{"id":8226,"date":"2015-05-08T17:02:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T17:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=8226"},"modified":"2015-08-26T19:51:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T19:51:17","slug":"celebrating-mothers-day-with-leslea-newman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2015\/05\/celebrating-mothers-day-with-leslea-newman\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Mother’s Day with Lesl\u00e9a Newman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Happy Mother\u2019s Day! <\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope it is a great day and that you are able to celebrate in some way.\u00a0 My heart goes out to all of you who are missing your mother or are missing being a mother this Sunday.<\/p>\n

I am happy to share two poems by\u00a0Lesl\u00e9a Newman<\/strong><\/a>. They are from her latest book, I Carry My Mothe<\/strong>r<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the name Lesl\u00e9a Newman<\/strong> sounds familiar, you may have recently read about the 25th anniversary<\/strong> of her ground-breaking book Heather Has Two Mommies<\/strong><\/em>. A new edition just came out this year from Candlewick Press<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MY MOTHER HAS MY HEART<\/strong><\/p>\n

My mother has my heart and I have hers,
\nWe traded on the day that she gave birth.
\nEach passing year the line between us blurs,
\nUntil the day I lay her in the earth.
\nMy heart in her now cracked and split in two,
\nHer heart in me now wound down like a clock,
\nAs she and I turn into something new,
\nThe love between us hardens into rock.
\nMy heart in her a newborn mourning dove,
\nStill safely tucked inside its sheltered nest.
\nHer heart in me a letter signed with love,
\nA treasure I keep deep within my chest.
\nFrom this day forth whatever else occurs,
\nMy mother has my heart and I have hers.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Lesl\u00e9a Newman 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NEARBY<\/strong><\/p>\n

My mother
\nis far
\naway
\nas can be
\nand
\nalways
\nas close
\nas my heart
\nis to me<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Lesl\u00e9a Newman 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lesl\u00e9a Newman <\/strong>is the author of 65 books <\/strong>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> was published in January 2015 by Headmistress Press.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I Carry My Mother <\/em><\/strong>is book-length cycle of poems that explores a daughter’s journey through her mother’s illness and death. From diagnosis through first yahrzeit (anniversary of death), the narrator grapples with what it means to lose a mother. The poems are written in form (haiku, sonnet, etc.), completely accessible, and will resonate with all who have lost someone whom they dearly love.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is published by Headmistress Press<\/a>.<\/strong> Here’s a\u00a0 a link to the book trailer which has just been completed. You can hear Lesl\u00e9a Newman read the poem featured here (“My Mother Has My Heart”) and see photos of the writer with\u00a0 her mother
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yf4ubYHObAM<\/a><\/p>\n

I just got an email this morning from Lesl\u00e9a; she has a new essay “Like Mother, Like Daughter,” <\/strong>in Full Grown People<\/em>, which talks about her mother’s own dream to be a writer and contains excerpts from a story written by Florence Levin. Here is the link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is the first I’ve heard of Full Grown People<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, which publishes essays that tackle those moments in life when you wonder, what\u2019s next<\/em>? It is updated Tuesdays and Thursdays.\u00a0 I think I will continue to check out this site.<\/p>\n

Thanks so much to Lesl\u00e9a Newman for letting me share her work.<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Mother\u2019s Day! I hope it is a great day and that you are able to celebrate in some way.\u00a0 My heart goes out to all of you who are missing your mother or are missing being a mother this Sunday. I am happy to share two poems by\u00a0Lesl\u00e9a Newman. They are from her latest […]<\/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":[2546,2548,12,2545,235,2485,2544,2480,2478,2547,2133,2543,13,7,16,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-8226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-guest-posts","7":"tag-like-mother","8":"tag-candlewick-press","9":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","10":"tag-full-grown-people","11":"tag-grief","12":"tag-headmistress-press","13":"tag-heather-has-two-mommies","14":"tag-i-carry-my-mother","15":"tag-leslea-newman","16":"tag-like-daughter","17":"tag-mothers-day","18":"tag-mothers","19":"tag-poetry","20":"tag-solace","21":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","22":"tag-weighed-words","23":"entry","24":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8226","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=8226"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8519,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8226\/revisions\/8519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}