Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Count me in on Roadside Poetry April 26, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 6:53 AM
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“We’ve selected YOUR poem for our spring Roadside Poetry installment!”

For nearly a month now, I’ve kept that exciting, boldfaced news mostly to myself, sharing it with only my immediate family, my mom and a few select friends and extended family members.

But now that the billboards are up—yes, I said billboards—I no longer feel obligated to keep this a secret.

I won the spring Roadside Poetry competition and my poem now sprawls across four billboards, Burma Shave style, 50 yards apart in Fergus Falls.

That’s it, my poem, the winning poem, which is posted along North Tower Road west of Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls, just down the road from Fleet Farm. Take exit 54 off I-94 on the west edge of Fergus.

Paul Carney, the project coordinator who delivered the good news to me via e-mail in early March, tells me that 100,000 vehicles drive by the billboards each month. “How’s that for readership?” he asks.

Well, mighty fine, Paul. Mighty fine.

Getting my poetry out there in this unusual, highly-public venue really is an honor for me, adding to my poems already published in two magazines and four, soon-to-be five, anthologies.

The mission of The Roadside Poetry Project “is to celebrate the personal pulse of poetry in the rural landscape,” according to roadsidepoetry.org. The first poem went up in September 2008 and was, interestingly enough, written by another Faribault resident, Larry Gavin, a writer and Faribault High School English teacher.

The poems, all seasonally-themed, change four times a year. Mine will be up through the third week of June when a summer poem replaces it. Yes, entries are currently being accepted for the summer competition.

About now you’re likely, maybe, wondering how I heard about this contest. I honestly cannot remember. But I do remember thinking, “I can do this.” So one night I sat down with a notebook and pencil and started jotting down phrases.

Like most writers, I strive to find the exact/precise/perfect/right words.

I scribbled and scratched and thought and wrote and crossed out and jotted and erased and counted and filled several notebook pages.

These poems do not simply pop, like that, into my head, onto paper.

To add to the complexity of this process, poets are tasked with creating poetic imagery that describes the wonderment of the season, all in four lines. But there’s more. Each line can include no more than 20 characters.

Now that character limitation, my friends, presents a challenge. Just when I thought I had nailed a phrase, I counted too many characters. Again and again, I had to restart until, finally, I had shaped and molded the poem I would submit.

“I love the language and the imagery,” project leader Paul said of my winning spring poem.

Honestly, when I wrote this poem, I could feel the sun warming my back as I stooped to drop slips of zinnia seeds into the cold, damp earth. Visualizing has always been a part of my creative process. Choosing the words “vernal equinox” simply seemed so much more poetic than the single, plain word, “spring.”

Even though Paul loved my poem and it fit the contest guidelines, there was a problem: Audrey Kletscher Helbling. Count and you get 23 characters and two spaces in my name, putting me five over the 20-character limit.

I understood the space limitations, but explained to Paul that I really wanted Audrey Kletscher Helbling, not Audrey Helbling, on the billboard because that’s my professional name. He agreed to see if the sign-maker could fit my full name and keep it readable. From my experience years ago writing newspaper headlines, I knew that the letters “l” and “i” took less space than other letters. The sign-maker was able to honor my request.

I haven’t been up to Fergus Falls yet to see my poem and Audrey Kletscher Helbling splashed across four billboards. But a trip will be forthcoming.

FYI: Paul Carney hopes to expand Roadside Poetry, supported in Fergus Falls by the Fergus Area College Foundation, to other locations in Minnesota. However, additional funding is needed to finance start-up, printing and other costs. If you would like to support this public art venue, have questions, need more information or wish to enter the seasonal contest, visit roadsidepoetry.org.

© Text copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Photos courtesy of Paul Carney

 

Poetry in abandoned buildings February 22, 2011

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I photographed this abandoned building along a country road near Kasota last fall.

ABANDONED FARMHOUSES and rural buildings have always held a special fascination for me.

As odd as this seems, I see poetry in these buildings that lean against the landscape, that view the world through shattered lenses.

I often wonder: Who lived or worked here? Why was this farmhouse or barn or outbuilding or schoolhouse abandoned, left to decay in the elements? I feel a certain sense of sadness knowing that once this building stood strong and proud.

But, yet, I manage to see the beauty in the bones that remain—in weathered boards muted to soft shades of gray, in crooked doors clinging to rusty hinges, in roofs that sag under the weight of time.

