A Message from the President

A few words from Kate Hutchinson

August 2023

Greetings to all! Summer is still in full swing, and Poets & Patrons’ schedule is as busy as ever. We hope you’ve entered one or both of our poetry contests this year, the Helen Schaible Sonnet Contest, which ran from June 1 – July 15, and our main annual contest, now in its 67th year, closing on August 31. The contest offers 12 categories with a $12.00 entry fee.

We’re excited to offer a unique publication opportunity in our main contest, with the Endangered Species category. Since 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, the Nature Conservancy has agreed to publish the top three poems in that category on their social media sites. It’s not too late to write a poem about your favorite protected or endangered animal or plant! (See this link to enter.)

As we’ve done for the last three years, our contest awards ceremonies will be held on Zoom this year – the sonnet contest on Sunday, Oct. 8, and the main contest in November (TBA). All members will be invited to attend.

https://www.poetsandpatrons.net/poetry-contest-2023

We’re also very happy to be participating in the Printer’s Row Lit Fest on September 9-10 in downtown Chicago. The fest offers two stages with continuous books-and-author programming for adults and children, plus rows and rows of publishers and authors at tables lining the venue. We’ll be sharing a table and tent with two of our “sister” organizations – the Illinois State Poetry Society and East on Central, the literary journal in Highland Park. Come spend some time listening to the performers and perusing the tables, and stop by to say hello! Some of our members will have books available. (See this link for more information.)

https://printersrowlitfest.org/

Our September 16 “Write! Chicago” event promises to be a fascinating exploration of an historic site in the western suburbs, the Fullersburg/Graue Mill Nature Preserve near Hinsdale. This free experience will start at 11:00 a.m. and be led by board member Sheila Elliott. Watch for notices in your email and on Facebook for information on how to sign up.

Finally, be sure to visit our website’s main page to read about our featured poet for summer, Curt Vevang. Curt is a longtime member of Poets & Patrons. Many of you are likely familiar with his poems, which lean toward the humorous and rhyming. (See this link.)

https://www.poetsandpatrons.net/

I’ll leave you with these words by Robert Frost, first published 100 years ago and now in the public domain. Two of his most famous poems were also published that year, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Fire and Ice.” I was not familiar with this poem but find it apt for August – and especially poignant this year as so many of our blue skies this summer were clouded with haze from the Canadian wildfires.

By Robert Frost

Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)—
Though some savants make earth include the sky;
And blue so far above us comes so high,
It only gives our wish for blue a whet.

May 2023

What poet’s heart doesn’t swell as the air warms and everything blooms? We may not have as much time to write when nature keeps calling us outdoors, but it’s a trade-off most of us are happy to make. And there are always a few rainy days when we can huddle inside and work on a poem or two.

Summertime is rich with nostalgia for me, evoking long childhood days outside with friends or on family vacations; I have mined those memories for many poems over the years. Summer is a time of action and outdoor gatherings, and it is often a time of transition, when people move to a new location and face a new school, job, or relationship. All these events are perfect fodder for powerful poems, since they involve growth and change–and the ensuing excitement and anxiety.

A quick perusal of summer-related poems turns up many that include those small details that enrich our lives each summer, providing indelible images. Here are a few from some of our best-loved American poets:

In “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver, we meet a grasshopper who “lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.”

Charles Simic, in “Summer Morning,” writes, “I hear a butterfly stirring/Inside a caterpillar./I hear the dust talking/Of last night’s storm.”

Emily Dickinson, who thrived on summers in the garden, writes in “Summer Shower,” “A drop fell on the apple tree,/Another on the roof;/A half a dozen kissed the eaves,/And made the gables laugh.”

Li-Young Lee, in “From Blossoms,” remembers, “From laden boughs, from hands,/from sweet fellowship at the bins,/comes nectar at the roadside, succulent/peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,/comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.”

In Ted Kooser’s “A Summer Night,” he paints this picture: “Night after night,/the lamp comes on at dusk,/the end of the street/stands open and white…”

To help get your poetic spirit moving, Poets & Patrons is offering both workshops and contests this summer. We invite you to join us for these events!

Poets & Patrons always welcomes spring and summer with our two annual poetry contests, which we invite you to enter. See the “Contests” tab on our website for more information. The Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest will run from June 1 to July 15 and is free to all. Poets may enter 1 or 2 sonnets only (modern and/or traditional). The Annual Poetry Contest will run from July 15 to August 31 and will offer 12 categories for poets to consider. This contest does require a small entry fee but is discounted for P & P members. We hope to see many of you enter this year!

