Pre-Order Kitty’s New Book!!!

“Mosaic,” explains Kitty Jospé, “is the hard work of the

muses, which is to imagine what isn’t, break what is and

piece together the broken into a new whole.” In poem after

poem, Jospé does this hard work for her reader, breaking 

what is and offering up an assemblage of mythologies

within mythologies, At their best, her poems are alchemy -

- pieced together like a clenched fist from the fragmented

heart of stone. Or pulled, like a sword, from solid stone. In

these pages the Medusa’s mad stare. In these pages poems

sinuous as tempered steel. In these pages poems that sting

us to profound silence, like golden honeybees sprung from

Machado’s broken heart.” - George Wallace, Writer in Residence, Walt Whitman Birthplace

About the author:

Kitty Jospé is a teacher, docent and writer with the code word “enthusiasm”

to bring out the inner spark in others. After retiring from teaching French,

she continues to teach, giving talks which combine her love of language, art,

dance, music, theatre. Since 2008, she has offered a weekly class in poetry

appreciation which has a large following.

 

MOSAICQ was a semi-finalist in the 2012 Finishing Line Press Women’s Voices competition.

Her first book, Cadences is available from Foothills Publishing, http://www.foothillspublishing.com/2010/id51.htm

To pre-order the new book click this link:

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=1710

Pre-Order period ends May 31st.

Monday, May 13th Poetry Prompt

Happy Monday to all!

JP Member Martha Treichler has shared a poem with me and I want to share it with you!

Beginnings

Sometimes a beginning is all there is.
Frost kills the apple blossoms.
A baby miscarries.

And we all know about love.

But the good thing about beginnings is
that even after the end
there is another beginning.

By Martha Treichler

 

So for today’s prompt, let’s write a poem about sharing…It could be about how we have to share the road with terrible drivers, or about how your little cousin never let you play with his toys…Have fun!

Genesee Reading Series Features Two JP Members!

Genesee Reading Series

Tuesday, May 14th

7:30 P.M. (come at 7 for nibbles!)

Members $3; Public $6

What an opportunity the Genesee Reading Series presents this month! Wellknown
and beloved MJ Iuppa reads from a new book with emerging, not-tobe-
missed Celeste Helene Schantz. Our celebration of poetry extends into
May, as these two poets show us why poetry still matters.

M.J.Iuppa lives on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario, where for the past eight years, she and her husband, Peter Tonery, have been committed to food sustainability. Her most recent poems have appeared in Poetry East, The Chariton Review. Tar River Poetry, Blueline, The Prose Poem Project, and The Centrifugal Eye, among others. Her chapbook As the Crow Flies appeared in 2008 (FootHills Publishing), and her second full length collection, Within Reach, was published in 2010 by Cherry Grove Collections. A prose chapbook, Between Worlds, will be published in 2013 by FootHills. She served as the poetry advisor (2007-2012) for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), and since 1986, has worked as a teaching artist in the schools, K-12, for a variety of agencies ( RCSD, BOCES 2, Genesee Valley BOCES, Writers & Books, Project U.N.I.Q.U.E. and V.I.T.A.L. programs). Currently, she is Writer-in-Residence and Director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor program at St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY.

 

Celeste Helene Schantz is a member of the Board of Directors of Just Poets. Her work appears
in the groups’ annual journal, Le Mot Juste. Her essay, “Lines of Descent,” selected as a part of Story Walk at the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, tells the tale of how she learned about her African slave and Native American ancestors and how her family came to Upstate New York. In 2012 she was a finalist in the Cultural Center of Cape Cod’s National Poetry Competition, judged by Naomi Shihab Nye. In March, Celeste was a participant in the Eastman School of Music’s Women in Music festival, which this year featured Pulitzer Prize winning composer Melinda Wagner. She has been chosen by poet and novelist Marge Piercy to participate in her Intensive poetry workshop at Cape Cod. Celeste lives in Fairport with her son Evan, and is currently at work on her first book of poetry.

Link to New York Times article…

Thanks to Karla for sharing this link with us!

Check it out:

Recognition Grows for Poets of Streets, Main or Otherwise

Monday Poetry Prompt

I had so much fun last month with the daily poems and prompts. Thanks again to all who participated. I will be trying to post another prompt every Monday from here on out…

So for today’s prompt, let’s write a “beginning” poem. Spring is in the air, flowers blooming, all that jazz. You know the deal: have fun and be creative!

 

Karla Linn Merrifield Launches Two New Books!!!

 

 

April 30th JP Poem Pick

I am so sorry everyone! I have been in bed all day with some kind of stomach bug. But, here is our last poem of the month. How sad! I can’t believe that National Poetry Month is over already! 

Today’s finale was chosen by Nancy Chalker-Tenant. Apparently, Rochester has a Marsden Harley painting in the Memorial Art Gallery. And, Nancy says, “it is good to be reminded how artists see the creative process.” 

Nancy found this in “The Open Door: 100 years of Poetry Magazine”

 

 

We are most original when we are most like life. Life is

the natural thing. Interpretation is the factitious. Nature

is always variable. To have an eye with a brain in it–that

is, or rather would be, the poetic millennium. We are

not moonlit strummers now: we are gun-pointers and

sky-climbers.

 

Marsden Hartley,  December 1919

 

Very interesting choice, Nancy.

Before I give today’s prompt, I just wanted to say thank you to all who have participated in this month’s activities by choosing poems, writing poems, or responding to poems. I had such a great time posting a poem and a prompt every day. I can’t wait till next April!!!

So, for today’s prompt, let’s write an “ending” poem. As always, this means whatever you want it to mean. Have fun. 

One more short notice: I will continue to post a weekly prompt every Monday Morning. So stay tuned!