Latest news with #NationalPoetryMonth
Axios
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
A San Antonio poem for National Poetry Month
To close out National Poetry Month, we're sharing an excerpt from " A Love Letter to San Antonio: San Antonio, You Know," written by San Antonio Poet Laureate Eduardo "Eddie" Vega. Catch up quick: Vega wrote the poem for Centro San Antonio earlier this month. "Let's two-step to our hearts' desires, chancla dance to our souls' content. Wear that guayabera with Penner's pride and dale shine and go to the Alameda, mark time at Market Square. Make it a year-round Fiesta con mariachis and marching bands and floats that have to actually float. So kiss me in downtown Christmas lights, hug me with your Wembanyama arms, sing to me in George Strait melodies and dance cumbias to Flaco's accordion. San Antonio, I love you. Be my barbacoa, and I will be your Big Red because we're a match made in heaven, a match made here, a match to light up Civic Park on a New Year's Eve countdown."
Winnipeg Free Press
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Stanzas for SPRING
This year's National Poetry Month marks the 10th anniversary of Writes of Spring, an annual gathering of poems edited by Ariel Gordon and, this year, Charlene Diehl, director of Plume Winnipeg. Of the 500-plus poems submitted, Gordon and Diehl selected 13 from established and emerging Winnipeg poets, including Rosanna Deerchild, the only returning writer of the group, Marjorie Poor, Spenser Smith and others, which can be found in the 49.8 section of today's Free Press. (Pages F2 through F4 in the print edition.) A reading to launch and celebrate these poems will take place at McNally Robinson Booksellers' Grant Park location at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Re:Wild Her ● ● ● Rewilding, an intervention into the natural world to restore ecosystems, is the structuring conceit in Shannon Webb-Campbell's latest collection, Re:Wild Her (Book*Hug, 112 pages, $23). These poems follow the speaker from Iceland to France to California through art, tarot and deep time, gathering tenderness and claiming pleasure and expansiveness. The collection is propelled by a subtle, incantatory rhythm that evokes the ebb and flow of the tide: 'Water rushes over cracked earth/ you retrace tides through clay/ grounding mud with reversing rhythms/ (… .)// what flows in/ must flow out.' In How Do I Reach for the Wild/ (Three Graces), Webb-Campbell uses the life cycle of a girl, woman, crone to trace a process of reclaiming a self that's been worn away. The poem moves from a position of alienation from the world and the self — 'how do I reach for the wild?/ circle the womb/ how can I grasp the wind?/ motherlines ring a cosmic spin' — toward reconnection: 'become a fish-woman/ emerge from the water's offering/ after a trinity of swims all in one day/ baptism by sea.' Buy on Myth ● ● ● Terese Mason Pierre's much-anticipated debut, Myth (House of Anansi, 120 pages, $23), is a startling, transformative collection. Using a series of speculative logics and images, Pierre transcends the boundaries between earth, ocean and cosmos and past and future. In Momentum, the speaker considers the conditions of belongingness: 'My family takes a second helping of love —/ my father, from the church parking lot.' From this opening, Pierre weaves images that create friction between the speaker's family and true belonging before she invokes a myth to change the story: 'I draft// a new mythology, of sand and shells/ and touching every other creature// that has breathed an air of full faith/ beyond a warped chain —// a taught beld, the scuttling of crabs/ underfoot, the rising tithes.' Here, Pierre's intricate use of line and language shine. She ties this new mythology of water and interconnection to the opening image of the church parking lot with 'the rising tithes,' which at the same time calls back the strictures of religious rules — and, with its phrasing and near-rhyme, evokes the ocean. These poems enact a myriad of small and monumental shifts away from disconnection and injustice into a web of belonging and justice. In Aliens Visit the Islands, Pierre envisions a possible future that centres and celebrates Black people, as well as an ideal model of cultural exchange: 'they give us teleportation (the key is to ignore/ philosophy when you push the button) and we/ give them white sand, yellow roti, a container/ of sorrel.' While the background of this poem is the meeting of two cultures, the poem ends with a several-lines-long meditation on grief and longing, which is rooted in the Aliens' physical difficulty inhabiting the world: 'When they leave, they promise/ to tell their people Earth was warm, was Black,/ and cradles its pain in the sea.' Unmet Buy on ● ● ● In Unmet (Biblioasis, 124 pages, $22), stephanie roberts uses surrealism and ekphrastic poems to explore the way one's imagination shapes one's experience of the world. The poems in this collection demonstrate a vivid use of image and a versatile use of line and technique. In the first of four poems titled Unmet, roberts conjures Marilyn Monroe as a child, who 'during services (…) sat/ on her hands, bit her lip, & for a minute,/ forced a smaller self against the world.' Here, the past and the spiritual world are made concrete with a visceral bodily sensation, of an