{"id":8017,"date":"2015-03-12T16:40:44","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T16:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=8017"},"modified":"2015-03-12T20:42:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T20:42:29","slug":"guest-post-one-more-thing-by-leslea-newman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2015\/03\/guest-post-one-more-thing-by-leslea-newman\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: “One More Thing” by Lesl\u00e9a Newman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne More Thing,\u201d <\/strong>this wonderful poem by Lesl\u00e9a Newman<\/strong>, seemed to me to segue very well from the last guest post, \u201cSmoking\u201d<\/strong><\/a> by Laura Rodley<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On first reading this poem made me think of the past.\u00a0 Subsequent readings made me think of the present.\u00a0 I know it will make you think too.<\/p>\n

Thanks again to Lesl\u00e9a Newman<\/strong> for letting me share her work here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ONE MORE THING<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My mother crept downstairs at night,<\/p>\n

(I made believe I was asleep)<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t bother with the light,<\/p>\n

Her need for solitude ran deep.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She smoked a cigarette or two,<\/p>\n

She drank a tepid cup of tea<\/p>\n

And then with nothing left to do,<\/p>\n

At last she let herself just be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For hours lost in thought she sat<\/p>\n

The kitchen quiet as a grave,<\/p>\n

Was she content or sorry that<\/p>\n

for years she gave and gave and gave?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I missed my chance to ask her so,<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one more thing I\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Lesl\u00e9a Newman<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lesl\u00e9a Newman<\/strong> is the author of 65 books for readers of all ages including the poetry collections, Still Life with Buddy, Nobody\u2019s Mother<\/em>, Signs of Love<\/em>, and October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard<\/em> (novel-in-verse) which received a Stonewall Honor from the American Library Association. Ms. Newman\u2019s literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation; the Burning Bush Poetry Prize; and second place runner-up in the Solstice Literary Journal<\/em> poetry competition. Her poetry has been published in Spoon River Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, Evergreen Chronicles, Lilith Magazine, Kalliope, The Sun, Bark Magazine<\/em>, Sow\u2019s Ear Poetry Review<\/em>, Seventeen Magazine<\/em> and others. From 2008-2010 she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. Currently she is a faculty member of Spalding University\u2019s low-residency MFA in Writing program. Her newest poetry collection, I Carry My Mother<\/em> <\/strong>was published in January 2015 by Headmistress Press<\/strong><\/a>. You can buy it on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want to lean more about this poet? Here is a link to Lesl\u00e9a Newman’s<\/strong> website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BIG thanks<\/span><\/strong> once again to Lesl\u00e9a Newman <\/strong>for allowing me to share her work with you.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne More Thing,\u201d this wonderful poem by Lesl\u00e9a Newman, seemed to me to segue very well from the last guest post, \u201cSmoking\u201d by Laura Rodley. On first reading this poem made me think of the past.\u00a0 Subsequent readings made me think of the present.\u00a0 I know it will make you think too. Thanks again to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,2485,2480,205,2478,1952,2482,2484,2479,514,13,2483,7,16,2481,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-8017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-guest-posts","7":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","8":"tag-headmistress-press","9":"tag-i-carry-my-mother","10":"tag-laura-rodley","11":"tag-leslea-newman","12":"tag-massachusetts","13":"tag-nobodys-mother","14":"tag-october-morning","15":"tag-one-more-thing","16":"tag-poet","17":"tag-poetry","18":"tag-signs-of-love","19":"tag-solace","20":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","21":"tag-still-life-with-buddy","22":"tag-weighed-words","23":"entry","24":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8017"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8033,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017\/revisions\/8033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}