Our workshop calendar for the summer months is starting to take shape and will kick off with a Write! Ekphrastic event on May 27 when Wilda Morris will host an online journey to the National Galleries of Scotland. On July 29, Wilda will take us virtually to New Delhi for more Ekphrastic writing. Then on September 16, Sheila Elliott will meet with poets at Graue Mill in Hinsdale for a Write! Chicago event. Be sure to watch your email for these event postings, or you can always check out the Workshop tab on our website or our Facebook page for updates.

Happy summer and happy writing!

Kate

December 2022

Holiday greetings to all! I hope this message finds you in good health.

At the end of each year, many of us stop to examine where we’ve been and where we’d like to go next. We are at a moment fraught with new and once unthinkable challenges that have affected us personally, nationally, and globally, but reading and writing can still help us work through the chaos to find our footing. True and fictional stories of loss, determination, and heroism abound; they can buoy us and give our writing focus and purpose.

Screenwriter and teacher Robert McKee, interviewed recently by Dana Goodyear for The New Yorker (10/24/22), notes that every powerful story is essentially about “permanence and change. The struggle between keeping who you are and changing who you are.” In his classes, McKee cites Casablanca as the epitome of a film that explores this dichotomy. McKee believes it is possible to have both – the old self and the new – but only “if you love in the fullest possible way.” Rick and Ilsa will always have Paris, even though the narrative ends with their painful parting. Yet each has become someone new in the face of danger, sacrifice, and high ideals.

Many poems explore the passage of time with nostalgia and longing – often moving into the maudlin or cliché. But some of our best poets have found ways to approach the topic using fresh insight, such as looking at the contrasting sense of self McKee has noted. A perfect example is a poem by our new U. S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. In “I Remember the Carrots” (Bright Dead Things, Milkweed Editions, 2015), Limón opens the poem by sharing with us a lifelong quest:

I haven’t given up on trying to live a good life,
a really good one even, sitting in the kitchen
in Kentucky, imagining how agreeable I’ll be—
the advance of fulfillment, and of desire—
all these needs met, then unmet again.

But then she recalls a time when, as a child, she was so enamored of the bright green tops of her father’s carrot beds that she ripped up all the carrots and carried them, “like a prize,” to her father. She was scolded, yet now looking back, she wonders if it was an act she needs to feel sorry about. She asks, “Why must we practice / this surrender? What I mean is: there are days / I still want to kill the carrots because I can.”

What does it mean to live a “good life?” As Limón suggests at the end of the poem, choosing to be “good” may not always be the best decision even if it adheres to societal expectations. To be “nice” may be part of what many in our culture view to be a good life. But there may be a much better reason not to be good in some situations, especially if it means upholding a higher sense of right or working to promote justice.

Another interesting example is a poem by Olena Kalytia Davis in her new, much heralded collection, Late Summer Ode (Copper Canyon Press, 2022). Many of the poems in this book explore the push-pull we feel as we age, to either accept it or rage against it. I find the poem “Little Outdoor Poem” particularly powerful. It begins with a specific setting and mood:

warm night warm night
can’t quite see into
by someone’s poollight
from the blackback window
of this huge stolen house

The speaker reveals that she is in a screened-in porch, arguing in texts with her kids about “not taking care / of emily dickinson” while being subjected to the neighbor’s “too loud / but pretty decent music” and worrying about refinancing. Her “still warm heart sinks, sicks” in the final lines, ending with a tiny stanza:

i am just right now
sad with living
with (not) having
have lived

Kalytiak Davis effectively uses short lines, truncated phrasing, and the lack of capitalization to help express her ongoing struggle. Like an insect trapped in the web of now, she seems momentarily paralyzed, “screened in” by her own senses and thoughts, overcome by the sadness of time’s passing. And yet she still allows herself to appreciate the warm night and the life happening all around her, even as sadness overtakes her. She sees all at once how she has lived but not lived. Who among us can’t relate?

Both of these poems explore McKee’s concept of acknowledging changes in ourselves and coming to terms with them. He would say that so long as we “love in the fullest possible way,” we can move forward and maintain a coherent sense of self. Limón clearly still loves the girl she was, and she is confronting and questioning her life-long tendency to please others rather than claim her own agency. Kalytiak Davis has a heart full of love, for her grown children and even for her annoying neighbor, as she is beset by daily troubles and the sadness of aging.

