Poetry Commons^™

Mythos, Hana Holmgren

Honors Theses

Who gives a voice to the voiceless? When do we hear from those who are left behind, abused, abandoned, silenced? Mythos is an exploration of lost voices in mythology, antiquated, biblical, and personal: the women, the minorities, the marginalized. What would they say, if finally given the chance? Perhaps Helen of Troy chose to run away. Maybe Philomela was always meant to become a nightingale, and sing the world to sleep. Maybe fallen angels like making lentil soup for dinner. Maybe dead dragons are reincarnated as accountants. Maybe the stories got it all wrong.

A book of 13 poems, 6 …

The Laureate, Hannah Ryder

Honors Theses

In its eighteenth edition, the only undergraduate literary journal on Western Michigan University’s campus returns with more phenomenal student creations. The Laureate, led this year by senior Hannah Ryder, compiles fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, art, and photographs to provide a yearly snapshot of the best work from the university’s brightest individuals. Inside, the pieces explore not only what it means to be an individual, but how different surroundings and influences shape characters and experiences. The journal kicks off with a photograph staring up at a golden-leafed tree, representing both hopefulness and light. It then moves quickly and seamlessly through a …

Waxing, Waning, Waking: A Collection Of Poetry And Prose, Brook Vanbruggen

Honors Theses

Waxing, Waning, Waking: A collection of poetry and prose is a digital magazine featuring a body of creative writing pieces that were written during my undergraduate career. The written word is powerful and adaptable and can accomplish any number of difficult tasks. The pieces included here were chosen from a number of genres, including poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, to reflect and explore some of the countless ways that we use words. The title of the collection reflects the elements of space, light, and darkness that appear as motifs throughout the larger body of work, which discusses:

• Family
• Nature …

Perennial: An Undergraduate Thesis In Poetry, Austin Wines

Honors Theses

A chapbook of poetry that explores sexuality, gender identity, mental illness, naming, and the experience of the contemporary non-binary, male bodied, Queer. "Perennial" functions as a force of resistance to hegemony, celebration, mourning, and eroticism. Through the cultivation and implementation of a personal and/or familial folklore, the poems culminate a century of inter-generational knowledge as the author draws upon the symbols of their childhood to explicate the violence and tenderness of their own Queer experience. These poems serve as a poetical feminist history and reclamation of the author's matrilineage, and the simultaneously paramount and arbitrary nature of language as it …

17th Edition Of The Laureate, Jessie Fales

Honors Theses

The Laureate is an undergraduate literary journal sponsored by the Lee Honors College at Western Michigan University. As Editor in Chief of the 17^th Edition, I coordinated the journal’s publication over the course of an academic year. The editorial process follows methodical stages, which have become standard over The Laureate’s lifetime—recruiting submissions, selecting submissions, coordinating with the design center, and hosting a launch party, etc... Of course, every editor has a unique experience, but we must honor the journal’s entity as something larger than ourselves—this journal has existed long before my time, and I hope it keeps on …

Mental Illness As Portrayed Through Art, Brianna Brown

Honors Theses

I was thinking of what to do for my thesis while taking classes with Vin about Anthropological Research and I realized how flawed it all was. Anthropology was born from colonialism where scholars from the United States would go to some far-off places to study the people there in hopes that they have found an interesting enough culture to get common people like you and me to want to read a book they later publish. The only way it would sell though is if this story, emphasis on story, read like a book of fiction, so far from what we …

Each Moment A Poem, Sarah Kidd

Honors Theses

Each Moment a Poem is a collection of 10 poems spanning 20 pages. The poems were written in 2014 under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Katrovas, my poetry professor, and Ms. Kimberly Kolbe, the managing editor of New Issues Press, where I was granted an internship. When 2014 began, I adopted the philosophy that each moment has the potential to become a poem, that stories can be told concisely and vividly through poetry. The poems in this collection explain and explore important moments I have experienced while awake and asleep. The poems are lucidly written in a free verse narrative …

The Laureate, Nicole Burchette

Honors Theses

The Laureate’s mission is to provide undergraduate students at Western Michigan University a place in which to publish their works of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and other creative works. The Laureate strives to be a professional and engaging journal that appeals to all. The opportunity to serve as Editor-in-Chief for the thirteenth edition of the The Laureate has been an honor and a privilege. Along the way I have worked with a variety of team members to select and build the collection. Working close with my fellow editors, this edition of The Laureate came together as the result of much hard …

Witness For The Prosecution: Erasure Poetics, Samantha M. Schaefer

Honors Theses

My Honors Senior Thesis is centered around the art of Erasure poetics. My definition of Erasure is most concisely stated as: a process of simultaneous poetic addition and subtraction to preexisting text, which results in a product whose creation process ultimately echoes the same revision process that human beings undergo; a process by which a new and beautiful truth is both created and uncovered in a paradoxical manner. I initially endeavored to complete a simple erasure of a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie called Witnessfor the Prosecution; but was soon so inspired that I ended up creating four …

Stopping For Death: Plays, Poetry, And Prose, Sally Johnson

Honors Theses

Thesis consists of plays and poetry composed by Sally Johnson.

Spoke: A Short Collection Of Poetry, Margaret A. Von Steinen

Honors Theses

No abstract available.

A Chapbook Of Poetry And Prose, Robert Post

Honors Theses

No abstract available.