Panoply, A Literary Zine ,"This is What a Young Man Looks Like When His Heart is Full Grown," Lois Roma-Deeley

https://panoplyzine.com/

SWWIM literary journal, "Ghost Mother" by Lois Roma-Deeley

 "Ghost Mother, " Lois Roma-Deeley, published in  SWWIM literary journal



https://www.swwim.org/single-post/2018/02/14/Ghost-Mother

CARPE NOCTEM INTERVIEW: LOIS ROMA-DEELEY

Nicole Rollender asks great questions! Check out the interview she did with me at:

CARPE NOCTEM INTERVIEW: LOIS ROMA-DEELEY

http://www.nicolerollender.com/carpenoctem/carpe-noctem-interview-lois-roma-deeley

Reader's Guide for The Short List of Certainties

 

 Book Description:

 

Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage…

The Short List of Certainties explores the many ways in which we are blind to the depths of our fears and to the heights of our noblest selves. Experimental when necessary, but classic in design, Lois Roma-Deeley has woven together a narrative structure that traces the “hero’s journey” while reaching into and beyond the social issues of our time. Roma-Deeley’s writing entices the reader to join two strong-willed and modern, yet vulnerable feminist spirits, on this venture.  The twin daughters of Hope —anger and courage— materialize and dematerialize throughout time, physical space, and social boundaries to liberate the world while destroying classic mandates. The twins struggle within themselves, argue with each other, and rage at the world as they fight against work-a-day violence, social injustices, and even Hope itself. The Short List of Certainties offers no easy answers for the brokenness found within ourselves and our world, but there’s no turning back now. The blind "what-if" awaits.

Reader’s Guide Discussion Questions

The Short List of Certainties

by Lois Roma-Deeley

Paperback: 104 pages , $14.95

Publisher: Franciscan University Press (July 9, 2017)

ISBN-10: 0996930558

ISBN-13: 978-0996930550

1)    The Short List of Certainties opens with the prologue poem, “Snow Blind,” in which the speaker is watching a glacier calve and then experiences a temporary loss of vision.

Define “blindness” in terms of fear. In  terms of faith. How are they similar? Dissimilar? Give examples of each drawn from your own life.

            How would you explain the phrase “the blind what-if?”

2)    There are two epigraphs attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo and Pascal which introduce the book:

Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.

–St. Augustine of Hippo

You must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked.

—--Pascal

a) According to St. Augustine, one of Hope’s beautiful daughters is Anger. Throughout history and in individual lives, “righteous anger” has been used as a justification for change and, in some cases, physical violence.  Find an example from current events. What are the tangible effects of this anger? In your opinion, is the use of this anger justified?

b) Do you agree or disagree that there may be other forms of violence which are not physical? Explain.

c) Within the book the twin daughters of Hope--Anger and Courage-- struggle within themselves, argue with each other, and rage at the world as they fight against work-a-day violence, social injustices, and even Hope itself. How are the emotions of anger and courage a product of hope? How and why are they at odds with each other?

d)  What are three ways in which the structure of the book is shaped by the feelings or interactions of the twin daughters?

 

e) Define the “wager” to which Pascal refers in the epigraph. What does it mean to be “embarked”? What does it mean that the gamble or bet is “not optional”?

3)         In what ways does the structure of this book follow the idea of the hero’s journey as being one of adventure and transformation? In what ways does the book depart from this notion?

4)    Time, memory and “the journey” all are key elements in this book. For example, the first lines of the poem, “Nearby Is the Country,” state: “The past moves inside me/as water from a swollen river makes its inevitable way/to the sea.” How are time and memory like moving water? Who do you believe could be the “bloody blind one” standing on the rooftop waiting to be recused? Who or what do you think could be the rescuer?

5)    The poem “Dematerializing” draw heavily on the tale of “The Ring of Gyges,” as set forth in Plato’s Republic, which explores the idea of human virtue. What would you do if you knew there would be no consequences to your actions?  Does your answer match your core beliefs about who you want to be?

7) The poems “A Banjo Strums Itself to Sleep” and “The Mirage of Saints Confess Their Unholy Thoughts” employ the editorial strike-out function (as in strike-out) as a way of creating juxtaposition among images to produce a poem that can be read and experienced at different levels. Choose one of the poems and analyze the different meanings found when reading it with and without the struck-out text. Which way feels more authentic to you and why? Do you believe this technique causes the poem to be more effective or less effective?