Hopefully no one who reads this message is currently facing the kind of choices that Rick and Ilsa confront in Casablanca – though many people across the planet are currently (as ever) dealing with war and brutality in their homelands, often being forced to begin new lives elsewhere. Yet these stories can serve as models for us as we face any difficult choice that may have lasting consequences, reminding us to hold fast to what we value and love even as we let go of parts of the past that are gone or that no longer serve us well.

As we begin another new year, may we all find the courage to accept our past selves but embrace the challenges of the new. And may poetry continue to help us in the struggle.

Best wishes,

Kate

February 2022
On Creating Better Writing Time

I recently attended an online writing workshop about time management and ways to get motivated and inspired. One of the assignments was to make a list of why you avoid writing.

Here is my list:
• I am too busy–work, dinner, social media, emails, etc.
• I need to clean–Kitchen, etc.
• Deadlines looming to send work out intimidate me
• I already have poems in my current manuscript–I don’t need any more.
• I should exercise first. My body is calling.
• Regarding revision, I don’t always know where to reenter a poem

This was followed by a list of what energizes me:
• Taking walks outside
• My two cats
• My partner
• Some friends, especially poetry friends
• Writing a poem I am proud of
• Reading really good poems written by others
• Guided meditation
• A good nap
• Coffee

The idea is to mix the two lists. If I see that writing a poem I am proud of energizes me, perhaps I should allow myself time to do this. In addition, taking a walk before writing could stimulate the process (hopefully not replace it). Or, reading some really good poems, doing a guided meditation, taking a power nap, etc., could all serve helpful to get started.

Part of the workshop also suggested that we make a list each night in our journal. The list would be two parts: 1) WHAT STRENGTHENED ME TODAY, and 2) WHAT DIDN’T STRENGTHEN ME TODAY? The idea is that after answering these questions each night for 2 weeks or so you can start to develop an idea of what best motivates you.

What does my ideal writing life look like? Ideally, I would have a scheduled time every day, a favorite spot in which to write, a ritual (lighting a candle, reading other’s poetry first, free write, etc.), then allow time to turn to my own thoughts and ideas. In addition, sometimes reading over what I have written in the last week can be an instructive place to start. Also, it is helpful to work out 30 minutes first so that my body feels good, and the endorphins are in place.

I have also found it helpful to set aside a day to revise, and a day to submit my writing to journals. I also try to take advantage of whatever workshops I can, whether free or whether they charge a nominal fee. I find the zoom workshops are convenient and help keep me on task, whether I create new poems or work hard to revise the ones I have.

I also find trading poems with poet friends I trust can be very educational. Critiques and feedback can keep you on task.

Still, remember that nothing has to be perfect. If you feel everything has to be “in place”, you might never get started writing, or you might develop writer’s block. Try to find habits that work for you and inspire you. Remember, you can change your habits by changing your environment. And, you can create tiny new habits that help you get started in your writing--one habit at a time.

Keep Writing,

Caroline

August 2021

In Search of a New Ritual

It happens so many times. I sit down at my favorite chair, a blue paisley Queen Anne by the fireplace, open my laptop and commence to check my e-mails, all 3 addresses. Then I go to Facebook. I may ‘like’ a video of a cute kitten, share a Far Side cartoon, and catch up on what my friends and family are doing and saying.

This, in a nutshell, is my ritual. Does it lead to writing? Not usually. In fact, it is a time waster. I do get several poems sent to my e-mail, which I read (from the Poetry Foundation, Poets.org, ALP, YourDailyPoem, and the Writer’s Almanac, and others). Occasionally I star the e-mailed poem to come back to it. Occasionally I do revisit it, reread the poem several times, and attempt to write a poem inspired by it.

What is a good ritual? Something you do often, a routine, something that can relax you. Something familiar, done over and over and hopefully comforting. Something you embrace and do by heart, daily, without thinking too much. Something you don’t have to learn, but you do it automatically.

What is the purpose of a ritual? For a writer, it should be to further the writing process, and ideally be the catalyst that starts the engine. In writing and other arts, I believe ritual is designed to Call the Muse so you can create. In religion, communion or hymns are rituals of prayer, something that sets the stage for communication with God or Spirit. In cooking, chopping vegetables prepares you to make the recipe. If you are a pianist, you practice scales.

Rituals can be a profound way to stop you in your tracks so that you are forced to be present. Some writers light a candle or votive, write with a favorite pen, write in a favorite place, write on the computer only, write by hand only, write in a favorite journal. Some say a favorite mantra. Some read poetry for 20 - 30 minutes first.

