"Sightseeing"

  

Sightseeing

 

While

Paris

romantic

may be renown––

discourse of pigeons is her sovereign sound.

 

Around this city I hear soothsayers,

stray messengers,

love letters

––oohs and

aahs.

 

by yours truly,

Charise

[Note: this layout is a double tetractys.]

 

 

 

"Bygone"

A cento is a poem built of lines by other poets, with surprising results. My effort, "Bygone," has multiple voices but one source: an anthology I've kept since high school, New Voices in American Poetry. Poets include Alice Walker (who I studied with one summer at Sarah Lawrence College), Thomas Lux (professor at SLC who I did not study with, sadly), Louise Glück, Charles Simic, and others. See how a new poem is born from these greats: 

https://theamericanscholar.org/come-live-with-me-and-be-my-love-2/

P.S. I'm thrilled to be given the title "NLP all-star" by the master of poetry prompts, David Lehman. 

Cheers,

Charise

 

Serious Fun: Poets of "Next Line, Please"

This book doesn't belong to me but it's a brainchild of mine. Serious Fun brings together nineteen poets whose common bond is David Lehman's poetry column "Next Line, Please" of The American Scholar. We played with writing prompts weekly, became poetry kin virtually. When the column closed, I thought a book of our poetry was a good idea. Idea to fruition is a long and bumpy road, but when people get on board the way this band of dogged and distinguished writers do, we ride it out. Now this opus belongs to... you (cover art by one of our poets, LaWanda Walters):

https://www.zeitgeist-press.com/index.php/product/serious-fun-pre-order/

"These poets are marvelous souls who know that poetic journeys lead to fabulous places, and that the road of poesy is, in the end, infinite."  ~Andrei Codrescu 

 

Cheers,

Charise

April Showers for Langston Hughes

My 2026 choice for poetry month: 

An April Rain Song 

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head

with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

with its pitty-pat.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep tune

on our roof at night,

and I love the rain.

by Langston Hughes

"Open-Ended"

Ah, timing. And, rhyming. When a new prompt for a sonnet showed up at The American Scholar, I was ready. The theme? Resolutions or Regrets. It warms my heart that an experience of personal loss settled into a poem that David Lehman saw fit to share in his column "Next Line, Please."  Praise the art form (three quatrains and a couplet, abab/cdcd/efef/gg)! Your call on whether my poem rhymes... 

https://theamericanscholar.org/a-photographer-in-words/

Warm wishes,
Charise

"Where is Your Flower?"

Rely on Rumi, 13th century Persian poet, for our times: 

 

Man, man, man,

what kind of lightning are you, setting farms on fire? 

What kind of cloud are you, raining down stones?

 

What kind of hunter?

Caught in your own trap—

a thief stealing from your own house.

You’re sixty years old, you’re seventy years old, 

and you’re still uncooked?

Still won’t let Love’s flames near, 

won’t let them burn you up?

Enthralled by stuff and status, 

the crown, the turban, the king’s beard—

thorns pricking your hands,

but where is your flower?

 

Gazing in the mirror, 

you tilt your hat like a crescent moon—

but where is your light?

Poem translated by Haleh Liza Gafori and kindly shared by Pádraig Ó Tuama. 

A Portable Identity... Anew

This may not be a book of poetry, but it is the first book in my repertoire, newly revised with the addition of a third co-author. If you are an accompanying spouse (or you know someone who is), this is the handbook to have. And, this time around, while redoing some writing, a new poem was born. That poem, "121 Heatherdown Lane," is included in Inheritance of Flowers. Endeavors do cross-pollinate! 

A Portable Identity, released January 5 this year, is ready for you. For a few months, some bonuses are offered from our lead page (a-portable-identity lead page). Soon, soon, one of these bonuses will be a reading of the poem that gives voice to leaving my home country. 

Warm wishes,

Charise

Wintering

 

two deer rest on ice

fur warming frigid site/sight

what fresh peace is this?

~CMH 

One of the deer in my backyard

(Note: last line takes after Dorothy Parker's "what fresh hell is this?")

"Lost Painting"

 

Lost Painting

 

 

So many geese in the graveyard

roving among white rows 

of uniform headstones blurring by

on a Colorado road trip...

 

shifting gears in Albany’s cemetery,

choice site for learning how to 

drive a stick shift with my father: 

stop, start, stall over quiet knolls...

 

we meet a painter in Zermatt, 

his easel set in a path beside plots

planted with flowers, each grave 

its own garden in a town banning cars;

 

final stroke and the painting is ours,

gifted to me at thirteen... forgive 

its fumbling pass from place to place; 

the art of traveling is what holds fast.

 

 

~Charise M. Hoge

 

 

Para mi papá, March 1929-January 2026

 

"Leda"

 

Leda

 

 

Is it consensual,

swan swooning

over the lady...

rushing her body 

as she bathes?

He, a god, uses

trickery three times.

Once, to don the swan,

then to take her down,

last, to drop the act.

