#LeighAnna Schesser

[septembersung]

Wendell Berry, New Collected Poems; Charles Swain, “Words”; Charles Wright, “When Your Lost in Juarez in the Rain and it’s Easter Time Too” (2); LeighAnna Schesser, “Canticle for Philomela”; Charles Wright, “Buffalo Yoga”

#poetry #April is national poetry month #quote quilt #words

[lateyellow]

My love is a tall white cliff above a deep river, a wind-carried psalm of wheat-colored light.

LeighAnna Schesser, from “Love Poem,” Struck Dumb with Singing (Lambing Press, 2020)

#light #poetry #struck dumb with singing #leighanna schesser

[dk-thrive]

Makers of words, this is your lullaby.

Makers of words, this is your lullaby. You are begotten of words, and begotten, you beget. Who planted this tongued root of love, wriggling and warm, alone in the dark? I will harvest its heartlessness: sweet sprout and bitter blossom, the tonguelessness of grief. * Sometimes, the telling burns. Sometimes, the teller. So be it.

—  LeighAnna Schesser, from “Canticle of Philomela” in peacock journal (via Whiskey River)

#LeighAnna Schesser

[itspileofgoodthings]

Above are two excerpts from Struck Dumb with Singing, LeighAnna Schesser’s new book of poetry. (You can find her on tumblr @wheatpsalm.) I loved her chapbook, Heartland so much. It’s sadly out of print now, I got one of the last copies, so I was so excited to be able to buy this new collection of poems that include some from Heartland!

I’ve been trying to read one poem a day, at night, after I read one of the Psalms. It is a beautiful ending to every day. Her poetry is haunting. The words sink into you before you fully understand them. They reveal their meaning to you more fully with every reread—they are not obscure—but they also mean something to you before you fully understand. The words themselves are full of grace and truth and reading them is healing.

If you want to support poets, specifically catholic poets, or if you’re just looking for some poetry to read and a place to start with that, or if you just want something beautiful in your life, you can buy a copy here! (I’ve been told that the best way to support small publishers and authors is to buy from the publishing company directly and then to review your purchase on amazon. Neat, right?)

#leighanna schesser #struck dumb with singing #poetry #these poems though. #i am someone who is intimidated by poetry a lot of the time. especially modern ones #i have a fear of being tricked #but these poems aren’t like that. they always feel like a gift

[wheatpsalm]

I’m the featured artist today at Born of Wonder!

#struck dumb with singing #poetry #catholic #christian poetry #born of wonder #katie marquette #leighanna schesser #poets on tumblr #poets #artist feature

[light-of-being]

Poets are a people of liminal spaces: some part of us always inhabits the edge or doorway between different kinds of reality. Yesterday and tomorrow, life and death, grief and joy, loss and fullness, self and other… In his moving 1999 “Letter to Artists,” St. John Paul II described artists as having a “vocation to beauty.” Beauty is, perhaps, the supreme liminal space: the point of contact between who we used to be and who we could become; between profane and sacred, temporal and eternal, human and divine. Of the myriad ways to live out this calling, I have come to understand my own path as an aesthetic of joy, where is joy understood as something deeper and broader than mere pleasure, independent of temporary fulfillments. Joy as a state of being and awareness that does not ignore or exclude realities such as suffering, grief, and loss, but builds on them, subsumes and transforms them, into something magnificent and transcendent.

LeighAnna Schesser

#LeighAnna Schesser #poetry #liminality #beauty #spaces #joy

[praise-the-lord-im-dead]

this is beauty. I am cry.

#it #is #so #GOOD #I'm so happy #and sad #and full of words #it's just...AHHHH #YES #poetry #beautiful poetry #LeighAnna Schesser #BEAUTIFUL #Empathy

[thelonelybrilliance]

Book Recs

It was a goal of mine to read new books (especially new poetry) for 2021, something I haven't been able to do much in the last decade+ (since starting college). By new, I only mean new ~to me~, as I'm an inveterate re-reader. I finished just under 40--plus a few rereads. Here's the complete list, with recs in bold:

Fiction:

Pierce Brown - Morning Star

Dorothy Dunnett - The Lymond Chronicles (1-6)

- Game of Kings

- Queen's Play

- The Disorderly Knights

- Pawn in Frankincense

- The Ringed Castle

- Checkmate

Patricia Lockwood - No One Is Talking About This

Liane Moriarty - Big Little Lies

Kate Ross - The Julian Kestrel Mysteries (3 & 4)

- Whom the Gods Love

- The Devil in Music

Dorothy Sayers - Whose Body

John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Story of Kullervo

Non-Fiction:

Joan Didion - Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Poetry

Hanif Abdurraqib - A Fortune for Your Disaster

Nico Alvarado - The Collected Poems of Tim Riggins

Louise Glück - Poems (1962-2012) (11 collected volumes)

Louise Glück - Faithful and Virtuous Night

Hilda Doolittle - Hermetic Definition

Halsey - I Would Leave Me if I Could

Ben & Anthony Holden (eds.) - Poems that Make Grown Women Cry

Ada Limón - Bright Dead Things

Ada Limón - The Carrying

Anne Michaels - Poems

Mary Oliver - Devotions

Max Ritvo - The Final Voicemails

Richard Siken - War of the Foxes

LeighAnna Schesser - Struck Dumb by Singing

I reread Little Women, Mansfield Park, and The Two Towers this year as well. I also reread No One Is Talking About This, because it was so moving.

