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Underscore
Underscore is one poet’s attempt to explore the currents that swirl underneath the surface of everyday life. When do our voices breathe in unison, when do they diverge into counterpoint?
How do the events of our lives chorus into through-composed pieces without reprise or return to familiar themes? When do we finally sing along with the unmistakable music of the spheres? In her first full-length collection, Roberta Schultz begins by looking “in instead of up” at the cadences we underline and define as our own.
How do the events of our lives chorus into through-composed pieces without reprise or return to familiar themes? When do we finally sing along with the unmistakable music of the spheres? In her first full-length collection, Roberta Schultz begins by looking “in instead of up” at the cadences we underline and define as our own.
102 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 1, 2022
Roberta Schultz is known by many as a poet. She has published several chapbooks and appears in a wide variety of anthologies and periodicals. Schultz, however, is a multipotentialite. She is a member of Raison D’Etra, a folk trio. She is a teacher, singer, songwriter, guitar player, drum circle therapist and a very impressive nature photographer. She is also a dear friend.
Her latest chapbook Underscore has four parts, many musically related. I am the proud owner of an autographed copy. Topics include prayer, counting coup, a Native American powwow, the food chain, haircuts, wild dreams, the pandemic, ambiguity, 4H, nostalgia, teaching, newspapers, and astrophysics with a touch of dark matter,
She employs a variety of forms including a lullaby, a fairy tale, some chants, some poems that aren’t haiku but employ the haiku spirit, and an acrostic that spells “unprecedented.” Most interesting to me was a pantoum. It is a Malay form, a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. She uses a variety of patterns and tempos, Her inspiration ranges from Basho to e.e. cummings.
If you want to get out of a reading (or non-reading) rut, branch out. Go for a bit of variety. An excellent place to start is poetry. An excellent poet to begin with is Roberta Schultz.
Her latest chapbook Underscore has four parts, many musically related. I am the proud owner of an autographed copy. Topics include prayer, counting coup, a Native American powwow, the food chain, haircuts, wild dreams, the pandemic, ambiguity, 4H, nostalgia, teaching, newspapers, and astrophysics with a touch of dark matter,
She employs a variety of forms including a lullaby, a fairy tale, some chants, some poems that aren’t haiku but employ the haiku spirit, and an acrostic that spells “unprecedented.” Most interesting to me was a pantoum. It is a Malay form, a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. She uses a variety of patterns and tempos, Her inspiration ranges from Basho to e.e. cummings.
If you want to get out of a reading (or non-reading) rut, branch out. Go for a bit of variety. An excellent place to start is poetry. An excellent poet to begin with is Roberta Schultz.
May 18, 2023
Roberta Schultz’s “Underscore” is an engaging literary and musical journey. The author sings her way through a pandemic accompanied by a symphony of sacred sounds from the natural world. In a voice clear and strong, she sings to the reader of climbing clematis, spring violets, elk and pine drum beats, frogs in pools and “soft rain….sliding down windows like notes on air.” These and other delights contained in this lovely poetic album leave our hearts, as she writes in one poem, “to pound their startled underscore.”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews