April is National Poetry Month, and this April, there’s going to be a Poetry Walk in Sheboygan and Stevens Point. WordHaven BookHouse in Sheboygan, Bound to Happen Books in Stevens Point, and Sheboygan poet laureate Lisa Vihos coordinated it; for the month of April, local businesses in both cities will be displaying poems in their windows! And I’m happy to say that one of my poems is in the window at WordHaven BookHouse!
Category: Other
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Tabi Po – Spring 2024, Issue 2
My poem “Lost City” is appearing in Issue 2 of Tabi Po, a new online literary journal out of Milwaukee (and a great monthly open mic!). The theme of the issue was Cities & Borders – you can read it online here. And while you’re there, check out their open mic schedule and featured readers and stop by if you’re in Milwaukee!
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Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon 2024 – Now Online
“Woodland Pattern’s most highly anticipated annual event, the Poetry Marathon is a two-day, 24-hour lyrical extravaganza with performances from more than 300 individual poets, musicians, and moving image artists from Milwaukee and around the globe.”
Now that the livestream of the Poetry Marathon is over, Woodland Pattern has posted the streams for Saturday. January 27 and Sunday, January 28 to YouTube for posterity.
And if you want to jump straight to the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets block from Sunday, which is where my reading appears, I’ve embedded that below. I realize that it’s just because my last name came first alphabetically, but I’m still a little chuffed that I got to go first!
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2024 Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon, Streaming Jan. 27-28!
EDIT: Now that this event has passed, the entire thing is available to watch on YouTube! Saturday’s stream is available here and Sunday’s stream is available here.
And if you would like to cheat and skip right to the WFOP section that I’m a part of… you can do that with this link right here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EnNfPRavBQ&t=14153s
“Woodland Pattern’s most highly anticipated annual event, the Poetry Marathon is a two-day, 24-hour lyrical extravaganza with performances from 300+ individual poets, musicians, and moving image artists from Milwaukee and around the globe. All 24 hours of the Poetry Marathon will be livestreamed via Crowdcast.”
You can watch online from anywhere since it’s going to be streamed over Crowdcast! I’m one of the participants in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets hour, which will be 2-3pm on January 27. More information plus the complete schedule is on Woodland Pattern’s website: https://woodlandpattern.org/poetry-marathon
Here’s the complete participants in that hour: “2 pm-3 pm: WISCONSIN FELLOWSHIP OF POETS (CURATED BY ED WERSTEIN)—Anneliese Finke, Ronnie Hess, Maryann Hurtt, Jim Landwehr, Pepe Oulahan, Amanda Ngoho Reavey, Sheryl Slocum, Katrin Talbot, Tori Grant Welhouse, and Ed Werstein + music by PAVDA (Hal Rammel & Linda Binder). Sponsored by Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.”
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Sidewalk Poetry Workshop 12/9/23
This year will be the second annual Sidewalk Poetry Contest run by Mead Library! Up to three poems will be stamped into the sidewalks around the city (three poems were stamped into the sidewalk in front of Mead last year, so take a look if you’re in the area!). More information/entry information can be found here, deadline January 2: https://www.meadpl.org/sidewalk-poetry
And like last year, I will be running a Sidewalk Poetry Workshop in December (this Saturday, the 9th, in fact – 10am-11am!). It’s a partnership between Mead Library and WordHaven BookHouse, which is where it will be held: https://www.kellydholstine.com/new-events/sidewalk-poetry-workshop-w-anneliese-finke
Full disclosure, I work at Mead Library; however, I am not involved in the sidewalk poetry program itself. I will not be viewing or judging entries (and, in fact, will probably enter myself).
The workshop will be about extremely short form poetry, and in it we will work on generating such poems as well as talk about further cutting. The length limits for the sidewalk poems are very strict: Poems must fit within a maximum of ten lines, including any title and stanza breaks; have no more than 35 characters per line, including punctuation and spaces; and have no more than 225 characters overall, including punctuation and spaces.
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Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Calendar 2024
Every year, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets puts out a Poets’ Calendar. The 2024 calendar is now out, and I have a poem appearing (if you get a chance to look through one, it’s in mid-November!). It’s pretty exciting! If you live in the area, it’s carried at some local bookstores, and it’s also available online (they also have a list of bookstores on this page): https://www.wfop.org/poets-calendar.
