Jennifer Lemming has poem and fiction published in, or forthcoming in Foothills Press, Tipton Poetry review, Hobo Camp Review. Daughters, Rufous Press (Sweden), Outrider Press, The Camel Saloon, and News Verse News.
She considers lyrics to be just a breath away from poetry, and in winter of 2009 won 3rd place in the Jazz Beyond Jazz blog Blues lyrical poem contest for her poem “I got the I Can’t Sleep Baby Blues”.
In 2004 “Sundown” Peter Kobal put music to her lyrics and recorded “Thunder Song” l, on his CD “The Only Star”, available from Driftwood Music., also since early 2017 included in KDAK 102.FM playlist.
In Feb 2011 she was a finalist the Lincoln Poem event in Zionsville, Indiana which was sponsored by Brick Street Poetry for her Poem,
"Lincoln's Zionsville Whistle Stop".
Her chapbook, The Clever Level was published by Celestial Panther Publishing, summer 2012.
Her chapbook, Diamonds in Asphalt is forthcoming from Dark Heart Press.
I am beginning to reflect on what emotional and cultural atmosphere which envelopes me as I write, what inspires me, yes, but also my actual physical surroundings.
I wrote my first really good poem while finishing college. I wrote it just sitting in the computer lab located in the basement of a building on campus,. After only about a ten per cent editing, and a couple years of submissions, it went on to win a first prize in a poetry festival!
While I’ve written poems and short stories at various locations using a pen or pencil and paper I’ve slowly graduated to computer composing, which is easier and still produces results, but the process is not quite the same...
I’ve sat on a park bench editing a printed copy of a poem I had been working for a long time but it didn’t quite gel. But on that park bench that overlooked a glorious view of the Missouri River in North Dakota, I knew the beat of the poem was wrong. While I was bent over with concentration and reworked the rhythm but mostly I missed a spectacular sunset that passed while I was writing. That day I was pushed hard by my muse, the rhythm laid out in my head like a map as I scribbled it down feverishly; that poem remains one of the best, beat for syllabic beat, of all my writing.
Producing a personal favorite and one of my best short stories in a 2-3 hour span while with ear buds plugged in, I listened to sad, gothic, sometimes French music in a YouTube loop. As I pounded out a story with a good beginning, middle and end, all three story acts flowing from my tapping fingers with ease (several rounds of grammar editing came later) I listened, sometimes to the voice of Edith Piaf, and sometimes to others, all softly wailing their humanity while I wrote a story about bees and vampires.
I composed lyrics to a song a lifelong country western singer recorded as I sanded, then varnished a dresser on the porch of our New Mexico house. We had moved the very southernmost edge of New Mexico a few months prior. I was processing variety of experiences overloading my system. They included an endless skyline which showered us with a glorious star shows at night, stories of I was hearing from people who had completely different experiences from anything I have ever witnessed.
I stood on that porch and wrote a lyrical poem, line by line between the sanding and polishing process. Eventually that poem landed in the hands of the singer and producer known as “Sundown” Peter Kobal who put music to my words, recorded the song on his CD The Only Star.
Now I am in Bismarck North Dakota since 2014 and this song, Thunder Song is on the playlist of the community radio station. What a trip, what more is ahead of me.
Below is a poem I wrote shortly after arriving in Bismarck. I arrived from a 1,000 mile trip from Indiana with dog and possessions in tow, to met my husband at our new dwelling.
What a life! What more to experience.
Plains Song
Avoiding gopher dugs and digs,
I rub sandalwood oil
mixed with buffalo grease
on my bare arms. Opening
my mouth to bite at the cold,
I finally see the moon
after the membrane of clouds pass
and I try to hold on
until your love reaches shore break
inside my heart,
and shatters all geography.
published Hobo Camp Review - Winter issue 2016
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