewards; however, winners are published on this blog. Please don’t stray too far from “family-friendly” language (some children and teens read this blog). No simultaneous submissions, please. You should know by the end of the month whether or not your poem will be published. Decision of the judge or judges is final.

The poet retains copyright on each poem. If a previously unpublished poem wins and is published elsewhere later, please give credit to this blog. I do not register copyright with the US copyright office, but by US law, the copyright belongs to the writer unless the writer assigns it to someone else.

If the same poet wins three months in a row (which has not happened thus far), he or she will be asked not to submit the following two months.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send one poem only to wildamorris4[at]gmail[dot]com (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for “dot”). Put “February Poetry Challenge Submission” FOLLOWED BY YOUR NAME in the subject line of your email. Include a brief bio that can be printed with your poem if you are a winner this month. Please put your name and bio UNDER THE POEM in your email and/or attachment. If the poem has been published before, please put that information UNDER the poem also. NOTE: If you sent your poem to my other email address, or do not use the correct subject line, the poem may get lost and not be considered for publication. Do not submit poems as PDF files. Pease excuse repetition in stating the rules. You might be surprised how many poets do not adhere carefully to the rules.

Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner, so be sure that you put your name (exactly as you would like it to appear if you do win) at the end of the poem.

Poems may be pasted into an email or sent as an attachment (Doc, Docx, rich text or plain text; no PDF files, please). or both. Please do not indent the poem or center it on the page. It helps if you submit the poem in the format used on the blog (Title and poem left-justified; title in bold (not all in capital letters); your name at the bottom of the poem). Also, please do not use multiple spaces instead of commas in the middle of lines. I have no problem with poets using that technique (I sometimes do it myself). However I have difficulty getting the blog to accept and maintain extra spaces.

Poems shorter than 40 lines are generally preferred but longer poems will be considered.

Bios:
Now retired after thirty years of hospice nursing, Maryann Hurtt continues to love stories of resiliency and wisdom in hard times. Aldrich Press published her chapbook, River, in 2016 and her poems have appeared in a variety of print and on-line publications. She received a Best of the Net nomination in 2018.
Jeri McCormick, of Madison Wisconsin, taught creative writing 25 years in several settings, including senior centers and the Elderhostel program.  Her work appears in journals and anthologies, and she has co-authored two books on writing.  Her most recent collections of poems are “Marrowbone of Memory” (Salmon Poetry press in Ireland) and “Breathtaking” (Hummingbird Press).

 

© Wilda Morris