The Field Mouse’s Child

by Penelope Scambly Schott

The Field Mouse’s Child is a collection of tiny poems that describe a mouse, a 4-year-old girl, plum preserves, death, starlight, and other small but intense moments of discovery.

Early Praise

Some experts claim that small poems are more difficult to write than long ones. In The Field Mouse’s Child: 30 Very Small Poems, Penelope Scambly Schott handles that difficulty with ease. Her bite-size poems reveal her talent for balancing the humorous with the serious and the personal with the universal, mostly in poems of only two to eight lines long—or should I say short?

Although each poem can be read quickly, readers will want to return to them again and again to savor their vivid imagery as well as the insights of an astute observer of human nature. For example, the poet uses the transformation of a hummingbird into a wild turkey as a metaphor for a changing relationship. Then she addresses the theme of grief in a buttercup field that has become a battlefield.

“Witty and wise” are small descriptors of Schott’s latest collection. Readers will delight in both qualities and remain amazed by the intensity of each poem.

–– Carolyn Martin, author of Brainstorming

When it comes to Penelope Schott’s The Field Mouse’s Child, 30 Very Small Poems, small is mighty especially when the pen is in the hand of this poet. You’ll be brought to attention, have your breath stolen when reading these lyrical and impeccably crafted poems. Join Schott in contemplating the end of things and the beginning of something else “or not,” as she writes. In apprehending the unforgiveable beauty and import of the small, elegant gestures of nature, she puts our insatiable human yearnings in their proper place. We’ve come to know this poet as one who doesn’t suffer fools, as activist, mischief-maker, lover of nature. Now, evidenced in this heady mix of those hallmarks, add seer to the list.

I was so lonesome being human, before I knew that Now,
though discontinuous,
is always with us

—Ellen Waterston, Oregon Poet Laureate, author of As Far as I Can Anthem

 

About the Author

Penelope Scambly Schott lives, writes, and leads poetry workshops in the small town of Dufur (population: 640), second largest town in Wasco County, Oregon. Most recent books include On Dufur Hill and Waving Fly Swatters at Angels. Penelope is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for A Is for Anne: Mistress Hutchinson Disturbs the Commonwealth, a book-length poetic narrative. The Field Mouse’s Child is something different: most poems in this little collection run between 2 and 8 lines—much like field mice who never grow past 3 or 4 inches long, whiskers to tip of the tail.

Her other books include:
November Quilt (2nd Place, The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2018)
Sophia and Mister Walter Whitman
gOD: A Respectfully Divergent Testament

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The Ocean Calling Me Back

by Phyllis Mannan

In The Ocean Calling Me Back, poet Phyllis Mannan shares her love of the ocean and longing for the North Oregon Coast after leaving her family’s beach home of fifty years.

Early Praise

Phyllis Mannan knows the Pacific Ocean, knows its beaches, its rock formations, its dunes, its tides. She knows the ocean’s moods, its ability to soothe, its gentle voice that can suddenly change without warning from calm to cruel. To her, living on the Oregon Coast feels, in a word, like home. And then, we learn in these articulate and moving poems, Mannan has to leave it all behind. Forced by circumstance and age, she must etch out a completely different life in a city. How will she manage this, we wonder. From poem to poem, we travel with her, feel with her “the silence bearing down.” The Ocean Calling Me Back is a book of articulate and ardent love poems for a place that is more than a place. It is a stunning ode to the power of the ocean and to the nature of belonging. I know of no other book of poems that speak so vividly of such complexities.

—Andrea Hollander, author of And Now, Nowhere But Here

A casual reader of Phyllis Mannan’s intimate poems about the Oregon Coast might label them nature poems. But please don’t read them casually. These poems are a reckoning.

Powerful and poignant, they are elegies not only for a place the poet knows she must leave, but for a life she must also let go. For fifty years the ocean has been Mannan’s companion. It has been, for her, a source of solace and strength. What will life be like without it? Who will she become? With not one syllable of sentimentality, these poems both praise the sea and mourn its absence in her new city after the necessary move to be closer to family and medical care.

Readers of a certain age will recognize the dilemma of this necessity. Readers of any age will appreciate Mannan’s love for her life on the Oregon Coast and be moved by her ability to express it through these poems.

—Emily Ransdell, author of One Finch Singing

About the Author

Phyllis Mannan moved with her husband and daughter to the Portland, Oregon area in 2025 after living on the North Oregon Coast full time for 18 years. She has published a memoir, Torn Fish: A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and Their Shared Humanity, and a poetry chapbook, Bitterbrush (Finishing Line Press). She has received a Literary Arts Fellowship in poetry, and her poems have appeared in Cirque, Cloudbank, North Coast Squid, Rain Magazine, The Raven’s Perch, and elsewhere. A poem is forthcoming in the anthology Campfire Stories: The Oregon Coast (Mountaineers Books) in 2027.

