Poetry Commons^™

Pain Is A Gift, Hannah Fritsch

Student Scholar Symposium

Hannah Fritsch’s poetry collection, “Pain is a Gift,” explores what it means to live every day with pain. The poems look at many aspects of suffering, from the invisible psychological burden and despair it can bring to acceptance and hope. Using word pictures and metaphors, Fritsch’s work invites readers to look through her eyes and see how pain can draw people together and birth new dreams.

Presenting, Camille Floyd

Student Scholar Symposium

In Camille Floyd’s collection, “Presenting,” the lyric speaker describes her internalized gaze, obsession with connection and understanding, and modes of presenting to others. Floyd’s work examines the feminine experience in different moments and spaces. The collection features the speaker wrestling with how she relies on and trusts in memory, religion, and the normalized rules around movement and being.

Sky, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

A peer-reviewed ethnographic poem, it is a reflection on the travel of the soul across time and in and out of bodies, a theory that is well regarded in the corpus of Hindu philosophy. Formally, the poem is an attempt to excavate the skeleton of the Indian poet/scholar/translator A K Ramanujan's poem Chicago Zen.

Commonthought (2025), Commonthought Staff

Commonthought

This issue features works created by Lesley University students and covers a broad range of topics. The work itself crosses many disciplines from creative writing to visual arts.

Midlife, Michael Sevcik

Poetry MFA Theses

Abstract

Midlife by Michael James Sevcik is a collection of poetry that explores issues of age, gender, sexuality, identity, desire, family, and loss within a predominantly domestic space while addressing broader social, cultural, and philosophical issues using a phenomenological poetics grounded in everyday experience. The collection is organized into three distinct yet interrelated “movements:” the first movement, “Anchored,” establishes an existential yearning amidst professional and amorous stasis and familial pressures. The second movement, “Liminal,” explores temporality and its relationship to place and memory. The third movement, “Renewal,” incorporates travel, family history, and art, transforming them into critical modes of aesthetic …

Autastic!, Torri Blue

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Artist Statement (creative writing, poetry):

"Autastic!" is a poem about the beauty and tenderness of autistic experience. It's also about autistic relationality--our connection with one another in the neurodivergent community, as well as with the more-than-human world. It's a snapshot of autistic culture and communication as lived by one autistic poet, an invitation into an "autistic we."

Where The Shadows Mark Me, Jan A. Wozniak

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

Midday Rehearsals—Philosopher’S Walk, Early Term, Jan A. Wozniak

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

Parking Lot Lights, Rachel Furey

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

Neurodivergent Kintsugi, Jenée Stanfield

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Jenée Stanfield is a late-realized, neuroqueer woman living in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and her dog. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and is currently working towards a MS in Restorative Practices at the International Institute for Restorative Practices.

She has presented professional development workshops and conference sessions on topics related to neurodivergent community and neurodivergent-affirming restorative practices in higher education. She co-founded a neurodivergent staff and faculty community at the college where she works as an advisor.

Retreat From Severodonetsk, Stan Galloway

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

On Ghosts, Sam Hamilton

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

Yellow Pajamas, Stan Galloway

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

Return Of The Sapiens, Kiya Whitaker

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

Dementia Unearthed, Kathy Fuller Guisewite

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

The Teammate, Not The Player, Mackenzie Buckley

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

Where Our Roots Remain, Sydney Collins

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

Weeping Willow’S Rose, Emelyn Buttercup Koene

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

What The Window Would Have Said, Emelyn Buttercup Koene

Philomathean

No abstract provided.

Too Much Edgar Allan Poe, Stephanie S. Gardner

Philomathean

No abstract provided.