Tag: poetry

Poetry as Penumbra in the Midst of Political Upheaval (and meet our new intern!)

By Robbie Gamble and Anita Ballesteros   

Managing Editor’s Note: Today we feature poet, essayist, and social justice activist Robbie Gamble. Robbie considers the purpose and function of poetry in the context of this year’s solar eclipse and political upheaval, writing that poetry can help us “explore the emotional nuances we are experiencing at the edge of all the chaos.”

First, read an introduction by our new intern, Anita Ballesteros. Anita comes to Solstice Magazine from Lesley University’s MFA program, where she studies fiction writing. As you’ll see, Anita has led a fascinating life full of travel, diverse experiences, education, and motherhood. Welcome Anita!

Writing, Meditation, and the Art of Looking

By Marilyn McCabe   

I took a class to learn how to meditate. It didn’t go well. At least I didn’t keep falling asleep, like one guy did. I was always thinking about food. (This kind of stuff seems to have that effect on me — I took a yoga class some years ago, and all I could think about was: Is this over soon so I can go have a beer? And I don’t even really drink beer.)

Review of Dennis Hinrichsen’s Skin Music

By Kevin Holton   

A book of poetry, more than a book in any other genre, has the unique power to switch from topic to topic, spanning continents and eons if the writer wishes, to capture a wide array of experiences. Skin Music, by Dennis Hinrichsen, does this well.

Writing as a Meditation Practice

By Elaine Fletcher Chapman   

The year my mother died, I claimed a desk for myself in the family room. I placed my notebook and the books that were my touchstones at the time on the desk. I bought a beautiful fountain pen from pennies saved, ink made from roses.

Listen and Look: Joyce Peseroff Reviews ask anyone by Poet Ruth Lepson

By Joyce Peseroff   

  Reviewer—Joyce Peseroff ASK ANYONE by Ruth Lepson, Pressed Wafer, 2016, 68pp., $12.50 Managing Editor’s Note: Some reviews of poetry collections are not only insightful, but a pleasure to read. Reviewing poetry is a challenging task, given the art form’s sometimes slippery use of language and the subjective quality of interpretation. Peseroff manages it beautifully.… Read more »

Defining Diversity and Why #Black Lives Matter is a Statement of Unity

By Kathleen Aguero   

he powerful grassroots movement, #BlackLivesMatter, is sometimes countered with the slogan “all lives matter.” Well, of course they do. That’s the point of #BlackLivesMatter—to demand we acknowledge the importance of lives, Black lives, too often treated as if they mattered not at all, with tragic results.

“Shifting Ground” and Hopeful Seasons in Wendy Mnookin’s Dinner with Emerson, and a Call for Submissions About Gender Inequality

By Rebecca Hart Olander   

Wendy Mnookin’s fifth collection, Dinner with Emerson, is organized according to the four seasons. It begins with spring and runs through the year, followed by a fifth section, “Another Spring,” that features poems in a season that stretch beyond “Winter.” There is a sense of the ongoing about these poems, that life marches on, that we learn to turn the page, and that despite whatever we are slogging through, there will be another season.

An Interview with Poetry Contest Winner Alysia Nicole Harris

An Interview with Poetry Contest Winner Alysia Nicole Harris

By Ben Berman   

You are currently pursuing a PhD in linguistics at Yale. In what ways do you see overlap between your work as a linguist and as a poet? In what ways do you see these as distinctly separate fields?  My linguistic work and my poetic career are both sourced in the same love of language. I… Read more »

An Interview with Martha Collins

An Interview with Martha Collins

By Danielle Legros Georges   

Martha Collins is a poet, translator, the editor-at-large for Field Magazine, and an editor at Oberlin College Press. She is the author of the poetry volumes, Day Unto Day (Milkweed, 2014), White Papers (Pitt Poetry Series, 2012), Blue Front (Graywolf, 2006), Some Things Words Can Do (Sheep Meadow, 1998), A History of a Small Life on a Windy Planet (University of Georgia, 1993), The Arrangement of Space (Gibbs Smith,… Read more »

A Conversation with Poet & Teacher Natasha Sajé

A Conversation with Poet & Teacher Natasha Sajé

By Amy Yelin   

How did you come to poetry? I wrote animal stories as a child. In seventh and eighth grade classes, I’d read Tennyson and Poe, but then my friend Catherine Patterson sent me Sylvia Plath’s Ariel. Poems not in a textbook—and by a woman! I was hooked. In college at the University of Virginia, I took… Read more »

The Politics of Empathy

The Politics of Empathy

By Jennifer Jean   

For over two years I’ve been researching and writing a poetry collection about sex-trafficking and objectification issues in America. When I give poetry readings there is always at least one person, if not more, from the audience who comes up to me and asks: “Why are you writing about this issue?” What I’ve discovered is,… Read more »

The Rewards of Re-Reading Body Bereft

The Rewards of Re-Reading Body Bereft

By Laura Eppinger   

2015: My Year of Re-Reads Every year I try to read 52 books in 52 weeks. This has been my New Year’s Resolution for more than a decade, and most years, I’ve kept it. I love to devour fiction and poetry, and so far, I have read something new each week. This year, however, I… Read more »

Who are the Muses?

Who are the Muses?

By Leonard Kress   

  Who but the Maenads, repentant, clothed, and in their right minds. (from Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion)   For a long time I’ve been searching for a way to describe my own poetic process that also explains what takes place inside me when I read certain poems. As far as… Read more »