Poetry Commons^™

On The Corner, Jillian Werner

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

2007 Paul Query prize for poetry

Black Square, Jillian Werner

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

Meta, Jillian Werner

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

For 40 Days Of Weeping, Elizabeth Tassel

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

The Lighthouse, Ka'lena Cuevas

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

Mama, Dada, Katie Burpo

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

Columbia Poetry Review, Columbia College Chicago

Columbia Poetry Review

Literary journal produced annually. Student editors: Hanna Andrews, Amanda M. Johnson, Becca Klaver, BJ Soloy, Jennifer Watman. Assistant editors: Margaret Brady, C.H. Eding, Monica Gerstemeier. Editorial Board: N'Kyenge Brown, Piper Daniels, Joe Eldridge, Ted Jackle, Shanley Erin Kane, Daniela Olszewska, Kristen Orser, Jessica Rose, Jennifer Steele, Nicole Wilson. Cover: Julie Heffernan.

The Lantern Vol. 74, No. 2, Spring 2007, Jan Cohen, Chris Schaeffer, Jennifer Mingolello, Dayna Stein, Serena Mithboakar, Dan Sergeant, India Mcghee, Brett Celinski, Stephanie Bartusis, Trevor Strunk, Phil Repko, Thomas Richter, Tori Wynne, Ian O'Neill, Menaka Gopalan, Monica Crary, Michael Silber, Rachel Heller, Jon Gagas, Kevin Bendis, Christopher Curley

The Lantern Literary Magazines, 1933 to Present

• La Viuda
• The Curb After Light Drizzling
• Loose Cream
• The Problem of Ants
• Streetplay
• Avignon, Anno Domini 1348
• Autophagia
• Silverette-New Wave Fascist Date Routine
• Mint Shavings
• Dogtags
• Millenials
• Rain That Sleeps by Itself at Track Number 5
• Amorphous
• I Found a Flashlight
• Sippikkul Muthu: Pearl Within Shell
• Of Lies
• The Complications of a Fish-Only Diet
• Ashes
• Unto the Fourth Generation
• Marooned on Piano Island
• Sweet

2007 Spring Quiz And Quill Magazine, Otterbein English Department

Quiz and Quill

No abstract provided.

Standing Before The Stranger, Jonathan G. Dillion

English Theses & Dissertations

In Standing Before the Stranger I depict different levels of psychological dislocation, ranging from minor anxiety to insanity, initiated by estrangement from both the external world and the inner world of the self. The speakers and characters inhabiting these poems are either suffering or reacting, often violently, to their inner turmoil. Readers will find dark poems that combine the comedic and the tragic, mix surreal elements with the mundane, and often manage to be absurd and meaningful at the same time. Four music-based poems provide relief from the chaos, but transcendence, for both the speakers and the readers, is only …

Gestures Toward Cross-Species Reciprocal Relations In Contemporary Poetics, Mary Newell

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

In this essay, I explore some embodied bases of ethical attitudes toward human/ animal exchanges in the texts of three contemporary authors: Mary Oliver, Heller Levinson, and Adrienne Rich. Since other species share with humans varieties of agency, sentience, and purposive activity, I suggest that reciprocity is a fundamental aim in cross-species relations. Phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty depicts the correlation between embodied actions and attitudes, for example, between the hand movement of grasping and an appropriative attitude toward the natural world. His concept of reciprocity, grounded in the experience of one hand touching another, provides a reference for encounters that …

The World Is White And Slow And Infinitely Flat, Rob Baum

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Eco-feminism, cultural study and the environment coalesce in the form of poetic cultural commentary, originally fieldnotes. I draw exclusively from my years in the Alaskan Arctic among the Iñupiat Eskimo, who call themselves "the People of the Whale." The striking and severe natural environment, a landscape of endless ice, is central to the poetry, which richly portrays a vision of the Arctic absent from tourist travel guides, National Geographic and anthropological volumes. These magazines vend the Far North's beautiful austerity, including at times the physical beauty of its animal inhabitants, including humans, while disregarding human specificity and violence …

Black Box 2007, Leeann Lyall, Kyle Bradford, Kristen Pechan, Erran Sweeney, Dalia Guizar Ramirez, Joshua Guizar Stephan, Allene Parker, Vickie Tusa, Kay Ziegenhagen, Bryce Dickey, Casey Hill, Kimberly A. Rogers, Jaydee Dyess, Judith Mikes, David Hamilton, Raymund Del Rosario, Bonnie Lee, Jeffrey M. Vaughan, Joe Tessitore, Andrew Eckman

Black Box

The Black Box is a student-based creative publication serving the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus. It is our goal to provide a showcase for the creativity and talent on campus. Please, browse these pages and enjoy.

The Clouds Are Buffalo Stampeding Toward Jesus, Natalie G. Diaz

English Theses & Dissertations

This collection of poems is a compilation of three years of MFA work. The poems intend to represent the explorations and meanderings into the themes of exile, history, family, pain, love, and the way the aforementioned themes overlap and interact. The range of voice and style within the poems collected here are manifestations of the questions l have pursued and will continue to pursue as a poet and also as a human being.

Court Green: Dossier: Political Poetry, Columbia College Chicago

Court Green

An annual poetry magazine with a different theme for each issue; printed from 2004 to 2015.

Ka Lawai‘A, Ku‘Ualoha Ho‘Omanawanui

Pacific Studies

This poem uses the extended metaphor of traditional Hawaiian fishing to portray emotional manipulation and betrayal. The speaker likens their relationship to being hunted—baited with false promises and pierced by deception. Imagery of kukui nuts, sharp spears, and the soft body of the he‘e (octopus) evokes both cultural specificity and visceral vulnerability. Ultimately, the poem critiques how some cling to age-old tactics of control and harm, choosing cunning and tradition over transparency or change.

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.

Dream Driving, Don Russ

KSU Press Legacy Project

In Don Russ's collection of poetry, Dream Driving, life is a journey. It has dream-like stages, apparitions, visions, and revelations. The journey itself is in some ways a dream, a sleep-wandering among the labyrinths of the mind, of the imagined world, of even the "real" world. What can we finally know for sure? Do we not at least partly create what we see in the act of seeing it?

Section I includes the poems:

• Here
• In the Driveway
• At the End of the Woods
• Fauns
• Metamorphosis
• Easter Biddies
• Walk on Water
• A Little Visit
• The Bachelor Tells a Family Story …