Poem accepted
I recently received news that one of my poems was accepted to be published in the sidewalk poetry project in the town where I live, Northfield, Minnesota.
Northfield is home to two colleges (St. Olaf and Carleton), and in part because of that, has a relatively high interest in the arts: Though our population is only slightly over 20,000, we actually have an arts commissioner (the current one was formerly a local school principal, and is a personal friend).
The judges deliberated without knowing who wrote the poems (we submitted without any names on the pages with our poems), and mine was one of those chosen.
In recent years, I have tried a few ABC poems in the style of former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky, whose poem in that form was published in the New York Review of Books; I discovered it when Dustin Hoffman recited it from memory on the Charlie Rose show. His ABC poem with one word per letter of the alphabet, in order.
I have been experimenting in this form, taking the alphabet or words or phrases, and writing acrostics with one word per letter, as Pinsky did. It is a more rigorous approach for acrostics. The mind loves to break out of a prison and overcome or transform limits into dance. I'm considering titling the collection, "My Acrostic Year" (title after the name of the month of MAY).
I submitted one of the simpler ABC poems to a local sidewalk poetry competition, and one was accepted. I wrote "ABCs at the Zoo" hoping that school-children would be able to understand all the words.
I wrote another poem in the same form for my wife's classroom, which begins, "A baby caterpillar doesn't / eat fresh grapes! / Have it just keep / licking milkweed nicely, OK? Please?...".
A third of my poems in the same form was written with Bee Colony Collapse Disorder in mind — the phenomenon causing many bees worldwide to die, perhaps caused by overuse of pesticides. I have that on the back of my business card, and it begins, "Amazing bees can dance / everywhere, frolic gracefully, / hold inner joy...".
Poets.org recently did a short piece for National Poetry Month that featured the sidewalk poetry program in Northfield that accepted my poem. You can read it here: https://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/stanza/npm-event-spotlight-sidewalk-poetry
Here's a documentary by Paul Krauss about the Northfield sidewalk poetry program, in existence since 2011: http://documentarynorthfield.com/major-documentaries/sidewalk-poetry/
The Northfield Arts & Culture press release notes:
“This project is funded by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) through the Arts and Culture Heritage Fund, as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature, with added support from the Friends and Foundation of the Northfield Library.”
Here's my poem that was accepted for the sidewalk poetry competition:
Northfield is home to two colleges (St. Olaf and Carleton), and in part because of that, has a relatively high interest in the arts: Though our population is only slightly over 20,000, we actually have an arts commissioner (the current one was formerly a local school principal, and is a personal friend).
The judges deliberated without knowing who wrote the poems (we submitted without any names on the pages with our poems), and mine was one of those chosen.
In recent years, I have tried a few ABC poems in the style of former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky, whose poem in that form was published in the New York Review of Books; I discovered it when Dustin Hoffman recited it from memory on the Charlie Rose show. His ABC poem with one word per letter of the alphabet, in order.
I have been experimenting in this form, taking the alphabet or words or phrases, and writing acrostics with one word per letter, as Pinsky did. It is a more rigorous approach for acrostics. The mind loves to break out of a prison and overcome or transform limits into dance. I'm considering titling the collection, "My Acrostic Year" (title after the name of the month of MAY).
I submitted one of the simpler ABC poems to a local sidewalk poetry competition, and one was accepted. I wrote "ABCs at the Zoo" hoping that school-children would be able to understand all the words.
I wrote another poem in the same form for my wife's classroom, which begins, "A baby caterpillar doesn't / eat fresh grapes! / Have it just keep / licking milkweed nicely, OK? Please?...".
A third of my poems in the same form was written with Bee Colony Collapse Disorder in mind — the phenomenon causing many bees worldwide to die, perhaps caused by overuse of pesticides. I have that on the back of my business card, and it begins, "Amazing bees can dance / everywhere, frolic gracefully, / hold inner joy...".
Poets.org recently did a short piece for National Poetry Month that featured the sidewalk poetry program in Northfield that accepted my poem. You can read it here: https://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/stanza/npm-event-spotlight-sidewalk-poetry
Here's a documentary by Paul Krauss about the Northfield sidewalk poetry program, in existence since 2011: http://documentarynorthfield.com/major-documentaries/sidewalk-poetry/
The Northfield Arts & Culture press release notes:
“This project is funded by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) through the Arts and Culture Heritage Fund, as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature, with added support from the Friends and Foundation of the Northfield Library.”
Here's my poem that was accepted for the sidewalk poetry competition:
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