8)    The signature poem “Two Daughters” ends with the lines: “burn a path through this world/or move on to the next.”  In what ways can a person “burn a path” through the world?

9)    In section three, many of the speakers are presented as imperfect human beings.  In what ways do these personas serve the themes of this book?

10)  What might your friends and family say are on your  own “short list of certainties?” Explain why they would or would not be correct in their assumptions? Is there something you might add to your list that others might not know about?

THE SHORT LIST OF CERTAINTIES

The Short List of Certainties is now available!

"Got Ekphrasis? Conversations Among Art Forms"-Superstition [Review] guest blog, Lois Roma-Deeley

Thank you Superstition [Review] for inviting me to write a blog post! Check out 


"Got Ekphrasis? Conversations Among Art Forms"

http://blog.superstitionreview.asu.edu/

Narrow Chimney Reading Series, Lois Roma-Deeley's Poetry Reading

Lois Roma-Deeley, poetry reading Click 

Click on the link to view a video of my poetry reading for the Narrow Chimney Reading Series in Flagstaff, Arizona,

On Monday evenings, during Northern Arizona University's fall and spring semesters, Uptown Pubhouse, in downtown Flagstaff, presents The Narrow Chimney Reading series. The series pairs two different creative writers each week--one writer is from NAU's MFA program and one is an established writer in the Flagstaff community--and gives them a forum to share their original work. The hour reading takes place at 7 pm with networking to follow.

Lines + Stars, Lois Roma-Deeley

"Nearby Is The Country"

poem published in Lines + Stars literary journal, 
summer/fall issue, 2016

Click here to read it!

http://www.linesandstars.com/summerfall-2016/lois-roma-deely/nearby-is-the-country/

The Sensei of Venice Beach by Lois Roma Deeley, a video narrative

Check this out! A video narrative of my poem "The Sensei of Venice Beach," created and published by Helen: A Literary Magazine as part of the Friday Night Specials series.
http://www.helenpresents.com/issues/

Alyss literary journal, Lois Roma-Deeley

ALYSS Literary Journal

 

https://alysslit.com/

 

 

 

"Because I Can Pronounce Islamabad"

poem in Alyss, click here

https://alysslit.com/2016/08/01/because-i-can-pronounce-islamabad/

Pinyon Review's Commemorative Issue, Lois Roma-Deeley

Honored to have my poem "Don't Tell Me My Future" published in the Commemorative Issue of the Pinyon Review along with Marge Piercy, Kathleen Aguero, Walter Bargen, Joan Coby, Lucille Lang Day and so many other wonderful poets and writers!

Of Wedding Vows and Hope

This was the homily given by my best friend and editor, Sydney James, as she  officiated at our best friend's wedding.

It is a masterful piece of writing that articulates a message of hope in a time which so desperately needs to hear it. 

***********

Good afternoon, and welcome to this wonderful celebration of the wedding of Dave and Marianne.

I’m Sydney James, and I’ve known Marianne for thirty-one years.  She’s a sister to me in all but blood. Lois Roma-Deeley, our other sister, is the Matron of Honor, and Rory Dave’s son, is the best man. Also standing here are four girls who love Marianne as their aunt.

In all the time I’ve known Marianne, I have known her to be hopeful. Many of you here today have sat with her telling her your deepest dreams, and she has carried the flag of hope into battle for you. And for herself, she never gave up hoping to find the love of her life.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone here has to choose, every day, whether to hope, and what to hope for. And at the deepest levels, despite the anger and violence in the world, and in the face of our own doubt and sadness and fear, we all are hoping that love will win. We all want love to win.

Isn’t that why we get emotional at weddings? No matter how cynical we might be, there’s something about two people taking this step together, declaring themselves absolutely on the side of love winning, that makes us dare to do it too. All of us in this room with them, for this moment, we’re living in hope!

But whenever we hope, here’s the thing--it’s always for something outside ourselves. Because if we could give it to ourselves, we would have done it already and we wouldn’t need to hope!

