Poetry Commons^™

Shadows Dance In My Head, Cresantia F. Koya Vaka'uta

Pacific Studies

This emotionally charged poem captures the fragmentation of memory, longing, and betrayal through rich sensory imagery and stream-of-consciousness form. The speaker grapples with a haunting relationship marked by absence, desire, and spiritual dissonance. Religious symbols like rosaries and puja sit beside visceral images of movement, scent, and violence, evoking a clash between sacred ritual and raw human emotion. A mysterious woman—sensual, spectral, unattainable—symbolizes the speaker’s loss and powerlessness. The poem loops, returning to “shadows” and “silence,” suggesting the persistent echo of emotional trauma and unresolved yearning.

Mauri, Alice Te Punga Somerville

Pacific Studies

This evocative poem is a quiet meditation on memory, mourning, and the enduring presence of a loved one. The white wreath becomes a sacred object—part keepsake, part spirit vessel—tied to a deeply personal moment of loss. As the speaker reflects on the wreath’s gentle movement, what might be dismissed as mere wind becomes, for them, a sign of something more: a whisper from beyond, a connection that lingers even in silence.

Sarong/‘Ie Lavalava, Caroline Sinavaiana

Pacific Studies

These paired poems—one traditional and one contemporary—celebrate love, desire, and cultural identity through the evocative imagery of clothing and voyage. The first, a traditional Samoan poem, uses the lavalava (sarong), siapo (tapa cloth), and the metaphor of anchoring a canoe to express admiration, intimacy, and the quiet finality of choosing a beloved. The second, more modern, mirrors this sentiment with lyrical imagery: a sarong as a flowing connection between nature, memory, and union. Together, they link personal affection with cultural heritage, honoring both bodily adornment and emotional anchorage.

Village Princess, Tusiata Avia

Pacific Studies

This poem reflects on the tension between traditional cultural roles and personal freedom, using the figure of a taupou—an honored ceremonial title in Samoan culture—as a lens. The speaker contrasts their sister’s symbolic beauty and status with her eventual rejection of expectations, choosing instead a life of independence and reinvention in America. The shift from reverence to silence around titles suggests a broader commentary on changing values and the cost of self-determination.

It Began With A Question, Konai Helu Thaman

Pacific Studies

This poem reflects a quiet, profound moment of surrender and trust. Rooted in timelessness and uncertainty, the speaker is called into action not by clarity, but by faith. Despite feeling disconnected from place and time, they answer a rare question with a brave "yes," grounding themselves in something enduring—a rock that "noticed" them. It’s a meditation on belonging, voice, and hope whispered into a weary world.

The Night Woman, Sia Figiel

Pacific Studies

This evocative poem honors the resilience, knowledge, and sacred power of the “Night Woman”—a symbolic figure who endures judgment and violence from the dominant “Day People.” Though wounded, she hides her pain behind silence and laughter, carrying ancient wisdom of the natural and cosmic world. In a transformative act at the ocean’s edge, she sheds societal expectations (“Day Skin”) to embrace her true self, birthing new generations whose identities are written in the stars. It’s a lyrical celebration of hidden strength, ancestral legacy, and feminine sovereignty.

Diagnosis, Caroline Sinavaiana

Pacific Studies

This poem captures a moment of tense uncertainty, likely surrounding a medical diagnosis revealed by ultrasound. The natural imagery—sea of shadows, swaying grass, warring rain and wind—mirrors the speaker’s emotional turbulence. Faced with a 50/50 prognosis, they turn inward, preparing for struggle or protection by invoking ancestral strength, symbolized by “ancient arrows” and a tightened bowstring. It’s a poetic meditation on fear, resilience, and readiness in the face of potential loss.

Waimanalo Litany, Caroline Sinavaiana

Pacific Studies

This elegiac poem, “Waimanalo Litany,” written in memory of Mahealani Dudoit, is a lyrical meditation on loss, healing, and the sacred presence of place. With vivid imagery of ocean, land, and ancestral spirits, the poet weaves a prayerful plea for mercy and peace across beloved Pacific landscapes. The repeated invocations to the spirits of moana, Koʻolau, Makapuʻu, and Waimānalo evoke a sense of cultural rootedness and spiritual continuity, even amid physical pain and environmental disruption. It is both a personal tribute and a collective chant of remembrance.

My Pigeon, From The Samoan, Caroline Sinavaiana

Pacific Studies

This poem is a lyrical elegy expressing love, longing, and loss through the metaphor of a pigeon in flight. Rooted in Samoan tradition, it evokes a deep emotional landscape where nature mirrors the ache of separation. The forest becomes both a literal and symbolic space of mystery and mourning, as the speaker watches and waits in vain for a beloved who has disappeared. Through its gentle cadence and sensory imagery, the poem captures the enduring ache of absence and the hope—however faint—that love might return on silent wings.

Not Exotic, Lisa Kahaleole Hall

Pacific Studies

This sensual poem explores desire and self-discovery through the metaphor of mangoes—ripe, tart, messy, and irresistible. The speaker recalls the intense flavors and sensations of mango eating, paralleling them with a complex, bold woman who resists sweetness in favor of spice. It captures the tension between sharp edges and tender longing in a relationship that ripens slowly, but promises depth and heat in time.

