tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39634097075841654502024-03-11T23:52:04.798-05:00 Sheila Packa Poetry BlogSheila Packa Poetry Blog: A blog about poetry: figurative language, spirit, intertextual explorations, patterns, punctuation, forms, great writers, quotes, and journey notes.Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.comBlogger390125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-56439295916189680262024-01-17T16:32:00.003-06:002024-01-17T16:32:47.374-06:00A Song Cycle: Surface Displacements<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpWdvYdvPcT8Kmv8o6IyeaagDtyMxUYiiTRgBXvFRsAQs9I-IVCmAykwkI_2QAKcyNONq044D2UO1j9MdFWPL7lNWJtNlVNW-QCXVcxXCo4QQ5ziEMBuI_IFRO64bVRW_rpLQ4vWFJby7JVrQsZABQ9vGTF43ogJXf5YoyCehQ5uVbEF6arzCvvThlLKky/s792/IMG_1095.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Poster" border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="612" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpWdvYdvPcT8Kmv8o6IyeaagDtyMxUYiiTRgBXvFRsAQs9I-IVCmAykwkI_2QAKcyNONq044D2UO1j9MdFWPL7lNWJtNlVNW-QCXVcxXCo4QQ5ziEMBuI_IFRO64bVRW_rpLQ4vWFJby7JVrQsZABQ9vGTF43ogJXf5YoyCehQ5uVbEF6arzCvvThlLKky/w247-h320/IMG_1095.jpeg" title="A Song Cycle: Surface Displacements" width="247" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxs78LoYwRTMkKPhjwSNk0SqRiPaKwrbWXafIHj9OgbYFWwqUiAxe1MqFdmKEIBcVqFGfbEwzw5GOudrSUFNtPwQ7G1qZnhwpU0YD70pLnOCDz-zYigUKKQ5ahz_qXBlNv4LC55gmltcU3zz8JbUlM7Bom9N60WbBtj0tEWKfw_2Ix4lmx3C-O1GNPJWIM/s4032/IMG_1104.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Weber Music Hall stage" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxs78LoYwRTMkKPhjwSNk0SqRiPaKwrbWXafIHj9OgbYFWwqUiAxe1MqFdmKEIBcVqFGfbEwzw5GOudrSUFNtPwQ7G1qZnhwpU0YD70pLnOCDz-zYigUKKQ5ahz_qXBlNv4LC55gmltcU3zz8JbUlM7Bom9N60WbBtj0tEWKfw_2Ix4lmx3C-O1GNPJWIM/w320-h240/IMG_1104.jpeg" title="Weber Music Hall stage before the performance" width="320" /></a></div>Composer Wendy Durrwachter created a song cycle for the title poem in my book, <i>Surface Displacements</i>. It premiered on Saturday January 13, 2024 at the Weber Music Hall on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus. <p></p><p>The songs were performed by soprano Jennifer Lien while Ms Durrwachter played the piano, and the music reflected the landscape of Lake Superior and the waters and landscape of northern Minnesota. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguCsXVfxUKtPuA5Uq6rLB8g3v7sGqEoMULhaKJkQwX4iXtTXdHb5gu1-IP2r_0-yLSpACNKPWQyNUl3UYN710s2cNZo8y4HDm7rVliusIt3cJ3yYJRh3cMZhwJjhttQ5xyJ7ZyRmDdqdAlmd7399vJw1z8KQrmEk-t45d5uPzojwikmPSrO-Y4ybl-sJa8/s4032/IMG_1109.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="photo of the creators" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguCsXVfxUKtPuA5Uq6rLB8g3v7sGqEoMULhaKJkQwX4iXtTXdHb5gu1-IP2r_0-yLSpACNKPWQyNUl3UYN710s2cNZo8y4HDm7rVliusIt3cJ3yYJRh3cMZhwJjhttQ5xyJ7ZyRmDdqdAlmd7399vJw1z8KQrmEk-t45d5uPzojwikmPSrO-Y4ybl-sJa8/w320-h240/IMG_1109.jpeg" title="Jennifer Lien, Sheila Packa, and Wendy Durrwachter" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-48114182193644676272023-10-16T18:26:00.002-05:002023-10-16T18:28:26.655-05:00Twin Cities Book Festival 2023 <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ30OuQpjJVoMDaket_0jp9wAcK3t0L2H_y_-bWUZIiHlc_eYfcgAmwBFq7Shbr-J91ZOb3OqvIH3MQIhasvHRf7Z5TTQum0A6YQf4caTfLTe_YiEVJS7y0tZ1u9wEGbJZjS-b3mvi2R2JCO76ceiLVJlv8gG0Ixas_NJygHOvP20T4zBww-BXm0SrEYl/s1280/pdd1_TCBF_Sheila%20.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ30OuQpjJVoMDaket_0jp9wAcK3t0L2H_y_-bWUZIiHlc_eYfcgAmwBFq7Shbr-J91ZOb3OqvIH3MQIhasvHRf7Z5TTQum0A6YQf4caTfLTe_YiEVJS7y0tZ1u9wEGbJZjS-b3mvi2R2JCO76ceiLVJlv8gG0Ixas_NJygHOvP20T4zBww-BXm0SrEYl/s320/pdd1_TCBF_Sheila%20.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>The TCBF is sponsored by Rain Taxi, and it was held in the Progress Center at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, Minnesota. Besides 80 exhibitors (Graywolf, Coffee House Press, Holy Cow! Press, Minnesota Press, Magers & Quinn Bookstore, St. Paul's Midway Books, the College of St. Catherine, the University of Minnesota MFA program, Hamline University MFA program, and many other writers and writing-related business, there were several authors reading excerpts of their work through the day's event. Truly it was the literary event of the year! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkIfyyJVPmKRzKI79u7g5e-UFY91LHlHPmzsyQLwvbfudJN3JPXp8Px1Anps3gtSI1LlLgIgIvlwPTMEfOyZBIe8dXM946-Rk52GO_-079NKUUDlS4eh-VNxAP2YIwu50WykuLzcOEQeBLopzrFv0QNox0wM1a6OEk1H1rbmXkw7Yy5UBP4gkk8e9Un1tW/s4032/IMG_0867.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkIfyyJVPmKRzKI79u7g5e-UFY91LHlHPmzsyQLwvbfudJN3JPXp8Px1Anps3gtSI1LlLgIgIvlwPTMEfOyZBIe8dXM946-Rk52GO_-079NKUUDlS4eh-VNxAP2YIwu50WykuLzcOEQeBLopzrFv0QNox0wM1a6OEk1H1rbmXkw7Yy5UBP4gkk8e9Un1tW/w269-h240/IMG_0867.jpeg" width="269" /></a></div><br />My photo was taken by David Beard for the <a href="https://www.perfectduluthday.com/2023/10/16/duluthians-at-the-twin-cities-book-festival/?fbclid=IwAR2vcfUcRkcQhCOg4OmuSHVOciClSeCeFKNmyUR27blFoqkHIt14Sv42Y58">Perfect Day Duluth</a> website. The photo of Mary Bode and Julie Gard was taken by me. The two were representing the Lake Superior Writers organization. <p></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-26978329631159519452023-10-13T19:04:00.001-05:002023-10-13T19:04:09.745-05:00A Song Cycle: Surface Displacements <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I'm so excited about the music that composer Wendy Durrwachter has created for the title poem from my book, Surface Displacements. She has preview concert in Grand Marais on October 21, and a premier at the Weber Music Hall this winter in 2024. To learn more about the composer, go to <a href="https://www.wendydurrwachter.com/" target="_blank">https://www.wendydurrwachter.com/</a></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9m3PnxHTwWLgT3Tp9XEp6rv_ftjBiWaJoxHf431NalsY_kbhjVGrAoRc9cKmXVadCyB2m4lFCLFdum0yV2qNdliSRx0CY0Q00lKgyC_pxPJ7g5UeT3poB8SBhA6mdvH38si5LCUEN_nBunPSloWPEsuLuZBxG7LZUhPQBgrRRsfpbsxqdPdi1-p3HuZf/s960/songcycle_wendydurrwachter1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="773" height="437" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9m3PnxHTwWLgT3Tp9XEp6rv_ftjBiWaJoxHf431NalsY_kbhjVGrAoRc9cKmXVadCyB2m4lFCLFdum0yV2qNdliSRx0CY0Q00lKgyC_pxPJ7g5UeT3poB8SBhA6mdvH38si5LCUEN_nBunPSloWPEsuLuZBxG7LZUhPQBgrRRsfpbsxqdPdi1-p3HuZf/w352-h437/songcycle_wendydurrwachter1.jpeg" width="352" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><p></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-23918945357242379982023-10-11T16:46:00.004-05:002023-10-11T16:48:52.475-05:00Refresh with Tranströmer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MBBIuyvLBkKBXVr4iAVEW_4itNHpFMyVv-mvnwE9o2bKWE6mlCSBlFiYCu8DRR2ZzcVOJNV51y0tkT3nzYcPA-DR5PplopDMChwc7Uqjzlg5_pvxoutAsg81aw9OXdqgUDXJE-u0AYQCf3s2LNCDJ9prKtkNmH006wM-I3N88c3HmdchGOcdMYQ1dQts/s612/TomasTranstromer.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="422" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MBBIuyvLBkKBXVr4iAVEW_4itNHpFMyVv-mvnwE9o2bKWE6mlCSBlFiYCu8DRR2ZzcVOJNV51y0tkT3nzYcPA-DR5PplopDMChwc7Uqjzlg5_pvxoutAsg81aw9OXdqgUDXJE-u0AYQCf3s2LNCDJ9prKtkNmH006wM-I3N88c3HmdchGOcdMYQ1dQts/s320/TomasTranstromer.jpeg" width="221" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A playlist of Tomas Tranströmer: <a href="https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/the-blue-house-playlist-by-patty-crane/">https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/the-blue-house-playlist-by-patty-crane/</a></p><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Allegro </b></div><div>by Tomas Tranströmer</div><div><a href="https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/allegro/" target="_blank">trans. by Ingar Palmlund</a></div><div><br /></div>I play Haydn after a dark day
</div><div>and sense an honest warmth in my hands.</div><div><br />The keys are willing. Mild hammers strike.
