The Tenth Muse

Published poet Leah Shelleda's newest chapbook is a collection of blog entries reflecting her deep sensitivity and appreciation of the arts:


"If I feed her the Muse will work for attention, but her diet, her cravings, can be mysterious. Generally, she feeds on culture, but sometimes I have to make imaginal trips to specialty stores. For example, the prints of the Japanese printmakers Hiroshige and Hokusai are her sushi. She can make a main course out of a complex myth like The Crane Wife, or the rain forest. Sometimes it's hot peppers and, on occasion, bitter herbs to remind me of those who are still enslaved."


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Looking at Vincent's Trees

in all of nature expression and soul
Vincent Van Gogh
And in the beginning
the Mama sang a blue-green
song and the invisibles
appeared
then she bronzed a reed
hymned a polyphony of pines
sent up a Chartres of seed
a ninth symphony of fur
a war and peace of feather
and on this Day when you can say
atone-ment or at-one-ment
I call for the name of her muse
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This little book is a treasure of reverence and appreciation for the creative process and the artist's response to nature.