Category: Hope
2023: The year of new poetry
I am overwhelmed with delight to announce I have 2 new poetry collections coming out this year. This is beyond a dream come true. I am so grateful to the presses. Cover reveals soon!!!
When All Else Fails is coming this spring from The Poetry Box edited by Shawn Aveningo-Sanders.
Here are some quotes:
“…Lana Hechtman Ayers takes the raw material of extreme childhood poverty and abuse and turns it into one arresting poem after another. Even more remarkable is that the poet emerges from this crucible not just alive but fully alive, willing to embrace everything, knowing that she’s here “to touch / the blank page with reverent ink…”
—John Brehm, author of No Day at the Beach and The Dharma of Poetry
“Lana Hechtman Ayers’ unflinchingly honest and sensual poetry traces her journey from a difficult childhood in Queens spent in ‘the dark house of my mother’s anger’ where the poet grew ‘scrupulous as an owl’, to a wildly luxuriant maturity in the Pacific Northwest where she revels in intimacy with sky and water, trees, birds, and a loving partner…”
—Alison Luterman, author of In the Time of the Great Fires
“…These poems sing with joy and reverence for a world ‘hard as agate but twice as beautiful.’ Ayers’ work speaks to us in a vividly rich lyric voice ‘born to be the sky’s reporter, mood ring for the rain.’”
—Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita
Overtures is coming this summer from Kelsay Books.
Here are some quotes:
“…these poems have arisen like miracles of what the book calls “today’s grace”—something elusive in life, but indelible in poems. This is a book co-authored by many poets, their visions woven here anew…and by the sea, varieties of shore light opening and winking into shadow as the sky changes…”
—Kim Stafford, author of Singer Come from Afar
“Lana Hechtman Ayers’ Overtures is capacious and lyrical, a compendium of poems that showcase her imagination and her empathy, her attention to the small miracles of daily life, the passage of time, the natural world, as well as to the disorientation bred of our disconnection from the real, the ancient, the sacred. It includes fables and fairytales and homages to other poets, from Pablo Neruda to Wallace Stevens to Mary Oliver… ”
— Cecilia Woloch, author of Tsigan
“Things You Will Learn About Me After It’s Too Late”
Thanks to editor Belinda Subraman for featuring my poem at GAS.
https://gaspoertyartandmusic.blogspot.com/2022/08/gas-featured-poet-lana-hechtman-ayers.html
December 2021 Prompt Me Poem
Welcome to my monthly blog feature, Prompt Me, where I read a new poem I’ve written inspired by a prompt offered by one of you, my wonderful blog followers! And to say thank you for tuning in, I send a special gifts to the person whose prompt inspired my poem.
This month’s prompt is “the first winter star” suggested by Neal Lemery. Thanks, Neal!
Lana Hechtman Ayers
Winter Prayer
December 22, 2021
Twilight of a stormy after-solstice morning,
gift of the sound of water
like a great river flowing
overhead,
I, a small fish swishing below the surface,
swimming toward lengthening light,
myself, my beloved, my little dog,
we three in a school
of raindrops,
the wide gray-white sky above us,
the grace of another day given,
amen.
Please leave a prompt for me in the comment section below. I’d love to write a poem just for you.
See you again in 2022! Wishing you peace, joy, and good health for the coming year.
Prompt Me Poem– Late September Edition
Welcome to my monthly blog feature, Prompt Me, where I read a new poem I’ve written inspired by a prompt offered by one of you, my wonderful blog followers! And to say thank you for tuning in, I send a special gift to the person whose prompt inspired my poem.
This month’s prompt “she glides on unseen waters” was offered by Sherry Green. Thank you, Sherry! I’ll be sending a thank you gift along soon. My poem is called “The Solitude of Grief.”
My poem up at The Journal of Expressive Writing
Here’s a poem I wrote late spring in the beginning of the pandemic, for my brother, inspired by how one tragedy calls up another.
https://www.journalofexpressivewriting.com/post/what-the-sheltering-do
August 2021 Prompt Me Poem
Listen to me read my latest “Prompt-Me” poem in the video below.
My poem “Prints” was inspired by two prompts: A quote from Robinson Jeffers provided by Dana Cunningham Anderson and a fox vixen postcard poem sent to me by Stephanie Anderson Ladd. To thank you both, some poetry books are in the mail to you.
Now it’s your turn!
Please leave me some poetry prompts in the comment section below.
If I use your prompt for a video Prompt Me poem, I’ll thank you with a special gift.
June 2021 Prompt Me Poem
Welcome to my monthly blog feature, Prompt Me, where I read a new poem I’ve written inspired by a prompt offered by one of you, my wonderful blog followers! And to say thank you for tuning in, I send special gifts to the person whose prompt inspired my poem.
This month’s poem was inspired by Ciel Downing’s prompt “between hope and despair.” Thanks, Ciel! Please leave me some prompts in the comment section below so I can write next month’s Prompt Me poem. Thanks for taking the time to visit. See you in July.
April 2021 Prompt Me
Welcome to my monthly blog feature, Prompt Me, where I read a new poem I’ve written inspired by a prompt offered by one of you, my wonderful blog followers! And to say thank you for tuning in, I send a special gift to the person whose prompt inspired my poem.