There’s a Poem in This Place: Minnesota Street Market To Host an Intercultural Literary Performance on Thursday, June 23, 2022.

This event offers an opportunity for local authors to take center stage in a lit fest setting — and for people from the local area to connect with some great local authors they may never have heard of. The program features short readings and dialogue — with authors of different backgrounds to create a varied, rich experience for our community.  It also will have live translation in Somali.

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Lyricality Launches LyricaliTea Writing Circles in Greater Saint Cloud

LyricaliTea Circles are a thoughtfully designed response to the letter published on April 11, 2021 in the S C Times by 70 local leaders in which they called for people and organizations to “create safe spaces for brave conversations.” Circle Keepers have been trained to create a culture of connection, mindfulness and presence. They share writing practices that silence inner criticism and enable participants to access their creativity, compassion, and wisdom. 

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Meet Central Minnesota Artist/Educator Vatsalaa Jha

Vatsalaa Jha graduated from UW-Madison in 2014, where she studied Art and Honors in the Liberal Arts.  She is originally from India.  She immigrated to the United States in 2001 with her family.  Her art always ends up having flavors of intended concepts, deeper meanings, and perhaps overall truths about herself.

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Paramount Center for the Arts Commissions Lyricality to Create LISTENING BACK TO IMAGINE WHO WE COULD BECOME, a Collaborative Communal Poem to Honor the Theatre’s 100th Anniversary

On August 26 at the Paramount Center for the Arts Theatre, audience members heard the debut of a new poem. Tracy Rittmueller read this collaborative communal work sponsored in part by Bill and Linda Henrichs and Gate City Bank. This article discusses the history of collaborative communal poetry, the general and specific artistic process that made this commemorative poem, names the collaborators, and shares a dream for preserving this history-making commission.

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How to read Now We Will Speak In Flowers by Micki Blenkush as a way to cultivate empathy, with a mini review of the book

Now We Will Speak in Flowers by Micki Blenkush does not candy-coat or sentimentalize the nature of human experience. Instead, she boldly explores human vulnerability and themes of connection/disconnection, and how extreme disconnection may lead to extremely altered states of perception. And it is exactly this sense of actuality that fosters the art of empathy.

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Meet Central Minnesota Poet Hedy Tripp

Hedy Tripp was born and educated in Singapore. A Saint Cloud elder with the Minnesota Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) and retired professor/lecturer, she came to her identity as a poet late in life, she says, “Because I never had time, earlier, to say, ‘I am a poet.’”

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Mo Cheol Thú (You are My Music) by Katrina Pierson

The music of love is sung so delicately in Katrina Pierson’s poem, Mo Cheol Thú. As the piece progresses, we see how the song sweetens – is strengthened – as love matures. The music exists even in mundane tasks and Katrina reminds us of this – that small things carry weight.

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Crevice by Emerson Sloane

Guest editor Lane Henson writes, “I love Emerson Sloane’s poem, CREVICE, for its intense passion and imagery. The poet does not waste any words here – the power comes from the concise language, tight rhythm, and evocative sounds. Emerson’s razor-sharp focus carries us skillfully into this world she has created, that she is stirring awake, in three short stanzas.”

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You did it, Frank by Bob Monahan

Bob Monahan’s You did it, Frank is a poem filled with sharp metaphors spoken softly. The contemplative nature of this piece invites the reader into the poet’s process as they struggle with the “quivering quill” of fierce inspiration and the sometimes inevitable one-that-gets-away.

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Notre Dame de Paris, 1971 by Deborah Rasmussen

Deborah Rasmussen’s poem, Notre Dame de Paris, 1971, beautifully follows the ghost of young love through the cathedral’s looming architecture. This poem asks us to consider those things that are left behind – that so quickly fall apart – in the presence of what feels ancient, infallible.

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Tula by Chris Santiago

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Our guest editor is Su Hwang, author of Lyricality’s Read Poetry 2020 selection Bodega. Chris Santiago is the author of Tula,

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Authenticity by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs

Jennifer Kwon Dobbs is the author of two poetry collections and two chapbooks, most recently Interrogation Room (White Pine Press, 2018) mentioned in The New York Times and the recipient of the 2020 Association of Asian American Studies Book Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Writing: Poetry. Su Hwang selects “Authenticity” by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs.