addressee for whom 'silence stiffens your neck,' of a girl whose adult self will become iconic forcing 'a smaller self against the world.' In Einige Kreise (Several Circles), an ekphrastic poem responding to Wassily Kandinsky's painting of the same title, roberts explores the relation between viewing a painting and painting it. The poem opens and closes with the same image pattern. In the opening, the speaker imagines cold, and in the closing stanza, after the speaker has moved backward and forward in time, 'the imagination's ouroboros' returns to cold and 'Love waits at the end of line;/ mind seizes line, draws it/ end to end, kisses it to canvas.' Elegy for Opportunity Buy on ● ● ● Natalie Lim's debut, Elegy for Opportunity (Wolsak & Wynn, 96 pages, $20), opens with an argument against writing to feed the voyeuristic hunger for trauma: 'what if I'm done with diasporic trauma. done imagining what people want to read,' she writes. What follows is a dynamic collection, lively and moving with curiosity. During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. In On Biology, the speaker considers the way the pandemic altered their relation to the world and their bodily experience. Notably, the speaker does not look away from the ways in which they are made helpless in the face of overwhelming conditions: 'gotten bored/ and felt guilty about it, because what a privilege it is/ to be bored instead of desperate or sick. I try to do/ the small things I can, for myself and the world —/ go on walks, sign petitions, take baths, donate./ all of it feels like failure.' The collection is anchored by five elegies for the NASA Opportunity Rover. In the last of these, which closes the collection, 'things are bad right now./ really bad.// the world feels unrepairable.' Here, the short, end-stopped lines weigh the poem down — for good reason, because, as in On Biology, the problems Lim faces aren't solvable with individual action, whatever good intentions fuel them: 'unchecked greed and exploitation./ heat domes and cold snaps./ bombs, disease, starvation, genocide —/ 40,000 dead in Gaza.// 40,000.' The strength of these poems lies in their clear-sightedness and their bravery. Time and again, Lim faces devastation in the same way she continues to address the dead rover, the same way she continues to imagine a future, persistently, curiously, lovingly: 'I would love that kid so much,/ like no one has ever loved a kid before,' she says of the question of motherhood, 'and it wouldn't be enough/ but I would try, I would try so hard.' Buy on Poetry columnist melanie brannagan frederiksen is a Winnipeg writer and critic.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kilgore High School student wins regional poetry competition
KILGORE, Texas (KETK) – On Friday, Young Audiences of Northeast Texas and Rusk County Poetry Society celebrated the annual Poetry and Schools competition, in honor of April being National Poetry Month. The competition was founded by the Rusk County Poetry Society and has been held for 50 years. Each year, teachers across the region submit poems for students that undergo a rigorous judging process. 36 winners are chosen from 12 grades for their outstanding literary pieces. 14th annual Arts and Education Awards recognizes East Texas fine arts educators The nonprofit organization Young Audiences of Northeast Texas has been involved in the competition for about a decade as a part of their mission to bridge gaps in arts education. 'It is so important to be able to give a platform for a voice for these students,' the organization's executive director Tasha Prescott said. Three students from each grade are selected for first, second and third place. Each year's 12th-grade first-place winner receives a scholarship to the college of their choice. This year, Harley Wells, a senior from Kilgore High School, received a $500 scholarship for her poem titled 'Veterinarian.' 'I always dreamed about being a veterinarian or at least a vet tech. I want to help animals. Saving animals is my dream,' Wells said. 'I was like 'why don't I put that in my poem' about how much I love animals and I want to put that into a career.' Wells said she plans to use the scholarship money to assist in beginning her college education in veterinary studies at Kilgore College. Once she completes that goal, she plans to transfer to Tyler Junior College and complete her degree. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Winnipeg Free Press
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Writes of Spring celebrates 10th anniversary with baker's dozen of poetry treats