</div><div>The tone is green, lively and still.<br /><br />The tone says that freedom exists
</div><div>and that someone does not pay the emperor tribute.</div><div><br />I push the hands deep into my haydnpockets,
</div><div>mimicking one who quietly watches the world.<br /><br />I raise the haydnflag — this means:
</div><div>“We do not surrender. But want peace.”</div><div><br />The music is a glasshouse on the slope
</div><div>where stones fly, stones roll.<br /><br />And the stones roll right through
</div><div>but each pane remains whole.<div> </div><div>Original poem in Swedish</div><div><br /></div><div>Jag spelar Haydn efter en svart dag
</div><div>och känner en enkel värme i händerna.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tangenterna vill. Milda hammare slår.
</div><div>Klangen är grön, livlig och stilla.</div><div><br /></div><div>Klangen säger att friheten finns
</div><div>och att någon inte ger kejsaren skatt.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jag kör ner händerna i mina haydnfickor
</div><div>och härmar en som ser lugnt på världen.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jag hissar haydnflaggan — det betyder:
</div><div>“Vi ger oss inte. Men vill fred.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Musiken är ett glashus på sluttningen
</div><div>där stenarna flyger, stenarna rullar.</div><div><br /></div><div>Och stenarna rullar tvärs igenom
</div><div>men varje ruta förblir hel.</div><div> </div><div>From Den halvfärdiga himlen, Bonniers 1962</div><div>Copyright © Tomas Tranströmer 1962</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>And finally, this lovely and refreshing poem: </div><div><br />Tired of all who come with words, words but no language<br />I went to the snow covered island.<br />The wild does not have words.<br />The unwritten pages spread themselves out in all directions!<br />I came across the marks of roe-deer’s hooves in the snow.<br /><br />Language but no words.<br /><br />Tomas Transtomer, Trans. John F. Deane from Selected Poems 1954-1986 – Ed. Robert Hass, The Ecco Press, 1987 p.159</div></div>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-61119830825899039902023-10-04T12:58:00.002-05:002023-10-04T12:58:39.263-05:002023 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NjLOfEtE_oUPpftQbkkOr7LwkzIkozEo-_LX7H8c3UsroWqa_FZ_soDowx9GQr57tDSfRtM6ivSHrNTW_nUO0Mn19CN9UhbOpp2yklgrtPrWz-Mi90V1KRtmNuizzNsLW7V4Ivc9pPuRgAm3BHR8LZoO1R9dU8IGJiklbA6NuIboCjkcj-VNwTVsg6xP/s600/nemba-book-seal-winner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NjLOfEtE_oUPpftQbkkOr7LwkzIkozEo-_LX7H8c3UsroWqa_FZ_soDowx9GQr57tDSfRtM6ivSHrNTW_nUO0Mn19CN9UhbOpp2yklgrtPrWz-Mi90V1KRtmNuizzNsLW7V4Ivc9pPuRgAm3BHR8LZoO1R9dU8IGJiklbA6NuIboCjkcj-VNwTVsg6xP/w185-h200/nemba-book-seal-winner.jpg" width="185" /> </a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj36q-dUizL6EAnUJdK09aDBrHwlILur9Bz8eDMBi7nyuiwByyg9bID0t2luP4Dy8-eOvF2RQdMyIGz4LcuS1i0FOTIeZSCVo1tvtyPosuRIKgwQQs2wPiK6T53ebLVtLys9L_nL_yqU1PBrnJSUqTEtJgezsbaZ7-4plfIelgKMFnux42crdEnM2KK1idR/s2671/Packa_SurfaceDisplacements.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2671" data-original-width="1798" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj36q-dUizL6EAnUJdK09aDBrHwlILur9Bz8eDMBi7nyuiwByyg9bID0t2luP4Dy8-eOvF2RQdMyIGz4LcuS1i0FOTIeZSCVo1tvtyPosuRIKgwQQs2wPiK6T53ebLVtLys9L_nL_yqU1PBrnJSUqTEtJgezsbaZ7-4plfIelgKMFnux42crdEnM2KK1idR/s320/Packa_SurfaceDisplacements.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><span style="box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--wp--preset--color--black);">"</span><em style="box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--wp--preset--color--black); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Surface Displacements</em><span style="background-color: white; color: var(--wp--preset--color--black); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: var(--wp--preset--color--black); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">dives deep into the author’s personal history growing up in Minnesota’s mining country and offers a meditation on the legacy left by decades of mineral excavation. Some poems are elegies to flooded mine pits, tailings ponds, and the scarred landscape, while others explore the timelessness of Lake Superior and the resiliency of nature. The book closes with an essay connecting the author’s Finnish roots, the region’s indigenous history, and the environmental impact mining has had on the Iron Range."</span><div><span style="font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">Read more about the NEMBA Awards and see all of the books that received awards in 2023. <a href="https://lakesuperiorwriters.org/2023-nemba-award-winners/">https://lakesuperiorwriters.org/2023-nemba-award-winners/</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Cabin, sans-serif;">I'm so happy to have this award that honors the landscape, culture, history and people of the northeastern Minnesota region. And I'm happy that the book has also been a finalist in the Minnesota Book Awards this year. <br /></span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: var(--wp--preset--color--black); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div></div>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-67732160418200322072023-10-04T12:47:00.005-05:002023-10-04T12:47:46.707-05:00At the University of Minnesota Duluth's Archive<p>I'm so pleased that the library at UMD created an archive for Duluth's poet laureates. Each individual poet laureate contributed time and talents to promote poetry and expand the reading audience. Now artifacts, video, and writings have been archived. </p><p>This image is a placemat for my "Read It and Feast" project. I published the work of several Lake Superior poets on 4 unique placements. Altogether 1500 placemats were printed and given out at the fundraiser for the Food Bank, "Empty Bowl," and also used at the Duluth Grill restaurant. A set of laminated placemats are now at the archive! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8Vktbnq9GZFSEWKkXU3R9QXs-EomlIQ7fGNAEvoLi06hbxqY24Ml8IBkV2Xrxj4xDv_cJoTHS_Iq0UDcEVSOuVGJBh6WMKSymkGql7RzKjjtPXzOI1tX8-vREm_LttTj4eq0o3nT1-tmrHQo7iAoO6NCM-rqsvdYUhunrbouXJDbbdemxQQL9T8PNZEu/s1200/Read-it-and-Feast%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="1200" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig8Vktbnq9GZFSEWKkXU3R9QXs-EomlIQ7fGNAEvoLi06hbxqY24Ml8IBkV2Xrxj4xDv_cJoTHS_Iq0UDcEVSOuVGJBh6WMKSymkGql7RzKjjtPXzOI1tX8-vREm_LttTj4eq0o3nT1-tmrHQo7iAoO6NCM-rqsvdYUhunrbouXJDbbdemxQQL9T8PNZEu/s320/Read-it-and-Feast%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Read about the archival project here: </p><p>https://www.perfectduluthday.com/2023/10/04/poet-laureate-collection-unveiled-at-umd/ </p><p><br /></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-55528102224463243192023-09-15T19:34:00.004-05:002023-09-22T15:43:04.817-05:00Upcoming Readings: Fall 2023<br /><br /><b><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLdLJFvQS0GZFT0Bkp3Vy3Z8i2jtXbPfyJjSjsfsFZJu-UwbAw7L0cGWwyNWEmaLP_JDrbx1hS9TjMg6MWPJPQeqzRCAWyjPF1sdWdp5iwjq7KDSDlwGde9OTWMDGOcxBf_Y6Dwv-EXqUqjrdkSpdYgVA_1A7KvSyPUKxRmTJJYuoZNlSXwVjzmS8SwkH/s4080/PXL_20220220_181336419.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4080" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLdLJFvQS0GZFT0Bkp3Vy3Z8i2jtXbPfyJjSjsfsFZJu-UwbAw7L0cGWwyNWEmaLP_JDrbx1hS9TjMg6MWPJPQeqzRCAWyjPF1sdWdp5iwjq7KDSDlwGde9OTWMDGOcxBf_Y6Dwv-EXqUqjrdkSpdYgVA_1A7KvSyPUKxRmTJJYuoZNlSXwVjzmS8SwkH/s320/PXL_20220220_181336419.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>It's almost winter! But before that, here is a list of events that I will be doing. </div><div><br /></div>Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 5 pm:</b> <b>Finlandia Foundation North</b>: Poet Sheila Packa to Present Program at Finnish-American Meeting at Kenwood Lutheran Church, 2720 Myers Avenue, off Arrowhead Road in Duluth. The meeting is free and open to the public.<br /><br />This is also a meeting of the Lakehead Chapter of the Minnesota Finnish-American Historical Society on Thursday, September 21st at 5pm. We will begin with our Business Meeting at 5pm, followed by coffee at 5:30 pm and our program by Sheila Packa, a poet, writer, and teacher with Minnesota and Finnish roots. Duluth’s Poet Laureate in 2010-2012, Sheila has written five books of poetry, has taught creative writing at Lake Superior College and other community venues, and has published her work in literary magazines and anthologies. She has received awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, two Loft McKnight awards, and a Loft Mentor award in poetry, among other achievements. Her program "Three Rivers: A Poetry Reading” will include a short presentation about a few Finnish poets and an invitation for the audience to write a poem as a guided writing prompt. The author will have her books available for sale. <br /><div><br /></div><div><b>October 10, 2023: Twin Ports Perceptions Panel at the Duluth Public Library (downtown) at 6 pm</b></div><div><br /></div>This fall, the Twin Ports Perceptions project will invite six award-winning Twin Ports authors (three from each side of the bridge) to participate in two moderated panel discussions to talk about how they portray Duluth and Superior in their work, how they grapple with issues of regional identity, and the challenges and joys of writing about where they live. You’re invited to join the discussion and add your perspective to these conversations. How would you characterize the “personalities” of the Twin Ports?<br /><br />The first discussion will be held at Superior Public Library (1530 Tower Avenue, Superior) on Tuesday, September 26 at 6 p.m. and will include Anthony Bukoski, Carol Dunbar, and Barton Sutter. <div><br /></div><div>The second discussion will take place at Duluth Public Library (520 West Superior Street, Duluth) on Tuesday, October 10 at 6 p.m. and will include authors Linda LeGarde Grover, Jayson Iwen, and Sheila Packa. Both discussions will be moderated by retired librarian/author/historian Teddie Meronek.