MARTIN DICKINSON

Welcome to the May 2015 Blue Heron Speaks feature! This month we shine a spotlight on the work of poet, Martin Dickinson. With imagery that leaps off the page, Martin Dickinson’s poems from his new collection, My Concept of Time (Finishing Line Press, 2014), are to be savored, read, and re-read in order to fully appreciate both the words presented and the beautiful silences in between. Each poem is a sacred reverie – a meditation on the experience of life itself. This collection speaks directly to the most thoughtful reader, who instinctively pauses after each line.  My Concept of Time is an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable collection, which gracefully transports the reader.

Visit the Blue Heron Speaks page of our site to read and enjoy 3 poems by Martin Dickinson: “The Tao at Sixty-Three,” “Ninety-Six, Weymouth,” and “My Concept of Time.”

(Photo credit: Tamzin Smith)

About Martin Dickinson
Martin Dickinson lives in Glover Park, Washington, D.C. His poems focus on family, work, nature and time and frequently echo classical carpe diem and ubi sunt motifs. The poems in Dickinson’s recent chapbook, My Concept of Time, have been praised for the deft ways in which they lock minuscule bits of time into place for the pleasure of the reader. Poet Michele Wolf (author of Immersion and Conversations During Sleep) cites Dickinson’s use of evocative, crisp diction to wed the concrete and the abstract, the quotidian and the grand with special sensitivity to the bounty of the natural world. Dickinson’s poems have appeared in on-line and print journals including California Quarterly, Heartlodge, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Isotope, Nth Position, Poeticdiversity, the Litzine of Los Angeles and (in Russian translation) the Russian language weekly, Kontinent. He has two sons, one living with his son-in-law in Brooklyn, New York, and the other in Geneva, Switzerland. His daughter, son-in-law, and grandson live in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He is a distance runner, T’ai Chi practitioner, and works as vice president of an environmental organization.

My Concept of Time (Finishing Line Press, 2014)

Gail Goepfert

Happy New Year and welcome to the January Blue Heron Speaks feature! Blue Heron is delighted to share the beautiful, transformative work of poet, Gail Goepfert. Please visit the Blue Heron Speaks page of our site, to read three of her poems. Her chapbook, A Mind on Pain, will be published by Finishing Line Press in early 2015. We are fortunate enough to have a sneak peek at her poem, “Broken,” from this brave collection on the Blue Heron Speaks page.  A Mind on Pain is available to pre-order at Finishing Line Press.

About Gail Goepfert
Gail Goepfert is a poet, amateur photographer, and teacher.  After many years in the classroom with seventh graders, she pursues her passion for the arts and nature. She is an associate editor for RHINO Poetry, teaches developmental online English classes, and walks the natural world with a camera as often as possible.

A Mind on Pain is her first chapbook. She is published in a number of anthologies and journals including Avocet, Off Channel, After Hours, Caesura, Florida English, Examined Life Journal, Homeopathy Today, and Room Magazine. Online her poems appear at Blue Heron Review, Jet Fuel Review, Ardor Literary Magazine and Bolts of Silk. A Pushcart Prize nomination for a Pushcart Prize in 2013 and in 2014 by Blue Heron Review, and she’s a recent runner-up in the Blue Lyra Review contest. She loves the cross-over of the arts. A former student set one of her poems to music. Her photographs appeared in Olentangy and 3Elements Reviews.

Gail Goepfert was born and raised in the Midwest states of Illinois and Ohio, from near the Piasa Bird along the bluffs of the Mississippi to the eagle-watch waters of the river near the Quad-Cities, from the Glass City, Toledo, Ohio, to a long and present stay in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. You can find her online at www.gailgoepfert.com.

A Mind on Pain by Gail Goepfert (Finishing Line Press, 2015)

UPDATE: IMPORTANT SUBMISSION INFORMATION REGARDING CURRENT POETRY SUBMISSIONS AND THE ANNIVERSARY PHOTO CONTEST.

Beautiful offerings have been finding their way to the Blue Heron Review inbox. Thank you! Just wanted to let writers and photographers know not to be discouraged, if you don’t hear from us right away. Our response time is listed on the Submission Guidelines page as 8-10 weeks. I will not be responding to photo contest submissions, until after the November 15th deadline, in order to be fair. There are only 2 blue heron photo spots available for the contest.

For our 3rd issue, we have been flooded with poetry submissions. I am thrilled that Blue Heron has become so popular! Thank you for your patience. Each submission will be read with great care.

Thank you again for supporting Blue Heron Review!

As a reminder, the deadline for poetry submissions is: December 15th, 2014.

With kind wishes always ~ and in appreciation of your creative talents,
Cristina M. R. Norcross, Editor
Blue Heron Review