versealive

MaryEllen Letarte will read poems from her second book, Gathering, Tuesday, July 24, 2018 at the Thirsty Lab Poetry Group, 206 Worcester Road, Princeton, MA. Additional poems read by Louise Bogan Poetry Group members. Refreshments and a good time on the agenda.

MaryEllen Letarte and James B. Nicola announce new poetry books!

Come and enjoy scones, tea, and poems read by MaryEllen Letarte and James B Nicola on Sunday, November 26, 2017 from 2:00 to 4:00PM at the Lunenburg Public Library. Ms. Letarte, director of the Louise Bogan Poets of Lunenburg, will read from her newly published book Meandering and Mr. Nicola—stage director, playwright, composer, and lyricist, will read from his upcoming book, Wind in the Cave, as well as poems from his earlier works. Introductions by Kate Chadbourne, and a Q and A period will round out the poetry reading. Refreshments, hobnobbing, and harp music will follow with an opportunity to buy the authors’ signed books.

This event is sponsored by the Lunenburg Library, 1023 Massachusetts Ave., Lunenburg MA 01462 and open to the public.  For more information e-mail meletarte@yahoo.com

Find Meandering at Amazon

For a preview of Meandering, my chapbook prompted by memories of family and life on this world called earth, go to Word Tech Publishers, CW Imprint. The poems are meandering as are the roads to publishing.

Hi  readers! Look for a preview of my new chapbook Meandering at Word Tech, CW Imprint. The book was prompted by memories of my family and the need to remember more.

One blog a season is better than none. The spring and early summer were filled with family and events like Mother’s Day and funerals and special time with granddaughters. I have also submitted poems to many journals with little luck. Back to the writing board…

Tulip time in Ontario was wet and vivid. I traveled to Ontario with my sister and re-connected in many ways. She was a guide, a nurse, and a friend and of course a dear sister. I loved our early morning swims in the Hilton Hotel swimming pool in Ottawa and was awed by the Parliament Building there.  We took the last tour before the doors were closed for ten years of renovations.

I was introduced to amazing water parks inside and out of lodges and to zip lines that zipped so fast I didn’t see my granddaughters sliding by. I fell in love with man-made flowing rivers that took tubes and me lazily through the water. Short water slides were a thrill though steep  rides in a raft or a tube made me dizzy. My granddaughters thought otherwise – the steeper and faster the better. Try Camelback Lodge in the Poconos as it’s new, clean, and fun and best of all the people are friendly. Be prepared for the unexpected if you are a grandparent…

Winter 2016

I am back from my self-imposed disappearance. Goddard’s low residency MFA Program which I began in 2014 grabbed me by the collar and I forgot the world of Verse Alive. Goddard was an adventure that is dream-like now. All those who were near and dear are now far. Though not forgotten they are blurred as is in words that have a film over them. I see my friends in photos and read their blogs and Facebook comments but.. I miss them

After Goddard I began a journey into myself. It has been an adventure of travel visiting family and friends in Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida where I am now sheltered from the cold of the North and writing and reading to my heart’s delight.

This is the first time that I have had the opportunity to live alone with few responsibilities or obligations and enough time to relax, exercise, and have a freedom that I have never known. Though to some great extent I’m living here like I live at home in New England, the nights are easier. If I wake in the middle of the night, I am able to get up read, cook, write, and enjoy…it’s just too darn cold to get out of bed in the winter in my home in Massachusetts. And here I take a nap anytime I need one.

Some of the books I’ve read: Bittersweet, Brooklyn, The Expected One, Shire Summer, Slow Motion, Sleep, etc etc including a number of poetry volumes. I’ve been submitting poems, writing poems and essays and generally having mild days and nights. I love it!

My husband returns to visit tomorrow and I am looking forward to a week of drifting in the everglades, dining, and sight-seeing. I feel very fortunate to be married to a man who loves me and understands my needs. I’ll write again after he returns to our home up North…

Mid-May 2015. Tornadoes rage, storms whirl, rain, hail. That’s me, the weather, and my writing – little happens at times and then a raging flow spews out.

I’ve nearly completed the third semester of the Goddard MFAW program. I’ve discovered much this semester and one great discovery is my love for haibun poetry. I’m able to find my stories in the prose section and then write a haiku as the finish. For some of us, who write poems, this is a way to keep on writing. This structure pushes me further.

Practice, practice, practice must be my mantra if I want to move forward.

Thoughts spill out of me willy-nilly creating all that I need, all that I want.

What a year, birth, death the usual/unusual drama in my life. Tears/laughter. Struggles to say good-bye inch by square by inch. One whole year gone from my time at Goddard College. Will I find myself in my manuscript, will I contribute to anyone’s well-being?

December’s poetry workshop a love affair of words and meetings — creating new friends and old friends more precious than ever as looking back becomes a joy in reliving. The  poetry fills my life/ life fills my poetry. The return of being totally here – each moment filled with the innocence of the un-ripened and the stories of the seasoned. I’m bursting with all things human.

Today I visited a church I hadn’t been in for many years — the perfect place for meditating on poetry. The hymns, the litanies, the holy statues, the stations of the cross, the stained glass windows all focused toward going deeper into myself to create from my past. Focus being my need as I am so easily deterred from writing by bings and dings from phones and screens and door-bells.