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Benefactors ($50)
Mary Beth Bretzlauf
Dan Fitzgerald
Jospeh Glaser
John J. Gordon
Marcia Gutierrez
James Lowell Hall
Janea D. Harris
M. E. Hope
Laura Krueger
Christopher Kuhl
William L. Lederer
Karian Marcos
Tom Moran
Jenene Ravesloot
Joseph Solberg
Arthur Voellinger

Patrons ($30)
Jocelyn Ajami
Candace Armstrong
Marie Asner
Diane Lotko Baker
Mary Jo Balistreri
Camille A. Balla
Bakul Banerjee
Joseph Kuhn Carey
William Carey
Thomas Chockley
Carole Croll
Maureen Daley
Jennifer Dotson
Lynn Fitzgerald
Georgiann Foley
Michael Freveletti
Karen Fullett-Christensen
Leo Gehr
Lee Gurga
Larry Hays
Edward J. Herdrich
Melissa Huff
Sheila Kirscher
S. Michael Kozubek
Jill Langlois
Lennart Lundh
G. Jordan Maclay
Carol Marcus
Georgina Milsted
James O'Brien
Marcia Pradzinski
Donita Ries
Marjorie Rissman
Nancy Schaefer
Irfanulla Shariff
Ruth Siburt
Teresa Smith
Tabitha Tripp
Judith Tullis
Maggie VanDyke
Jim Wilkerson
Court Williams

In Memoriam
Sally Hanson Calhoun
Nancy Jean Carrigan
David Christensen
Don Cornwell
Carol Dooley
Phillip Egelston
Jonathan Foster, OFM
Michael Galati
Patricia Gangas
Chris Holaves
Glenna Holloway
Usha Mahisekar
John Mahoney
Marguerite McClelland
Martha S. Moss
Hugh Muldoon
John Pawlik
Ina Perlmuter
John Quinn
James Reiss
Kathleen Robinson
Tom Roby
Marge Samuel
Doyle Raymond Vines
Paul J. Wolf
Marvin R. Young (2017)


Illinois State Poetry Society
New ISPS Poems
New ISPS Haiga
Random ISPS Poem
from our 23-year collection
Random ISPS Haiga
from our haiga collection


Search only ISPS site
Welcome to this website for the Illinois State Poetry Society, connecting ISPS members with each other and with the general public. Here you'll find information for and about this group of serious poets. Since June of 2000 we have been posting bimonthly (monthly since 2021) editions of poetry written by ISPS members. ISPS members are invited to submit a poem each monthly submission period (according to last initial). (How and when to submit) You are invited to read the ISPS member poems and haiga posted in September, 2023 as well as previous postings. In March, 2020 (beginning of the pandemic) we published a special edition of poems on the theme of "water".

To join ISPS through June, , please fill out our Membership Form and mail it with a check for $20.00 ($30.00 for "Patron" listing, $50.00 for "Benefactor" listing). You don't have to be an Illinois resident to join ISPS, but you do need to be an ISPS member to have your poems posted in this website.


Upcoming ISPS Meetings


A Message from the ISPS President, September/October, 2023

by Mary Beth Bretzlauf, ISPS President

Mary Beth Bretzlauf

Hello Fellow Poets!

I'm writing this letter on one of our hottest days in memory. Even in this extreme heat I'm seeing and feeling the signs of autumn moving in. The cooler evenings, condensation on the windshield in the mornings and a few maples are showing their colors.

Fall is my favorite time of year and I have so many poems dedicated to the season. Not only is nature an inspiration for me, but so is art. I love being presented with a work of art and unveiling its story.

I recently ran an ekphrastic workshop in Waukegan and for the dozen or so poets, they found so many stories to tell in one work of art! Two women who proclaimed to not be poets, but were curious, wrote lovely poems. Their excitement at what they accomplished was contagious!

Earlier this year ISPS members were invited to write a piece in response to artwork created by the Downers Grove Artist Guild. In August, when the two creative groups met to share their work, I met a newer member, Christopher Kuhl. After the event, I had a chance to introduce myself. Christopher said he was so happy to be a member for opportunities like these.

It's making connections like this that reminds me despite the solitary moments in the life of a writer/poet, connecting on that same level is energizing and inspiring. For that reason, I'm even more excited to meet all of you wonderful creatives!

ISPS returns to Printers Row! This year, we are joining Poets & Patrons and East on Central Association to shake our peacock feathers as it were. If you're in the vicinity of Printers Row Lit Fest, Saturday and Sunday, September 9th, and 10th, please come by to say hello! If you have some time available to volunteer at the table on Sunday, please contact me at isps.manningham@gmail.com.

Remember, time spent with other poets is never a waste of time!

Regards,
Mary Beth Bretzlauf

Archive of Presidents' Messages

"Last Sunday" Poetry Reading, September 24, 2023

ISPS and Brewed Awakening will host another special poetry reading and open mic on Sunday, September 24, 12:30-2:00 PM Central Time. Mary Beth Bretzlauf, who was recently elected President of the Illinois State Poetry Society, and Karen Forslin-Bojnansky, who has studied poetry under Mardelle Fortier, will both appear in person. You may participate via Zoom or by going to Brewed Awakening (19 W Quincy Street, Westmont, Illinois; just off Cass Avenue, across the street from the METRA station). There is a $12 cover charge, which entitles you to a beverage and snack. The link for Zoom tickets, which can be purchased for $5, is here. You may participate in the open mic either way.

