Sealey Challenge 2026 Revised

Well! After my big bold statement, I was not long into the month before too many things in my life - involving work, bees, my mother-in-law's care, my daughters, even my student loan repayment status (!) had me rethinking these challenges I set for myself. So while I gathered many books, and read some of several, this year, I stepped down from the challenge almost as soon as I started. Here are the titles I'd set aside, in no particular order, with a few notes:

Toss Repeat by John Monroe Johnson - a chapbook by a brilliant poet and member of my twice-a-month Monday night group. Winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize 2024. 

In the Blood by Carl Phillips

Somewhere West of the Mississippi by Dave Seter, the Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2024-2026, and a fantastic supporter of the literary community. Also a translator of Lithuanian poetry!

Haiku: the Poetry of Zen, edited by Manuela Dunn Masetti (picked because it was short and I knew I'd need a short book of short poems on busy days during the challenge). 

The Poetry Deal by Diane di Prima. I remember seeing her read at past Petaluma Poetry Walks, and being told she was the queen (or was it the mother?) of the beats. A legend!

Cain Named the Animal by Shane McCrae. One that I'd like to take my time and finish.

The Idea of an Entire Life by Billy-Ray Belcourt.

Tumor Moon by Jennifer Saunders. A good friend from the MFA program, and one of three other poets with whom I meet nearly every Thursday via zoom, even though she's in Switzerland. Gorgeous book.

Sonnets from the Portuguese.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I have a copy of this that my grandfather gave to my grandmother about a hundred years ago, and I always felt that was quite romantic. 

Return of the Chinese Femme by Dorothy Chan.

A Holy Dread by R.A. Villanueva.

Dog Show by Billy Collins. It feels like three lifetimes ago that my mother and daughters and I were enchanted by "The Lanyard." I would have read this, I think, merely to confirm that I've moved on.

When the Hhorses by Mary Helen Callier. 

Don't Ask Me How I Know by Michele Bombardier. A fantastic book by another beloved member of the Frustration of Poets Thursday group. Loved this book!

The Book of Alice by Diamond Forde. Another one that captured me and that I'd like to complete. 

Homeless in Petaluma by Michelle Baynes. Daughter of Geri Digiorno, who started the Petaluma Poetry Walk, and a beautiful, wonderful woman who has done much work for the shelterless.

In the Next Century by Ruth Stone.

Overland by Natlie Eilbert. I read a bit of this, but perhaps didn't have the concentration or patience for its style with all the heavy things going on in my life at the moment. 

Find Me as the Creature I am by Emily Jungmin Yoon.

Veer by Cole Swensen. A local poet who I did not know, but am very glad I've found. 

Lives by C.J. Evans. The best find of the month, I think. Really lovely. Some of Evans' preoccupations are mine as well. One I will go back to.

I, Divided by Chelsea Dingman. Recommended to me by Jennifer Saunders as an example for writing about extremely difficult subjects with skill and without making them overwhelming, sentimental or trivial. A guide for my potential manuscript.

(Re) Creations by the late Phyllis H. Meshulam, a former Sonoma County Poet Laureate, companion on a poets' trip to Wales in 2013, and the beautiful host of the Monday night group pre-COVID. Even after losing the ability to move her hands or speak, she was writing new poems and working on new manuscripts. This one was published late in her illness and shortly before her death. 

UnRavel by Marjorie Stein. A fantastic book by another member of the Monday night group. I love what Margie does with language. So proud of this book on her behalf. 

What does that make? Twenty four books I might have read, only a few of which I read all the way through. Some I never read at all. 

Just documenting this idea of an attempt, so I can move on. Take the library books back. Know which ones I'll borrow again. Cleaning the slate for the next two weeks of my life, which will be busy, and during which I want to focus on my property and my well-being, not a challenge that is not necessary with everything else happening in the world right now. With all due respect to the poets and their work. 