In my mind, I have personified this abandoned building, given it new life, through my photos and my poetic thoughts.

HOW ABOUT YOU—do you see what I see in old buildings? Share your thoughts in a comment.

© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Poetry and cheesecake October 1, 2010

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My daughter's homemade chocolate cheesecake, my birthday cake.

I FELT JUST LIKE a queen, waiting patiently at the dining room table to be served a slice of decadent chocolate cheesecake.

I must say, it’s a wonderful feeling to be on the receiving, rather than the giving, end. And that’s how it is now when I celebrate my birthday.

On Monday, a day after my birthday, my daughter drove down from Minneapolis for an appointment and later dinner out with me, her dad and her brother. But afterward, ah after that meal, I really enjoyed the celebration.

My first-born had baked a from-scratch, all-chocolate cheesecake. She clued us in that the recipe called for melted peanut butter chips mixed into the chocolate batter. But she scorched the peanut butter chips and had to substitute chocolate chips. That produced some gentle teasing about a many-years-earlier chocolate pudding cake disaster.

Clearly, she’s learned a thing or two about cooking and baking as the cheesecake was pure chocolate perfection.

As much as I enjoyed the rich creamy dessert, even more I appreciated that my daughter chose to make a cheesecake. She knows it’s my favorite dessert.

Then I opened my gift from her and appreciated even more that my eldest had chosen items perfectly suited for me. She didn’t buy just any old thing just to give me a present. Rather, she shopped at a south Minneapolis antique store—one with lots of antlers and a place she nearly walked out of due to all those antlers on the walls.

Inside the antique shop, she found a slim volume of poetry, Minnesota Skyline, published in 1953. The book wasn’t priced, she said, and clerks discussed, in front of her, the price she should pay.

Minnesota Skyline, a vintage poetry collection I think worthy of reprinting.

I flipped through the pages and knew I would enjoy this collection with poems like “Wind in the Corn,” “Pioneers of Southern Minnesota,” and “Spring on the Prairie.”

I haven’t had time yet to indulge in the anthology. But that evening, after I opened my daughter’s gift of poetry, I read aloud a verse from “Delano on Saturday Night” by Margaret Horsch Stevens of Montrose:

Men, bent, with toil, feel younger in the glare

Of lights, exchanging jokes and arguments;

And women brighten as they meet and talk

Of recent births, and brides, and home events.

We laughed as we pictured families gathered in downtown Delano on a Saturday night in the 1950s. How times have changed.

After that impromptu poetry reading, I pulled four slim yellow trays from my birthday gift bag. Once again, my daughter had selected an ideal present for me. I collect vintage metal trays and these were unlike any I have or any I’ve seen. For now I’ve propped two atop a shelf—art leaning against a wall.

My daughter gave me four vintage metal trays for my collection.

There’s something to be said for aging, when you can see your children as grown adults, who are caring and loving and giving and who know that you love poetry and cheesecake.

My husband also remembered my birthday with a colorful daisy bouquet.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

The Lund Press, Inc., of Minneapolis published Minnesota Skyline.

 

My unforgettable “road” poem publishes in The Talking Stick, Forgotten Roads September 15, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:39 AM
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TYPICALLY WHEN I write poetry, I turn to my past, to childhood memories.

That’s evident by my poems published in three volumes of Poetic Strokes, A Regional Anthology of Poetry from Southeastern Minnesota:  “Abandoned Farmhouse,” “Prairie Sisters,” “Walking Beans,” “Saturday night baths,” and “A school without a library.”

Occasionally I deviate from that trip down memory lane. “Lord, My Rock” published in the fall 2004 issue of The Lutheran Digest and “Tribute to a Korean War Veteran” published in the May/June 2009 issue of Minnesota Moments magazine.

My latest in-print-poem also detours from my typical subject of childhood days, although it stays on the road of memories, albeit this one a heart-wrenching, emotional recent memory.

“Hit-and-Run” has just published in The Talking Stick, Forgotten Roads, Volume Nineteen, debuting this Saturday at a Book Release Party in the Northwoods Bank Community Room in Park Rapids.

The poem looks back to May 12, 2006, the day my then 12-year-old son was struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street just a short distance from our home. Thankfully, my boy was not seriously injured. But the driver was never found and the memories of that horrible incident still linger. Now I’m sharing, in poetic verse, how that morning unfolded emotionally for me. Certainly, I have not forgotten this road.