<br /><br />You’re encouraged to familiarize yourself with the work of the participating authors ahead of the event by picking up a free booklet containing writing samples from each author. Booklets can be picked up<br />at the Superior Public Library in early September and will be available while supplies last. A downloadable version of the booklet is also available on the library’s website. Copies of the authors’ books can be checked out from your public library or purchased locally at Zenith Bookstore, the Bookstore at Fitger’s, and Barnes & Noble.<br /><br />Two cities. Two nights. Two discussions. Endless possibilities. We hope you’ll join the conversation.<br /><br />This program is funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wisconsin Humanities strengthens our democracy through educational and cultural programs that build connections and understanding among people of all backgrounds and beliefs throughout the state. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding was also provided by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>October 15, 2023: 10 am to 5 pm at the Twin Cities Book Festival in Progress Center at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, St. Paul, Minnesota. </b>Sheila Packa will have an exhibitor table at the book fair. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Spring 2024: Moving Words at the Aitkin Library - more details to be announced</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><br />Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-42687659220271808572023-09-06T13:43:00.004-05:002023-10-09T12:49:50.411-05:00Twin Ports Perceptions: Superior, WI and Duluth, MN<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVU6QFPqoRTSxOBxS0D4JXif_QKUw_oKYpLCysjmaiBHtMqHny-UEEoNTbizGcSfOaXlIYmvxqVLEikCnm0dAKqTe0k6_U3MZd3I5zuLKYI_tRqbDfmVODNE3qUhmvSdlD6RKqdWU4utzg1TOw-bgi-IJ_qG-QKoyNwZeqkoZUFgN7EWTB4D7QBi0q05q/s1920/Twin%20Ports%20Perceptions%20horizontal.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVU6QFPqoRTSxOBxS0D4JXif_QKUw_oKYpLCysjmaiBHtMqHny-UEEoNTbizGcSfOaXlIYmvxqVLEikCnm0dAKqTe0k6_U3MZd3I5zuLKYI_tRqbDfmVODNE3qUhmvSdlD6RKqdWU4utzg1TOw-bgi-IJ_qG-QKoyNwZeqkoZUFgN7EWTB4D7QBi0q05q/w459-h258/Twin%20Ports%20Perceptions%20horizontal.png" width="459" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Writing about Landscape</p><p>How does landscape impact the creation of poems or stories? Zora Neale Hurston described aspects of the self in geological terms, saying our memories come from the weight, fire, and pressure of the landscape where we came up. </p><p>This fall, the Twin Ports Perceptions project will invite six award-winning Twin Ports authors (three from each side of the bridge) to participate in two moderated panel discussions to talk about how they portray Duluth and Superior in their work, how they grapple with issues of regional identity, and the challenges and joys of writing about where they live. You’re invited to join the discussion and add your perspective to these conversations. How would you characterize the “personalities” of the Twin Ports?</p><p>The next discussion will take place at Duluth Public Library (520 West Superior Street, Duluth) on Tuesday, October 10 at 6 p.m. and will include authors Linda LeGarde Grover, Jayson Iwen, and Sheila Packa. Both discussions will be moderated by retired librarian/author/historian Teddie Meronek. </p><p>You’re encouraged to familiarize yourself with the work of the participating authors ahead of the event by picking up a free booklet containing writing samples from each author. Booklets can be picked upat Superior Public Library in early September and will be available while supplies last. A downloadable version of the booklet is also available on the library’s website here. Copies of the authors’ books can be checked out from your public library or purchased locally at Zenith Bookstore, the Bookstore at Fitger’s, and Barnes & Noble.</p><p>Two cities. Two nights. Two discussions. Endless possibilities. We hope you’ll join the conversation.</p><p>This program is funded in part by a grant from Wisconsin Humanities, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wisconsin Humanities strengthens our democracy through educational and cultural programs that build connections and understanding among people of all backgrounds and beliefs throughout the state. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding was also provided by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.</p><br />Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-42710801946134915222023-09-06T13:33:00.004-05:002023-09-06T13:34:28.970-05:00T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent" - A Dialogue about Poetry <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif9uBq_41glM1ZaTtr_genuFOIg0eUqh4olHL5e6ZFhUymUkTDrBEfaitZqA3ErsH2X-BsxB5oa8AfM0SwoY0JZQao6yvnquIrOIO8l_uokx92a22JNn7wJfPGHB-l3ABGrMZEsCtoOypws8odheIwftNWRuwIMhrPvzLxZf_tDCS0ezU9SUpgK0xmEfif/s2048/TSEliot.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1616" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif9uBq_41glM1ZaTtr_genuFOIg0eUqh4olHL5e6ZFhUymUkTDrBEfaitZqA3ErsH2X-BsxB5oa8AfM0SwoY0JZQao6yvnquIrOIO8l_uokx92a22JNn7wJfPGHB-l3ABGrMZEsCtoOypws8odheIwftNWRuwIMhrPvzLxZf_tDCS0ezU9SUpgK0xmEfif/s320/TSEliot.jpeg" width="253" /></a></div><p>Recently, I read an interesting review of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/25/an-artists-archeology-of-the-mind">Peter Sacks</a>, the literary critic turned poet turned visual artist. "An Artist's Archeology of the Mind" by Joshua Rothman documents Sacks' intensely private and solitary art practice, and the time he spends with each canvas to paint, layer textiles, lay in text, cover, burn, and reveal the complexities of history, landscape, and the mind. </p><p>Rothman mentioned a book of literary criticism that Peter Sacks wrote, examining the form of elegy. Rothman quoted the poet T.S. Eliot, and from <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent" target="_blank">Eliot's essay </a>about poets:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The poet’s mind is in fact a receptacle for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together….</p></blockquote><p>The review is great, and I believe that what Eliot says is true. The individual poet's attention turns to disparate things: images, phrases, sounds that finally coalesce into a poem. Eliot's essay always uses he/his pronouns to indicate poets, a convention considered appropriate in his era, but it is clearly sexist. However, Eliot was a master of his craft, and for that, his thoughts are worthy of consideration. Further along in the essay, T.S. Eliot writes: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">…the poet has, not a “personality” to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and not a personality, in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways. Impressions and experiences which are important for the man may take no place in the poetry, and those which become important in the poetry may play quite a negligible part in the man, the personality.</p></blockquote><p>The particular medium, the genre of poetry, is built from a disparate collection of things, chosen by the poet. The poem begins to take on its own life. T.S. Eliot further says: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">It is not in his personal emotions, the emotions provoked by particular events in his life, that the poet is in any way remarkable or interesting. His particular emotions may be simple, or crude, or flat. </p></blockquote><p>The purpose of a poem is not to express feelings, in other words. Poets are not different from other people; they aren't more sensitive than others nor have better refinement of feelings. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">It is a concentration, and a new thing resulting from the concentration, of a very great number of experiences which to the practical and active person would not seem to be experiences at all; it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or of deliberation. These experiences are not “recollected,” and they finally unite in an atmosphere…</p></blockquote><p>This thought has been echoed by several poets. Lorine Niedecker's poem, "The Poet's Work" goes like this: "I learned/ to sit at desk/ and condense// No layoff/ from this/ condensery." This is true in my experience writing poems: one writes and revises, takes out words, takes out lines, and searches for a metaphor and a pattern, a set of images, a pattern of rhythm and sound that makes the poem into an instrument that the reader experiences. The best poems connect to the body and breath. They have a physiological element. T.S. Eliot ends his essay with this thought: </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">There is a great deal, in the writing of poetry, which must be conscious and deliberate. In fact, the bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious. Both errors tend to make him “personal.” Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done. And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living.</p></blockquote><p>As with any creative work, discovery is part of the making. A good poet is willing to suspend previous ideas or plans for the poem, is willing to ignore convention, to put aside personal feelings, and is first and foremost, attunes the attention to emerging opportunities or elements that arise within the making of a poem.</p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-85770704801589559972023-05-23T13:12:00.007-05:002023-05-23T13:18:45.767-05:00Art & Life<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgi4IkzP66sN338lDGPO7W8URcbZC4R6IRbC0ZKtrUyfiw67p8ivA2kBzR8OqT7Hg0pjOfA4deduQHpWimu4gAZLcxuMXJKks8SPYSe0_58Cha5ar_em5ya5rX1icvik-rVmiEwvxaRanvF9qx10JgeLIxH219xmnVtQRkRRfRaE6WxuDQUO-XtUUUig/s119/orwells_roses.