Welcome to the 10th anniversary edition of Writes of Spring! The traditional 10th anniversary present is tin or aluminum. For the last five years, we've published 12 poems. But this year, we splurged and selected 13, as an anniversary present to ourselves! For 2025, we didn't set a theme — as a gift for the poets — and we got 104 submissions. That's the most we've ever received! At five poems per submission, myself and co-editor Charlene Diehl had as many as 500 poems to read. But we had a great time, reading the poems to each other, trying to find the perfect mix of poems and people. Nothing is perfect, but I am so proud of these poems and these poets, together and separately. My thanks to Plume Winnipeg and to the Winnipeg Arts Council, who this year supported the poets's fees. Happy National Poetry Month! Poetry forever! there is a garden where my breast used to be flowers and petals yellows and blues all claim space where desire once lived an explosion of beauty my lover used to say scar tissue now a garden of forget me nots Jaime Laye Bouw lives and writes on Lake Winnipeg. Ava Stokke Sometimes I think of you in the pauses. I can see you standing on a street corner, delicate hands shoved in the pockets of your big brown overcoat, the one your father gave you for Christmas that makes you look like a skyscraper. When you board the bus, you rehearse what you'll say when you get to the party, where you'll stand next to someone I'll never know; laugh at a joke I'll never hear. Some mornings, when I look outside my window, the other houses look like you. Ava Stokke a university student from Winnipeg currently studying law. walk straight mama said keep your head up my girl but there are days when my head bows my body folds into a question mark days when i want to crawl into an ending i remember that story of when mama was a girl sent alone on the trapline she walked straight out of the bush broken but brave i straighten my back find my horizon rise Rosanna Deerchild is Cree from O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation. She is the author of three books of poetry — this is a small northern town, calling down the sky, and she falls again — and one play, The Secret to Good Tea. transformed expressions of a father-grandfather spirit last weekend my young daughter wanted to hear my dad speak Ibanag and so she asked him. ____voice changes. tone is different. shoulders soften; ___his whole body unclenches and relaxes __He sits different — _like sinking into a Lazyboy; as breath finds tongue, they instinctively begin a dance; _we hear a new kind of love frequency __coming from the Ibanag ___that slightly shifts ____the vibrato beating of the heart _____that lighter push-off from the diaphragm. ______when tongue softens thickens _______ornamenting air like spun sugar cane. I do not understand any of the words but I know that it feels familiar: closer; like home. T. J. Evangelista is a prairie writer who enjoys learning about different cultures, listening to music, and spending time with her daughter. She studies Peace & Conflict at the University of Manitoba. Denise Cook You shine today You are not lost You have strength __You hold on ____You are not lost You belong ___You always did I knew you had a name I knew I'd know you ______eventually ________Buffalo Woman You are not lost ____Rest in LOVE ______Ashlee ASHLEE Denise Cook is mother of five, a beautiful sandwich of 2 girls, a son, then 2 more girls, her true loves. Gramma (loves that!) to 3 lovey grandsons. (Best love.) North End (from and) to her heart. North End Women's Centre Consequence. People pass, quiet as traffic, by the kitchen window; thank goodness you are in my bed. There's a fellow I know who stirs at 4 to write at 5 until, at 7, his lover awakes with reliable desire and hours pass before their salaries tug them apart. The thought of them taps against me, a cheap blind against a dark window, while you lay sleeping. My bed is our bed. I woke with thoughts loose-limbed and tired; you are curled up, alive and dreaming. Hannah Godfrey (hannah_g) is a British-Canadian writer, artist, and curator. Her practice is informed by curiosity and delight, and recurring themes include home, recollection, queer echo-locating, & myth-making. Marjorie Poor after Sina Queyras's 'There was the moment of the puddle in the path' And the sidewalk is cracked, opening to the world. The sidewalk is treacherous, uneven, malevolent in its intentions to trip you up, send you flying. The sidewalk only pretends to lie flat, passive, placid, but shifts all shifty, loosening bits of concrete to be kicked along. The sidewalk collects dried leaves, twigs, wishes, chips of glass that slice soles open. The sidewalk is imprinted with initials of lovers from when it was wet and new, the heart outline now broken and split. The sidewalk hides all this and more beneath the dark sheen of wide puddles in night rain. Marjorie Poor is an editor and writer in Winnipeg, Treaty 1 Territory. She and Di Harms published a chapbook of centos, Voices [That] Haunt Us, with JackPine Press in 2024. You drive out of the city on a clear winter night and turn off the main highway onto a road untroubled by streetlights, and the land comes out of the dark with its own light. Winter stretches out to a horizon you'd forgotten was there, winter broken here and there by the connect-the-dots of fenceposts, or a blur of bush, or the geometric shape of house or barn. Sky expands and pulls away, lit by multiple stars. (Who knew they are so many? Who knew they shine so bright? Who knew they could be so impossibly close and so remote at once?) And if the moon is big, night is almost day– a ghostly landscape washed in pale blue. The fields flow by, but the sky does not, its huge dome unmoving above you, until the city begins to seem the only place within human dimension. And this is either fear _____________or freedom. Manitoba-born Anne Le Dressay has published three books and two chapbooks of poetry. After 41 years elsewhere, she moved back to Winnipeg in 2020. Jean Chicoine la guerre est au sol, la guerre est dans l'air elle rampe