Poetry Commons^™

As Your Writing And Reading Teacher, Jean Prokott

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

AS YOUR WRITING & READING TEACHER, and as a poetry enthusiast (fangirl), I was thinking about you yesterday as I watched Amanda Gorman perform her poem at Biden's inauguration, and then I was really thinking about you, students, as I watched Anderson Cooper interview her last night. I hope so much that you heard the poem, and I would truly love for you to watch the interview: she talks about the task to write a poem, the feel of words over images, the research she did from history and culture to pull this poem together. It is a feat that …

"I Looked Here; I Looked There; Nowhere Could I See My Love." The Problem Of "Presence" In The Black Riders And Other Lines, Nat Gustafson-Sundell

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Although the poems of The Black Riders and other lines, by Stephen Crane, have often been treated as if they are simple--easy to interpret and easy to categorize--these poems actually support a multiplicity of interpretations. The multiplicity of interpretations available in the poems informs the possibility of tracing a variety of interrelationships through the poetry. While a few previous scholars have treated the poems as if they are interrelated, the interrelationship of the poetry has not been explicitly and substantially addressed as a feature of the poetry. The poems, in fact, support a combinatorial complexity only previously hinted at in …

Poems, Amanda Nigon

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Amanda Nigon’s two poems (see)Shell Cracked on Rocks by Gulls and Fistula were written as part of a creative writing group using the theme of Losing Innocence. LOSING INNOCENCE by Alison Broderson, Andrea Bruton, Eric Groonwald, Amy Herron, Eric Hoffeiser Josephine Jarvis, Joe Loweth, Amanda Nigon, Jenny Sodomka: This project was inspired by our group’s desire to heighten its social awareness as it explored the loss of innocence resulting from impoverishment. As creative writers we chose to explore this theme through poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction--our subjects ranging from working in a women’s shelter to college life. Because the process …

Poems, Eric Hoffheiser

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Eric Hoffheiser's two poems View from Ubehebe Peak and How to get Rid of Sorrow were written as part of a creative writing group using the theme of Moving On. For our group, Moving On represented the emotional weight in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Moving On implies change, and all good prose and verse possess change. As creative writers, we explored this theme through subjects ranging from the death of a loved one to loss of one’s faith. By focusing on our theme, we examined our own lives and improved our creative writing skills. We attained our goals through observation, …

Poems, Nathan Klein

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Nathan Klein's poems were written as part of a creative writing group using the theme of Where we Live. For my part of the project I tied in the theme of Where We Live through a series of poems. The aspects of the theme that I based my poems on included interpretations on where we live mentally, spiritually, chronologically, geographically in the universe, and on earth. I used the theme to pinpoint just were it is that we all truly live; even in those areas were a pin has no place.

This Modern Life, Nathan Klein

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

For our project, group members explored the theme This Modern Life in its varied interpretations through fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. For my project, the theme This Modern Life was addressed through poetry. The piece I wrote was influenced by my own personal reflections in relation to what this current life has imprinted into me. As a theme, This Modern Life implies little, it left me open to consider contrasting and comparing with other ages, or simply to describe things as they currently are. Since I do not have first hand experience of what I would consider a past "age", I …

And The Road Will Take You There: What The Cartographer Said, Cassandra Sharri Labairon

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis of mixed-media pieces, The Cartographer series, combines, with stitches and rough lace work, miniature acrylic paintings, weavings, and various other elements. The materials come from three different spheres: traditional fine art materials, such as canvas and paint; handiwork materials, such as cross-stitch or needlepoint; reclaimed materials, such as burlap, wire, or string. Thread is used to both draw and connect. Stitches not only lock each element in place, they create links and relationships between painted pieces, thread, and empty space.

The mixed-media pieces were made in conjunction with chapbook of poetry titled, _And the Road Will Take You …