All those feathers

she’ll feel forever.

 

~CMH 

My poem "Leda" was chosen for the latest "Next Line, Please" post. What a delight to see the opening lines as David Lehman's title!  Check out what else he has to say at: 

https://theamericanscholar.org/is-it-consensual-swan-swooning-over-the-lady/

Toot Your Horn

In the spirit of celebration, and with my friend's suggestion to "toot your horn," let me share some exciting news. I'm a Pushcart Prize nominee. It feels odd to say so, a bit bewildering, and I'm honored. Thanks to the team at Kelsay Books for selecting "Almost" as one of your six nominations. 

Cheers,
Charise

Sometimes a Haiku

 

cloud fell in our pond

leaf upon leaf surrenders

autumn has no qualms

~CMH

Encore

 Can there be too much of a good, poetic, thing? 

The Capitol Hill Poetry Group will be reading from our new collected work, The Other Side of the Hill, at the Hill Center (yes, all these hills converge) on November 2. The Hill Center is located at the former site of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where, ironically, my husband worked until it closed. We offer different medicine... through poems. 

"Readings and Refreshments" November 2, 5:00-7:00 pm, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE Washington, DC

The arts in DC are alive and well and getting work done! 

Cheers,
Charise

On the Spot

The marvelous and greatly entertaining Grace Cavalieri emceed our event (look her up!), and put each poet on the spot with her personalized questions. 

Grace: " How does being a dancer help you write poetry? "

Charise: " Ah, that could be a book. There's the movement of the poem, how the poem moves... how it takes shape, and even how it's spaced on the page. 

There's also something ineffable about both of these arts, and that's where they meet." 

Celebrating Fifty years of the Capitol Hill Poetry Group

Feels like you were there, right?

Cheers,
Charise

Capitol Hill Poetry Group 50th Anniversary

There are other things going on in Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, besides politics. This is the home of the Capitol Hill Poetry Group, since 1975. Fifty years strong! I was invited to be a member in 2017, and this group is instrumental to my craft of poetry. Come listen to us read from our newly published anthology The Other Side of the Hill at DC's iconic Politics and Prose bookstore on October 12. Enjoy a good dose of poetic artistry live and in-person. 

Here's what you need to know: 

https://politics-prose.com/capitol-hill-poetry-101225

Cheers,
Charise

No Place Like...

No Place Like Decorum

 

I’d like to live in a magazine

for a spell… to laze beneath high ceilings,  

            sink into overstuffed cushions, 

 

 

admire a variety of whatnots. 

Footstool here, taper candle there. 

Chair wearing its throw like a pashmina. 

 

Colors that contrast, disparate art.

All is in accord.

Behind the décor is a good eye…

 

beholder who makes a place 

inviting, sets the moon cactus in a chipped

cup, believes that earthenware has character. 

 

 

 

 

 ~CMH

 

Not the Usual Bent

When David Lehman offers a poetry prompt for his column "Next Line, Please" of The American Scholar, try your hand! Of course, the latest column is titled "Dead Man's Hand," but have no fear, this is all in fun... serious fun (more on that descriptor another time). Seriously, I would not have written my poem "Theatrics" in response to a Botticelli painting without prompting. I doubt my poem would have gone in the direction it did without this writing community and its esprit de corps. Here's a link to the most recent column, where you'll find "Theatrics" and other wonderful poems generated by "Next Line, Please": 

https://theamericanscholar.org/dead-mans-hand/

Cheers,
Charise

In the Tent

"Art on Cullers Run" 2025 is right around the corner! 

I will be in the poetry tent July 4th & 5th to greet you, meet you, create a new community poem, and share my work. The locale is lovely, the artists are talented, the mood is festive. Art uplifts. 

Cheers,

Charise

"the little things, mon amour"

the little things, mon amour 

It’s an inside joke how you say “armoire” 

for “chaise”—

how you speak for the arm of a seat 

like anatomy well-illustrated 

in medical books you fetch

from foreign antique shops, 

a habit that’s getting costly, 

maybe out of hand, 

but we own the armoire 

as well as the chaise—

which is often an auto 

corrected form of my name.

~CMH

This poem is in response to a prompt concerning mistakes and typos from "Next Line, Please" of The American Scholar. 

Poetry and Sound

Upcoming Event! 

The Journey Space: A Healing Arts Center

I'll be celebrating the book launch of Inheritance of Flowers at The Journey Space in Glen Echo, Maryland. This is a beautiful venue that often hosts yoga and healing practices. My friend Jeneen, founder of Soul Voyage Studio, will join me in a call and response of poetry meets sound healing. Enter a space of deep listening...

Here are the details: 

July 12,  2:00-3:00 pm Poetry Reading & Sound Healing; 3:00-3:30 Book Signing 

6110 Oberlin Ave.
Glen Echo, MD 20812

This event is free, but please rsvp as space is limited. 

Register here: https://www.soulvoyagestudio.com/events/poetry-sound

Look forward to your company, if you can make it! 

Cheers,

Charise