Apparently my words resonated with the editors who reviewed the 200-plus poems submitted in this literary competition. “Hit-and-Run” was among the top seven poems selected by the editorial board for prize consideration by noted Minnesota poet Heid Erdrich. My poem earned an honorable mention.

“A terrifying imagery/memory,” Erdrich partially wrote in her evaluation.

Indeed.

If you would like to read my poem, the other winning poems and the fiction and creative non-fiction published in this latest collection by writers with a connection to Minnesota, check out the online purchasing options at The Jackpine Writers’ Bloc. The Park Rapids/Menahga-based group annually publishes The Talking Stick, which is sold by the Writers’ Bloc and several northern Minnesota bookstores.

I’ve read two of the past anthologies and I promise that you will enjoy some top-notch writing by emerging and established Minnesota writers. The Talking Stick has an excellent, long-standing reputation and I’m proud to be published in it.

If you’re a writer, consider entering the 2011 The Talking Stick competition. Submissions call for the 20th volume goes out in December with a March 1, 2011, submission deadline.

Finally, if you’re in the Park Rapids area this weekend, consider attending the book release party, which begins at 1 p.m. Writers published in The Talking Stick, Forgotten Roads, will read their works beginning at 2 p.m. No, I won’t be there as I have another commitment. But you’ll meet plenty of other Minnesota writers anxious to sell their books or compare notes on this journey we call writing.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Celebrating words and art in Paul Bunyan land August 19, 2010

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Paul Bunyan's sweetheart, Lucette Diana Kensack

I’VE BEEN INVITED to Hackensack, home of Paul Bunyan’s sweetheart. Lucette Diana Kensack lives (or technically, stands) along the shores of Birch Lake next to a quaint 1930s log cabin that is the Hackensack Lending Library.

The lakeside of the Hackensack Lending Library. To the left stands Lucette.

Just down the road along First Street sits a sweet, pink fairy tale cottage.

Unfortunately, I’m not traveling to Hackensack, which lies midway between Brainerd and Bemidji and marks the half-way point on The Paul Bunyan Trail. I was just in Hackensack last summer and another trip that far north is not on the schedule. But if it was, I tell you, I would want to stay at that Hansel and Gretel cottage. (I don’t care that it’s a private home.)

I discovered the fairy tale cottage while visiting Hackensack last summer.

Instead, I’ll be back here in southern Minnesota awaiting results of a poetry competition. You see, some time ago I submitted two poems for possible display at The Northwoods Art Festival and Book Fair in Hackensack from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 28.

Recently I learned that both my poems were selected for display and are vying, like all the chosen poems, for “Works of Merit” designation by long-time Brainerd poet Doris Stengel. The visiting public will also vote for their six favorites as “Popular Choice” award winners. As far as I know, no cash prizes are made. Rather the prize lies in peer and/or public recognition.

I would love to tell you which of the untagged poems are mine. But since I don’t want to be accused of voter fraud, illegal lobbying or some other such poetic “crime,” I have sworn myself to secrecy. I’m quite certain that revelation of my poems’ titles could lead to disqualification.

That disclaimer aside, if you’re in the Hackensack area on August 28, check out the arts festival and specifically the poetry display at the Union Congregational Church. Minnesota writers and illustrators will be at the church signing and selling their books. At 1:30 p.m., the award winners will be announced and display poets can read their poems.

But there’s more to this fest than the written word. You also will find artists who work in paint, clay, metal, wood, fiber and photography. Throw in food and music and you have a genuine Paul Bunyan-worthy Minnesota festival.

Come to think of it, perhaps I should have penned a poem about Paul Bunyan.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Poetic Strokes, Volume Four, publishes June 8, 2010

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Poetic Strokes, Volume Four, just published and on sale for $5.

FOR EVERY WRITER, publication brings a certain thrill, a validation that the words they’ve written hold meaning for a publisher, an editor, and, most importantly, for the reader.

That’s especially true for poets. In poetry, every word counts. Poets understand that. In perhaps no other writing genre is word choice so important.

Of all the writing I’ve done through the years—newspaper, magazine, essay, devotionals, greeting card verses and poetry—poetry and greeting card verse writing have proved the most challenging.

When I nail a line, and then a whole verse or an entire poem, I know it. And, apparently, editors also realize that. I’ve attained success in both publishing of my greeting card verses and my poetry.