Ted Kooser, former US Poet Laureate, begins by reading his favorite poets:

“I very often read the poems of someone whose work I admire. Just now I’m rereading all of the poems of Nancy Willard, who died recently. She has been one of my favorite writers for many years. I find that if I read a poem I am moved by I often feel like I’d like to strike up a kind of conversation with the poet, and my response may be an attempt at a poem of my own.”*

Maya Angelou wrote her poetry in a hotel room, sparsely furnished, for at least five hours a day. Tolstoy wrote in a closet. Steven King sticks to a goal of producing 6 pages a day. The poet W. H. Auden said, “Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.” He had meticulous times when he would write, adhering to his watch. Ernest Hemingway wrote every morning, and he would stop only when he knew he had something more to say. That way, he would have a place to start the next day, and he wouldn’t be stuck.

Whether you write in the morning, at night, whether you write in spurts or in marathon sessions, do what works best for you. Find inspiration in a writing routine, and if you need a new one, create one. Some writers enjoy starting each writing session with a different prompt. Others do Zen meditation. A good ritual will stop your rushing thoughts, your busy life, and refresh your crowded mind.

At the moment, one of my favorite effective rituals is writing with fellow writers on zoom. I also enjoy reading back issues of National Geographic on my laptop to get ideas. I would probably be more prolific if I turned off the Internet more often, including social media. I know it wouldn’t hurt to unplug every day for a set amount of time. Perhaps if I did, I’d find a new ritual.

*Reprinted from an online article in Writing Routines.

July 2021

Find a Mentor

About two weeks ago, when I was bicycling along the I & M trail, I noticed some words marked in chalk on the pavement. As I passed each mile or half mile post alongside the canal, there would be encouraging words. It started with:

You Got This.

By the time I was finished, there were probably 10 or more such messages written on the pavement. This got me thinking. Sometimes when I sit down to write, or think about writing, it is hard to get started (for whatever reason). It is wonderful to pick up the phone and call a writer friend to get a kind of “inspiration” and bounce ideas off of each other. Invigorated by the conversation, I then turn back to writing.

Woo Hoo!

This is not necessarily writer’s block. This is just needing adrenaline or fuel to keep going. One of the best ways to continue being inspired is to have a mentor who can buoy you up when you are feeling dejected for whatever reason.

Good Job!

Some of the most famous writers, artists, and even businesspeople have had mentors. Steve Jobs mentored Mark Zuckerberg, and when he passed, Zuckerberg called him a “mentor and friend.” Some famous painters who had mentors were Leonardo Da Vinci, Paul Cezanne (mentored by Camille Passaro), and possibly Van Gogh (by Gauguin, and his brother, Theo). If we go way back in time, Socrates mentored Plato, and Plato mentored Aristotle.

You’re halfway there!

And where would Hemingway be without Gertrude Stein or Sherwood Anderson, who urged Hemingway to go to Paris to meet Ms. Stein? F. Scott Fitzgerald was profoundly influenced by several writers, including Ernest Hemingway. Both were members of the “Lost Generation” of American writers who lived in Paris during the 1920s.

1 mile mark

Looking at poets, where would Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop be without each other? I am going to venture out on a limb and say that most artist / creative types need a mentor at some point in their life. I am lucky to have been influenced by several close poet friends. One such poet, Joan Colby, befriended me the last five years of her life. Widely published and very prolific, Colby always found the time to ask how my writing was going. (To read my review of Joan Colby's The Kingdom of Birds on the Highland Park Poetry website, click here.)

Almost there!

Other poet friends and mentors of mine include Wilda Morris and Georgiann Foley. Zoom has also brought me in close contact with some writers from around the country. I especially enjoy zooming one on one with a friend who lives in Santa Fe and is working on a memoir. We try to connect once a week, and in addition to writing, we also take time to support each other’s efforts. While this “writing buddy” is not exactly a mentor, her energy is a huge source of inspiration, and I value our sacred writing time.

You’re awesome!

In addition to these encouraging messages I read while I was bicycling, there were also orange ribbons tied to trees along the trail. I later learned that there was a 5k race for mothers, and that the chalk messages were written by their family, urging them not to give up.

Maybe you have found a poet friend who is more experienced than you, who takes the time to check in with your writing process. If not, you might consider it. Mentors can take a struggling writer from Point A to Point B. S/he can pull the writer out of a black hole and into a creative patch of sunlight. Just a few encouraging words can steer someone who is in a funk towards the writing table again. And who knows? Maybe one day you will be that mentor assisting a new writer with his or her dreams.

