Published !

This summer, I entered a poem in a contest of the Lake Superior Writers, for a chance to be published in a collaborative literary and art chapbook, with Duluth's (Minnesota) Northern Printmakers Alliance. This is the second collaboration between the two groups, and the second time I had a poem selected for publication.

For the first contest two years ago, poets submitted work for the printmakers to chose from, to create a new piece of art. For this contest, it was the printmakers' turn to post artwork, and poets were invited to write a poem for the print/s of their choice. So, I chose this print, because it's by the same artist who chose my poem in the last contest. Poems had to be entered without our names. In a grand example of kindred spirit, serendipity, and just plain old coincidence, the same artist from the first chapbook happened to choose my poem this time as well. (I know, it seems complicated, doesn't it? But what a great way to connect art and literature...just like in the old college days when art was done for art's sake--no glory, no money...just creative effort!)


Fondness for Ephemera by Jeanne Van Slyke Evans
for Christine Herman

Fleeting as a firefly, gentle as moss
Shadows of spring melt into pale
Sherbet hues -- creamy lemon,
Sweet apricot in an etched
Glass bowl

Soft edges, deckled and random
Scraps of tissue paper
Torn from forgotten pages
Saved for a formless collage,
Petals adrift, dry and pressed
From summer's last rose --
Transparent in a faded blush
Reflect the hues of a pondering
Heart

Radiance alights within
Illuminates this liminal moment
A threshold from past to present
One season to the next
Longing

For echoes of snow-covered branches
A sunset silhouette
Sliced by window panes
Darkening into the winter
Night.
Above: Fondness for Ephemera, monotype by Christine Herman


The 2004 Lake Superior Writers and Northern Printmakers Alliance collaboration featured a monoprint that Christine Herman made to interpret my poem, "Open Circle." If you click directly on the image below, you will get a larger, legible version. Then, hit your back arrow in the upper left corner on your browser, otherwise if you hit the 'x' button you'll close the browser. This is just the print and athe poem parked on my scanner, nothing framed or even straight! Another amazing coincidence with this artist, is that she included a snippet of music in her artwork. She did not know I was also a musician at the time she did this monoprint.