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="119" data-original-width="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgi4IkzP66sN338lDGPO7W8URcbZC4R6IRbC0ZKtrUyfiw67p8ivA2kBzR8OqT7Hg0pjOfA4deduQHpWimu4gAZLcxuMXJKks8SPYSe0_58Cha5ar_em5ya5rX1icvik-rVmiEwvxaRanvF9qx10JgeLIxH219xmnVtQRkRRfRaE6WxuDQUO-XtUUUig/s16000/orwells_roses.jpeg" /></a></div>Rebecca Solnit is an excellent thinker. Orwell's Roses is an exceptional book. We all know about the Orwellian “doublespeak” of Trump’s administration but here Solnit looks at Orwell’s passion for his rose garden and life’s pleasures even as he traced the lies of totalitarianism. This is a vision that could be described as polyphony. There is some biography (although that is not her intention to become his biographer) and the history of roses and the rose industry. All this created in an associative way that also highlights the landscapes and artistic landscape of his time. This is a poetic, incisive, and fascinating angle.<br /><br />In her book, Recollections of My Nonexistence, Solnit's writes about gender and becoming a writer. She quotes Diane di Prima's line "You cannot write a single line w/out a cosmology."<br /><blockquote>Writing is often treated as a project of making things, one piece at a time, but you write from who you are and what you care about and what true voice is yours and from leaving all the false voices and wrong notes behind, and so underneath the task of writing a particular piece is the general one of making a self who can make the work you are meant to make.</blockquote>A writer's voice, therefore, traces this self-making. The Swedish-Finnish poet Edith Södergran (1892-1923) wrote in a notebook: "I do not write poems, I create myself; my poems are the way to my self." Each book of poems that I have made had a select group of influences, and I called it the 'constellation' from which the book emerged. This I might consider as part of the cosmology. For Solnit, it's clear that her work for the Sierra Club and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art have been significant. <br /><div><br /></div><div>My favorite writing of George Orwell are two essays, "Why I Write," and "Politics of the English Language." His work endures. His themes are necessary ones which speak of politics and language. The two are inseparable and can cause an irreality that harms people. Solnit considers writing by Orwell that gives readers a broad view of the era that he lived and his philosophy and his whole writing practice. The book celebrates Orwell, and it celebrates a life that combines clear-eyed vision of art and life. </div>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-39346323285232998592023-04-19T14:40:00.008-05:002023-04-19T15:01:17.968-05:00What Role Does Translation Play in Your Day? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIniSA2vFlXiP5RAfQZY7aldY0JfXz67AcBCqcAviG4Py7lCpzo6j8S67wtLUo10KBxaa56ukTCLIBBOrId9P0o8wR1a6al5_Z81lkamo-c9f3RidSfW5rxXi2iva-W755gYe9211p5UVcnzRHB_Ip8xg96znZzrWcI1P53Ebq5_aHMYPHJw1KoV7DQ/s349/translate.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="144" data-original-width="349" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIniSA2vFlXiP5RAfQZY7aldY0JfXz67AcBCqcAviG4Py7lCpzo6j8S67wtLUo10KBxaa56ukTCLIBBOrId9P0o8wR1a6al5_Z81lkamo-c9f3RidSfW5rxXi2iva-W755gYe9211p5UVcnzRHB_Ip8xg96znZzrWcI1P53Ebq5_aHMYPHJw1KoV7DQ/s320/translate.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I<span>n my study of Finnish, I have learned that the Finnish word for translation is related to the word "to carry." Yet, it is nearly impossible to carry all the meanings of any one word into a new language. There are cultural associations and literary references that a reader in another context, not in the original language or landscape, will not get. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Between languages, between literary translations, is a gap, an electric space. This gap contains silence, things unable to be said, misunderstandings, and longings. In the carrying, meanings have been dropped by one side or the other. In this between space, as a poet, I sense the ambiguities of meanings and linger with the possibilities. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">In my book <i>Surface Displacements</i>, I have a sequence of poems that have titles in Finnish although the body of each poem is in English. The titles reflected my day-to-day experience while I was staying in Finland and memories of the Finnish language and family in Minnesota. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Translation is much more than transcription. Intuition is necessary. Priorities are made. Mira Rosenthal said translating poetry is a "<span>process of discovery, which may sound strange, given that the original has already laid it all out for me. But the translation still has to discover it’s own form." This highlights the way that translation is similar to creating one's own poem. Another translator, f</span>lash fiction writer Lydia Davis says, "you are a ventriloquist as well as a chameleon." Book reviewer Elizabeth Bryeron describes the act of translation as entering the "fruitful darkness" in her review of the novel, <i>Signs Preceding the End of the World </i>by Yuri Herrara. The phrase fruitful darkness rings true. The image of the word translate in the photograph here is next to the "Shift" key. There are several changes, or to use a more accurate word, <i>shifts</i> that one must make. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Trans-creations</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">When I was in Helsinki, I met a woman who did translation for a company, or as she clarified, she did not so much do <i>translations </i>but <i>trans-creations</i>. This term might be a better word for the business of translating poetry. Often translators must re-invent the meaning using different images or metaphors than the original writer, and this of course, creates controversy at times. Let's just say that if one really needs to experience the original in full, one must know the original language and live in the landscape. Failing that, reading several translations of the same work might get you closer to the source. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Book Club for Poets has had a fascinating sequence of books this year. In February, we read Emily Dickinson. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In March, the book selection was Anne Carson's <i>Autobiography of Red.</i> This novel in poems, based on ancient Greek myth of Geryon, the red winged monster. Carson used a complete poem by Emily Dickinson (no. 1748) "The reticent volcano keeps/ His never slumbering plan--/ Confided are his projects pink/ To no precarious man.// .... Carson's translation of the ancient myth gives us a contemporary tale. Geryon negotiates a complicated family life, develops a passion for photography, and when he becomes a young man, takes a gay lover named Herakles). After Herakles leaves him, they meet again while at a conference in Buenos Aires. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In April, the book selection is A<i> Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman</i> by Olga Livshin (Poets & Traitors Press, c2019). In this book, Livshin creates a conversation between her translated poems of Akmatova and Gandelsman and her own poetry. This creates a unique experience for the reader. New versions of the literary greats' poems are presented. I enjoyed reading the echos and response in the narrative poems by Livshin about her contemporary experience of being a Russian-Jewish immigrant in the United States. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In May, the book selection is <i>How to Communicate</i> by David Lee Clark (Norton Press, 2022). Clark is a deaf/blind person, and his poems reflect the intense experience of touch. ASL uses a different grammar structure than English or American English. Interpreters of ASL translate on the fly, and often use analogy and repetition to reinforce the meaning of the original communication. Interpreters for deaf/blind people receive and give translation by physical touch with the deaf/blind. As you can imagine, this makes for some very interesting poems. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I recommend that you read more about translation and more interviews with translators. It's fascinating:</span></p><p>Review by Elizabeth Bryeron: "In This Fruitful Darkness: Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera": <a href="https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/signs-preceding-the-end-of-the-world-yuri-herrera/" target="_blank">https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/signs-preceding-the-end-of-the-world-yuri-herrera/</a></p><p>Lydia Davis' essay: <a href="https://lithub.com/lydia-davis-on-how-translation-opens-a-writers-mind/" target="_blank">https://lithub.com/lydia-davis-on-how-translation-opens-a-writers-mind/</a></p><p>Interview with Mira Rosenthal, translator of poetry: <a href="https://www.catranslation.org/journal-post/poet-to-poet-an-interview-with-mira-rosenthal/" target="_blank">https://www.catranslation.org/journal-post/poet-to-poet-an-interview-with-mira-rosenthal/</a></p><p>Interview with translator Samantha Schnee:<a href=" https://bookblast.com/blog/interview-samantha-schnee-translator-of-the-week/" target="_blank"> https://bookblast.com/blog/interview-samantha-schnee-translator-of-the-week/</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-19322570011796339362023-04-17T20:14:00.002-05:002023-04-17T20:14:15.135-05:00The Minnesota Book Awards <p> I am honored to be a finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Awards in poetry. All four poet finalists gathered for a poetry book talk. You can watch it here: </p><p>,<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U_hwDy8Pjv0" width="320" youtube-src-id="U_hwDy8Pjv0"></iframe></p><br /><p><br /></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-80471978189002449452023-04-17T19:58:00.007-05:002023-04-17T19:58:55.632-05:00One Art<p> Today, I was interviewed by Cathy Wurzer on Minnesota Public Radio. She asked me what poem made me want to become a poet. This is an interesting angle! My answer surprised me!