dans les villes, elle se traîne délétère insulte à l'intelligence, bafouement des êtres elle est surtout et avant tout dans nos têtes elle est effet de perspective, elle est injure blasfème, jeu de miroirs, bavant de blessures clamant la paix dans ses dédales de tortures elle est surtout et avant tout dans nos cœurs nous en sommes toustes complices toustes coupables Bachelier en linguistique de l'Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières, Jean Chicoine a quitté le Québec pour le Manitoba en 1989 et vit dans le Village Osborne depuis 1990. Il a écrit toute sa vie, mais n'a publié que sur le tard. This is how it comes into being by leaving winter's signature stillness the sunlight tilting into the center of things. Spring gets inside, stumbling through open windows pulling down glittering icicles, carried by time and warmth toward the earth. The mud tracked across the floor in paw prints so vivid in outline and heft it seems like all wildness is contained there— like something written on a temple wall something about wolves and searching and the bright edges of the living. Dana Medoro is Professor of American Literature at the University of Manitoba. Spenser Smith The Assiniboine is still frozen but soon it will break into a conveyor belt of ice and litter. I will binge-watch this livestream until the melt is complete and I can break out my fishing gear. With a styrofoam box full of worms, I will try to lure little catfish from the riverbed. I imagine they take refuge amongst the shopping carts and mattresses this great city has discarded. No, concerned Wolseley resident, I will not keep anything I catch. I just like how they burp and gurgle, their soft underbellies resting in my hands. Spenser Smith's debut book of poetry, A Brief Relief from Hunger, was published by Gordon Hill Press in 2023. Whispered softly as I pass them Chickweed and honeysuckle Iris, ground ivy, cosmos, poppy, pansy, daisy All the plants have names we have forgotten or never known Speaking them gently on the breeze Anemone, fern, lilac They come forth in colour, lacing the air with fragrance The beginnings of all fruit and all seed Some sweet, some bitter All to be tasted by the earth and the body All to become the bearer of our futures Our stories here to live on Aster, goldenrod, hollyhock Grasses combed by the wind, trees grown tall and deep rooted Marigold, violet, sweet clover, dandelion We will go on to know another life Breathe the same air in different lungs Use all that we have found Demeter-Anemone Willow has been writing since they could write and telling stories for longer. Their work explores themes of nature, isolation, emotion, and longing. Demeter-Anemone Willow (left) with their father, Andrew Vaisius, whose poem follows. It is dark A woman waits for the light to change I see her half a block away no cars coming the street deserted except for her and I pass her It is one of those long side street lights She waits and waits and I wonder if the light is malfunctioning will she still be there in the morning I'll bring her coffee and croissants discuss morning news and last night's concert Meanwhile we'll marry have kids a house with a large bookcase look sharp but finally fall out of grace and divorce The light blinks green and off we go separately in search of another light Andrew Vasius was an Early Childhood Educator for over 30 years as well as being an editor, reviewer and poet. His work appears in five anthologies, over 20 periodicals, four chapbooks (the latest being Inveigh, 2024), and one book, Retirement, published by Flat Singles Press, 2020. Mike DealPhotojournalist Mike Deal started freelancing for the Winnipeg Free Press in 1997. Three years later, he landed a part-time job as a night photo desk editor. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Forbes
22-04-2025
- General
- Forbes
Three Who Make Wine While Minding The Earth
While today is officially Earth Day, many folks make environmental issues a focus for the entire month of April (along with poetry … you did know it is National Poetry Month, right?). Then, there are those for whom there is no calendar: Taking care of Mother Earth is a year-round consciousness and way of life. Here are three wineries that put their best down to earth L-R: Ironstone Vineyards, Goose Ridge, Marisco practices in place every day. In California, Ironstone Vineyards has been at the fore of agricultural best practices for 60+ years, stewarding water conservation, soil health, pest management and naturally occurring biodiversity. It started in the 1940s with Kautz Farms in Lodi, where the family pioneered projects to recapture/conserve water and restore Riparian water systems. Throughout the decades, they have added expertise in soil conservation, established an Integrated Pest Management Program to reduce chemical inputs, which has informed standards practiced today, and continue to set standards for stewardship and sustainability. All vineyards and orchards are regeneratively farmed, using natural cover crops that encourage deep rooting, and mitigate erosion. Four generations strong, the Kautz family of Lodi, Calif. And it's not just about the grapes. Being mindful of soil health assists with creating beneficial habitats above and below surface for toads, worms, lizards and microlife. Additional dedicated efforts in biodiversity and wildlife