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Azaleas by Merle Geode

Merle Geode is a queer, non-binary poet, writer, multidisciplinary artist, and shamanic practitioner living with metastatic breast cancer and a hot mess of other human conditions. They often use ritual and trance as generative—and healing—processes to give stories containers in many forms. Their work explores grief, chaos/disruption, and messy embodiment. In fall 2019, they began their MFA in Poetry at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. They are a former food writer, dog groomer, and Loft Literary Center Mirrors & Windows Fellow. They are currently working on a picture book about anticipatory grief and death.

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Nomad by Halima Hagi-Mohamed

In responding to the implied question, “Where are you from?” This poem reaches out to connect strangers heart-to-heart and ends with an implied invitation to all of us, about all of our experiences: “give it a name.”

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essential worker by aegor ray

Sunday Morning Lyricality Guest Editor, Su Hwang, author of Lyricality’s Read Poetry 2020 selection, Bodega, presents aegor ray’s poem “essential worker” in honor of asian american and pacific islander heritage month.

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Careful What You Wish For by Bao Phi

Seriously! Last night I had a dream that I was a white man. Unlike in my
youth, when I fantasized about such things, this time I did not ask for it––
and yet there I was in the mirror; high, sharp cheekbones; sensible but not-
too-fussy hair; striking eyes; good facial hair. I decided to see how it went.

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We Are Here by English Language Learners at La Cruz Community Center

The collaborative communal poem “We Are Here” takes us from the tropical weather of Somalia to an English class in St. Cloud, revealing emotional experiences common to all people–the struggles and joys of learning something new; hope; the loneliness and fear that happen when we leave the familiar behind; grief; and a desire to connect. With the last word “we,” the poem opens our eyes to the mysterious truth that although there may be superficial differences between us, in our essential humanity all of us are very much the same.

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Sunmade by Finn McGarrity

Finn McGarrity (they/them/theirs) is a poet, community organizer, and fair-weather cyclist currently residing in South Minneapolis. “sunmade” was an effort to write honestly about the grief of losing a loved one to addiction. As a protective measure during grief, we can often evangelize ourselves and those we have lost; I wanted to let go of that to better love and accept this person and myself as flawed as we were. The poem is a token of empathy for those left behind and for those who are still battling addiction.

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King of Moons by Jessica Zick

Jessica Zick’s poem “King of Moons” intertwines images with information about the planet Saturn, delivered in metaphors and sensory imagery. I think this poem is especially relevant as we slowly re-emerge from our pandemic cocoons, contemplating our places in the world and learning to engage again.

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Spring Fishing the Mouth of the Lester River by Lane Henson

In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve asked 4 Minnesota-based Creative Writing Instructor-Poets to share a favorite poem by one of their students. This week, Bill Meissner, Professor Emerita at St. Cloud State University, shares a poem by his former student, Lane Henson, who has recently begun writing poems again.

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In the Giant’s Castle by Lynette Reini-Grandell

In her poem “In the Giant’s Castle,” Lynette Reini-Grandell invites the reader to accompany her as she creates a plethora of sensory treats for her lover. We feel her excitement and plot with her the surprises to be enjoyed. The small pleasures of loving pepper this poem, and make us smile in anticipation.

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End of November by Donna Isaac

Welcome to Sunday Morning Lyricality, featuring a weekly song or poem by a Minnesota writer. Our current guest editor is Beth Spencer. Donna Isaac’s timely and beautiful poem, “End of November,” was

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Q.E.D. by Paula Reed Nancarrow

Paula Reed Nancarrow’s beautifully crafted poem, “Q.E.D.” makes the subject a true delight and uses it to elucidate the relationship between the poem’s two characters. Paula’s conclusion brilliantly reveals the role reversal and precise moment of understanding blooming in the pupil of a patient teacher.

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Pocket-Sized Feminism by Blythe Baird

To honor International Women’s Day Lyricality Leadership Team Member Cassidy Swanson recommends “Pocket-Sized Feminism” by spoken word artist and slam poet, Blythe Baird, in honor of International Women’s Day today.

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Slow Horse by Gretchen Marquette

“Slow Horse” by Gretchen Marquette
speaks clearly to the elderly, and to those who love the elderly. She pointedly, but gently, turns us toward the limitations of aging and to the accommodations the aged must make for bodies not as able as they once were. Gretchen reminds us though that even the old have “wild” memories and she shows us how delight still comes from unexpected places.