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuYPpaFuZFDbUscnN_ORjq8L94ZzQkhmT1o_NW-StVf4LlmrXkWh_GCCRE6mozQJJ5EKgSvHtHcwvELAJRovcQsCHzc1Q0Up5w59pi8IfMfsy_IIFsnW97I7Te12-GT3L6G2s2tw_r1-vT4uMAAOazxd1IcOcWd88G0tigN1CiQxWn036jqQkM1k4pUg/s2671/9781947787360-20220808_front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2671" data-original-width="1798" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuYPpaFuZFDbUscnN_ORjq8L94ZzQkhmT1o_NW-StVf4LlmrXkWh_GCCRE6mozQJJ5EKgSvHtHcwvELAJRovcQsCHzc1Q0Up5w59pi8IfMfsy_IIFsnW97I7Te12-GT3L6G2s2tw_r1-vT4uMAAOazxd1IcOcWd88G0tigN1CiQxWn036jqQkM1k4pUg/s320/9781947787360-20220808_front.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>You can listen to the conversation here:<a href="https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/04/17/duluth-poet-sheila-packa-shares-her-favorite-poetry" target="_blank">https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/04/17/duluth-poet-sheila-packa-shares-her-favorite-poetry</a><div><p><br /></p></div>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-54919785122525744422023-03-06T13:25:00.009-06:002023-03-29T10:41:52.045-05:00Spark Catchers: Lemn Sissay and Amanda Gorman<p>There are poets writing history and writing poems drawn from history. Eavan Boland once said that a poem will revivify an event. She cautioned against revivifying trauma, because it will make that event re-traumatize. Boland is a political poet. In Ireland, where she was born, writing about the land is a political act. Paul Valery, a French poet, said that a poem is like a small engine that recreates meaning each time it is read. Therefore, a poem that celebrates the strength, resilience, ingenuity and power of a survivor and changemaker will inspire us. Here are two examples: </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Vi_a0Xkddk" width="320" youtube-src-id="1Vi_a0Xkddk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Lemn Sissay's poem "Spark Catchers" was commissioned to become part of the 2012 Olympic Park in London, UK. The poem is engraved at the site, and it marks a historic event in 1888, a strike by women who worked at the Bryant and May Match Factory. Sparks in match factory posed a threat to life and work, and this poem describes the spark-catcher who helped the women survive the exploitation and danger in the factory and whose story now inspires solidarity and the power of women to create change. His poem has also been the basis of a music composition by Hannah Kendall. <span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> </span> "Spark Catchers" translates the words into notes and textures of music and it continues to share the light to concert audiences across the world. Listen to it here: <a href="https://youtu.be/CbpauBt9Tag">https://youtu.be/CbpauBt9Tag</a> <br />This piece of music has been performed by several orchestras world-wide, and it continues to share the light. <p></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Spark Catchers by Lemn Sissay</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"></strong>Tide twists on the Thames and lifts the Lea to the brim of Bow<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Where shoals of sirens work by way of the waves.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />At the fire factory the fortress of flames</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">In tidal shifts East London Lampades made<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Millions of matches that lit candles for the well-to-do<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And the ne’er-do-well to do alike. Strike.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">The greatest threat to their lives was<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The sulferuous spite filled spit of diablo<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The molten madness of a spark</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">They became spark catchers and on the word “strike”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />a parched arched woman would dive<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />With hand outstretched to catch the light.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">And Land like a crouching tiger with fist high<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Holding the malevolent flare tight<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />‘til it became an ash dot in the palm. Strike.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">The women applauded the magnificent grace<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The skill it took, the pirouette in mid air<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The precision, perfection and the peace.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">Beneath stars by the bending bridge of Bow<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />In the silver sheen of a phosphorous moon<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />They practised Spark Catching.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">“The fist the earth the spark it’s core<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The fist the body the spark it’s heart”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The Matchmakers march. Strike.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 2.3rem;">Lampades The Torch bearers<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The Catchers of light.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Sparks fly Matchmakers strike.</p><p><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></strong>In another poem by Lemn Sessay, "Making a Difference," again he demonstrates how effective poetry is to create social change. A composer, Hannah Kendall, read this poem and used it as the basis for a musical composition for orchestra. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y10_PqZvnW0" width="320" youtube-src-id="Y10_PqZvnW0"></iframe></div><br /><p>In the rhythms of Lemn Sissay, an accomplished poet of London, I heard a similar beat and internal rhyme here in the United States by the poet Amanda Gorman. She too is a spark-catcher -- one who by speaking out calls for change, creates change. This poem, "The Hill We Climb" was performed by Gorman at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The poem is also in Amanda Gorman's book of the same title. </p><p>Compare the two, and be inspired to write a poem about a historic event. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lI1c-Lbd4Bw" width="320" youtube-src-id="lI1c-Lbd4Bw"></iframe></div></blockquote></blockquote><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-76421946623962853742023-03-06T12:01:00.004-06:002023-03-06T12:05:04.133-06:00Argentinian Writer Cesar Aira on Improvisation and All That Jazz<div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNjcVzi1vrxU43vj_H3Ay_hxDBglT4D80TcqF1dyZ3JdX---zKfRqL0t6c0WPbyeqmaI2lc7t6RzbMpGhk6HKQbLcdNg5DTvqbUpo_4k1Suusqj7HzLI2ewrRtyx9pdM4e-XoFBIYt9hxD05kpUCLOsTW-rPpoCD6g65AOBH-hP0BvEo32w91AKFBK0g/s120/MusicalBrain.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJeqF6YIFQXteOxCAOOoYch4jQQELV9tnsKUVINEgzzaiBy_NgAfnOXE0xD_9FTDlFNj-jwOY-UtNILbqRqxM3ecPZybhvQyFcrK8e6wVsn57GiFfjLc81CkCodPEWwUE4N-Wf1BrB8dyzfgbawf8TVgQsB-qDyRLWvGOArP87JNSOtzs0-Gz0lNHUQ/s253/aira.jpeg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="199" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsJeqF6YIFQXteOxCAOOoYch4jQQELV9tnsKUVINEgzzaiBy_NgAfnOXE0xD_9FTDlFNj-jwOY-UtNILbqRqxM3ecPZybhvQyFcrK8e6wVsn57GiFfjLc81CkCodPEWwUE4N-Wf1BrB8dyzfgbawf8TVgQsB-qDyRLWvGOArP87JNSOtzs0-Gz0lNHUQ/w286-h320/aira.jpeg" width="286" /></a></div>Cesar Aira has developed a unique style that is improvisational. He's written about 100 novels (many have been translated into English), and each is about 100 pages. He doesn't edit his work, but he has honed his style and structure. Further, he puts into a story whatever event happens (or whatever character appears) on the sidewalk outside the Buenos Aires coffee shop where he does his writing! One of his great stories is titled "Cecil Taylor." This story is published in Aira's book of short fiction, <i>Musical Brain</i> published by New Directions Press. This story defies categories. It begins with a vivid scene on a New York City street, seemingly fiction, and then quickly enters an essayistic passage that meditates on music, biography, and composition which leads to an example, the biographical details of the avant-garde musician Cecil Taylor. You can read it here: <a href="https://bombmagazine.org/articles/cecil-taylor/" target="_blank">https://bombmagazine.org/articles/cecil-taylor/</a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story is about Taylor trying to launch his career in New York City (later, his career skyrocketed). When it came to composing, Taylor was totally improvisational. He was outspoken and fascinated by and borrowed dance forms and architectural forms as he created music. This story is also about how hard it was for Cecil Taylor to reach a point where his - very original -- music was not rejected. It took awhile for his sound to be accepted by others, and then he was considered a genius. Taylor's story is one of success, but it is success only after a series of extreme and painful rejections in a many jazz clubs and performances. He changed music, and at first, people did not understand it. They didn't think he was doing music at all. They thought he was a joke. It was not a joke at all. One of his albums was titled, Unit Structures. He designed a unit of sound which served as a basis for improvisation for himself and members of his band. In this interview, he said: "Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself." <a href="http://miyamasaoka.com/writings-by-miya-masaoka/2000/innovation-improvisation-an-interview-with-cecil-taylor/" target="_blank">http://miyamasaoka.com/writings-by-miya-masaoka/2000/innovation-improvisation-an-interview-with-cecil-taylor/</a></div><div><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aira has a unique voice like nobody else. His material seems to be generated by the musings of his mind and chance occurrences. Nobody could imitate him. He is a lesson in self-confidence and the amplification of his writing voice. I have taken a quote from the story "Cecil Taylor" and arranged it into line breaks. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