Last week a copy of Poetic Strokes, A Regional Anthology of Poetry from Southeastern Minnesota, arrived at my house. The slim volume published by Southeastern Libraries Cooperating includes my poems, A school without a library and Saturday night baths.

Mine are the first two poems in the book. Forty-two poems were selected for publication from 280 submitted by 118 poets in Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha and Winona counties.

Of the 30 poets whose poems were selected for publication, 11 of us have multiple poems in the Legacy Amendment-funded anthology.

Within the pages of this volume, you’ll find poems that speak of libraries and veterans’ memorials, of personal pain and spoiled Americans, of wind and harvest and so much more. Among my favorites are Woman of the Earth and Final Harvest by Delores Daggett and The Garden by Ronda Anderson-Sand.

It’s no secret to me why I especially like these poems. They are similar to mine—rooted to the land and vivid with descriptive words that allow me to picture the place, the people, of which the poet writes. They also touch me emotionally.

Whenever I write a poem, I immerse myself in the subject, transitioning to the place or time that is the subject of my writing. I tap into my memory bank, remembering details that appeal to the senses. In Saturday night baths, I recall the red-and-white-checked linoleum, the slippery bar of soap, the oven door tilted open for warmth. Details like that make for a good poem.

Often, I write of my childhood experiences growing up on the southwestern Minnesota prairie. Those seem to resonate with readers.

You can read my latest published poetry by checking out Poetic Strokes, Volume 4, from any SELCO library. If you’re outside the system, request an inter-library loan.

Or, consider adding this anthology to your personal collection. In Faribault, Friends of Buckham Memorial Library are selling a limited number of Poetic Strokes for $5 at the circulation desk.

#

Friends and family, if you want a copy, let me know. For $5 and shipping costs (if you need the volume mailed), I’m willing to get a book for you.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Hear Minnesota voices (including mine) in The Talking Stick anthology April 26, 2010

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The Talking Stick, Volume Eighteen, Common Threads, published in 2009

“YOUR POEM WAS CONSIDERED to be one of the best in the poetry category,” the letter reads.

The words are sweet music to my writer’s soul.

“Your poem, along with several others, was sent to Poetry Judge Heid Erdrich,” the paragraph continues.

I am so excited I can hardly stand it. My poem has placed among the top seven in a state-wide contest that attracts a wide range of Minnesota poets, established and emerging.

Hit-and-Run, will publish in the Minnesota literary anthology, The Talking Stick, Volume Nineteen, produced by the Park Rapids-based Jackpine Writers’ Bloc, and tentatively subtitled Forgotten Roads.

No, I didn’t win the $500 first place prize or even the $100 second place prize. But I’ve received honorable mention, and that’s good enough for me.

“We had over 300 entries (in the categories of poetry, creative nonfiction and fiction) of exceptional quality and our decisions were difficult.”

The words resonate—a symphony chorus of praise.

To compete with so many other writers, and then to have my poem selected for prize consideration by award-winning, professional poet Erdrich, pleases me. A lot.

“A terrifying imagery/memory,” Erdrich evaluates. “Some of the lines do not strengthen the poem because they are so long.” Even though her brief comments are not entirely positive, I take them constructively. She, after all, has published three poetry collections.

Me? I’ve had five, soon-to-be eight, poems printed in publications. Read my April 21 blog post, I’m a poet and now I know it, for information about my other recent literary success.

Hit-and-Run, which will print in The Talking Stick, Volume Nineteen, is by far my most emotional, my most heart-wrenching, poem. I write about my initial reaction to the most terrifying day of my life, when my then-12-year-old son was struck by a hit-and-run driver on May 12, 2006.

Apparently the deep-felt emotions in that poem resonated with the Jackpine Writers’ Bloc editorial team. Those writers selected the poems to be published and chose the top several to pass along to celebrity poetry judge Erdrich for prize consideration.

I am grateful to editors Sharon Harris and Tarah L. Wolff for their dedication to The Talking Stick. Without their passion and commitment to this project, fledging poets like me—yes, I believe I can now officially call myself a “poet”—would not have such opportunities.

Readers, please support home-grown literary endeavors by purchasing books like The Talking Stick. The newest volume should be completed in August, just in time for a book release party tentatively slated for September 18 in Park Rapids.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

I’m a poet and now I know it April 21, 2010

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APRIL, NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, has been very kind to me. I recently entered two writing competitions, with successful results. Three of my poems have been selected for publication in two anthologies, one regional, the other state-wide.

