In this accomplished book, Mary Kay Rummel spins words into mysticism and magic. "Not to be ordinary," she was drawn into the convent where she was forbidden to read fiction because the Superior didn't like it. In "Patterns of Obedience," she writes that she was able to leave when "words whispered in that wind/telling her to go forth and read, to never ask again." Set free, she read and wrote and traveled, visiting early Irish history and myth. Throughout her book, bells chime in celebration as her words become exquisite lyric poems. -Jill Breckenridge, Poet, The Gravity of Flesh If you delight in plunging into an environment's sensual and emotional landscape; if you thrill to poetry that seduces and resonates; if you crave fresh language, intelligence, revelation and uncompromising risk, then What's Left Is The Singing-this miraculous confessional, this collection with its complexity of conflict and resolution, this sound-feast-will satisfy to the bone. Rummel's work allows us to feel how. . . light slips/through fingers into every fold of sky. -Ellen Reich, Poet, The Gynecic Papers When one reads the poems of Mary Kay Rummel, one expects a certain precision of language, a vigilant detail, a concentrated lyric whisper that elevates the ordinary life's ordinary aspirations. On these counts, What's Left Is The Singing does not disappoint. But these poems are also transformative. Here we find beauty that resists adoration, caution that armors raised fists, and belief that survives religion. Here we find metaphors for life's passion in the scapes of sand and tides and endless stars that shine through us. And if we don't find distraction from our ignorance, we do find elegant language touched with music and some blessings and a few reasons to go on. This is exactly what we ask from our poetry. -David Oliveira, Poet, A Little Travel Story; Editor, Mille Grazie Press
Reading Mary Kay Rummel's poems is more important than ever. During this pandemic, I read her poems to remember how spiritually connected we are to each other, no matter where we are on this planet. Her poems express her spiritual journey. Color, light, music, and art, are woven into these poems that read like psalms. In one poem, she writes, "Lapis lazuli, original blue mined from earth/in Afghanistan, ground to aquamarine of illuminations, /found in the teeth of a medieval female/ scribe, ground to paint the Virgin's gown in centuries of Annunciations." In another poem, we journey with her to Paris, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and again to St. Paul, Minnesota where she is from, to end the poem: "A surge of strings against the night. /Past present future one smooth stone." We can't ignore what is happening in the world. Rummel reminds us to focus on finding beauty, and transform the chaos into hymnal music. Mary Kay Rummel was the first Poet Laureate of Ventura County, CA. Nocturnes: Between Flesh and Stone is her ninth published poetry book, her seventh full collection. Blue Light Press also published Cypher Garden, The Lifeline Trembles (a winner of the 2014 Blue Light Press Award) and What's Left is the Singing. This Body She's Entered, her first book, won the Minnesota Voices Award for poetry and was published by New Rivers Press in 1989. It was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Her work has appeared in numerous regional, national and international literary journals and anthologies and has received several awards, including a Loft Mentor Award and eight Pushcart nominations. She was a co-editor of Psalms of Cinder & Silt, a collection of community poems related to recent California wildfires published by Glenna Luschei at Solo Press. Mary Kay has read her poems in many venues in the US, England and Ireland and has been a featured reader at poetry festivals including in Ojai and San Luis Obisbo, CA. She has participated in numerous poetry residencies and workshops and loves to perform poetry with musicians. Born in St. Paul, she has been on the faculties of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Duluth campuses and California State University, Channel Islands. She is a board member of the nonprofit Ventura County Poetry Project. She and her husband, Conrad, live in California and Minnesota, near children and grandchildren in both states.
Mary Kay Rummel was the first Poet Laureate of Ventura County, CA. Cypher Garden is her eighth published poetry book, her sixth full collection. The Lifeline Trembles, was co-winner of the 2014 Blue Light Press Award. This Body She's Entered, her first book, won the Minnesota Voices Award for poetry and was published by New Rivers Press in 1989. Her work has appeared in numerous regional and national literary journals and anthologies and has received several awards, including six Pushcart nominations. Mary Kay has read in many venues in the US, England and Ireland and has been a featured reader at poetry festivals including Ojai and San Luis Obisbo, CA. She loves to perform poetry with musicians. A professor emerita from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, she and her husband, Conrad, teach part time at California State University, Channel Islands. They live and play with their grandchildren in California and Minnesota. marykayrummel.com About the Cover Artist Colleen McCallion is an artist from Laguna Beach, California. This is her fourth collaboration with Mary Kay Rummel after meeting at the Vermont Studio Center. The cover oil painting titled "Resting Mother" represents the artist, the mother, tired from her duties, holding her "seedlings," her four children. The looming calla is her joy and her spirit, ever-present, even in sleep.
Winner of the 2014 Blue Light Book Award Mary Kay Rummel is honored to be the first Poet Laureate of Ventura County, CA. The Lifeline Trembles, a co-winner of the 2014 Blue Light Press Award is her seventh book of poetry. Blue Light Press published her previous book, What's Left is the Singing, in 2010. Her work has appeared in numerous regional and national literary journals and anthologies and has received many awards, including four Pushcart nominations. Mary Kay has read in many venues in the US and London, and has been a featured reader at poetry festivals including Ojai and San Luis Obisbo, CA. She often performs poetry with musicians. A professor emerita from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, she and her husband, Conrad, teach part time at California State University, Channel Islands. They live and play with their grand children in California and Minnesota. See marykayrummel.com and Poet Laureate Ventura County (on facebook).
Investigates teachers' classroom personal reading histories and how they influence the development of one becoming a resisting reader/teacher. "The premise of this book is important: that teachers' literacy experiences not only make a difference in their literacy instruction but also in their professional judgment and actions related to curriculum decisions, and their resistance to prescribed methods and materials which do not allow children's literacy to flourish. The teachers' own words in the autobiographical chapters offer powerful testimony supporting approaches to literacy that encourage and support the job of reading and writing, rather than pedantic and meaningless curriculum methods that emphasize isolated skills and drills. "There is currently a backlash against the whole language approach, which through the years has had other titles but has always emphasized the creative, responsive teaching described in meaningful, individual, integrated and joyful approaches to the teaching of reading and writing. This book could have a positive influence on the current discussions about the teaching of literacy.
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