June 2021

Brush with Greatness

Last September an undergraduate student at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, contacted me via e-mail. She was working on her senior thesis and came across Poets & Patrons in her research. Her thesis centered on an obscure poet, Thomas James, a confessional poet whose life ended tragically in 1974 by suicide. James was only 27.

In her research, the college student discovered that James won an award in the 1963 Chicagoland Poets & Patrons contest. He was still in high school. James grew up in Joliet, Illinois, and attended both Joliet Junior College and Northern Illinois University. He taught English for a year, but was primarily committed to poetry.

If you have never heard or read any of Thomas James’s poetry, you should. His only book, Letters to a Stranger, was published in 1973, shortly before his death. It was not until the 2008 Graywolf republication of his book, however, that he began to garner some fame and notoriety for his work, though posthumously.

I discovered James several years ago and instantly became a fan. His work was deeply influenced by Sylvia Plath, and he is considered a confessional poet. His poems are lyrical, chock full of images, and are so beautiful I found myself reading them again and again. Due to copyright laws, I am not reprinting them here, but you can read some of his poems on the Poetry Foundation website: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/thomas-james.

How interesting that a now famous poet was once connected with Poets & Patrons. Other poets have followed in this vein. Jared Smith, who served as president of Poets & Patrons from 2000 – 2007, now lives in Colorado and recently received the Colorado Author’s League Award for his book of poetry, That’s How It Is. He was also included in the Colorado Encyclopedia by the Colorado Humanities, which is a reference source for K-12 public schools. In addition, his 16th volume of poetry, A Sphere Encased in Fires and Life, has been scheduled for publication by New York Quarterly Books this October, 2021. You can read more about Jared at his website, www.jaredsmith.info.

And don’t forget about some of our many workshop leaders. Christine Swanberg is now Rockford’s Poet Laureate. Bill Marr is widely published in China, and his work is studied in schools there. Marilyn Taylor, a master sonneteer, has been poet laureate of both Wisconsin and Milwaukee. Robin Chapman, who has also led a few workshops for Poets & Patrons, has 14 collections of poetry and is widely published. Her book, The Dreamer Who Counted the Dead, received a Wisconsin Library Association Outstanding Poetry Book of the Year Award, and her book, Abundance, received the Cider Press Editors’ Book Award. Other poet leaders have become authorities on poetry forms, such as the sonnet or cento.

Several revered poets who have now passed were also long-time members of Poets & Patrons, such as Glenna Holloway, Nancy Carrigan, Margarete Cantrall, and Gertrude Rubin. You can read more about them on our webpage at: https://www.poetsandpatrons.net/in-memoriam.

In addition, some of our active members also have published several books. You can read about poets such as Charlotte DiGregorio, James Green, Mardelle Fortier, Wilda Morris, Donna Pucciani, Tom Roby, Jenene Ravesloot, and more on our author page, https://www.poetsandpatrons.net/poems.

So you never know where participation with an organization such as Poets & Patrons might lead. Whether you attend our workshop sessions downtown or on zoom, enter our annual contests, join us on a Write! Chicago writing workshop, or read poetry at one of our open mics, anything can happen. Look around. You might be sitting next to the next poet laureate! Or, better yet, maybe you become one yourself.

Keep Writing,

Caroline

May 2021

As we move out of National Poetry Month and into May, with warmer weather and the hint of summer in the air, a glint of hope on the horizon that the pandemic might be lessening, there is all the more reason to celebrate poetry.

This past year I personally have participated in many online zoom events, such as being featured for the Tall Grass Writers Guild in March (https://www.outriderpress.net/tallgrass-writers-guild.html), the Illinois State Poetry Society’s Brewed Awakening readings in April (illinoispoets.org), several open mics sponsored by Poets & Patrons, and two P&P online workshops (one on memoir poetry, and one on the cento). Though these events are nourishing to my soul, sometimes I wonder why I go through all the stress and effort to read and promote poetry, or to spend long afternoons at a workshop where we dissect poems for imagery and technique. I have a full-time day job. I have a house to clean, a husband, and 3 cats. Why do I find time for poetry?

I have heard poets tell me, “I don’t know why I write. I don’t expect to get any money out of it.” Certainly, when we look at poets, we can count on one hand the contemporary poets who make enough money writing to treat it as a full-time job. I’ve been told that book sales even for Billy Collins or Rita Dove aren’t enough to live on. Even U.S. Poet Laureates, such as Joy Harjo and Tracy K. Smith, only earn an annual stipend of $35,000, plus $5,000 for travel expenses, according to the Library of Congress. Instead, many contemporary poets earn their money through speaking gigs or by teaching professionally.

