Why You Should Collect Marcia LeBeau

Our fourth NFT offering is, “A Misplaced Tropical Pond Leads to a Feminist Daydream,” a poem by Marcia LeBeau. The poem was inspired by a colonial-era homestead near a lake in New Jersey, the state where Atticus Review was born. That’s just one of the reasons we’re adding this poem to our NFT gallery.

The title and the content stimulate my thinking because I’m a feminist. Like most people, I no longer know exactly what the word feminist means. Second wave, third wave, no wave—some readers may feel the word is empty or meaningless at this point. I embrace it–the vague and specific thrust of it–and this poem, which it’s married to.

I also love the history here: this poem arrives in a bonnet carrying a musket. It’s erected on hard ground with materials as solid and handsome as the old Vass homestead itself.

Like much of Marcia LeBeau’s work, this poem plunges into its subject, reconsiders it, turns around with a wink, and ends with a punch.

Atticus Review is placing our digital chips here not just because of the poem, but also because of the poet. Marcia LeBeau is a hardworking, innovative writer whose first collection, A Curious Hunger, was published by Broadstone Books in 2024.

LeBeau has displayed her work as broadsides at suburban hair salons, art galleries, and community centers. She also runs a coworking space in New Jersey, The Write Space. The language on The Write Space’s website emphasizes what Marcia offers as a member of the collective literary headspace:

Yep. So have we.

But back to White Lake. It exists in the real world (in Warren County, New Jersey.) LeBeau had never seen it when she wrote the poem. She heard about it from a kayaker and dug up its history on the internet. A recent visit to the site was somewhat disappointing.

In the mind’s eye of the poet, the lake had become a warm, white tropical sea. In reality, it’s more of a weedy, brown pond (and cold). This is the power of a poem to puncture reality. Through that pinhole, the magic.

Please enjoy this wonderful poem by Marcia LeBeau. You can collect it as an NFT. You can learn more about how to do that with the tutorials on our website.

Boo Trundle
Editor