Named for a bold pink pigment that fades over time, Leslie Schultz’s vibrant collection Geranium Lake is an ekphrastic extravaganza as well as a meditation on age, time, and beauty. Schultz’s refreshing curiosity is evident as she engages with individual works of art and with larger issues of looking, curation, and display. Schultz’s eye for quirky details and her ear for playful sounds reminds me of that other great ekphrastic poet, Marianne Moore. “I know the struggle to make one / thing true,” reminding us that making art—and making a life—is a long process with endless twists and turns: “for each new page, dozens crumpled and torn.” For Schultz, the process is the point. Geranium Lake teaches us what it means to live a life devoted to apprehending, and making, beauty. This is one collection that won’t lose its luster no matter how much time passes.

 —Melissa Range, author of Horse and Rider and Scriptorium

 

Art is where I find meaning, enjoyment, and a sense of accomplishment. Art expresses the depths and insights of life. I work primarily as a poet and photographer but also as a writer of fiction and essay.

—Leslie Schultz
https://winonamedia.net/

Geranium Lake: Poems on Art and Art-Making by Leslie Schultz
Kelsay Books, 2024
Available now from Kelsay Books and on Amazon.com