Dec.
14
2020
New Hospice Poem in ‘Snapdragon’
My poem, “When the Saints” is in the Winter 2020 ‘Sound and Silence’ issue of Snapdragon, a journal of art and healing. This is a beautiful online journal which includes not only poetry but essays about healing as well. This is another of my utterly true poems about a courageous Hospice patient and her family. This one features a young girl and her trumpet.
Dec.
01
2020
Fortune Telling Poem Published
My poem, “Blue Bicycle Fortune Deck” is in the Fall issue of Sheila-Na-Gig online journal. It is a description of my psychic Grandmother, Esther Monson Erdman, through images of the deck she used. You can read the piece at www.sheilanagigblog.com.
Instead of Tarot cards, Esther preferred regular playing cards for her psychic work. The deck she usually worked with is the traditional 52 card solitaire that commonly featured either a blue or red cherub riding a bicycle on the back. She was superstitious about everything, most especially her cards.
I prefer Tarot because I believe the art adds versatility. I am able to invite my client to look at the images with me to find answers and meaning. But Grandma was a whiz with her Queens and 9s and aces. She always told family fortunes over the Holidays and thus I am especially reminded of her this time of year.
Oct.
21
2020
Being Barbara, A Poem that Had to be Written
When we were visiting Victoria BC last year, we went into Murchie’s Tea Shop which we always visit when we take the ferry to Canada. Besides buying tea to bring home, we had a fresh brewed cup and pastry. Then I went downstairs to the washroom. As I looking down at my hands as I washed them, the woman next to be exclaimed, “Barbara!” I knew immediately she had mistaken me for someone very dear to her. When I looked up and she saw I was not her Barbara, her expression was so shattered. I knew this moment was a poem. My poem, “Being Barbara in the Women’s Washroom,” is now in the Fall 2020 online Crone issue of Gyroscope, “fine poetry to turn your world around.” Go to www.gyroscopereview.com where you can download the free PDF version. My poem is in the second section, pg. 41.
Oct.
20
2020
Ekphrastic Event Online
Each year in August our Northwind Art Gallery invites poets to come in, select a painting and write a poem about it. Previously the gallery then hosted a evening of Ekphrastic readings. This year, however, due to the pandemic, poets were asked to peruse the paintings on the gallery’s website to chose one to write about. We could also visit during weekend open hours to see the work in person. The poems were then posted on the website next to the art they addressed. This is kind of cool since now anyone anywhere can see both painting and poetry! I chose Wanda Mawhinney’s beautiful “The Leafless Trees” as my inspiration for a poem of the same name. You can view the painting and read my work by going to www.northwindarts.org. Click on Literary Arts at the top of the page, then Northwind Reading Series. Under that you will find a button called Ekphrasitic Poetry for Autumn. After you click on this, scroll down through the beautiful art to find mine and Wanda’s leafless trees.
Oct.
20
2020
Beach Poem in Westchester Review Fall Issue
My poem, “Wish Beach,” is online in the Fall 2020 issue of the Westchester Review. To read it, go to www.westchesterreview.com and scroll down to the Poetry section and click on my name. There really are an unusually large number of ringed rocks on Cape George beach where we live in Port Townsend. I make wishes every time I walk my beloved shoreline. I great way to pray.
Oct.
20
2020
Poem in September’s American Journal of Nursing.
This poem is about a situation I encountered several times as a Hospice RN. A relative of the dying person has dementia and can’t remember being told the loved one is nearing the end. So each time the message is repeated, the confused soul suffers over and over again. “I Promise Not to Tell Her He is Dying” is about the request from a cancer patient that I not tell his confused wife about the severity of his illness. He was such a brave and loving man. This poem is in the ‘Art of Nursing’ section of AJN, Volume 120, September 2020. You can read it by going to the AJN website and clicking on this section. I loved my nursing so very much and always felt so honored to be part of the love shared during the most challenging times.
Oct.
20
2020
Honorable Mention in Paterson Literary Review
My poem, “Nun Gowns” was awarded an honorable mention in this year’s Paterson Literary Review awards. It appeared in the annual collection which is edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan. Maria has been a heroine of mine for many years for her brave writing and also for her dedication to honoring poetry by all ages, in all situations, from all cultures. This is a ‘true’ poem from my childhood. My mother was a widow who taught at the Catholic school I attended. Once during the winter we all got terribly sick. The nuns sewed us flannel nightgowns, an act I honored in this poem.
