Published Poetry – Page 24 – Janet Ruth Heller

Poetry Leaves anthology publishes a poem about the Chicago blizzard of 1979

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:August 9, 2020
Post category:Anthology Books Literature Poetry Published Poetry

My poem “January Blizzard” was recently printed in Poetry Leaves: Adult Contemporary Anthology, edited by Emily Kazmierczak and published by the Waterford Township Public Library, 2020, on page 75. Poetry Leaves submissions come from all over the world. There was going to be an exhibit of all of the poems at the library in Waterford, Michigan from May 20 to June 3, 2020, but that got canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic. I had been trying to get "January Blizzard" published since February 1979. I wrote it after about two feet of snow fell on Chicago, where I was living and teaching at the time. The city administration had trouble dealing with all of the snow, and the resulting mess helped Jane Byrne to get elected mayor, the first woman to hold this position. Attachment Preview Janet Ruth Heller reading her poems at the Kalamazoo Public Library; photo by Hedy Habra

Haiku Poem Forthcoming in the Journal Frogpond

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:August 9, 2020
Post category:Haiku Literature Poetry Published Poetry

The haiku journal Frogpond has accepted a haiku poem of mine for publication. The editor is Michael Ketchek. Although Japanese haiku are usually 17 syllables long and divided 5-7-5, current literary theory insists that haiku written in English should be much shorter. So my accepted haiku poem is only 9 syllables long and divided 3-3-3. Margaret Sturr, my senior honors English teacher in high school, introduced our class to haiku during our 1966-1967 academic year. I like this form because it forces a writer to be very concise and to eliminate any unnecessary words. I have read a lot of traditional and modern haiku poems to understand this genre of literature better. I think that the effort to be more concise has improved my writing. Janet Ruth Heller reading her poems at the Kalamazoo Public Library. Photo by Hedy Habra.

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I love books by British writers P. D. James, Seamus Heaney, S. T. Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Judy Blume, Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Jim Daniels, Mong-Lan, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alberto Ríos, Gail B. Griffin, Jerry Spinelli, Jane Yolen, Kathryn Erskine, Gary D. Schmidt, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marge Piercy, Grace Paley, Alicia Ostriker, Jaimy Gordon; South African writer Athol Fugard;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon; and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico García Lorca, Ruben Darío, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillén, Pedro Salinas, and Dámaso Alonso.

I also love Japanese haiku, especially those by Matsuo Bashō.

My writing has been influenced by many other authors, including British writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon, and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico Garcia Lorca, Ruben Dario, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillen, Pedro Salinas, and Damaso Alonso.