So it’s only something outside, something other, something bigger than ourselves, that can fulfill our hope. And that’s what makes it so difficult. We don’t control that Other, whether it’s a company to give us a job, or a neighborhood where we want to find a home, or finding our life partner.

When we hope for something Other like that, we have to surrender to something that often we can’t even see, and gamble that it might meet our needs. And that’s why we resist hope. We like to be in control and we like to look at something and categorize it, and define what its limits should be. That makes us feel comfortable. But it also leaves our deepest needs untouched.

When Marianne and Dave entered into this relationship, they had to choose whether to let that process of surrender even begin to happen. They had to choose not to despair when things weren’t going exactly as they wanted them to.

They had to choose not to drape some illusion over one another, to remake each other in their own image and then get mad if the other person didn’t play along. Or to cover themselves with an illusion of being somebody else, somebody they thought they were supposed to be.

For real love to happen, they had to choose to truly see each other, and hear each other, and themselves, for who they really are. And when they were each seen and heard like that, they were able to become more of their real selves.

To me each of them seems now to be a more strongly defined, clearer version of the person I knew before. They began by being as authentic as they could be, and that willingness to risk being known has led to them to be more deeply, more vividly, more truly themselves.

For Dave and Marianne, and for me and for many of you, it’s the love of God that is the biggest, most important love of all. These two believe that they found each other because God wants to manifest his love for them and for the world through their relationship. And they are daring to hope that that love will nourish and bring joy not just to them, but to others they’re in relationship with and those they encounter in the world.

And that is all of us, today, who may need a witness to testify to us that hope is a brave thing, a true thing, a thing we can trust. And that love will win.

Eyedrum Periodically Lois Roma-Deeley

 Lois Roma-Deeley' s poem

"Body Traffic At the Pink Flamingo Motel"

published in 

Eyedrum Periodically 

the "Broken" Issue

July, 2016

https://eyedrumperiodically.org/

https://eyedrumperiodically.org/index.php/article/body-traffic-at-the-pink-flamingo-motel/

More poems, on line, Lois Roma-Deeley

Celebrate Poetry Month with Lois Roma-Deeley

 CELEBRATE POETRY MONTH with a reading by Lois Roma-Deeley

Listen to Lois Roma-Deeley read her poems and hear her interview.


http://ltdengagementpod.com/romadeeley.html

Limited Engagement is a monthly performance and interview series that takes place on the third Friday of each month at C-MOD Curated Modern Design at 7 pm, Friday, April 16, 2016

 

4604, 4606, 4610 N 7th Avenue,Phoenix

Friday 15 April 2016

Roma-Deeley's poems online, 2016

This has been quite an eventful month with new poetry publications to be found online!

Check out the my poems at:

Helen: A LiteraryMagazine
http://www.helenpresents.com/issues/spring-issue-2016/abduction-lois-roma-deeley/ 
 Abduction 

Abduction

Juked
http://www.juked.com/2016/03/lois-roma-deeley-bodys-prison-tattoo.asp
 Body's Prison Tattoo

 

 

Red Savina Review
http://www.redsavinareview.org/14983-2/

Praise Song for She Who Would Clean the World

 and

Among the Red Rocks of Sedona,
a Soldier’s Wife Leaves No Stone Unturned

Praise Song for She Who Would Clean the World

Among the Red Rocks of Sedona, a Soldier’s Wife Leaves No Stone Unturned
 http://www.redsavinareview.org/14983-2/

 Sonic Boom

http://media.wix.com/ugd/61020d_55bafcf4b072409c940cf2992562a9d0.pdf


Excited to have my poem a recommend read by Change Seven Magazine for National Poetry Month!

7 Reads We Recommend: National Poetry Month

 by Emily Ramser and Laurel Dowswell

https://changesevenmag.com/2016/04/21/7-reads-we-recommend-national-poetry-month-by-emily-ramser-and-laurel-dowswell/ 

Arizona Commission on the Arts

http://azarts.gov/ardg/lois-roma-deeley/

Politics and Poetry

Excited to be included in Sundress Publications' newest anthology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity

$17.00 Regular

 

"In September 2014, NPR writer and critic Juan Vidal wrote an essay whose titular question, "Where Have All the Poets Gone?" provided a platform for various musings regarding the political state of contemporary American poetics. According to Vidal, "For centuries, poets were the mouthpieces railing loudly against injustice. They gave voice to the hardships and evils facing people everywhere... What has happened?" He further suggested that poets writing today have failed to create work that carries the same "weight" as the poems written by their literary forefathers.