For most of us, however, who don’t teach and who don’t get paid for speaking gigs, writing poetry is a labor of love. Not only writing poems, but submitting them to be published, getting a book contract signed, promoting a book, and selling it, are all commitments that take time and, for the most part, do not pay much. According to one source I found, if you are a poet and sell 300 books, that is considered a good output. Most poets break even on book sales, or may earn a little bit of cash, not enough to quit their day job.

I attended the San Miguel Poetry Week in January 2016 and was fortunate enough to study with Kimiko Hahn, Paul Muldoon, and Toi Derricotte. While at breakfast with Toi during the last day of the conference, I will never forget what she told me over lavender coffee and omelets. “The most important thing,” she said, “is the relationship between you and your work.”

Those words have stuck with me ever since. I have learned to value my own opinion on my own work, rather than hold the opinion of everyone else higher than my own. I do feel validation when someone compliments me, and truthful compliments definitely have their place, but in the end you are your own best critic. Only you know your work, what it means and what it should say.

I spent 15 years writing the poems that appear in my book The Caregiver. It took me two years of relentlessly trying to win contests with the manuscript before making the decision to just send it out to a publisher. I wouldn’t change those years for anything. I spent those two years editing and revising the work, making it much better. I consider the money I spent on the contest entry fees like a kind of pseudo-MFA slush fund--all the rejections made me delve into the manuscript even deeper, rearrange poems, revise poems, eliminate poems, and even write new ones. If I hadn’t had the deadlines or rejections, I would never have worked so hard to make the book the best it could be.

Thus I took Toi Derricotte’s words to heart. I don’t know what was driving me or why. I guess I just believed in my project, in the mission of the book, and I felt there was an audience for it, somewhere. Truly, it was a labor of love.

December 2020 / January 2021

Dear Poets,

Many writers like to go solo, writing in the solace of their homes, or at a café. Others like to meet (or zoom) with friends and write as a social practice. Both of these are valid options.

Poets & Patrons has many opportunities for any kind of writer. Take a look at these benefits:

• Annual Contest: We offer an annual contest each year with many categories or themes. If you are a member, you are charged a discounted price for the contest, which has cash prizes. In addition, we host an awards ceremony where winners read their winning poems. Historically this has been held in the Chicago area, but this year for the first time it was hosted on Zoom and was well attended by writers from all over the country.

• Critiquing Workshops: These are normally held in person at the Harold Washington Library. This year, due to COVID, we have held them via Zoom, and we plan to continue to do that in the future. A published poet leads the workshop, and poets submit their poems ahead of time for critique. Price is $5 for members, $10 for non-members. Workshops are held four times a year.

• Write! Chicago: These are writing workshops held at area museums and outdoor venues. Prior to COVID, we would meet at the museum, disperse to individually look at exhibits, then convene to write and share our writing. Many times these events spill into lunch and social time at a nearby restaurant. Some museums we have visited in the past are the Art Institute of Chicago, the Mexican Museum of Fine Art in Pilsen, the Oriental Museum, the Gage Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and many, many more. We are now talking about doing this online, due to COVID, so be sure to check your e-mail to see for opportunities.

• Open Mics: We have hosted several open mics at local bookstores downtown, most recently After-Words Bookstore in River North. We just voted to host our first open mic, with two featured readers, on Zoom. That free event will take place Feb. 13, 2021, and the theme will be Valentine’s Day, or Love.

• Posting Poems: As a member of Poets & Patrons, you are allowed to publish up to 2 poems each year on our website. To look at some of our poems that are currently published, go to the “Poetry” tab on our website, then click on “Poems.”

These are just some of the many benefits to joining Poets & Patrons. You can look around our website to see even more! Our membership runs from January 1 - Dec. 30, so now is a good time to think of joining or renewing. If you join now, your membership will be good until Dec. 30, 2021. To join or renew, simply go to the “Join Us” tab on this website, then “Membership.” The cost is $20, and you can pay with a credit card. Or, if you prefer, you can mail in a check to our treasurer, Mike Freveletti.

Whether you write solo, or with others, it is nice to have a fellowship of writers to learn from. Poets & Patrons has provided that community since 1954 and has been a constant presence of poetry in Chicago. We hope you will consider joining us!