Mary Beth Bretzlauf

Mary Beth Bretzlauf lives in the northeast corner of Illinois where she is grateful for the four seasons and the many inspirational groups of poets and writers who have been so supportive. In addition to poetry, Mary Beth writes fiction. She belongs to several poetry and writing groups. She is currently a board member of East On Central Association, a member of Poets & Patrons, Zion Writers' Guild, Writers in Progress, Highland Park Poetry's Live Events Team, and the Illinois State Poetry Society where she serves as president and North Chapter facilitator.


Karen Forslin-Bojnansky

Karen Forslin-Bojnansky lives in Lisle, Illinois. She has written songs, poems, non-fiction stories and a memoir that is being copy edited. Many of her musings have been published in College of Du Page's literary journal, Prairie Light Review. She is a long time member of a writers group that was conceived in Mardelle Fortier's creative writing class at COD. Currently, she is working on her second book that chronicles her spiritual experiences while participating in Native American Ceremonies, titled Listen, God's Whispering.


Order Fresh Ink, 2023 Anthology of Prize Poems by Illinois Students
Fresh Ink - 2023 Fresh Ink 2023 is the inaugural anthology of winning poems in the Illinois State Poetry Society's student contest. From 226 submissions by students in high school and junior high school categories, 31 poems were selected for the anthology. They represent 14 schools, from Chicago in the north to Wolf Lake, 400 miles south. (Book cover by Kathy Cotton)
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Order Distilled Lives, Volume 6, ISPS Poetry Anthology
Distilled Lives, volume 6 Distilled Lives, Volume 6 offers a rich and diversified chorus of voices captured in verse. The featured poets explore a variety of terrains and tableaux, from the Ganges River in India to quaint cafes in Europe, from boisterous bistros in Chicago to the fertile farmlands of Illinois. Its language is as expansive as space and as intimate as a heartbeat. The compendium of work ranges from sonnets to haiku to free verse—a combination of forms distilling the creative essence of modern poetry.
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Order Remember: Poems for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11
remember Remember: Poems for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 offers a two-decade look back at the terrorist attack. Set in 30 poems interspersed with photos and news notes, the collection closes with a chapter of peace poems. In diverse styles and forms, 18 members of the Illinois State Poetry Society Southern Chapter bring to these pages personal reflections on the horrific event, the nation's aftermath of loss and grief, and, still, our longing for peace.
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Order The First Six Months - Poems During a Pandemic
The First Six Months The First Six Months, a pandemic snapshot of March through August 2020, features work by 22 diverse southern Illinois poets as they learned to sequester, social-distance, mask, and deal with both uniquely personal and worldwide challenges. Though the anthology's themes of COVID-19 and racial justice protests reflect this period, the in-the-moment viewpoints are as individual as the poets themselves. Photos, art, and snippets of news reports accompany the poetry, adding to a creative record of the unprecedented months of one spring, one summer.
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Order Distilled Lives, Volume 5, ISPS Poetry Anthology
Distilled Lives, volume 5 Distilled Lives, Volume 5 presents recent poems from 70+ writers new and established, all members of the Illinois State Poetry Society. The observations, memories, triumphs, laments—yes, and comic moments, too—presented by the assembled pieces reflect the diversity of the members and the breadth of interests they represent.
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Order Distilled Lives, Volume 4, ISPS Poetry Anthology
Distilled Lives, volume 4 "What I love most about this wonderful 4th edition of Distilled Lives is its clarion call to pay thoughtful attention to the world around us and within us. For indeed, as these remarkable poets make clear in these poems, all of life is worthy of such sustained attention and creative response. In these pages, readers will be treated to unfamiliar experiences made viscerally accessible. So too, readers will be moved by fresh perspectives on familiar themes. Spanning a broad range of subject matter, style, and treatment, there are poems in this collection to appeal to every reader." —Arlyn Miller, Senior Editor of Poetic License Press
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Order Distilled Lives, Volume 3, ISPS Poetry Anthology
Distilled Lives, volume 3 Distilled Lives, Volume 3, showcases the talented voices of sixty-seven Illinois State Poetry Society member poets who deal in a variety of styles about personal catastrophes and triumphs, grounded by the seasons and values of America’s heartland. Quiet pleasures along with quiet griefs are given the same dose of wit and wisdom honed by the work of those with rolled-up sleeves in overalls as well as those with daily commuter passes in briefcases. This is a collection of powerful human stories lived with uniquely Midwestern ethics.
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Order Distilled Lives, Volume 2, ISPS Poetry Anthology
Distilled Lives vol. 2 Distilled Lives, Volume 2, is a rich and diverse collection of poetry from members of the Illinois State Poetry Society. Represented in the anthology are new word-crafters alongside poets in their nineties who have been writing throughout their lives. There are first-timers as well as Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee James Reiss and the prolific Joan Colby and Jacob Erin-Cilberto, each with more than a dozen volumes to their credit. You will find formal forms, poems with stylized messages, rhymed lines, and prose-poem paragraphs.The lives distilled here offer a panoply of poetic style and individual creativity, a challenging and comforting gift of words offered by eighty-one representatives of ISPS.
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Order Distilled Lives, Volume 1, ISPS Poetry Anthology
book cover Seventy-five members of Illinois State Poetry Society have, as their 20th anniversary anthology's title promises, distilled life with its vicissitudes and revelations. Poems weave universal themes in rhyme and free verse while presenting fresh, provocative and sometimes metaphysical insights. Humor, pathos, reverie and existentialism, among other diverse tones, combine in this entertaining and insightful collection.
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