conservation include an award-winning duck box program; establishing 140 owl boxes to provide habitat for natural predators that aid in pest control (and at the same time, enable and support a naturally occurring ecosystem); and restoring a riparian creek system to support myriad fish and wildlife, encourage native species and promote native and migratory birds. The winery has also planted 400 native oak trees in Lodi to replenish an important diminishing native species. Ironstone operates the bulk of its production in Lodi, where the entire winery is sustainable including a waste-water treatment facility, and their signature wine line comes from their Murphy's winery in the Sierra Foothills, where the family hosts tastings, education, a car show to benefit local 4-H and FFA organizations and has created numerous opportunities for public and community engagement. Wines to try: Ironstone Reserve Rous Vineyards "Ancient Vines' Zinfandel 21 Ironstone Pinot Noir 22 Ironstone Petite Sirah 21 The Monson Family from Washington State's Goose Ridge winery Hailing from Washington State, Goose Ridge Estate Vineyard is another multigenerational whose founders passed down their environmental ethos to the current generation of three siblings who lead operations. The original patriarch, M.L. Monson, initially focused on cattle and through the decades, apple and cherry orchards were established. In the late 1990s, the family turned their attention to vineyards, planting 2,000+ acres and establishing Goose Ridge Estate Vineyards & Winery. The planted in the hills around Red Mountain, which would become part of the Goose Gap AVA in 2021. Today, Goose Ridge (is one of the state's largest single vineyards. The vines—like many Washington wineries—are on their own ungrafted stock, which is about the purest and closest you can get to true terroir. Farming practices include low yields to ensure fruit concentration and eliminate competition from overplanting; regular soil testing, and irrigation management with benefits for erosion control and water conservation and supporting regenerative agriculture practices. Other best practices include nutrient and pest management through fertigation, composting, and pest monitoring. Grape must is not wasted but fed to cattle and otherwise recycled. The Revelation label of wines from Goose Ridge are 100% sustainable and boast a 'Verified Carbon Footprint,' an independent assessment confirming the accuracy and reliability of carbon footprint data. They have also hired an outside company to analyze all of their carbon emissions, and to certify that they are a carbon neutral company. Goose Ridge is the only winery in Washington undertaking such a rigorous effort, with the goal to be carbon negative by 2026. Within the winery, energy efficiencies extend to using electric/battery powered equipment where possible, energy-efficient lighting, attention to reducing emissions, and a commitment to eco-friendly packaging. Wines to try: Revelation by Goose Chardonnay 23 Revelation by Goose Ridge Rose 23 Revelation by Goose Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 23 A dad, his wife and four daughters make wine in Marlborough's Marisco Family Vineyards. Farther afield in New Zealand, the Marris family at Marisco Family Vineyards is upholding three generations of producing wines and through dedicated environmental stewardship. Located in the Waihopai Valley of Marlborough, the nearly all woman owned- and operated winery was established in 2006 and today they farm five distinct vineyards that reflect the diversity of New Zealand terroirs. With 2,500 acres of vineyards and two purpose-built wineries, the family maintains meticulous control over every step of the winemaking process. They have been part of the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) program since 2008. To qualify, they must undergo regular on-site audits and submit an annual report on their impacts across soil, water, plant protection, waste, people and climate change, as well as a full 'spray diary' that documents agrichemical applications. On the farm, best practices include using 5,500 sheep for weed control and soil tilling, and which reduces mechanical tilling; mulching vine prunings, returning natural production waste (grape marc and water) to the vineyards, and recycling materials. Their water conservation includes using sustainable irrigation systems and reusing treated winery water for irrigation. They support biodiversity through native plantings and a 'Falcon to Vineyards' program for natural pest control. Some 960 acres have been planted each year with wildflower seeds to attract beneficial insects and pollinators. The winery repurposes by-products to enhance soil health and uses carbon-neutral refrigerants to reduce emissions. They aim to be carbon neutral by 2050. Future initiatives include: use of solar for equipment and processes, insulating wine tanks to increase refrigeration capacity while using less power; efficient use of electricity throughout all systems and a commitment to work with suppliers on packaging that reduces waste and carbon footprint. Wines to try: The Ned Sauvignon Blanc 2023 The Ned Pinot Noir 2021 Leefield Station Sauvignon Blanc 2023 Leefield Station Pinot Noir 21 And for Earth Day/National Poetry Month, check out this selection from the American Academy of Poets.