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Reading with Rescue Kittens! 6/18/23, 1-2pm
This is a thing they do periodically, with local authors and either kittens or puppies, to help them socialize – how could I say no? As you can see, one lil’ guy was a big fan of my poetry (or just my shoulder). Description from WordHaven BookHouse, our local bookstore:
“WordHaven is partnering with Sheboygan County Humane Society to share some quality time with humans, adoptable pets, and books!
A representative from the Humane Society will be here with applications if you find a love match with one of the adoptable pets in attendance at this event.
Free Event (Donations for the Humane Society Accepted)
This month, Local Author- Anneliese Finke – will be reading to kitties!”
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ArtAsPoetryAsArt 2023!
ArtAsPoetryAsArt is back again for 2023! If you missed it before, it’s a project that pairs up poets and artists (mainly through the Lakeshore Artists Guilds in Manitowoc); you submit an artwork or a poem, then you are paired up and create a second one based on your pairing. This time, the exhibit will be at the Rahr-West Art Museum in Manitowoc from June 13-June 18! And if you can’t make it or those dates have passed, the poems and artworks for 2023 are also available to view online here.
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Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon 2023 – Posted Online
“Woodland Pattern’s most highly anticipated annual event, the Poetry Marathon is a two-day, 24-hour lyrical extravaganza with performances from more than 300 individual poets, musicians, and moving image artists from Milwaukee and around the globe.”
Now that the livestream of the Poetry Marathon is over, Woodland Pattern has posted the streams for Saturday and Sunday to YouTube, so you can check them out there! It was a real honor to be able to participate as well as to hear some amazing poets during the streams.
And if you want to jump straight to the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets block from Saturday, which is where my reading appears, I’ve embedded that below:
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Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon 2023, Online Jan. 28-29! Plus an in-person Watch Party in Sheboygan…
“Woodland Pattern’s most highly anticipated annual event, the Poetry Marathon is a two-day, 24-hour lyrical extravaganza with performances from more than 300 individual poets, musicians, and moving image artists from Milwaukee and around the globe.”
Now, Paradigm Coffee and Music is the first spot in Sheboygan to host a Poetry Marathon Watch Party! Stop by and see some poets on the big screen. I’m part of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ block, which is from 1pm-2pm Central Time on Saturday, January 28. The Facebook event for that is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/904083830626294
There are some watch parties going on in Milwaukee as well, and of course you can watch online from anywhere since it’s going to be streamed over Crowdcast! More information plus the complete schedule is on Woodland Pattern’s website: https://woodlandpattern.org/poetry-marathon
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Bramble Fall 2022!
I just received my copy of the Fall 2022 issue of Bramble, along with a really nice note from the editor! My poem “North 7 Night Bus” was published in this issue. You can check out more information at https://www.wfop.org/bramble-fall-2022 – or support them by buying your own copy (there’s a link to it on Amazon on that page). Plus, Lisa Vihos, wonderful Poet Laureate of Sheboygan, was the guest editor!
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ArtAsPoetryAsArt 2022 – Manitowoc Public Library!
ArtAsPoetryAsArt is a very cool project that pairs up poets and artists (mainly through the Lakeshore Artists Guilds in Manitowoc); you submit an artwork, then you are paired up and create a second one based on your pairing. I love things like this that combine multiple art forms – and if you’re in the area, you can see it this summer at the Manitowoc Public Library!
If you can’t make it up there, though, you can also see the poems and artworks online here.
Let me know if you run into any issues with it, and please enjoy! The world can always use more art, I say!
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Untitled (2016 Haiku Project)
I wrote a long intro for this one, so if you’d like to skip down to the haiku, just click here. All I’ll say is: haiku are short, but read them slowly. I have put extra space between each one to try to give that sense of space and taking things slow!
In 2016, I was living in Plymouth, Wisconsin. And one of the good things about living in downtown Plymouth was the fact that the Plymouth Arts Center was within easy walking distance. In March of 2016, they had an exhibit of six Wisconsin photographers called Painting With Light…many ways, and I loved it. And something about the photographs made me want to write in a spare, imagistic style, so I spent the duration of that exhibit repeatedly walking down there, sitting in the exhibit space, and writing these haiku (although a few are from the walk there or back as well). A little more information on the exhibit can be found in this old Sheboygan Press article I tracked down with a little help from the kind folks at the PAC.
I also wanted to talk a little bit about what I mean when I say “haiku.” They are not in any strict formula of syllables; I believe that translating a poem into a different language is, if you want to be simply literal, impossible; you are really creating something new. And I believe the same thing is true of translating a poetic form from one language to another.