Before retiring, Phyllis taught high school English and served as a substitute teacher. She advocated for children and adults with developmental disabilities for many years. In Manzanita, she volunteered in the Hoffman Center for the Arts Writing Program. She finds pleasure in reading, writing, and gardening and values her faith, nature, and the arts.

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The Gut Is an Aquarium of Odd Sea Creatures

by Susan Vespoli

The Gut Is an Aquarium of Odd Sea Creatures was written in the face of the poet’s second cancer diagnosis, 20+ years after the first one. What does it feel like? What can be learned? How can one make peace with even this? Susan Vespoli’s collection shares all this and more, with her trademark authenticity, fierceness, and wit.

Early Praise

I’m a fan of Susan Vespoli’s poetry, both for its unblinking look at whatever fresh hell life serves up, and how she confronts it with both vulnerability and a raised middle finger. In her new chapbook, The Gut is an Aquarium of Odd Sea Creatures, the latest fresh hell is the recurrence of cancer after a 23-year remission. The reader sits beside her in hospital parking lots, waiting rooms, and curtained chemo cubicles. It’s all there— the fear, the exhaustion, and the anger—but through Vespoli’s particular lens, there’s laugh-out-loud humor and sensuality, too. The poems—intimate, fierce, frank and funny—do what Vespoli suggests her mother does in “Dear Question,” say YES, this IS our life, so lean in.

 —TINA BARRY, author of I Tell Henrietta

Susan Vespoli’s unsparingly clear-eyed chapbook, The Gut is an Aquarium of Odd Sea Creatures, written in the wake of a second cancer diagnosis following a decades-long remission, should be in every oncology waiting room in the country, and read by anyone whose family has been hit with the devastating news that land[s] in [the] gut like a boot. The poems follow Vespoli through the maze of cords, beeps, [and] drips as she navigates both the invasive rigors of clinical treatment and the tender landscape of connection with a partner who becomes not only a companion through the staggering onslaught of appointments but also a place to lean into…and melt. Vespoli’s words are unflinching and precise, detailing the minute geographies of the cancer care center and her multivarious compatriots in treatment, united by blood draws, imaging tests, and the vagaries of prognosis. But a surprising and life-affirming humor crackles through the collection and flourish[es] like hope, and Vespoli delivers a hard-won message not just of resilience, but of the power of wip[ing] up all that’s lost and facing the world again to live and breathe in every thing. I found myself by equal turns astonished, humbled, moved, and transported as I read, pulling for good news of course, but perhaps more importantly, called to the persistent invitation of my own life: Breathe. Let go of fear. Lean in.

—MAYA STEIN, Poet Laureate Emerita, Belfast, Maine, author of Margin Release

Susan Vespoli’s newest collection offers gritty, generous insight into the details of living with a second cancer diagnosis—the contrast dye, inconsiderate comments, the thin cotton gowns, the clusterfuck of obstacles, the chill of the ER. Here she shares the kaleidoscope of fear, anger, grief, connection and moments of acceptance when we can breathe in every thing. I’m always grateful for the truth tellers like Susan who not only meet the moments that feel unmeetable, but then write about them with authentic ferocity. As she writes, None of us really know how it feels to be each other, but because of books such as this one, when we face our most difficult, vulnerable chapters, we know we are not alone.

—ROSEMERRY WAHTOLA TROMMER, author of The Wonderment, host of The Poetic Path

About the Author

Susan Vespoli believes in the power of writing to heal and illuminate. She lives in Phoenix with a chiweenie named after Frida Kahlo. She is the author of four poetry collections and teaches online writing classes for 27Powers.org and writers.com. Her work has been published at ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse, Rattle, Anti-Heroin Chic, Gyroscope Review, and other cool spots.

website: SusanVespoli.com

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Bento by the Sea

by Sue Fagalde Lick

Food is more than fuel for our bodies. It can be the milk that spills, the bento bowl that heals, the popovers flavored with grief, or the soup in which one sees the truth. Sue Fagalde Lick’s poems in Bento by the Sea look at food in all these ways and more.

In the title poem, two widows find comfort in a simple takeout supper they eat while watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean and contemplating how one goes on alone. In “Ripe,” a daughter caring for her aging father enjoys a ripe orange from the tree she gave him as a tiny plant on Father’s Day many years earlier. In “Charlie’s Dinner,” an elderly widower living in a nursing home takes delight in having someone cook for him.