Today I’ll tell you about the regional competition. You’ll need to check back for information on the state-wide contest.

In a congratulatory letter I received Tuesday, I learned that Saturday night baths and A school without a library will publish in the 2010 Poetic Strokes anthology.

Competition was tough with 118 poets submitting 280 poems. Forty-two of those poems, from 30 poets, will publish.

I believe I can now, officially, call myself a “poet.” In all honesty, I am humbled, and thrilled (can I be both?) that I did so well in this competition hosted by Southeastern Libraries Cooperating/Southeast Library System.

A qualified panel of judges (identity unknown to me) chose the winning entries from writers within SELCO’s 11-county service area. The winning poets come from 14 communities; I’m the only one from Faribault. Rochester and Winona produced the most publishing poets with six each from those two cities.

Poetic Strokes, volumes two and three

These are not my first poems to be printed in Poetic Strokes. In 2000 and 2001, Prairie Sisters, Abandoned Farmhouse and Walking Beans published in volumes two and three. Then, due to funding shortages, the anthology went on hiatus for nearly a decade.

I didn’t take a break from poetry, though, and have since had poems printed in The Lutheran Digest and Minnesota Moments.

And then there’s that state-wide contest I’ll tell you about in a future post.

Winning two poetry competitions extends beyond the joy of getting published. For me, as a writer, it’s confirming/validating/reaffirming that I am writing good poetry that resonates with readers, or at least with the judges.

Poetic Strokes, Volume Four, No. One, releases sometime in early May.

So where can you get this regional collection? Mollie M. Pherson, SELCO regional librarian tells me that SELCO cannot legally sell the anthology because the project was financed with Library Legacy funding. Those monies come via the Legacy Amendment approved by Minnesota voters in November 2008 to preserve our state’s arts and cultural heritage.

But, she adds, options are being explored. I certainly hope the anthology will be available for anyone who wants to add Poetic Strokes, Volume Four to their poetry collection. I bet my mom would like a copy.

If you just want to read the collection, and not permanently keep it, you can always check Poetic Strokes out from a SELCO library. Each library in the system will have the anthology. I know, I know, if you don’t live in southeastern Minnesota, you don’t have direct access to a SELCO library.

You can bet I’ll tell you when my copy of the 2010 Poetic Strokes arrives.  And if you live nearby, I’ll even let you read my poems about the once-a-week baths I took as a child (whether I needed one or not) and about my elementary school, which did not have a library. Really.

Here’s the link to the list of 2010 Poetic Strokes winners:

http://www.selco.info/display/HOME/SELCO+News

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

An ode to spring April 18, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 11:07 AM
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Oh, Spring, how I love thee.

Let me count the ways.

I love thy alluring, unspoken promise

thy lips so red

thy beckoning, gentle as a first kiss

thy embrace, so tender.

I give my heart to thee

as we dance together, swaying in the wind

among lovers.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Celebrate spring and April, National Poetry Month.

 

In celebration of National Poetry Month April 15, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:02 AM
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My vintage bottle of April Showers Cologne, saved from the junk pile by my mom, who saves everything.

April Showers

The tarnished bottle cap

twists in my fingers,

harsh metal clanking against glass

as the top swirls,

and then

releases,

unleashing a shower

of childhood memories.

***

I lift the glass close,

breathe in the sweet fragrance

of April Showers Friction Cologne

through a hole no thicker than a pencil.

***

Decades have passed

since I splashed this alluring

scent upon my stick-thin wrists,

into the hollow of my slender neck,

masking the odors

of cows and manure.

***

Transformed, I became

more than a preadolescent farm girl,

more than a sister who shared a pink bedroom,

who left wads of chewed Bazooka bubble gum

stuck on the dresser top

next to the cheap, bottled cologne.

I was somebody

who smelled pretty

and fancied herself

as Cinderella.

***

All this I remember

as I run my fingers

along the glass,

feel the raised imprint

of flowers and letters,

gently swirl the inch of yellow-green liquid that,

like a magic potion,

transcends time.

I open my bottle of April Showers and breathe in memories from more than 40 years ago.

Poem by Audrey Kletscher Helbling, © Copyright 2010

Written in celebration of National Poetry Month in April. Watch for more poetry news in future blog posts.