</div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">…what counts in literature is detail,</p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">atmosphere, and the right balance between the two. </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The exact detail, which makes things visible, </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and an evocative, overall atmosphere, </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">without which the details would be a disjointed inventory. </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Atmosphere </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">allows the author to work with forces </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">freed of function, and with movements </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">in a space that is independent of location, a space </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">that finally abolishes the difference </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">between the writer and the written: </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the great manifold tunnel in broad daylight ... </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Atmosphere is the three-dimensional </p></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">condition of regionalism, and the medium of music. </p></div></blockquote><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: arial;">The line breaks allowed me to slow down my reading of it and appreciate what he is saying. So often while teaching poetry, we focus on "details, details, details." This passage takes a larger perspective. Details create something larger, which Aira calls the atmosphere. I think of this as "the world of the story." </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: arial;">Many writers and readers might not like Cesar Aira's style nor the music of Cecil Taylor, however, both offer original insights into the process of composing and both honor and amplify their own unique voice, and that's a lesson worth learning. </span></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNjcVzi1vrxU43vj_H3Ay_hxDBglT4D80TcqF1dyZ3JdX---zKfRqL0t6c0WPbyeqmaI2lc7t6RzbMpGhk6HKQbLcdNg5DTvqbUpo_4k1Suusqj7HzLI2ewrRtyx9pdM4e-XoFBIYt9hxD05kpUCLOsTW-rPpoCD6g65AOBH-hP0BvEo32w91AKFBK0g/s120/MusicalBrain.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="86" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNjcVzi1vrxU43vj_H3Ay_hxDBglT4D80TcqF1dyZ3JdX---zKfRqL0t6c0WPbyeqmaI2lc7t6RzbMpGhk6HKQbLcdNg5DTvqbUpo_4k1Suusqj7HzLI2ewrRtyx9pdM4e-XoFBIYt9hxD05kpUCLOsTW-rPpoCD6g65AOBH-hP0BvEo32w91AKFBK0g/s1600/MusicalBrain.jpeg" width="86" /></a></span></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-46489596305922615092023-03-03T17:10:00.001-06:002023-03-03T17:10:07.677-06:00Minnesota Reads: The North, 103.3 FM<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOzAkb-nCu-6o7jVFSxRWKfBPOVx1CVu7QB0C0vfCdVLLj2TDegTwPKo0b3VlPjHYu5VXDlmg67yscm1uD8-Y8ITzcRY_q1WivFgQ5EEXNmkHysPCZDZvFFZ8fe6aXNWJRk0VN9DE2MFbV3RYtO6s1U__EQdZeZJX9Y8vOHyCsreRHIuWkX57wLw64w/s4032/26DC43E2-CE29-4F7F-B052-3435B86751A9.heic" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOzAkb-nCu-6o7jVFSxRWKfBPOVx1CVu7QB0C0vfCdVLLj2TDegTwPKo0b3VlPjHYu5VXDlmg67yscm1uD8-Y8ITzcRY_q1WivFgQ5EEXNmkHysPCZDZvFFZ8fe6aXNWJRk0VN9DE2MFbV3RYtO6s1U__EQdZeZJX9Y8vOHyCsreRHIuWkX57wLw64w/s320/26DC43E2-CE29-4F7F-B052-3435B86751A9.heic" width="240" /></a></div><p>One never knows what question an interviewer might pose. On March 2 at 8:20 am Luke Moravic interviewed me on radio for The North 103.3 for Minnesota Reads. </p><p>What did he ask? How did you end up writing poetry? What does the title of your book mean? What advice do you have for other writers? You can listen to the recording here: <a href="https://www.thenorth1033.org/arts-culture/2023-03-02/mn-reads-surface-displacements-by-sheila-packa" target="_blank">https://www.thenorth1033.org/arts-culture/2023-03-02/mn-reads-surface-displacements-by-sheila-packa</a></p><p>Many thanks to the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library who run the Minnesota Book Awards and The North, 103.3. Because of these organizations, because my book is a finalist, I have new opportunities! </p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-70408046292779183912023-02-13T09:07:00.004-06:002023-02-13T09:07:29.116-06:00A Different Engine<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdTYC9yNhJ9md0o0xY-GU-WHN4MJzrSNSRwCUFVNUw8jSZWrNf9UVxYTDhgz_XGQbfbR-3PCPSnmA2TPQLEPh4HB-XxWfh9cVHOX-HAwv7w6GKxWINSZ3oHTuYhHOJ7L6_dtY_ojZGuhIDMrX73HT6pLkSibLVvWBVX_yb1sJRJaQPHAirW11hzUdPg/s1183/Sheila_2012.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1097" data-original-width="1183" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdTYC9yNhJ9md0o0xY-GU-WHN4MJzrSNSRwCUFVNUw8jSZWrNf9UVxYTDhgz_XGQbfbR-3PCPSnmA2TPQLEPh4HB-XxWfh9cVHOX-HAwv7w6GKxWINSZ3oHTuYhHOJ7L6_dtY_ojZGuhIDMrX73HT6pLkSibLVvWBVX_yb1sJRJaQPHAirW11hzUdPg/w199-h182/Sheila_2012.png" width="199" /></a></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">A Different Engine: How to Power Your Writing</h2><div><b>March 6, 13, 20, 27 on Zoom</b></div>Come join my writing workshop and explore techniques that power your own writing. I'd love to see you! It's happening on Zoom: four sessions, Monday evenings in March, starting at 7:15 pm. In this workshop, you can work in your favorite genre (poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction). We will focus on techniques to make writing vivid, intense, and alive. Register here at Lake Superior Writers. $60.<p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Register here: </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://lakesuperiorwriters.org/a-different-engine-ways-to-power-your-writing/?fbclid=IwAR0Bd9ekgNxofJZN67xbR5qO2wgL6uoZ7Zt5Wiog5qRWsG-eypUav9EU_-A" target="_blank">https://lakesuperiorwriters.org/a-different-engine-ways-to-power-your-writing/?fbclid=IwAR0Bd9ekgNxofJZN67xbR5qO2wgL6uoZ7Zt5Wiog5qRWsG-eypUav9EU_-A</a><br /></span></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-56778431844626945122023-01-31T22:32:00.004-06:002023-01-31T22:34:01.459-06:00Bringing Joy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcKmNVwbOfZPTq6-7xWy55LG0LES0xbLbFVGGm24ZTz4Xn8ke-iagezZCybYhRBc0axGh7hAObV0YDJQb7bL8Hr06rpv-EyV7SjZ_dI5LtxfvkyWQ-S4jb-OVJJTJpDzx1ZBRE2vaAXHN0LmJ5yI_y9QvBvWYwTNLoUYOHqy0C2AyM_UpiguuqB660pw/s3300/Bringing%20Joy%20Reception%20Flier.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcKmNVwbOfZPTq6-7xWy55LG0LES0xbLbFVGGm24ZTz4Xn8ke-iagezZCybYhRBc0axGh7hAObV0YDJQb7bL8Hr06rpv-EyV7SjZ_dI5LtxfvkyWQ-S4jb-OVJJTJpDzx1ZBRE2vaAXHN0LmJ5yI_y9QvBvWYwTNLoUYOHqy0C2AyM_UpiguuqB660pw/s320/Bringing%20Joy%20Reception%20Flier.jpeg" width="247" /></a></div>In celebration of Joy Harjo's appearance at the Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College, the editors of this fine collection asked writers to send work that was inspired by the writing of Joy Harjo. It is a wonderful collection of writings, and I'm proud to have some poems in it. <p></p>First it was an e-book, and now, since it received a 2022 MN Author Project Award in the Communities Create category, it has become a physical book. <div><br /></div><div>The lead editor, Darci Schummer, has done a fantastic job gathering and putting together this noteworthy collection. </div><div><br /></div><div>A reading and book celebration will be on February 7, 2023. 6:30 reception and 7:00 pm reading on the beautiful campus of Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College! </div>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-52834226079964502022023-01-28T14:31:00.008-06:002023-01-28T23:17:08.729-06:00Surface Displacements, a Finalist in Poetry at the Minnesota Book Awards<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR742SrWglqVFZrtRK1EFtjmsxRu9Pzy0dg2j4aeT9uwM06yx99U1JOX3FU5W9zTqBqVL9lg5W814Pc5qzSxjtRcaCar6335NHxV06czpHN1IYg8fzAwIb-k26RnXvksIJTGluqeNbcRD9u_9buPmHI87ikD3pEOatxmwGqha-BaoEUV5ENjDft__nPw/s2016/BookAwardsMN_finalists.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR742SrWglqVFZrtRK1EFtjmsxRu9Pzy0dg2j4aeT9uwM06yx99U1JOX3FU5W9zTqBqVL9lg5W814Pc5qzSxjtRcaCar6335NHxV06czpHN1IYg8fzAwIb-k26RnXvksIJTGluqeNbcRD9u_9buPmHI87ikD3pEOatxmwGqha-BaoEUV5ENjDft__nPw/s320/BookAwardsMN_finalists.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I'm thrilled to be among the poetry finalists for the Minnesota Book Award! Here's a list of all the finalists in all categories: <a href="https://thefriends.org/minnesota-book-awards/minnesota-book-awards-winners/" target="_blank">https://thefriends.org/minnesota-book-awards/minnesota-book-awards-winners/</a><br /><br />Celebrate the state's best books at the annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony. Readers, writers, and book-lovers from all over the state gather together for one incredible evening to honor stories of Minnesotans that connect us all. Awards are presented to winners in nine book categories and to the recipient of the Kay Sexton award, with special guests. <div class="fl-module fl-module-rich-text fl-node-5c4e691bd7adb" data-node="5c4e691bd7adb" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4b4b4b; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="fl-module-content fl-node-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 20px;"><div class="fl-rich-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk833HWfLHvSEb1ik8TEljbQ-1IhmA9IqWWKkpzWafPcmjuYnE-WTW_rCMNmLg97a06Av8ZWq3GJvTfj6_V6FG8i1FVFoJ7faDPjAMI0Pl9aAlK69KLMXd6VAbVUryvyesbpelvn4QQ6AwkBeTs_IKJCMn8x30swzu1WYzpSGPxhim2t3oYTz4QBQAyQ/s300/MNBA-Logo-300x103.