Poetry Commons^™

Photograph, Richard Banahan

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Baltimore, Kim Freeman

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Home: Heimat, Jacob Rodriguez-Noble

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Oft Verberge Ich Mich: Oft I Hide Myself, Suzanne Kenned

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Back Matter

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Joshua Harmon's The Soft Path (University Of Akron Press, 2019) Reviewed In The New Issue Of Mid-American Review, University Of Akron Press

News of The University of Akron Press

Joshua Harmon’s first collection of poetry, The Soft Path, was reviewed by Turner Wilson in the latest issue of Mid-American Review (vol. XL, no. 1).

Wilson praises the book as “a vision of the future of American pastoral poetry,” reading the “spare and fragmented style” as a comment on our broken “understanding and exploitation of wilderness” (169).

Visiting The Garden By Ryan Guptil, Ryan Guptil

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Visiting the Garden

Winter is gone
The sun is out

I open right up
I come right out.

My bright red complexion
My powerful aroma

Creatures come to see me,
Without a doubt.

They know my smell
They know my name

They know what I am
Not ever a doubt.

Every year I am the same,
But they always change.

Till next year my friends
Please stay the same.

I feel you looking
I never move, always still
Frozen like a rock.

I am as bright as a flame
And catch the shining sun.

You’re drawn to me
Like a …

We, Three By Ginny Majka, Ginny Majka

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

We, Three

I am the soil, the mountains and oceans of life.
Mycellium colonies beneath my surface plunge up
up, up through the peat and the moss, the decaying leaves. They pray for the rain, the fruit of my earth.
Plantae nestle in, fragile and comfortable,
seeds sprout to eagerly gulp rain,
animalia flourish, consuming what I provide
only to come home, at the end, to me
to rejoin my earth;
we are one
I am the atmosphere, the sunny clouds and storms producing bounty to those below
I am the chaos in the lightning
I am the rainbow after …

Amjambo Africa! (July 2021), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In this Issue

Juneteenth..................................2

Beautiful Blackbird Festival.....3

Publisher’s Editorial..................6

Immigration & the workforce.11

Finding freedom from Trauma Part II..................................12/19

World Market Basket .............14

Food for All Mobile Market

African beef & sauce with Eugénie Kipoy

Nouveaux Romans: reviews of recent novels by Francophone authors A partnership with Bates College .......................15/16/17

Sending money home ............20

Finance.....................................21

Columns. ......................24/25/26

Nigeria bans Twitter ...............27

Bombay Mahal ........................28

Tips&Info for Maine ..............29

ICE in Maine..................30/31

Translations

French .................................8

Swahili ................................9

Somali ...............................10

Kinyarwanda.....................22

Portuguese.........................23

To Romp The Sky, Katherine Elizabeth Curlee Hamblen

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This is a creative thesis consisting of a collection of poetry divided into three sections. The poems explore themes of womanhood, motherhood, mental health, loneliness, and healing. The first section deals with childhood and family of origin, the second section is about the move into adulthood, individuality, and loneliness. The third follows the narrator into having her own children, creating her own family, and finding healing.

Collected Poems: Summer 2021, Sara Anne Hook

Graduate Scholarship and Professional Work

This is a collection of poetry from the Summer of 2021.

Passing Savage: Poems, Bradley Murff

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This creative thesis is a collection of poetry. Many of the poems are personal in nature, but several deal with important social issues. The style of the poems varies from free verse to formal. Many of the formal pieces are sonnets, but there are other formal arrangements as well, such as “Mammoth Cave,” “Dawn Chorus,” and “A Staircase in Jamacia, Queens.” All of the poems were completed while I was a student here at Western Kentucky University.

Floral Beauty By Sophia Squire, Sophia Squire

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Floral Beauty

An appreciation for chrysanthemum
Took bloom within her soul during
Her early years of life and began
To flourish as time went on

Passing slowly, the years whisked
By and things would grow all around
Her as her hair drifted down past
Her slim shoulders – long brown

“I wish to grow my roots, soon,
In one place where I can stay
Becoming stronger within myself
Until it is time for me to wither away

I’ll make this body a lovely space
For my spirit of flora to grow and
Thrive, with windows all around to
Let sunshine …

Ilja By Paula Shevenell, Paula Shevenell

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

ILJA

I remember you
sitting in the woods,
Gathering in the children
Gathering in the
sights and sounds.
You’re expression
warm, kind patient
as the children crawl over you.

I remember
Sitting on this rock
breathing in the scent of the woods
Trying to bring in
the calm I see in you
Amid the chaos
Of children befriending you
Of parents attempting
To capture the moment
With their devices
Of plastic, wires and glass.

Three Garden Visitors By Vivien Russe, Vivien Russe

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Three Garden Visitors

Beside a cup of tea, I am a spotted leopard on pajamas.
Outside in the garden, this early summer morning,
Staying sly, quiet, not wanting to draw any attention from the neighbors.