Early Praise

The opening poems in Sue Fagalde Lick’s charming chapbook engage in a contemporary debate most readers can identify with: what constitutes a healthy diet. Although veggie burgers have replaced baloney sandwiches, the narrator wonders: given constantly shifting guidelines, what will our children’s children eat when today’s repasts are deemed unsound? (“Sacrilege”). However, Lick considers that it is not what just what we eat that’s essential to good health, but it’s having someone to share a meal with. She is a master at capturing the loneliness experienced by those who have lost a spouse when what was once a communal event transforms into an isolating one. Bento by the Sea is engaging, poignant, and nourishing. Readers will enjoy feasting on these poems again and again.

––CAROLYN MARTIN, author of Brainstorming

I wholeheartedly recommend this invitation to a meal of the heart. In these pages, Sue Fagalde Lick reminds us that in poetry, as in memory, and in life, we are in communion with each other, even when it may seem like we take our meals alone. These poems speak from a place of solitude, gratitude, and grief. They reach out with a quiet resilience, to share familiar menus, flavors, and feelings, and in doing so, Sue has set a table for us all. Sit down, enjoy.

—CHARLES CASTLE, author of Chasing Down the Storm and On the Beach of Borrowed Time

Bento by the Sea is a memoir in food poems. In grade school, poet Sue Fagalde Lick is one of the kids “sticking out our chocolate tongues.” As an adult, she buys a can of the Sloppy Joe mix her mother used to serve. Maybe just this once. For me. Eating out after her husband’s death, she can still pretend / he’s waiting for me down the road. When a woman from church asks how to be alone, she tells her, You just sleep, eat, and go on. And so she does, with wit, wisdom, and grace.

—PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT, author of On Dufur Hill

The act of eating changes at different stages of our lives. In Bento by the Sea, Sue Fagalde Lick brings home how the basic need of satisfying hunger becomes entwined in historical period, social class, religion, location, and community. In childhood, we strive to balance the joy of crafting baloney sculptures of dinosaurs with social divides played out in the school cafeteria. Over time, diets become embedded with a sense of right and wrong. A more sophisticated understanding of nutrition taints memories of Sloppy Joes. Relationships and community become more complicated. In the writing about food, Sue doesn’t shy away from anger, loss and mourning. Some meals arrive with a twist of aloneness, some come wrapped in memories of joyous holiday rituals. These poems honor those changes.

—TRINA GAYNON, author of Quince, Rose, Grace of God

In Bento by the Sea, Sue Fagalde Lick serves up life one poem at a time. Food is the starting point—baloney sandwiches, sloppy joes, holiday meals—but what lingers is everything gathered around the table: childhood, first dates, family, love, loss, laughter, and the wisdom of living. In this intimate collection, Lick treats you like a friend, inviting you to listen while she shares the stories of her life—openly, honestly, and without holding back. Food brings us to the table, but we soon realize that it’s about so much more than food: it’s about who we are, who we’re with, what we’re surviving, and what we will carry forward. Lick pulls up a chair for us all. Come hungry for poetry—and leave with an appreciation for all that’s been given.

—JENNIFER ROOD, author of Present and Speaking Everywhere, Past President, Oregon Poetry Association

Sue Lick’s new, beautiful poetry collection examines the childhood, relationships, loss, aging, and memories that make up a life. With close narratives and observations about near-misses, real misses, and confessions, you are right there with her. Equal parts funny and moving, this collection will haunt you in the best way.

—LORNA ROSE, poet and essayist at The Good Men Project

 

About the Author

Sue Fagalde Lick lives alone in the forest on the Oregon coast, which is a good thing because her writing projects, books, and musical instruments take up the whole house. She writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her recent publications include the poetry book Dining Al Fresco with My Dog, the novel Back to Ona Beach, and a memoir, No Way Out of This: Loving a Partner with Alzheimer’s. Her latest obsession is her Substack “Can I Do It Alone?” which takes an honest look at the realities of living alone by choice or by chance.

When not writing, Sue sings and plays piano, guitar, mandolin and ukulele, takes long walks in the woods, and eats like a queen.

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The Sound of Water

by Shawn Pittard

The title of this collection is drawn from Basho’s timeless poem, “Old Pond,” in which we hear a frog create the sound of water. Pittard follows that sound from his local rivers to the Alaskan wilderness. He explores wild places and the wildness that still thrives in city spaces, celebrates the beauty and resilience of our natural world, admires its great migrations, respects its tragic cruelties. These poems teem with life—bantering geese, dabbling ducks, blackberries and bees, rattlesnakes entangled in a courtship dance, thin coyotes. We humans share space with them, we endure drought and fires together, grow up and grow old in their presence.