My five favorite books this year would have to be Morningstar, Pawn in Frankincense, No One Is Talking About This, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and entire collected works of Louise Glück.

#my lists #book recs #books #poetry #fiction #non fiction #pierce brown #dorothy dunnett #joan didion #louise glück

[thiswindyplace]

Still and blue, the evening rolls over in its sleep, seeking other dreamers, newer days.

- LeighAnna Schesser

photo source: twitter

[lateyellow]

A sea in the night, a dark light, on the blue floor of eternity.

LeighAnna Schesser, from “Petrichor,” Struck Dumb with Singing (Lambing Press, 2020)

#petrichor #poetry #struck dumb with singing #light #leighanna schesser

[ihaveonlymydreams]

The Farmer Takes a Wife

First harvest was a heat-soaked swath of freedom.

The wheat was short and bushed as a bristle brush,

all wave and scrub. Down its curving rows, a rush

of fat late light, butter-thick; the combine's high drone,

bracing white roar; rush of joining, chink and fit,

as grass sown lightly leaps roots below, then rises.

This is the liberty of love, the privilege of planting

your feet: shiver and shine to browning, to the grind

and bake and breaking of bread. Duty belonging;

be to, be for. Become more. We, wind-listed,

sun-blood links in unfolding human generations, till and keeping

path and way atop the changeless change of motion.

- LeighAnna Schesser, from "Struck Dumb with Singing"

#daily poem or at least frequent poem #I don't even have words for what this poem means #But I will keep reading it for the rest of my life #Thank you Maria for the gift ❤️

[itspileofgoodthings]

—LeighAnna Schesser, Struck Dumb with Singing

#leighanna schesser #struck dumb with singing #poetry

[ao3feed-tolkien]

there is only wanting this to last, and the unbearable lasting, before it passes

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2T8FnkF

by Victoryindeath2

“You are but love streaming out the wrong way.”

Maitimo will be a better king than anyone.

Words: 1374, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Maedhros | Maitimo, Maglor | Makalaurë, Fëanor | Curufinwë

Relationships: Maedhros | Maitimo & Maglor | Makalaurë, Fëanor | Curufinwë & Maedhros | Maitimo, Fëanor | Curufinwë & Maglor | Makalaurë

Additional Tags: Family, Brother Feels, Maglor thinks everybody should love music like he does, Maedhros is the best big brother, Maglor tries to be a good brother, Feanor loves his sons but he is also Feanor, this fic features hair-braiding and chess, thank TolkienGirl, Fluff and Angst, the angst is fluffy or the fluff is angsty idk, title from a poem by LeighAnna Schesser, summary quote from a poem by Richard Siken, what are their ages? who knows, Maedhros is like the equivalent of 17 or 18 I guess and take it down from there, i wrote this instead of updating my other fic

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2T8FnkF

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #Tolkien #JRR Tolkien #Tolkien works #ao3 #fan fiction

[praise-the-lord-im-dead]

6, 18, 19, 30, 35, 36!

6. What was the last book you really, really loved? Aside from The Princess Test, probably Heartland by LeighAnna Schesser. It's a book of poetry, and it really tugged at my heartstrings 💕18. Which character from a book is the most like you? Almost all of Rosemary Sutcliff's protagonists, but especially Owain from Dawn Wind. I'm probably not quite so epically loyal as he is, but it's a goal I strive for :) 19. Which character from a book is the least like you? Tris Prior from Divergent. I liked her well enough, but I remember going through the series thinking, "woman, what are you doing" at pretty much every turn, so it's evident our minds worked on very different wavelengths. 30. Who's your favorite author?Lloyd Alexander all the way, baby!! 35. Name a book you consider to be terribly underrated. I really, really love Strife of the Mighty by Julius Bailey. It's the first fantasy book that I would ever describe as 'Tolkien-eque' without even slightly meaning 'I'm politely calling this a cheap ripoff'. The story had a lot of heart, and a lot of cool monsters, and some pretty epic lines, and I'd love to have a little fandom grow up for it so I can freely gush about my Strife of the Mighty feelings :) 36. Name a book you consider to be terribly overrated. I tend to be a bit of an obscurity snob when it comes to books, staying away from most of the popular ones unless the synopsis sounds very interesting or the fandom looks incredibly fun. But if I'm allowed to call something overrated without ever having read it, I've always been annoyed at all the hype over the 'Court of This and That' books. After they inundated my Goodreads feed for a few months last year, I can't look at the covers without feeling slightly queasy. (I know, I'm a hipster. I'm sorry). Thanks for the ask!! :D