About this blog
One of America's most revered poets, Adrienne Rich, said, "The moment of change is the only poem." Because the world is always changing, poetry is everywhere, and everything can be versified.Here, I'll discuss and review contemporary books of poetry, with a focus on regional writers, publications, and organizations. I'll promote area writers by offering prompts and contests, because I want to foster a spirit of community centered around poets and readers of poetry. This is a place to demystify the art of poetry, to appreciate its economy of language, its precision of image and sound.
Please share suggestions for blog content by emailing me at sfleegal@ydr.com. I'd love to hear from you! Let's versify PA and support those who are doing the same.
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Category Archives: Interview
A spoonful of PoemSugar: Carla Christopher’s indie poetry press
York’s Poet Laureate hates sleep. Actually, I’m sure she loves sleep. I’m just not convinced she gets any because she’s too busy writing poetry, promoting poetry, attending poetry events (which, in the York region, are many), and booking/coordinating/producing a … Continue reading
Posted in Interview, Poetry news
Tagged "Addicted to Relapse", "Baby, "Below the Belt", "Orbits Around a Lightless Star", author-centered publishing, authors first, Carla Christopher, Crystal Charisse, Iris G. Press, Missi McLaren, Plan B Press, PoemSugar, Post Dada Press, Read Me Something with Rhythm", Rich Hemmings, SoulCry, TJ Gagliardi
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Workshop poems, make poetry friends: Poetry Spoken Here, a long-running York poetry group
I promote a lot of poetry events on this blog, as well as individual writers. And I’ve touched on the idea of writing groups and community-building, but I haven’t yet, in any substantial way, mentioned Poetry Spoken Here, a mainstay … Continue reading
Second annual Jawstruck! Spoken Word and Performance Festival: Submit through May 20, attend June 7
I attended this event last year — its first year — and I can assure you: The name is apt. In fact, the point of Jawstruck! is to present poetry so real and moving that it leaves you picking your … Continue reading
Winner of the April Poem of the Month contest!
National Poetry Month has come to a close, as has the April Poem of the Month contest, the prompt for which was to write a poem that is in some way about poetry. This month, and for the third month … Continue reading
Update on Melissa Carl’s Pulitzer Remix progress, and a discussion of found poetry
Previously, I blogged about West York Area High School history teacher and poet Melissa Carl’s participation in Pulitzer Remix, a National Poetry Month project sponsored by the Found Poetry Review. I thought we could talk a bit more about found … Continue reading
Reading ‘tween the lines: Richard Thomas and Tweenverses.com
Richard Thomas is a retired teacher from Spring Grove Township who writes poems not for children, and not for adults or even teenagers, but “for and about tween-age students and their lives, inside and outside of school.” He collects and publishes … Continue reading
Posted in Interview
Tagged inspiration, meter, metered poetry, poems for students, rhyme, rhyming poetry, rhythm, Richard Thomas, tweens
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Local arts TV show Culture & Main showcases region’s diversity, creativity
Stacia Fleegal interviews York poet laureate Carla Christopher on the new WRCT arts-themed show, “Culture and Main.”
The natural world of York native Steve Ausherman’s ‘Creek Bed Blue,’ a chapbook of poems
“Pull me down into the stout mud of buried crayfish and broken clay pots” (p. 20), into the world recreated in the poetry of Steve Ausherman. And hurry, because this place is disappearing. The aim of Ausherman’s chapbook, “Creek Bed … Continue reading
Posted in Interview, Review
Tagged chapbook, couplet, Creek Bed Blue, elegy, Encircle Publications, environmental poetry, Gary Snyder, green poetry, heritage, inspirational poetry, litany, meditative poetry, Natalie Goldberg, nature poetry, prose poems, Rattle, Richard Russo, rural way of life, sense of place, Steve Ausherman, Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, The Aurorean, The Sun magazine, Wendell Berry, York County
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Interview with Alyse Bensel, native York poet and author of Shift, a chapbook of poems
Poet Alyse Bensel is reading at YorkArts @ CityArt this Friday at 7 p.m. When I received the press release, I recognized her name from my own poetry world and decided to get in touch with her. Turns out, … Continue reading
Posted in Interview
Tagged Ahsahta Press, Alyse Bensel, Anhinga Press, Black Lawrence Press, Brick Books, Caketrain Press, chapbook, Chinoiserie by Karen Rigby, Gloss by Ida Stewart, industrial heritage, Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith, Litmus Press, Los Angeles Review, NewPages, Orion Magazine, Penn State MFA, persona poems, Plan B Press, sense of place, Shift, The New Black by Evie Shockley, Tupelo Press, Utopia Minus by Susan Briante, working class sensibility, YorkArts @ CityArt
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