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="103" data-original-width="300" height="103" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk833HWfLHvSEb1ik8TEljbQ-1IhmA9IqWWKkpzWafPcmjuYnE-WTW_rCMNmLg97a06Av8ZWq3GJvTfj6_V6FG8i1FVFoJ7faDPjAMI0Pl9aAlK69KLMXd6VAbVUryvyesbpelvn4QQ6AwkBeTs_IKJCMn8x30swzu1WYzpSGPxhim2t3oYTz4QBQAyQ/s1600/MNBA-Logo-300x103.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p></p></div></div></div><div class="fl-module fl-module-rich-text fl-node-sh34mw768j0t" data-node="sh34mw768j0t" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4b4b4b; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="fl-module-content fl-node-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 20px;"><div class="fl-rich-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Minnesota Book Awards 35th Annual Ceremony</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Tuesday, May 2 | Ordway Center for Performing Arts<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span>Tickets will go on sale January 30, 2023</p></div></div></div>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-64700687001943839782023-01-28T13:57:00.005-06:002023-01-28T20:23:00.390-06:00College of St. Scholastica Rose Warner Reading Series<p> I'm pleased to join northern Minnesota writers Linda LeGarde Grover, Ellie Schoenfeld, and Nick Trelstad leading workshops for students. The keynote is poet Michael Bazzett. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Lato, Arial; font-size: 48pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">2023 Rose Warner Reading Series</span></h3><div class="hJDwNd-AhqUyc-OwsYgb Ft7HRd-AhqUyc-OwsYgb purZT-AhqUyc-II5mzb ZcASvf-AhqUyc-II5mzb pSzOP-AhqUyc-qWD73c Ktthjf-AhqUyc-qWD73c JNdkSc SQVYQc yYI8W HQwdzb" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 690.664px;"><div class="JNdkSc-SmKAyb LkDMRd" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 14.7969px; padding-right: 14.7969px;"><div jsaction="zXBUYb:zTPCnb;zQF9Uc:Qxe3nd;" jscontroller="sGwD4d" jsname="F57UId" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="oKdM2c ZZyype Kzv0Me" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 1280px; width: 661.07px;"><div class="hJDwNd-AhqUyc-OwsYgb Ft7HRd-AhqUyc-OwsYgb jXK9ad D2fZ2 zu5uec OjCsFc dmUFtb JYTMs" id="h.INITIAL_GRID.pxmzx4jk6664" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 661.07px;"><div class="jXK9ad-SmKAyb" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 661.07px;"><div class="tyJCtd mGzaTb Depvyb baZpAe lkHyyc" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 14px 8px; position: relative; width: 661.07px;"><h3 class="CDt4Ke zfr3Q OmQG5e" dir="ltr" id="h.bcux2rgwmcao_l" style="border-color: initial; border-style: none; border-width: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 15pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.38; margin: 12pt 0px 10pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; pointer-events: none; position: relative; text-align: center; text-decoration: inherit;" tabindex="-1"><div class="CjVfdc" jsaction="touchstart:UrsOsc; click:KjsqPd; focusout:QZoaZ; mouseover:y0pDld; mouseout:dq0hvd;fv1Rjc:jbFSOd;CrfLRd:SzACGe;" jscontroller="Ae65rd" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; max-width: 100%; pointer-events: all; position: relative;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Lato, Arial;"><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15pt; text-decoration-line: inherit;">February 3, 2023 | 9:30 AM – 1:45 PM</strong></div></span></div></h3><p class="CDt4Ke zfr3Q" dir="ltr" style="border-color: initial; border-style: none; border-width: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 1.38; margin: 12pt 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Join us for a </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">free</strong></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, day-long celebration of English literature for </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Northland teachers and students</strong></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, with our special guest speaker, the renowned Minnesota poet, </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Michael Bazzett</strong></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="oKdM2c ZZyype" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 1280px; width: 661.07px;"><div class="hJDwNd-AhqUyc-OwsYgb Ft7HRd-AhqUyc-OwsYgb jXK9ad D2fZ2 zu5uec wHaque g5GTcb" id="h.244e4661116776ee_4" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 661.07px;"><div class="jXK9ad-SmKAyb" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 661.07px;"><div class="tyJCtd baZpAe" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 661.07px;"><div class="t3iYD" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden;"><img class="CENy8b" role="img" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/rnIyWLZvU0dFfpAgMzXu6bvJ995ckj_w9YGjqsOtP72jn74ebh_iARXP_zM9w3peV9kKLpgT5SGEV3YLJBmWdPUZx2wWBUfPlrmP9OkX_XIU8cI1NBrNsIrqvMLtJyZdCqNT8ahzEkargr0m50XM7hlLOjFF-u5sIw1rHUvjXb8CZkLKU0AEa4Va_DHHFZ2M=w1280" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; width: 661.07px;" /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="hJDwNd-AhqUyc-wNfPc Ft7HRd-AhqUyc-wNfPc purZT-AhqUyc-II5mzb ZcASvf-AhqUyc-II5mzb pSzOP-AhqUyc-wNfPc Ktthjf-AhqUyc-wNfPc JNdkSc SQVYQc" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 493.328px;"><div class="JNdkSc-SmKAyb LkDMRd" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 14.7969px; padding-right: 14.7969px;"><div jsaction="zXBUYb:zTPCnb;zQF9Uc:Qxe3nd;" jscontroller="sGwD4d" jsname="F57UId" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="oKdM2c ZZyype Kzv0Me" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 1280px; width: 463.734px;"><div class="hJDwNd-AhqUyc-wNfPc Ft7HRd-AhqUyc-wNfPc pSzOP-AhqUyc-wNfPc Ktthjf-AhqUyc-wNfPc jXK9ad D2fZ2 zu5uec OjCsFc dmUFtb wHaque g5GTcb" id="h.5765e5289f018eb8_34" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 463.734px;"><div class="jXK9ad-SmKAyb" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 463.734px;"><div class="tyJCtd baZpAe" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 463.734px;"><div class="t3iYD" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden;"><img class="CENy8b" role="img" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/32SqGzUEYRKuYbu_QN0i8iDTLkgO25yssioolErmkEh6NzW34plNZRDVwMuwLNWDN7Hgh8XLwffWVYk2cdLyDnfTKoNnsB3MUGygUE4vJgTQ5q5LKCLxVdoV4uNshKzw1L8ew42mZuDPVO8QxX6hVFQoFXxernuezreCJUu-R8M-9JlzwYx8WvGU7eJJ_BMG=w1280" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; width: 463.734px;" /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>https://css.edu/2023rosewarnerreadingseries/home?authuser=0</p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-77121519102957737712023-01-18T13:55:00.004-06:002023-01-18T13:55:39.703-06:00Jorie Graham: The Question<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsH_ZbDR8IdUaPTDLmJP0uJ_nYjuc2QpHc43LXM3AT5XN1D3wRfFUzP52Hofn6-KLK7sxXIqtE-j8kvTUfe_7-chkGk4m18MLpG7S6qFz_xz1zlNkCBOAqtYl2FCe6oKxNvNFFBKqcKC8w7qExkkfOMx_56eAZfi6z1cTzDIYKCzExGIW95WgacYQpEg/s900/Graham-for-CBSD-2-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsH_ZbDR8IdUaPTDLmJP0uJ_nYjuc2QpHc43LXM3AT5XN1D3wRfFUzP52Hofn6-KLK7sxXIqtE-j8kvTUfe_7-chkGk4m18MLpG7S6qFz_xz1zlNkCBOAqtYl2FCe6oKxNvNFFBKqcKC8w7qExkkfOMx_56eAZfi6z1cTzDIYKCzExGIW95WgacYQpEg/s320/Graham-for-CBSD-2-2.jpeg" width="249" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="2040" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIx2JTuD6oFmdtN6XkcoJerDzTH8bB8zdYPyCnHKbbb7h8wW-J0zkI3VdJKh7KBDu3knrMa9zziDVB3G05m5AgDK2jxB6Mi6MpayU89CI3i_O11zGT33Z9d_A5t3VkemdgjRNWKCFM2z3VFVH5_Ehr618sJpCLTCkbbHUkK3AEQT8p2khZzYBeG0usvw/s320/5760.webp" width="320" /></p><p><br /></p><p>In the interview in the New Yorker magazine January 8, 2023, </p><p><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/jorie-graham-takes-the-long-view 13/23">Jorie Graham Takes the Long </a><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/jorie-graham-takes-the-long-view 13/23">View</a>, Katie Waldman the interviewer asks this question: </p><blockquote><p><b>You write so sharply about the way the mind, and your mind, moves. I’m</b></p><p><b>curious about that poetic mind. Is it the same mind you bring to the breakfast</b></p><p><b>table or the garden?</b></p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><p>JG: The mind is a current—let’s take a river as an example. It not only carries</p><p>whatever it picks up by what it traverses (breakfast table, garden), but it is also</p><p>changed in its course by what it traverses.Its weight changes, its speed, the</p><p>direction in which it was going. Being taken by surprise is one of the fundamental</p><p>experiences for any poet writing any poem. You know you are in the grip of a</p><p>poem when it—the subject, the terrain you are entering, traversing—reorients you</p><p>and puts you before a question that you did not know existed. You are irrevocably</p><p>changed. One writes to be so changed. The silence you break to enter the poem is</p><p>never the same silence closing over again when the voice reënters the silence.The</p><p>poem is an action you have taken and an experience you’ve undergone. You’re not</p><p>the same person you were when you undertook that poem.That sensation of</p><p>transformation is addictive—spiritually and emotionally.Why else would anyone</p><p>attempt this insanely difficult—practically impossible—practice day after day for a</p><p>lifetime? One is in it for the conversion experiences.What are the ideals of form</p><p>for except to get us into legitimate danger that we may be legitimately rescued,</p><p>Frost asks. The key term in this brilliant formulation is “legitimate.”