Niudity (I-Iv), Teresia Teaiwa

Pacific Studies

The "Niudity" poem sequence by Teresia Teaiwa explores the layered metaphor of the coconut (niu) to reflect on identity, vulnerability, and postcolonial femininity in Oceania. The poems interweave bodily imagery with cultural symbolism—where the coconut’s husk, shell, and flesh represent stages of exposure, resilience, and inner worth. In playful yet poignant verse, Teaiwa deconstructs the idea of nudity into niudity—a state shaped not just by nakedness, but by misrecognition, resistance, and cultural disguise. Her fictional dictionary entries parody colonial linguistic authority while empowering indigenous reinterpretation. The final poem subverts expectations with sharp commentary on exploitation, voice, and …

Woven Worlds, Konai Helu Thaman

Pacific Studies

This poem beautifully portrays the act of weaving—both literal and metaphorical—as a shared practice of memory, creativity, and cultural continuity. The speaker reflects on how hands, once weaving traditional materials like voivoi (pandanus), now craft art through movement and color. Together, the weavers form a collective bond, connecting generations and geographies in a creative act that honors ancestral legacy and reimagines the world through shared expression.

2nd Stanza, "Samoa," From Meet You In Hawaiki, Rosanna Raymond

Pacific Studies

An image of a woman with a poem.

The Feast Of First Mourning, Sumeia Williams

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

No abstract provided.

Faire Taire Les Silences Du Corps Noir, Cilas Kemedjio

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

From the middle passage to modern day red light districts, from human zoos to the “compassionate” forum of the TV screen, the display of the black body has long formed the narrative thread of a monologue uttered by a West pleased with the sound of its own voice. The staging of the black body can be said to have rendered black voices silent, and this study sets out to break this silence.

Eyes To The Street, Myron Macauley

The Griot

No abstract provided.

Urban Survival, Shaun Waters

The Griot

No abstract provided.

In The Black Forest, Shaun Waters

The Griot

No abstract provided.

I'M Comin' Daddy, Bryon Williams

The Griot

No abstract provided.

Directions, Shaun Waters

The Griot

No abstract provided.

Unseen Power, Bryon Williams

The Griot

This poem acknowledges an unseen presence that intervenes and protects the narrator from life's tribulations.

Chronic Love, Shaun Waters

The Griot

No abstract provided.

Larynx, Judithe Andre

The Griot

No abstract provided.

Words To Live By..."For Isaiah", Shaun Waters

The Griot

No abstract provided.

Lost Souls, Bryon Williams

The Griot

Poem about the effects of drug addiction.

Journal Of Pedagogy, Pluralism And Practice, Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 1997 (Full Issue), Journal Staff

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/2 Xposure - Summer 1996, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

1996 Xposure yearbook.

• Thomas, Kim. Banshee: The Grandmother of All Parties
• Quarles, Mitchell. Talk About a Revolution – Recycle Revolution
• Guenther, Kelly. Dancing for Money: One Student’s Story of Stripping, Spending & Surviving
• Hall, Jason. Home Away from Home: Student Helps International Refugees Adjust – Dat Ly
• Witty, Patrick. Rappel
• Wade, Molly. War & Peace: Western’s Gay Community Faces Alienation, Alliances
• Hutchins, Chris. Doing It Her Way – Anna Wilson, Artists
• Root, Tonya. Serving Time – Ed Bohlander, Prisons
• Noel, Anthony. Facing Their Futures – Todd McCutcheon, Claire Davies, Charles Cecil, Carla Gantz, Paul DeHaven
• 24 Hours of Life at …

Ua12/2/2 Xposure - Spring 1996, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

1996 Xposure yearbook.

• Davis, Amanda. College Bands
• Witty, Patrick. Keeping His Composure: Award-Winning Conductor Visits – Karel Husa
• Noel, Anthony. Eyes in the Dark – Tara Higdon, Stalking
• Gamblin, Joe. The Thursday Night Ritual – Entertainment
• Portrait Gallery – Neal Thomas, Tamico Johnson, Elin Ramberg, Larry Danielson, John Hildreth
• Shain, Kimberly. Graves of Earthly Delights: Western Students Dig for Bones of Confederate Soldiers – Archaeology, Sons of Confederate Veterans
• Wade, Molly. College Habitats – Dormitories, Apartments
• Hieb, Dan. The Underground Club – Green River Grotto, Spelunking, Caves
• 35^th Annual Student Art Competition
• Gamblin, Joe. WWF . . . Or …

Ua12/2/2 Xposure - Prejudice: Beyond Black & White, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

1995 Xposure yearbook.

• Parel-Sewell, Amethel. A New Beginning
• Contributors
• Xposure Staff
• Thomas, Kim. Dream Weaving
• Gunnoe, James. On a Roll – Cycling, Skateboarding
• Hinkebein, Dana. No Boys Allowed – New Rock 92, Jessica Bouldin
• Burnham, Maria. Sticks & Stones . . . Words Do Hurt – Racism
• Ritchie, Christa. Breaking the Rules? - Gays, Lesbians, Racism
• Thomas, Kim. Prejudice: It’s Not Just a Black & White Issue
• Ritchie, Christa. A Voice of Diversity – Johnston Njoku
• Hinkebein, Dana. Culture Shock: Students Abroad – Study Away
• Davis, Amanda. One of the Presidents’ Men – Robert Baum
• Davis, Amanda. The Back House …

Ua12/2/2 Xposure - Fall 1995, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

1995 Xposure yearbook.

• Contributors
• Meese, Ray. Ethnic Harmony – International Festival
• Frazier, Stephan. The Unspoken Me – Scott Foster, Musicians
• Thomas, Kim. From the Front Page to Fruit Loops – College Heights Herald
• Shain, Kimberly. Politics? Who Cares!
• Hutchins, Chris. Live, Learn & Intern – Chris Daniel, Lisa Vaught
• Hutchins, Chris. The Power of Prayer – Eastside Church of Christ, Newman Center
• Meese, Ray. Cutting Up on Campus
• Gamblin, Joe. Comic Craze – Comic Books
• From the World of Art – Paintings
• Noel, Anthony. Achieving Greatness – Theatre & Dance
• Noel, Anthony. Precious Moments with the Duke – Duke Orsino, …