Poetry Commons^™

Queering Poetry Workshops, Dobby Morse

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

To what extent do participants report that a poetry workshop builds connections between poets and strengthen their confidence in writing? What do participants want or expect from a poetry workshop?

Through this project I hope to attend and host poetry workshops with an emphasis on the queer community. I will collaborate with campus and community organizations like Queer Humboldt and other organizations that are interested in exploring queer experiences through writing, connection, and meditation. This project will serve as a how-to guide for those seeking to conduct their own workshops.

Juguete, Lilianet Brintrup Hertling

Fiction and Poetry

Lilianet Brintrup Hertling es una poeta de sólida trayectoria y conocida capacidad expresiva. Es también una viajera empecinada, oriunda del sur de Chile que vive ahora en la otra punta del continente, y científica curiosa y sensible. Todo ello se entrelaza delicadamente en su próximo libro Juguete, donde viajamos con los juguetes, sus juguetes, por geografías, por ontologías y muy especialmente por capas de tiempo que marcan, a través de la memoria, el pasaje de la niñez a la adultez, o quizás a la inversa: una visita a la infancia desde el ahora adulto. Los lectores, ubicados también en este …

The Essence Of The Heart: Layered Human Experience In Eva Jessye’S My Spirituals, Jessica Brunet

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Much of the spiritual repertory has been transcribed as documentation of purely melodic and lyrical content, and many songs have been arranged by some of the greatest figures in twentieth- and twenty-first century music history, including Harry T. Burleigh, Hall Johnson, Margaret Bonds, and Jacqueline B. Hairston. On this roster of luminaries is Dr. Eva Jessye (1895-1992).

If Eva Jessye is remembered at all, it is typically in the context of her role as choral director for the original production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935). Among a litany of other accomplishments, however, Dr. Jessye also published a collection of …

War Bird, Odin Auteberry

Voice/Craft

Age 14, Grade 9

Where I'M From, Alexandria Black

Voice/Craft

Age 12, Grade 6

Breaking The Silence: The Intersection Of Neuropsychology, Storytelling, And Mental Health Stigma, Judiene S. Gordon

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis unites the disciplines of neuropsychology and creative writing to explore the complexities of mental health stigma, with a particular focus on substance use. Through a collection of original poems and short fiction, the project seeks to illuminate the lived experiences of individuals affected by these issues and challenge prevailing misconceptions and stereotypes. Drawing on accounts from individuals who have experience with mental illness and substance use, the creative work integrates psychological insight, personal narrative, and authentic voices to foster empathy and understanding. By merging scientific awareness with artistic expression, this thesis aims to humanize often-stigmatized experiences and contribute …

The Room That Remembers: A Sanctuary Built From Silence, Kayla Brown

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This installation is a process-based paper artwork that seeks to protect, enlighten, and discover what healing can be in silence. Through the creation of immersive art objects and experiences, I seek understanding and resolutions for my lived experiences. I utilize the physicality of paper in conjunction with the fragility of topic to enhance the meaning behind my material choices. I transform the idea of a traumatic room into an activated space of healing: one that rest, time, and momentary silence exist as choice rather than by force.

Modernism’S Wild Child: The Interplay Of Modernist And Children’S Literature, Rachel Riffel

All Master's Theses

Within literary criticism, American and British modernism are often characterized by the disillusioned writers and creators who established an elitist literary community during the early 20^th century. This period is also distinguished by the Harlem Renaissance highlighting Black art, culture, and writing. Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps are well-known for contributing core texts to modernism and the Harlem Renaissance that expressed existential themes and developed experimental techniques. What many readers don’t know, however, is that these authors and many other contemporaries wrote stories and poetry for children. In this thesis, I explore the children’s …

Sucarnochee Review - 2026 Issue, The Sucarnochee Review Editors

The Sucarnochee Review

No abstract provided.

Stories Are Weird, Hadley Kirschner

Voice/Craft

Grade 8

Picture Frame, Bryan Wang

Voice/Craft

Age 13, Grade 8

Where I'M From, Kenneth Chapman

Voice/Craft

Age 12, Grade 7

Fear, Gwen Keely

Voice/Craft

Age 13, Grade 8

Light And Unseen, Daša Kulikova

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a body of paintings and two poetic fragments. Shaped by distance and displacement, the work finds its ground in the tension between the desire to be free from the past and heal, and longing for home and connection. Painting practice becomes an event of contact with what is lost, or unclear, or in the process of becoming through accumulating layers, marks, erasures, and traces of the process of its making.

Highway Kind, Caitlin C. Thompson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Unmasked And Unprotected: An Autistic Poet's Journey Of Imperfect Confession, Cynthia Short

Theses and Dissertations

Cynthia Short’s thesis analyzes the consumption and contortion of neurodivergent experience across the clinical, personal, and artistic stages. Combining intersectional memoir with clinical research, traditional poetics, and spoken word experience, she weaves a first-person narrative of consumption and redefinition by systems that did not understand her. Yet, she argues that imperfect confession -done without self-knowledge, resources, or proper self-worth to resist consumption – still has its place. Her collection of twenty-nine self-authored poems serves as a testament to the growth her imperfect confession allowed, outlining her struggles with identity, clinical experimentation and economic survival in a world not meant for …

Traversing The Internal And External Worlds: An Analysis Of Du Fu’S Use Of Nature Imagery, Arwen Mox

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

Born in 712, the Chinese poet Du Fu lived in the cultural peak of the High Tang and the devastating events and aftermath of the An Lushan Rebellion in 755. This essay explores how Du Fu employs nature imagery as a medium for reflection the internal and external worlds. By tracking the use of this motif across the three major periods of his work as embodied in three different poems, the nuanced shifts in his portrayal of nature and humanity becomes apparent. This essay argues that nature is a versatile medium within Du Fu’s work.

Embers Of Hesitation, Alexandro Salas Rosales

Student Scholar Symposium

Alexandro Salas-Rosales’ collection Embers of Hesitation explores the rise and fall of a person who wants to change the world. The speaker begins with little to no motivation, and evolves a passion for both justice and love. Throughout the collection, the speaker grows more ambitious about the possibilities of a new love and a more optimistic tomorrow, even while they can be disgusted by the indifference of their peers. The speaker’s unchecked ambition grows and solidifies the connection between self isolation and mental illness. In Embers of Hesitation, Salas-Rosales follows the speaker’s trajectory from disengaged observer to zealot.

Message In A Bottle, Ellie Harwood

Student Scholar Symposium

In her poetry collection “Message in a Bottle”, Ellie Harwood explores the relationships we maintain with each other, animals, and nature. Through the poems in this collection, Harwood examines how we as humans simultaneously harm one another and our fragile ecosystem while seeking love and belonging in those very relationships and spaces. By contrasting the evolutionary journey of whales with the rampant development of technology in the poem “Whale Song”, or through portraying the desire to flee from somebody you love deeply in “Bedhead”, Harwood highlights the many contradictions and conflicts that come with being alive (and the numerous ways …

When It Calls You, Layla Al Sadoon

Student Scholar Symposium

Layla Al-Sadoon’s collection “when it calls you” explores the intersection of religion and womanhood. Al-Sadoon’s speaker compares the ambiguous relationship of her body and the earth, even when she is unaware of the positive and negative movements between both. “when it calls you” situates itself in a wilderness that carries the both speaker and audience into a feeling of isolation and a demystification of romance and wildness. The speaker grapples with her identity as she encounters the unknown within herself, and the representations of femininity she recognized and fears.

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.

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.

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.

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.