Should American poets still be trying to write "Howl"? Are Neruda, Kerouac, Baraka, and the rest of the Beat Generation the only viable prototypes for political literary expression in American culture? How does the influx of identities, voices, and life experiences that are now expressed in mainstream American letters potentially create and communicate new political vision(s) -- vision that may sound or appear different from Ginsberg's poetic/political tour de force, but is no less necessary, compelling, challenging, or iconoclastic? What do we even mean when we talk about the weight of a political work? How is that weight both carried and expressed by poetry today?

To address these questions, Sundress Publications' newest anthology Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity showcases the substantial amount of political writing that is being done today.

Contributors include Kenzie Allen, Jasmine An, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Ahi Baraka, Anne Barngrover, Jennifer Bartlett, Scott Bear Don't Walk, Erin Belieu, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Jennifer Jackson Berry, Callista Buchen, Cortney Larmar Charleston, Sarah A. Chavez, Chen Chen, Alicia Cole, CA Conrad, Oliver De La Paz, Emile DeWeaver, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Amber Flame, Lisa A. Flowers, Yolanda J. Franklin, Jennie Frost, Carmen Gimenez-Smith, Arielle Greenberg , M. Ayodele Heath, Sara Henning, Jeb Herrin, Elizabeth Hoover, Mark Irwin, Allison Joseph, Bhanu Kapil, Vandana Khanna, Ayisha Knight-Shaw, EJ Koh, Kristin LaTour, Kenji C. Liu, Timothy Liu, M. Mack, Shahé Mankerian, Shane McCrae, Freesia McKee, Lynn Melnick, Philip Metres, Hoa Nguyen, Jennifer Perrine, Saba Syed Razvi, Jessica Reidy, Lois Roma-Deeley, Danny A. Romero, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Danielle Sellers, Glenn Shaheen, Raena Shirali, Karen Skolfield, Christopher Soto, aka Loma, Anna B. Sutton, Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, Emma Trelles, Donna Vorreyer, Jim Warner, Ginny Wiedhardt, Hanif Willis-Abdurraquib, and Emily Jungmin Yoon!"

Redux: A Literary Journal and Lois Roma-Deeley's poem

http://www.reduxlitjournal.com/…/192-all-she-knew-she-learn…

Here is the link to Redux: A Literary Journal where you can find my poem "All She Knew She Learned at the Movies"--along with my mini-essay about the piece.

Many thanks to editor Leslie Pietrzyk!



An invitation-only literary journal of writers' favorite, previously published stories and poems, not found elsewhere on the web ~~ edited by novelist Leslie Pietrzyk ~~

Lois Roma-Deeley, Arizona Commission on the Arts Grant

 

Thrilled to announce that I have be awarded an Arizona Commission on the Arts Grant!

http://azarts.gov/news-media/

"The Ballad of Downtown Jake" Roma-Deeley & Scinto, nominees, ariZoni Award

I am thrilled to say that"The Ballad of Downtown Jake," a music drama based on my collection of poems High Notes--and for which I wrote the book and lyrics--has two nominations for the 2015 ariZoni Awards.

Nominations:
Original Script--Adult--Play or Musical (Lois Roma-Deeley)
Original Music Composition--Adult--Play or Musical (Christopher Scinto)


http://www.arizoniawards.com/

from website:

The ariZoni Theatre Awards of Excellence

About Us

The ariZoni Theatre Awards is a not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting the visibility and growth of theatre in the Valley of the Sun & Maricopa County. Each year at its annual awards ceremony, the Board bestows an outstanding contribution award and a distinguished service award to deserving individuals or organizations for their contributions to theatre. In addition, the ariZoni Scholarship Committee will award one or more scholarships to selected, qualified students.

Most importantly, after completion of an exhaustive judging process, (involving close to 100 Adjudicators) awards of excellence are presented to those individuals who have excelled in performance and production during the just-completed season.

These awards represent true celebrations of EXCELLENCE IN THEATRE.