Stay safe and connected,

Caroline

November 2020

It’s November and the holidays are approaching. Unfortunately, many of us will be staying home, isolated, due to the threat of COVID. The governor has warned us about large family gatherings and the possible spread of the virus.

This year, Bill and I will not be hosting Thanksgiving, which in the past has included 15–17 people at our house. Instead, I am taking this four-day holiday as a mini retreat to write. For those of us who work full-time, the challenge is always how to find time to write, to fit it in between work, dinner, exercise, and sleep.

Imagine the energy you will save by not preparing for a big family gathering. Put the time you will earn by not dusting, vacuuming, cooking, or cleaning into that writing project you have been putting off. Call to your Muse during this holiday break. Think of all the family who can’t be with you and reach your words across the divide.

OK, so you’re not making a turkey. Would a villanelle do instead? Perhaps a sonnet instead of stuffing? A sestina with each of these six end words: turkey, family, harvest, autumn, gratitude, pie. I challenge you!

Not in the mood to write a poem? Perhaps you’d like to hear some poetry instead. Consider attending one of the upcoming Zoom sessions sponsored by Poets & Patrons that will feature recent contest winners reading their poems. The first one is Sunday, Nov. 15, at 1 p.m. and will highlight the winners of the 2020 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest, which has two categories—traditional sonnet, and modern sonnet. That presentation will be followed by a talk given by our own Wilda Morris on the subject, “What is a Modern Sonnet?”

The second Zoom reading will be Sunday, Nov. 22, at 1 p.m. That ceremony will feature winners of the 2020 Chicagoland Poets & Patrons contest, which had 14 categories this year plus cash prizes.

To get the link for either of these Zoom readings, please e-mail our contest chair, Kate Hutchinson, at: kate28.hutchinson@gmail.com. You can also see the list of winners on our website. Just click on “Contests” then “Poetry and Sonnet Contest Winners.”

We hope to see you there, and stay safe!!

October 2020

It’s October, a month we all look forward to for changing colors. Keats describes it as, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness / Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun.” The fiery reds and golden yellows of maple trees, the rust leaves of burr oak, remind us that nothing stays the same. Then, with a flick of an eye, the leaves fall and litter the ground, making a colorful compost before the snow covers everything.

Just as the seasons change, so do we as writers. How many of us have “discovered” a poem we wrote 10, 20 or even 30 years ago with newfound interest? Did it seem like an entirely different person wrote it? Did you like the stranger’s words, or did they make you want to shove the poem back into a drawer?

We can never know what Emily Dickinson thought as she shoved 1,800 poems into her writing desk, neatly tying them into little bundles or “fascicles.” We can all pray for the unlikely chance to be published posthumously like Dickinson, or we can take a second look at our poems written many years ago. I just recently submitted a poem, “Free,” to the Highland Park Poetry website for their Muses’ Gallery. I wrote that poem 35 years ago. I only resurrected it because I needed to find a poem about trees, which was the theme.

Some poems written long ago can be considered finished, while others need pruning. I self-published two chapbooks in 2010 and 2011. The chapbooks are illustrated with photos of paintings, which adds a colorful dimension. I don’t regret publishing them, and they’re nice to sell at readings, but many of the poems in them now seem immature to me, like a barrel of unripe apples. Still, I don’t revise them because they capture a younger season of my life as a writer.

I have countless poems on my computer written in all stages, all seasons of my life. Some, like the evergreens, seem permanently finished, while others appear as saplings and need more growth. Others seem beyond hope, like the charred remains of a forest fire.

Still, after the flames there is always new growth and regeneration, and discovering a poem that was long buried and forgotten can provide fertilizer for a new poem, even if you use just one stanza. In that case, you can create something entirely new from the old, like a flower blooming in springtime in the burnt soil of Yellowstone.

As Frost reminds us in his poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”:

“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”

September 2020

This week I learned of the passing of two great poets–Joan Colby and John Quinn. Joan was a prolific poet whom I had befriended for the last five years of her life. We lunched occasionally with her husband, Alan. Talk would center around poetry and the writing practice. She published more than 10 books and was a kind of role model to me.

John was a long-time member of the Illinois State Poetry Society, a humorous poet who also posted a pun a day on Facebook for years.

The passing of these two local poets got me thinking about what we all can do to promote local poetry. I own 5 of Joan’s books. I don’t believe John published one or I would have it.

