13 Feb 2023 – THEME – Earth Time / A New feature

Now for Something Wildly Different – Number 2!

You are going to love this Post. Not only does it include the usual high-quality verse-making from our troupe of committed poets (ahem – yours truly included); it also announces something REALLY different—an influx of new poetic blood. Mondays’ Wannaskan Almanac has just formed a relationship with Any-Time Poetry (ATP), a group of committed poets who will be sharing the joy of the art and who will have the opportunity to be published in Wannaskan Almanac once or twice each month. Today, we feature the first ATP poet, Laney Mooney and her “Nowhere Land,” a bittersweet peon to timeless love that has stepped away from the conventional and into the fantastic. After Laney’s poem, we’ll tell you more about this brand-new collaboration and make an invitation to you to be part of the fun and inspiration.

Nowhere Land

by Laney Mooney

Hurry around the corner, cherries

                               tumbling

from

               your

bag

Let's lace our wine glasses with true love

and turn our eyes toward the stars

Dance with me in this sacred space between

birth and the void beyond.

Tell me all the secrets that haven't slipped past

your lips before, horrid things and mysteries

and puzzles you've yet to solve,

mirrors you've looked into and demons you haven't fought.

Midnight flowers open up when the bees all go to bed

and their pollen goes untouched as they lay bare

their petaled heads.

Let's sneak, just you and I, tonight

and tear a stem or two

Bring them inside and boil them alive

to sip as the clock turns two.

The widowed woman down the block says they'll answer

every question you've been asking

read your mind and turn back time.

She told me once, on a summer afternoon

her sanity laid in their fragile folds

for she'd drink them up and lay in her bed

and conjure her lost husband up.

He'd stand in the bedroom doorway and watch her breathe

in     and     out

slow and soured from all the bitter hours spent

without the touch of his love.

And he'd always repeat the same soft and sultry phrase:

"I've got you dear, and I'll hold you near,

til' the world goes and gets crumpled up, thrown in

the wastebasket of time and bad luck. Once on your deathbed,

there I'll take your hand, and lead you into

nowhere land."

So let us drink the flowers and sit under the sky

and ask each other questions that can't be answered in this life.

And if one day you leave me alone on this earth

and I take the widow's place

I'll boil the midnight flowers and drink them upon your grave.

And up from the grass you'll rise once more

and you'll tell me one day you'll take my hand

and lead me into nowhere land.

About Laney Mooney of Raleigh, NC:

I’ve been writing poetry since I was 12! My motivation for writing poetry is the caliber of emotion I am able to convey through it. I also love when I read another poet’s work and am able to relate to them deeply, and hope others can find that connection in my own work as well.

I have an Instagram page for my poetry called @starstuddedstuff!

Background

An Invitation to You!

Join us! No kidding! Consider this your PERSONAL INVITATION TO JOIN IN the fun, intellectual stimulation, and creativity. Submit your poem(s) for publication consideration within a Monday Poetry Post of the Wannaskan Almanac. We will present this feature once or twice a month; sometimes the poems will be on selected according to monthly themes. Not to worry if the themes don’t strike hot; all poems will be considered for publication. 

Speaking of themes, here they are through June 2023:

• February: time 
• March: nature  
• April: heroes 
• May: being human 
• June: home

Remember, a submission does NOT have to be on any theme. 

A Big Deal!

Comments to WA’s Posts are welcome and encouraged. Of course, that includes Mondays. Wannaskan Almanac Any-Time (WAAT) contributors can read comments on their work on the blog site. JPS will also notify contributors when their work received comment(s). 

https://wannaskanalmanac.blogspot.com

Other Fun Stuff

WA readers/writers are invited to share their poems with the ATP folks just for the love of the art, and/or submit poems to the group for feedback. 

BTW, if you do decide to submit for publication, WA’s Monday host, JackPine Savage (aka CatherineStenzel), makes herself available for discussion, editing, and feedback to all contributors who would find that helpful. JPS has been hosting and posting poetry on Mondays since Wannaskan Almanac started its unbroken run of posts every day of the week. It was created by six writers and has been alive for five years without missing a single day. Not a bad record for the art of the sublime and the terrible. 

Here are some other particulars about getting involved in the new and “wildly different” feature:

• Anyone, whether in any group of poets or not, may submit one-to-two poems per month for publication consideration. catherineastenzel@gmail.com
• Poets are invited to send their work directly to catherineastenzel@gmail.com 
• The poet has the opportunity to receive feedback from JPS before deciding to submit.
• Poets will be notified when their work will be featured within a Monday post.
• This “wildly different” feature (WDF?) will appear once or twice a month on Mondays.
• Wannaskan Almanac will encourage comments from readers; these comments will be passed on to the contributing poets. 
• Those who desire to have their work in a particular theme’s month, should express their desire to do this.
• Remember, poems need not be aligned with the themes, and a poem about a theme may be featured in a month where that theme isn’t the focus.

I'm looking forward to this group! It will be a lot of fun and really supportive for all our crafty verses. 

JOIN US!

Explorations for “Something Wildly Different”

Exploration 1: What do you think of the partnership between Any-Time Poetry and the Wannaskan Almanac? Do you have any suggestions to offer this collaboration of poets and readers?

Exploration 2: Are you interested in submitting your own poem(s)? If so, contact catherineastenzel@gmail.com. 

Exploration 3: Do you have any comments for Laney about her poem, “Nowhere Land”?

Exploration 4: Are you more likely to read Monday poetry posts containing this new feature? Why or why not? (Now there’s a provocative question!)