So what I have below are poems that are in three brief lines, and my goals in this form are trying to write as simply as possible, cutting out whatever is unnecessary, and being as absolutely spare as possible. If the haiku is complete, what should be left is the image; if it is good, what is left is an image that you spend time with. I suppose it is similar to my feelings on photography and why they inspired me in this way. And I will end by saying that there is some joy, as a poet, in considering so minutely each word, on weighing questions of capitalization, on turning a narrowed eye on each punctuation mark; perhaps the same satisfaction that people who work in miniature feel in any art or craft.
why make resolutions? now, everything new is buried by snow. the clouds reflections of clouds both leave us behind the slow river wears away the rock– nothing is still colorless winter– the world as simple as a photograph these rock pillars– are they giants' teeth or dirty fingernails? a flower decaying keeps a terrible beauty around the solid rocks the river, gurgling between fishermen's legs spring tulips bend with the wind– break under my hand in a photograph, train tracks lead nowhere lonely tree, climb down from those rocks– I will sit under you scattered lilies fall apart petal by petal icy trees by a clear lake– the end of winter in the museum, each glass-covered photograph reflects my face Moon, I am also here alone the church doors locked! a no loitering sign outside the museum. farther, trees fade into forest, clouds into sky how many hermit caves in these cliffs, how many empty skulls? on the highest branch, that smug crow is free to make noise the snow is creeping down the mountains soon, winter is here solitary, twisting tree– can't decide which direction to reach out at dusk in the distance the cloud-mountains appear not a shivering songbird locked inside my ribs but a black crow, laughing drunk he fell off the bridge and landed in the stars
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In The Act – Aug. 27, 2021
Hosted by Erica Huntzinger, In The Act is a program on process and the creative life. Creativity does not just stop and start with artists; we all make aesthetic or guiding decisions. Our aim is to talk through the process and investigate how we choose to express ourselves and live creatively. We are connecting with people about their lives.
I had an interesting discussion with Erica about poetry and creativity on her podcast! So, of course, I’m sharing that here as well. You can listen to my episode below – and she’s interviewed a bunch of great guests, so I highly recommend you check them all out! New episodes come out regularly (about twice a month in the earlier seasons and once a month in the later seasons).
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Poetry On Air – April 16, 2021
Hosted by Sheboygan’s Poet Laureate Lisa Vihos and produced by Mead Public Library, this is a program in which we invite guests to help us explore the meaning, inspiration and healing that poetry can bring.
I was lucky enough to be invited to be a guest on Poetry on Air, the podcast of Lisa Vihos, the Poet Laureate of Sheboygan, Wisconsin! We got to discuss a couple of my favorite poems by other poets and a couple of my own poems, and Lisa shared her own work as well.
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Older Publications
Here, I’m gathering together my older publications in one spot:
My poem “Metaphors” was published in Issue 31, Spring 2014, of Ruminate, a beautiful literary magazine dedicated to “slowing down and paying attention.” Sadly, after 16 years, Ruminate shut down in 2022. However, they have made every issue available, for free, online, in full print layout/format, which is amazing. The issues can be found here.
“Metaphors” was also republished on Little Eagle’s RE/VERSE, a blog dedicated to republishing published poems that are “well worth another look.” It was published there on September 16, 2015.
In Volume 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2009) of Georgetown Review, my poem “To Hal Struthee” was published. This journal was founded in 1993, and unfortunately published its last issue in 2015.
This is also the first, and only, poem that I have had reviewed (well, the whole issue was reviewed)! The Review Review called it “a powerful meditation on the effect our lives leave on the world.” While The Review Review is no longer available online, it can be viewed thanks to the Internet Archive right here.
Two poems, “Photographs” and “I Never Knew Jesus Smelled So Good,” appeared in Hurricane Review, Volume 1 Issue 6, 2008.
Eclectic Muse, a journal that was dedicated to more formal poetry, published “The Magical Journal of C. Eustatius” and “Jumprope Song” in Volume 13, Christmas 2007.
And my earliest publication was in the still-going-strong Dunes Review – in volume 12, Issue 2 (Winter 2007-2008), two of my poems appeared: “December Photograph” and “Mrs. Ellis’ Twelve Months Without Rain” (if you click the link above, you’ll see the title has been revised to “Twelve Months Without Rain).