Organizations like Poets & Patrons were established to nurture and encourage local poets through workshops and contests. What are ways we can encourage poets? Buy their book(s). Write a review. Attend readings. Poet Gail Goepfert wrote a review of my book, The Caregiver, for Rhino, and Lennart Lundh wrote one for Goodreads and Highland Park Poetry (HPP). I am scheduled to write a review of Gail’s latest book, Get Up Said the World, for HPP. The treasurer of Poets & Patrons, Mike Freveletti, has written a review for HPP of Wilda Morris’s book, Pequod Poems, a book of poems in conversation with Moby Dick. Wilda is the current workshop chair for Poets & Patrons.

I have a large bookshelf dedicated solely for local poets. All of the books of my poet friends and acquaintances are shelved there, in alphabetical order. Most recently, I have added Jennifer Dotson’s latest book, Late Night Talk Show Fantasy & Other Poems. Other poets include the talented and prolific Jared Smith, Maureen Tolman Flannery, Susan T. Moss, Cynthia Gallaher, Vito Carli, Bill Marr, Mardelle Fortier, and the late Glenna Holloway, among many others. Some of these poets were published by Dave Gecic, publisher of Puddin’head Press and a poet in his own right. These poets are just as important to me as superstars Natalie Diaz, Jericho Brown, Joy Harjo, and other poets whom I admire and whose books grace a different bookshelf.

In these COVID days, it is more important than ever to support local poets since open mics are almost non-existent, except via Zoom. Consider purchasing a poetry book from a local poet for a birthday or holiday gift. You will be doing a double kindness. The poet will thank you, as will the recipient of the present.

Poets & Patrons was established to create a supportive environment for Chicago-area poets to learn and mingle. We need to continue to spread the good karma and recognize local talent. And who knows? There may come a day when one of our friends will make it big, and you can say you were there first and saw it happen.

August 2020

I used to live in Jackson Hole, WY where in the center lay a town square bordered by arches made of elk antlers. Adjacent was the National Elk Refuge, where they fed the elk herd most times, but every few weeks in autumn the U.S. Fish & Wildlife opened it up to hunters to kill them. My boyfriend at the time, a wildlife photographer, called it slaughter. Tom Mangelsen was and still is an advocate for wildlife, and his photos of polar bear, grizzlies, sandhill cranes, mountain lions, and cheetahs (and countless other wildlife from around the world) can be seen today in many galleries.

My 18-year-old nephew is also an advocate for animals, and hopes to do research to help benefit them. He has had all kinds of pets–parrots, lizards, chameleons, python snakes, dogs, cats, and the list goes on. My husband is an advocate on a more local level, weekly filling our birdfeeder, growing zinnias and wild bergamot to attract hummingbirds and bees, milkweed to attract butterflies. He is always on the lookout for coyote, white-tailed deer, or hawks. When he was younger he would record the number of deer, raccoon, great blue heron, hawks, vultures, etc. he saw each week in a journal, and compare the data year to year. When we are up north, he anticipates finding a moose or bear. He has spent his life cherishing the wilderness and wildlife.

I have also been an advocate. When we moved my father to a nursing home, he could barely speak. The rare neurological disease had ruined his vocal cords and decimated his mind. I would visit and frequently have to lobby to get his diaper changed, to have him fed. Eventually I would do both myself. His ex-caregiver visited him on occasion. One time she found urine-soaked sheets and a cold dinner tray. Eventually, he refused to eat, lost 20-30 pounds, and his stomach ballooned out until his last day. I tried to be his advocate, to lobby on his behalf. To this day I regret that I didn’t do more.

When I was having a difficult time many years ago, both of my parents let me stay with them until I was on the road to recovery. They acted as my advocate. I wouldn’t be where I am today without their love and support, and their belief in me. And when I was recovering from cancer more recently, a chaplain named Aaron reached out to me during chemotherapy. His visits comforted me during the darkest time of my life.

My uncle Ed ministered to prison inmates his entire working life, fighting for their rights. He counseled prisoners on death row, and led an initiative in New York to bring college into the prisons. He marched during the protests of the ‘60s for civil rights and Martin Luther King, Jr. He has been a tireless advocate for the rights of prisoners, mostly in New York. There are many prisoners who graduated from college that he helped, and who are leading successful lives today.

I’ve met social workers who represent the abused or victimized, criminal defenders who take on cases no one else will touch. Why do these people feel compelled to speak for others? These people speak for those who cannot defend themselves.

To whom or what are you are an advocate for? Think about those whom you care most about, who might not be able to help themselves. Close your eyes, then write a poem on their behalf.