Benefactors ($50)
Lilie Allen
Mary Beth Bretzlauf
William Carey
Dan Fitzgerald
Marcia Gutierrez
James Lowell Hall
Janea D. Harris
Kathryn Haydon
M. E. Hope
Laura Krueger
Kathryn Kruger
Christopher Kuhl
William L. Lederer
G. Jordan Maclay
Karian Markos
Tom Moran
Jenene Ravesloot
Marjorie Rissman
Joseph J. Solberg
Judith SooHoo
Arthur Voellinger
Patrons ($30)
Jocelyn Ajami
Candace Armstrong
Marie Asner
Diane Lotko Baker
Mary Jo Balistreri
Camille A. Balla
Paul Buchheit
Thomas Chockley
Carole Croll
Judith Cummings
Maureen Daley
Jennifer Dotson
Daniel Fitzgerald
Lynn Fitzgerald
Karen Fullett-Christensen
Leo Gehr
John J. Gordon
Lee Gurga
Johanna Haas
Larry Hays
Colleen Hein
Edward J. Herdrich
Melissa Huff
Maggie Kennedy
Elizabeth Stanley King
Sheila Kirscher
S. Michael Kozubek
Lennart Lundh
Carol Marcus
Georgina Milsted
James O'Brien
Marcia Pradzinski
Donita Ries
Barbara Robinette
Nancy Schaefer
Irfanulla Shariff
Ruth Siburt
Terry L. Slaney
Teresa Smith
Tabitha Tripp
Maggie VanDyke
Paul B. Vanni
Jim Wilkerson
Court Williams
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 October, 2024 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 for regular membership, $30.00 for "Patron" listing, $50.00 for "Benefactor" listing, or $10.00 for student membership (ages 11-21). 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.
Is it just me, or has Mother Nature placed little reminders that summer will soon come to an end? The condensation on the car windows in the morning, patches of leaves on oak trees signaling a turn and the cool mornings dawning into less humid days. But as quickly as She plants these signs, She returns with 90-degree days!
Most of those who ordered our 7th anthology, Distilled Lives, should have them if you asked them to be mailed to you; otherwise you'll be able to pick them up at your next Chapter meeting. Watch your inbox for a William Shakespeare email about a virtual reading from our anthology.
Many, many thanks to Lennart Lundh, Marjorie Rissman and Kathy Cotton for their time and talents!
Speaking of Lennart, we wish him and his wife, Lin, safe travels and a wonderful life in Portugal! Thank goodness technology will keep us connected.
I have a bit of news from NFSPS President Joe Cavanaugh. He is focusing on raising money for Ukrainian orphanages, through "Poets for Peace". One of the fundraising ideas is an anthology. As I get more information about the project I shall let you know, and in return, if you are interested in helping with the fundraising, please let me know. Things are in the planning stage, but I love the idea of using our voices for helping others.
Another anthology opportunity is the Decatur Area Poets where several members Jim Wilkerson, Ruth Siburt and Beth Langdon gather. Here is a link for more information: https://www.decaturareapoets.com/inkwell
Don't forget our annual contest! Deadline to enter is October 31st.
Gail Goepfert and Patrice Claeys, highly respected Chicago-area poets, will be featured at the October hybrid poetry reading at Brewed Awakening sponsored by the Illinois State Poetry Society on October 27 at 12:30 p.m. Come to Brewed Awakening (19 W Quincy Street, Westmont, Illinois; just off Cass Avenue, across the street from the METRA station) or participate via Zoom. There is a $15 cover charge at Brewed Awakening, which entitles you to a beverage and snack. Zoom tickets, which cost $8.00, can be purchased here. You may participate in the open mic either way.
Gail Goepfert, associate editor at RHINO Poetry, is a Midwest poet whose work often reflects her love of image and photography. Publications include a chapbook and three books, the latest—Self-Portrait with Thorns (2021). She collaborated on a chapbook, This Hard Business of Living (2021), published by Seven Kitchens Press, and on two photoverse books, Honey from the Sun (2020) and Earth Cafeteria (2023), featuring Claeys's centos about fruits and vegetables and Goepfert's photography.
Patrice Boyer Claeys is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Earth Cafeteria, a photo-poetry collaboration with Gail Goepfert. Recent work appears in Tupelo Quarterly, NELLE, Scapegoat Review, Passion Fruit Review and North Dakota Quarterly. Nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net, she can be found at www.patriceboyerclaeys.com
Distilled Lives, Volume 7, ISPS Poetry Anthology
Distilled Lives, Volume 7 brings to print poems by 72 members of the Illinois State Poetry Society. The collection offers diverse styles, forms, subjects and viewpoints. In this 145-page collection, you will find both familiar names and new poets whose combined work brings together another unique edition of the ISPS biennial anthology. To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Fresh Ink, 2023 Anthology of Poems by Illinois Students
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) To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Distilled Lives, Volume 6, ISPS Poetry Anthology
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. To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Remember: Poems for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11
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. To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
The First Six Months - Poems During a Pandemic
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. To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Distilled Lives, Volume 5, ISPS Poetry Anthology
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. To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Distilled Lives, Volume 4, ISPS Poetry Anthology
"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 To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Distilled Lives, Volume 3, ISPS Poetry Anthology
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. To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Distilled Lives, Volume 2, ISPS Poetry Anthology
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. To Sample and Order at Amazon.com
Distilled Lives, Volume 1, ISPS Poetry Anthology
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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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.