A Note on This Museletter Extra Page

You may have read (or not) about the changes in WFOP’s Museletter. There are a number of changes you can read about on page 4 of the Summer 2025 edition. (https://www.wfop.org/s/25summer_muse124.pdf)

The one big change for the members’ poetry pages is that there will be only one page for poetry in the printed edition of the Museletter (and its corresponding PDF version).  However, this “Museletter Extra” page is where chosen poems that don’t fit in the Museletter will be posted. The poems on this page will refresh with each quarterly Museletter and new prompt.

Access the latest issue of the Museletter.

Museletter Extra

Poems by Our Membership

The prompt for the February 1, 2026, Museletter was to write a “golden shovel.” The two lines below come from the poem “Paean to Place” by Lorine Niedecker. Use ONE of the lines to write your golden shovel poem.

(1) And the place / was water / Fish / fowl / flood / Water lily mud
(2) My mother and I / born / in swale and swamp and sworn / to water

Use each word in the line as an end word in your poem. Keep the end words in order. Your poem will be either 11 or 13 lines long, depending on which line option you use—line 1 or 2. Your poem does not have to echo or be like Niedecker’s poem.

The Living Lake

I walked the narrow woodland path and
unexpectedly came upon the
living, vibrant, wild place
a crystal-clear lake that was
gently rippling, its quiet and serene water
sparkling blue in the sun and teeming with fish
raucous bird calls echo from the resident fowl
during years with heavy rains, this lake may flood
mostly it is beloved as a smooth, calm body of water
kayakers paddle near the edge to see each blooming water lily
while maneuvering their boats away from sticky shore mud

—Kristi Jones, Madison

Nostalgia

Everybody’s guilty of something, and
everybody’s lost something: the
car keys, a baby, a house or other place
they really cared about, or that was
important for another reason—water
view, vacations, boat access, fly-fishing
privileges—or, through fair means or foul,
something they felt they deserved. A flood
of regrets rises like a tide of black water,
but when it recedes the nenuphar-lilies
emerge once again from the mud.

—F.J. Bergmann, Madison

Golden Cords

Old age loneliness resonates with my
early teenage years when the mother
I dearly loved became a lost and
distant memory until a soft beam of light I
saw highlighting a photo of the day I was born
offering comfort faith and hope in
a time of need so like swale,
as I attempt to hear, see and
feel myself gradually lifted from a swamp
of downpouring visions, and
then there appeared a friend sworn
by caring, loving friendship to
safely carry me through life’s tumultuous water.

—Susan Anderson, Baraboo

Family Vacation

We visited Gramps’ cabin every summer, and
The kids slept in an old tent outside while the
Grownups slept inside on bunks. The place,
Tucked into the woods near a little stream, was
Great for fishing with Dad and Gramps. Clear water
Flowed over the rocky bottom, and a few sleek fish
Often found our poles. Grandma’s Fish-and-Fowl
Feast followed. One rainy summer day a small flood
Washed out our tents so we slept inside until the water
Subsided. The next morning we discovered a water lily
Stranded on the bank, its bloom held high above the mud.

—K.J. Forest, Madison

She is Lily Blooming

She said yes and
suddenly, the
weight lifted. A place
in her heart long empty was
filled. She is rain water
rushing, she is fish
scales shimmering, she is fowl
feathers preening, she is flood,
she is cascade, she is water
falling in a canyon, she is lily
blooming where once was mud.

—Stephanie Ramer, Madison

Floods

Like a trickle becomes a deluge, and
having found exactly the
fissure as the vulnerable place
to break the dam, in the stadium it was
exits where the crowd flows like water,
but only fans no fish,
after a loss displaying a mood most foul,
flushing streets clean of cars with a flood
of people, while water
does not always clean, leaves no white lily,
at times only mud.

—J. Denny Weaver, Madison

Submit Your Poems

Apologies ahead of time if the prompt for the Spring 2026 Museletter seems like a bit of a treasure hunt. Your task is to write a poem about a pome. What’s a pome? Botanically, it’s a group of fruits that share certain characteristics that we need not get into here. The most common example is an apple. Other pomes include pears, quinces, citrus, pomegranates and more. One place to go for inspiration is the USDA Pomological Watercolors webpage. If the link doesn’t work, you can search for it. But, use whatever resources you want (or just your memory). Your poem can be ekphrastic, a memory, a description of the taste or whatever direction you want to take it. Please, 20 lines maximum!

Deadline: Sunday, April 19, 2026

When submitting, include your city of residence. Email to Steve Tomasko, Museletter Poetry Editor, with the subject line “Museletter poem submission.”