Quillfyre

Afloat on Flanpond by Carol A. Stephen and JC Sulzenko (SPICES & SEASONINGS Series)

Review of What I Carry with Me from The Ontario Poetry Society

Review by Elana Wolff. Thank you so much, Elana, for a lovely review of my book! What I Carry With Me                                                                    Review by Elana Wolff by Carol A. Stephen Friesen Press, 2022, 82 pages                                                        ISBN: 978-1-03-915025-6    Carol A. Stephen’s What I Carry With Me, is a spacious collection of…

Book launch for What I Carry with Me coming Feb. 16 2023 at Wintergreen!

https://www.wintergreenstudios.com/events/what-i-carry-with-me

What I Carry with Me

coming soon! https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000243988848

Coming later this year…

It’s taken me a while to pull together a full collection, but it’s coming, and it’s coming this year! I couldn’t wait though, to share the cover, because it’s so beautiful!

April 2022 POEM 21 Deserters

Deserters At two or so it was pneumonia, then tonsils wanted out. Let them go, I said. *** Next, it was the eyes, at fourteen, when the blackboard in class seemed too far away. *** At 26, the cholesterol played games, blood pressure too, pills for this, pills for that. *** They all gave me a break for a long time after that. Til arthritis set in, then C. Difficile wanted my…

Day Twenty On April 20, 2022 “….And now for today’s (optional) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that anthropomorphizes a kind of food. It could be a favorite food of yours, or maybe one you feel conflicted about. I feel conflicted about Black Forest Cake, for example. It always looks so pretty in a bakery window, and I want to like the combination of cherries and…

Day Nineteen On April 19, 2022 “Today’s challenge is to write a poem that starts with a command. It could be as uncomplicated as “Look,” as plaintive as “Come back,” or as silly as “Don’t you even think about putting that hot sauce in your hair.” Whatever command you choose, I hope you have fun ordering your readers around.” So, I have several chronic conditions, and some overlap, so when I am…

Day Eighteen On April 18, 2022 “…Last but not least, here is today’s prompt (optional, as always). It’s based on Faisal Mohyuddin’s poem “Five Answers to the Same Question.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write your own poem that provides five answers to the same question – without ever specifically identifying the question that is being answered.” Five Answers to Something Cotton socks,…

Day Seventeen On April 17, 2022 “…here’s our daily (optional) prompt. This is a fun one – it’s a prompt developed by the comic artist Lynda Barry, and it asks you to think about dogs you have known, seen, or heard about, and then use them as a springboard into wherever they take you.” **** Well, I’m mostly a cat person, so…but there is one dog, lives next door. Still a puppy, but the voice is…

Prompt Sixteen from Poetry Superhighway

“April 16, 2022: Poetry Writing Prompt – J R Turek Write a list poem titled “Everything is Broken” but offer no solutions to fix anything. If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.” Everything is Broken The charger that sits on my night table won’t charge my phone. The curtain that keeps snow off the deck,…

from https://www.napowrimo.net …”Finally, here’s our daily (optional) prompt. This one may seem counter-intuitive, but today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about something you have absolutely no interest in. This isn’t quite the same, I think, as something you’re indifferent to. For example, I have absolutely no interest in investment strategy. Anytime anyone tries to tell me about…

April 2022 Poem 14

Catching up has been more challenging than I expected, with conflicting demands on my time, and recovering from the arm surgery. So, rather than stress and fret to match the daily prompts, I am going to use the occasional poem if I write one, outside that constraint. Last night at a reading, someone mentioned thinking poetry was something written by dead white men. I sometimes have a quirky…

Day Thirteen On April 13, 2022 NaPoWriMo.net “And now for our (optional) prompt! Today, in honor of the potential luckiness of the number 13, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that, like the example poem here, joyfully states that “Everything is Going to Be Amazing.” Sometimes, good fortune can seem impossibly distant, but even if you can’t drum up the enthusiasm to write yourself a…

Princess and the Pea

Day Twelve On April 12, 2022 NaPoWriMo.net “Today’s prompt (optional, as always) should come as no surprise. Yesterday, I challenged you to write a poem about a very large thing. Today, I’d like you to invert your inspiration, and write a poem about a very small thing. Whether it’s an atom, a button, a hummingbird’s egg, dollhouse furniture, or the mythical world’s smallest violin, I hope you…

April 10 Books, Books, Books

Prompt from Poetry SuperHighway April 10, 2022: Poetry Writing Prompt – Elizbeth Marchitti Write about your knick-knacks, your chatchkes, your Dollar Store finds.  Explain why you can’t quit buying them, and what you think your heirs will do with them when you die. If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.…

Day 11 The Big Apple

“And now for our (optional) prompt. Following up on yesterday’s love poem, I have for you another deceptively simple challenge. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about a very large thing. It could be a mountain or a blue whale or a skyscraper or a planet or the various contenders for the honor of being the Biggest Ball of Twine. Whatever giant thing you choose, I hope this chance…