</p><p></p></blockquote><p>Graham's poetry with its philosophical questions examines life, human life in an increasingly alarming</p><p>world beset by violent storms, floods, wildfire, and rising seas. We know what is happening, and she </p><p>describes this as a runaway system, yet we cannot stop. Her consciousness is sharp and clear, and her</p><p> voice is powerful.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/to-the-last-be-human-by-jorie-graham/">https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/to-the-last-be-human-by-jorie-graham/</a></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-8568310789836233432022-11-10T19:02:00.007-06:002022-11-14T16:15:10.338-06:00Ekphrasis: Poems in the Art Community<p> The Kalevala, a series of poems originally performed in the oral tradition, inspired Akseli Gallen-Kallela. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9pIlefSNSC549my_-fCUhZNpmdai8S5ZzhDKEX9kXzokcv8U1aTrWRBcsvnewqqTQfYws8WV6au-OuYa1YS-1dWICSULMFc0gNfOSpK1skpLwFOQi3LvzeLcJRRW_GvdcDiC7sHkAU9BVJ2Q3ZdlzHBqDLQPjkePo9MpN6Rqd-5e6qtTAZY4s1XeCKg/s335/LemminAiti.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="335" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9pIlefSNSC549my_-fCUhZNpmdai8S5ZzhDKEX9kXzokcv8U1aTrWRBcsvnewqqTQfYws8WV6au-OuYa1YS-1dWICSULMFc0gNfOSpK1skpLwFOQi3LvzeLcJRRW_GvdcDiC7sHkAU9BVJ2Q3ZdlzHBqDLQPjkePo9MpN6Rqd-5e6qtTAZY4s1XeCKg/w320-h251/LemminAiti.jpeg" title="Painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, "Lemminkaisen Aiti" (Lemminkainen's Mother). 1897." width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The story of Lemminkainen is part of the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala. Originally oral storytelling, 12,000+ verses were recorded in writing and published by Elias Lönnröt in 1845. These creation stories, adventures, and magic charms have been famously illustrated by the Finnish visual artist, Akseli Gallen-Kallela. </div><div><br /></div><div>This painting focuses on the Kalevala's character Lemminkäinen, a great warrior and womanizer, who dies following his attempt to kill the Swan of Tuonela in the realm of the dead. His mother drags the black river for the dismembered pieces of her son and puts him back together. For Lemminkainen's mother, it works. He lives again, and unfortunately, he has not learned his lesson. </div><div><br /></div><div>As often as visual artists illustrate and enhance stories, poets will describe and amplify visual art work. This type of poetry is called ekphrasis. It's a Greek word that means description. A famous example of an ekphrastic poem is "Archaic Torso of Apollo" by Ranier Maria Rilke. You can read it here: <a href="https://poets.org/poem/archaic-torso-apollo" target="_blank">https://poets.org/poem/archaic-torso-apollo</a></div><div><br /></div><div>In my book, <i>Surface Displacements</i>, the poem, "<i>Kalevala Viidetoista Runo</i>/ Poem 15," is an ekphrastic poem in response to the Gallen-Kallela image. Any mother who has lost a child can relate to the impulse to bring the child back to life. In my poem, I speak from the perspective of the mother. Here's an excerpt:</div><div><br /></div><div>I take him back not into my body</div><div>that conceived, received, and raised this one</div><div>but back to his own. To the sun</div><div>...</div><div><br /></div><div>with a needle, I pierce the broken ends</div><div>and pull my thread.</div><div>I turn the edges, commend to God.</div><div>Say, remember him.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take this cold back to the reaching ice</div><div>seize this body with new breath.</div><div>I shake the heart to make it start ticking</div><div>and drop it into place</div><div><br /></div><div>put back the ribs and pull up the skin.</div><div>On the stones, he gasps.</div><div>Where I have wept and pounded</div><div>on the shore where I have assembled him. </div><div><br /></div><div>Within the arts community, writers, composers, musicians and visual artists inspire each other. Composer Olli Kortekangas borrowed four poems from my books <i>Cloud Birds</i> and <i>Echo & Lightning</i> to create "Migrations," a cantata premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra in 2016. This year, composer Wendy Durrwachter is creating a musical composition for the title poem of <i>Surface Displacements</i>. I am honored by their artistic work and enriched by the additional interpretation and beautiful music that they create. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-57623067973553222682022-10-18T17:55:00.012-05:002022-11-15T18:29:51.163-06:00Finnish Poet Risto Rasa and an American Documentary Film by Matt Carlson<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwmEZpEs3lo14WT5TTIxCIUYT7FTq-rYpP-oM3P2GZ0qQ5iGAxx4IDc9E0zuECSRZ1atEC5-cReNgo0c8BBHPEan8gLCF45ntiWslFllBjwWNyvNSOuqeCf0h1u5atbfYeEkCd8bYXwQHqY0OhpzW1mHfqYudNcZEG7qZopofMIK0za2_FA7Uk93PIg/s1280/risto_rasa.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Finnish poet Risto Rasa" border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwmEZpEs3lo14WT5TTIxCIUYT7FTq-rYpP-oM3P2GZ0qQ5iGAxx4IDc9E0zuECSRZ1atEC5-cReNgo0c8BBHPEan8gLCF45ntiWslFllBjwWNyvNSOuqeCf0h1u5atbfYeEkCd8bYXwQHqY0OhpzW1mHfqYudNcZEG7qZopofMIK0za2_FA7Uk93PIg/w320-h180/risto_rasa.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I discovered a poem by Risto Rasa during the writing of <i>Surface Displacements</i>. This poem, written in Finnish and published in his book <i>Tuhat Purjetta</i> (trans.: <i>A Thousand Sails)</i> inspired me. </p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Niin kuin aalto uittaa aallon </p><p>yli valtameren, </p><p>niin selviydymme mekin toinen toisiamme tukien.</p></blockquote><p>It has been translated like this: Just as one wave carries another / across the ocean / so we too survive, one supporting another. In the translation, the use of the English verb 'carry' is an excellent choice that conveys the intention of the poet. </p><p>Rasa used the verb uittaa which means 'to float.' It comes from the verb uida, to swim. It could be said this way: "just as a wave floats another wave over the ocean.... so we too will survive by supporting each other." </p><p>It is interesting to me, as a learner of the Finnish language, that 'to carry' in the Finnish language is "kaantaa" and 'to translate' is "kääntää." It is spelled nearly the same, but the vowel changes from a to ä. </p><p>Risto Rasa has said that in translation, no poem is exactly the same. Something will be lost. This might be true. It is impossible to carry the definition of a Finnish word into the English language without dropping some of historic or cultural associations. </p><p>A filmmaker Matt Carlson created a touching documentary of Risto Rasa: <i>Sielumaisema: The Risto Rasa Project. </i>He has not lost very much about this poet and his work, even though he relied on a translator to interview Rasa. The film has deepened my appreciation of this poet. One realizes how important it is to reveal the poet's landscape and his voice. I recommend that you watch this wonderful film: <a href="https://vimeo.com/372123395" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/372123395</a></p><p></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-65920028888170911992022-10-13T11:57:00.006-05:002022-10-13T11:57:54.454-05:00Poet Laureate Reading featuring Sheila Packa & Ellie Schoenfeld and new poets <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiewKQORvyg9kUU4pxpKOtl4M14CXz5k97jifGcNYF-3RJPVo8pFtZAIgmzPN0mYZsX7P3rp0WQROIbUG3qxKIxXCJRja-Ci2MBmRZtIawTOuTpBs2l81lUv20bgzIzO53pq0frHkzoYJBWGnp_ifwEtK8IBvAQIqS48qGAjyn_kQHQqM7kJ-G0exg0hQ/s2048/Oct%2019th.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiewKQORvyg9kUU4pxpKOtl4M14CXz5k97jifGcNYF-3RJPVo8pFtZAIgmzPN0mYZsX7P3rp0WQROIbUG3qxKIxXCJRja-Ci2MBmRZtIawTOuTpBs2l81lUv20bgzIzO53pq0frHkzoYJBWGnp_ifwEtK8IBvAQIqS48qGAjyn_kQHQqM7kJ-G0exg0hQ/s320/Oct%2019th.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Come join this celebration of Duluth Poets Laureate on October 19, 2022, 6 pm at the University of Minnesota Duluth library, 4th floor! </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Poets Laureate Sheila Packa & Ellie Schoefeld will read along with notable poets Dani Pieratos & Tina Wiggins Wussow. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Organized by David Beard, professor of rhetoric at UMD, Department of English, Linguistic and Writing Studies, this is the third of reading that featured poet laureates of Duluth. In addition, each poet laureate has invited a young poet to join the reading. The mission of the poet laureate program is to promote poetry and expand the reading audience. </span></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963409707584165450.post-32085754222239058062022-10-07T09:26:00.002-05:002022-10-07T09:26:35.071-05:00Reading at Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWRcZp-WNfOJ3i68T-nA7TJNnF9iL95jUr3JtYPDuG8wnHZOUoamLkxTmlDS1ba801Q8QHk5BaVd8_1TKaXbEB9kAYXhE2cmjA_eqlmWsJXSxykHrBQvVe4yjKLNfczdmrX-FnCjfFS2fE3pVMiymZnAp78fxt7khNIHQx5qPKmAnsI1tv49iNmsVuw/s3300/Sheila%20Packa%20Event%207%20November%202022%20Final%20Off%20Campus%20(2)%20copy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="459" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWRcZp-WNfOJ3i68T-nA7TJNnF9iL95jUr3JtYPDuG8wnHZOUoamLkxTmlDS1ba801Q8QHk5BaVd8_1TKaXbEB9kAYXhE2cmjA_eqlmWsJXSxykHrBQvVe4yjKLNfczdmrX-FnCjfFS2fE3pVMiymZnAp78fxt7khNIHQx5qPKmAnsI1tv49iNmsVuw/w354-h459/Sheila%20Packa%20Event%207%20November%202022%20Final%20Off%20Campus%20(2)%20copy.png" width="354" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Sheila Packa Poetry Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16771197433262046439noreply@blogger.com0