A birdie is hidden in the Emerald Green Arborvitae,
After lunch, Owen comes over, asking politely if he can come into the yard to find it.
I reply, “Certainly, you can retrieve anything that lands in the yard without asking”.

Coming unannounced, no matter when, full of presumption
It comes with the lightest, gentle touch or the hardest hit, knocking flowers off center.
Below the …

Dandy/Robin/Gardener By Sadie Pressman, Sadie Pressman

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Dandy

I’ll be so direct by saying, if I may, that here is simply, absolutely, the best place to be. Here,
where the rolling hill plunges towards the ocean. Here, where the sight of the Bavarian blue sky
makes my insides feel endless. Here, where, watching as I so often do, as the white cotton
shape-shifts before my eyes, summer-time in suspense. The sun’s rays suspend from the sky,
dangling like the hands of time. They caress me. A pocket watch in the sky, the sky's the best
accessory. Here, where I am more popular than I could ever have …

A Short Stay By Rachel Milne, Rachel Milne

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

A Short Stay

Gracefully, she leaps over the fence.
Slowly, she walks through the yard,
Plucking low-hanging leaves for breakfast.
She lingers, as she eats
And suddenly –
Nails skittering on wood, a rush of air through the grass,
Her visit is cut short
She sends herself back into the woods
Just as the dog reaches the top of the hill

Their nest may be elsewhere,
But the pair frequently visit this place.
His little, crimson body darts over the yard,
Her subtle, tawny feathers hide away in a tree.
A constant in the garden,
They are a pleasant sight …

Visitors By Lindsey Bosk, Lindsey Bosk

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Visitors

There is a need within us all,
just like this garden,
for water to replenish what is dry and wilted.
One drop falls from the grey-blue sky onto a leaf.
Another hits my brow, I smile.
Like me, the rain does not stay forever,
we are both visitors here.

The droplets of water pick up speed,
as if sensing urgency.
Thirsty plants lap up water,
the rain is welcome.

Unlike the rain, I serve no purpose.
I quench no one’s thirst.
Nonetheless, I sit in the center of it all,
as If I matter most.

Admirers Of The Garden By Tabitha Burgess, Tabitha Burgess

ART/RSP 299: Gathering in the Garden: Poetry and Studio Art

Admirers of the Garden

I fly in as the sun rises
Fluttering to the beaming light
Of golden and red velvety petals
I touch down on the layers of the lilies
Admiring their similar colors
Breaking my concentration
A chirping sound in the distance

I feel the wind beneath my wings
As I fly to an area I’m familiar with
I land on the nearby fence post
My black and white feathers
Illuminated by sunlight
I look down at the nearby botany
The rows of greens growing from the soil
I seek out my next destination and take flight
As …

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 Politics Of Self-Representation In Abdelmajid Benjelloun’S Novel In Childhood : An Ambivalent And Displaced Morrocan « Self », Azize Kour

Dirassat

This article examines the politics of Moroccan cultural self- representation from a novelistic perspective. It attempts to foreground the ambivalent standpoint that many Moroccan novelists evince in imag (in) ing Moroccan cultural identity. A hybrid approach to the Self/ Other dialectic comes into play in this endeavour at self-definition. Importantly, this article tries to outline Moroccan self-representation from gendered, spatial and national perspectives. It, therefore, seeks to answer the following questions: How does Abdelmajid Benjelloun's autobiographical novel In Childhood represent Moroccan identity and culture? Is its portrayal of Moroccaness supportive or critical of the Orientalist lenses that Morocco has been …

Los Zapatos, Amy Royse Brown

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In this project from our Introduction to Hispanic Literature class titled “Cartas a Héctor” (Letters to Hector), students wrote three essays following the example of the contemporary Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince. His short compositions in the collection “Palabras sueltas,” cover a number of observations from daily life. From the morbid topic of euthanasia to the simple joys of a hug, Abad Faciolince tackles everyday themes in uncommon ways, shedding new light on once thought simple ideas.

Photograph, Charles O'Keefe

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Photograph, Charles O'Keefe

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“When I first saw the picture of a red tree on a gramophone jacket of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, I just could not believe that trees could be red.” Eduardo Jaramillo

“The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land. The tender soul has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his.” Hugh of St. Victor, The Didascalicon

Lista, Nora Deeg

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Photograph, Charles O'Keefe

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Concierto, Nora Deeg

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Photograph, Patrick Hamilton

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Decepción, Shachie García

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When I wrote, “Decepción,” I was thinking about a friend of mine who unexpectedly stopped talking to me. I was very disheartened and was feeling as though this friendship had been a waste of my time. The plane in the essay refers to the sensation of excitement that happens when you first meet a person, you cannot wait to get to know them better. If, as you invest time and yourself in a relationship, you realize that it is a fruitless paradise, you wish you had never met the person. “Decepción,” or disappointment, is a state where expectations are lowered …

Photograph, Sarah Bender

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