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a little glimpse by keno evol

Keno Evol has made the most of the associative powers of poetry in a little glimpse. Birds, bees, ants—tiny living things– join honey, flowers and breadcrumbs to lead us through homage to the past, help for the fallen, the honor of witness, and the sustenance of community culminating in the heartbreak of George Floyd’s final utterance. It gave me pleasure to locate these large concepts in miniature in specific lines of the poem. You may enjoy tracking them for yourselves.

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Apnea & Bruxism (I woke to the news you were dead) by Michael Kleber-Diggs

Michael Kleber Diggs titles his poem with words you may only know if you suffer from the conditions: apnea, a breath-stopped waking in the night, bruxism, a tooth-crunching grind asleep and awake. With only two words we are launched into the physical terror of one man’s response to the murder of George Floyd. The poet is a person who knows before he knows, before he’s willing to know. He lists a line of facts in single words we recognize as representing the whole occurrence first to last, from mundane causes to lethal results. He addresses George Floyd directly as his own body registers similar trauma “gasping for air,” “fists clenched tight,” hope so intense it turned to prayer. His suffering merges with George’s as it did for us watching, as it does again reading this poem.

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Familiar Fruit by Sagirah Shahid

Sagira Shahid’s skilled poem “Familiar Fruit” evokes through the memory of shared sensation, quitedifferent events: the gassing of a protest march and a former flame’s proffering of a hot pepper, suggesting further unseen links between the two.

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What Comes Now? by Mary Moore Easter

“What Comes Now?” by Mary Moore Easter is a poem in which the poet and her subject, Eliza (a Mississippi slave), ponder her world, mid-escape. Is this a song of celebration or an elegy of lament? Is it about Eliza’s world in 1860 or the poet’s world “now?” In the middle of this early 21st century poem about a late 19th century woman, the poet quotes a 20th century poem by Lucille Clifton. On the surface, this appears to be a straightforward story about a woman who escaped from slavery into freedom, but the poem ripples with meaning, like “the roiling surface / of (a) wet river.” If you are willing to ponder with Eliza and the poet, every reread will carry you further “out / in unseen time and space.”

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Small Griefs by Nicole Borg

This week’s poem, “Small Griefs” by Nicole Borg is heart-wrenching for the loss that is revealed in so few words. The details are vivid and tender. The speaker’s simple actions and stated longings depict grief in a way that is both memorable and visceral.

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Mother’s Day at the Nursing Home by Laura Hansen

“Mother’s Day at the Nursing Home” by Laura Hansen is a poem featuring a scene of best intentions from the perspective of a daughter. I admire how the imagery that poet uses to describe the simple action of struggling to move her mother in a wheelchair also effectively hints at larger narrative. At the end of the poem, the mother’s words echo in my own ears, expanding their layered meaning.

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Waterfall by Larry Schug

I came across Waterfall by Larry Schug in the former local St. Cloud newsletter, Unabridged, exactly when I needed to read it. It was October of 2001, following the events of 9/11, and I, like most, felt shattered. Larry Schug’s words helped to put some frame around the possibility of hope for humanity, and helped to shine a light on a potential path forward.

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Girl Walking Backwards by Patrick Cabello Hansel

Some of us believe that poems most inhabit the gaps between the words on the page. In this poem, Patrick Cabello Hansel sketches images of a family’s grief, leaving canvas for readers to take up the paint of imagination that allows for this girl to be animated in our minds. Doing so, we sense how it might be to inhabit her body, to feel those small pebbles kicking up on one day in her life.

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Will Of A Prince by Ed Bok Lee

Happy New Year from Sunday Morning Lyricality. Lyricality leadership team member Kelly Travis has chosen “Will Of A Prince” by Ed Bok Lee to wish us a year as beautiful, colorful,

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Reverse Suicide by Matt Rasmussen

Matt Rasmussen has written a poem that will stop your breath. Reverse Suicide is a simple yet powerful poem that ends in the most haunting way. The out of order telling adds to the weight of this poem. Events go from negative to unsettling to brutal to hollow to mournful, until we end up alone in the yard with the narrator and his bother wanting to watch the leaves fall back up into the trees.