Early Praise

The poems in Shawn Pittard’s newest collection continue on the path of the naturalist shaman, who finds the sacred in the everyday, the spiritual in the air around us—who sees “voices in the wind” and who hears the silences hidden in each moment as prayers embedded in the world around us—in the beauty, the terror, the uncertainties of tomorrow—in “a goldfield of wildflowers / under a bluebird sky.

—Susan Kelly-DeWitt, author of Frangible Operas

 In The Sound of Water, the final volume of his chapbook trilogy, Shawn Pittard is at the height of his powers: a poet-citizen of the wild, sustained by its marvels and mysteries, whether it be encountering a loose formation of geese casting its ancient shadow // on commuters’ cars / crossing the bridge or walking in wolf tracks on the floodplains of Alaska’s Tsiu River. Mapping an expansive interior/exterior landscape, Pittard’s poems offer readers a sacred communion, inviting us to take our place alongside our animal kin and bask in the quiet dazzle and warmth of his words.

—Moira Magneson, author of Eye of the Elephant

Shawn Pittard’s poems take you places. His urban rivers are conduits, reminding us that there is more going on than mundane city life— more going on beneath the frenzy of commuter traffic coursing over bridges. Step into the riffles where steelhead feast on orange roe below the salmon’s spawn. Listen to the banter of migrating geese. Conjure a father and two prodigal sons sorting fishing gear on the tailgate of a pickup truck. Let memories pull at the stones beneath your feet.

—Danyen Powell, author of Seeing Again

 

About the Author

Shawn Pittard is the author of four slender volumes of poetry: Shelter in Place from The Poetry Box; Witness, which was a Finalist in The Poetry Box 2024 chapbook contest; Standing in the River, which was the winner of Tebot Bach’s 2010 Clockwise Chapbook Competition; and These Rivers from Rattlesnake Press. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and featured at American Life in Poetry. He’s been a coach for Poetry Out Loud and a California Poet in the Schools, taught recitation and writing in middle schools and high schools, including juvenile hall (yep, they’re good kids), as well as with veterans and the men in Folsom Prison. By day, he labored in the field of environmental protection, planning, and public policy, focusing on energy.

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Loose on the Leash

by Ann Farley

6:20 AM. Two thirds of the year morning light is dim or barely there. In this early hush, a woman and her dog walk through neighborhood and park. They encounter owls and herons, marathon runners and skateboarders, fellow walkers and a beaver family. Loose on the Leash details the many rewards of walking a dog: peace to clear one’s mind, connections made and memories unearthed, surprise encounters and chance conversations, curious T-shirt messages, coyote sightings and unwavering loyalty.

Early Praise

Ann Farley’s Loose on the Leash delights the reader with early-morning observation and surprise encounters along the path she walks daily with her dog, Ella. Writing of life and death, loss and belonging, Farley inspires us to wake and open with each step we take. Sometimes I wish / there was no such thing as time / just gradations / of shadow and light, she writes in “daylight savings time,” where footsteps meet memory.

—DEBRA ELISA, author of You Can Call It Beautiful

Loose on the Leash brings us into that liminal space of first light, the people and creatures she meets while walking her German shepherd, Ella, often going out before dawn. Part prayer, part meditation, part chronicle, she infuses these musings with sometimes playful, sometimes reverent language, attentive to the ways humans and animals share space. She shows us a great blue heron jabbing at anything that moves: / wood frogs, spotted salamanders, / garter snakes striped yellow and orange. And how the swoop of a great horned owl, a vision / in white, evokes the possibility of angels. The way being in the natural world with her dog allows her to experience time and space differently (only now / again / now), and then she warmly invites us to go there with her.

—SUZY HARRIS, author of Listening in the Dark

Farley’s daily dog-walking ritual with her German Shepherd companion opens doors to unexpected encounters with nature, memories, and humans bearing gifts. These gifts of conversation and circumstance catapult readers into historical time, other cultures, and the unique milieu of a diverse American neighborhood. Woven through these lyrical walks is Ella a powerful benign creature whose life symbolizes the best in dog—a connector and healer who unites hearts even when the world seems misshapen and broken.

—SHER SCHWARTZ, author of The Beautiful One’s Ark

 

About the Author

Ann Farley, an only child of two only children, learned at an early age to entertain herself by making up stories and playing with words. Her poems have appeared in Peregrine, Timberline Review, Third Wednesday, Gobshite Quarterly, Willawaw, Verseweavers, and others. Her first chapbook, Tell Her Yes, was a finalist in The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize and published in 2022.

She loves travel, anywhere and everywhere, from local trails to the tip of South Africa, and enjoys photography, watercolor painting, a good book and a cup of tea. She lives in Beaverton, Oregon with her kind and patient husband, Kevin, and their exuberant German Shepherd, Ella.

Instagram: @farley2324

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