Sealey Challenge Eve

 Is this crazy? Possibly. As I close out another Plastic-Free July challenge, I am gathering 31 (slim!) poetry volumes to read in the month of August. In keeping with the guidelines of The Sealey Challenge, I would read a book a day. But I am learning—late but learning— to be gentle with myself. 

So in a month where work is presenting unique challenges - a new ILS software! Branch closures due to remodels and poor AQI! - and home is offering me plenty to do (prepping for a gathering at the “farm" at the end of the month), I am picking up the poetry gauntlet mindfully. This means that rather than rushing through a book a day, skimming and not doing the book or poet the courtesy of my full attention, I intend instead to read at least some of a new book every day, and do so with care. This will give me more time to write. Time to weed (my favorite thing). And time to take care of myself and my family and the land in which we are blessed to live. 

Review of Erica Goss’s Landscape with Womb and Paradox

I was delighted to be asked by editor John Amen to contribute a review of Erica Goss's Landscape with Womb and Paradox to the final issue of the wonderful Pedestal Magazine. Goss herself has published at least a hundred reviews, and has also written a very insightful and helpful article on how to write reviews of poetry books, so I was both inspired and, frankly, intimidated, by the challenge of writing about her collection. But the book itself made the task a joy; it is beautiful, and as generous as the poet herself in terms of taking the reader into the poems. Much of what she had to say really resonated with me. Here is a very accomplished poet reminding us all: pay attention. Every moment has its story, its own poetry. 

 

Review of Scott Ferry’s Sapphires on the Graves

I’m late in announcing here that this review came out in Pedestal Magazine. I’m so grateful to editor John Amen for publishing my reviews. Scott Ferry’s latest book (one of many in only a few years - he is very prolific) is formatted in a very specific way, and I enjoyed diving in to his experiences in his prose poetry, with slashes instead of line breaks, with its wild leaps of imagination and dreamscape. 

Review of Irene Blair Honeycutt's Mountains of the Moon in Pedestal

 I'm excited to have another review up at the wonderful Pedestal Magazine. Honeycutt has long been something of a leader in the literary world in and around Charlotte. Her book reminded me of the importance of noticing. Noticing everything, and noting it. Also, I appreciate that she keeps her dead close (but not too close), as do I. 

Honeycut's poems are almost deceptively accessible. But the more I read them, the more I could sink into them. It was an honor to have a place to speak a little about her new collection.

Reveiw of Matthew E. Henry's The Third Renunciation in Pedestal Magazine

 I am once again indebted to editor John Amen and his team for including one of my reviews in Pedestal Magazine. This one was a challenge because the author is outspoken and active on social media, and his work is passionate, personal and informed. I always want to do a writer justice when I share my experience and interpretation of their work, and I felt like the stakes were higher to get it right in this case. Matthew E. Henry is a black man; I am a white woman. I cannot truly understand the racism he has faced, especially in his career as a teacher in a mostly-white school with mostly-white faculty and staff, because I have not lived that experience. But nor would I ever use my gender and whiteness as an excuse for not trying to see what he has seen, hear what he has to say. I can appreciate anyone who looks at the injustices and pain in this world and asks not "why" but "what if?" What if.

Besides, how can I help but admire a book of radical theological sonnets? As usual, there was more I could have said and wanted to say, but the 1000-word limit meant I had to omit exploring how The Third Renunciation contrasts with Mark Jarman's Unholy Sonnets, among other things. 

The Sealey Challenge, Day 30: Best Barbarian by Richard Reeves

I read this one digitally, but requested the physical copy from the library as well, to experience it, and better see and understand the lineation. This title was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award. As I noted elsewhere, I found myself breathless more than once while reading this collection. Incessant, like waves lapping stone into the earth or fire sweeping the land. And this was not the first book I've read in August that features wasps. Interestingly, a few days after reading this, I had my very first unpleasant encounter with a wasp on our property since we moved here almost two years ago - just a single wasp, very interested in a meal I was eating outside. But still, they seem to be a recurring motif in my life at the moment.