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The Miscarriage: A Silent Film by Douglas Kearney

If you have never heard a poem without reading it aloud, then let me introduce you to Douglas Kearney’s poetry in his book Patter. Kearney delivers performative, typographical poems that remind me of the 1980’s American neo-conceptual artist Jenny Holzer (man, if these two could meet and do a project…). Jenny Holzer brought word art to the streets and Douglas Kearney brought a bit of street art to poetry. Inside Kearney’s book, Patter, poetry exists not only as words but as a visual medium in the form of street art, a screenplay, a wordfind and a sonnet interrupted by graffiti. On the surface, his poems are pleasing to the reader’s eye: they are deep and compact, yet lively. There are so many layers in Kearney’s poems; each unwinds a narrative in an overlying structure of wordplay and some with graphics.

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The First Day I Un-Loved You by Kris Bigalk

Kris Bigalk’s poem The First Day I Un-Loved You is all about awakening.

Awakenings can make us feel like our current life is being ripped away and being pieced back together simultaneously. It feels like being caught between this person we are for someone else, the person we actually are, and the mess of a person we are right now. Therefore, yeah who needs clothes, who needs to shave, do not even make a waxing appointment and yes, Doritos are sustenance.

Awakenings help us to recognize all the ways we make ourselves fit into other people’s rules, margins, and packaging. Is there room on that couch Kris? Let’s sit here and go numb and after that, we can take that purple dress to a second hand store.

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To Make Baking Powder Biscuits by KateLynn Hibbard

One of the most famous villanelle poem’s is Dylan Thomas’ Do not go gentle into that good night, with the repeated lines “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” A contemporary take on the villanelle form is KateLynn Hibbard’s poem To Make Baking Powder, with its fire-related words stove, burn, stoke, hungry baking up some subtle feminist rage, felt by a subservient wife of the settler colonial era in midwest America, when gender role restrictions limited women’s opportunities and choices.

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In My Extremity by Mary Moore Easter

The amazing thing about gratitude is how it demands a personal relationship with each of us. We can’t look at someone else’s life and know for certainty about what they can be, should be, are grateful. Here Mary Moore Easter brings an attitude of gratitude as an offering to a woman who stepped out of history, surprised her with her courageous story that was nearly lost, and inspired her to declare her a space in which we can honor her.

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Thanksgiving by Toni Easterson

Welcome to Sunday Morning Lyricality, featuring a weekly song or poem by a Minnesota writer. Our current guest editor is Susan Thurston. Similar to last week’s poem where gratitude is a

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Everything Waiting by Beverly Voldseth

Echoes of the word “waiting” from last week’s Sunday Morning Lyricality drift into this week’s offering, “Everything Waiting” by Beverly Voldseth. My mother would encourage me in times of trouble to “count your blessings.” That sort of listing is where this poem begins and then, as all good poems do, it opens out to include the unexpected and becomes an anthem for hope and the anticipation of receiving the possibilities offered in another day.

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Quiet Gathering by Marcella Taylor

Marcella Taylor was a stalwart friend and confidante, taken far too soon by an aggressive cancer. During her amazing life she was a gifted teacher at St. Olaf College, and her breathtaking poetry garnered awards, grants, and residencies. Born in the Bahamas of Scottish, African, Cherokee, and Irish ancestry, she made her creative home in Minnesota. She published extensively in journals and anthologies including Poetry, Wisconsin Review, and Tampa Bay Review, and two volumes in addition to A Body Remembers: The Lost Daughter and Songs for the Arawak.

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We come again to the cabin in the spring by Karen Herseth Wee

Susan Thurston, guest editor of “Sunday Morning Lyricality” for November 2020, uses “the lens named gratitude” for choosing this month’s poems. In “We come to the cabin in the spring” by Karen Herseth Wee, Susan says, “we are called to honor and celebrate the passage of time with all of its risks and rewards, and to declare the boundaries that save us and bring us together in the future.”

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Retirement On Lake Time by Will Hecht

This poem, the last in October’s four-part series, typifies aging in a social context. Beyond personal attributes, life-course opportunities (present or not), or historic life-changing events, we now catch a glimpse of a shared age-related experience. In this prose poem, Will Hecht illustrates the cohesion of relationships and tradition, along with the topics and mood that generally pervades older adult conversations.

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