ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Jenn Strife Gibbs earned her MFA in poetry from the University of Tennessee. She has participated in the Ashbery Home School Conference and was named a finalist in Sequestrum's New Writer Awards. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in CALYX, GFT Press, and Easy Street Magazine. She lives in East Hartford, Connecticut with her husband and two Yorkies.
Also by Jenn Strife Gibbs:
Spring Cleaning
Two Poems
May I Live as the Lotus
1.
born in shallow pond
search for footing
sink in mud
sturdy stem's tether
green chain link
live and die here
head held beneath
breathe murky water
2.
flex fast
break
surface
ripples around my head
I rise
white petals unstained
I rise
spell goodbye in cursive
stretch my neck
3.
towards sun
like the blonde beard around your mouth
kiss me goodnight in bed morning
share the mirror above the bathroom sink
you gaze at me while straightening your tie
sign refrigerator love notes with one letter
I wrote this poem shortly after moving from my hometown in Utica, NY to Knoxville, TN. I began my M.F.A. program and my (now) husband and I moved into our first apartment to start our life together. I use the growth of the lotus flower to represent different stages in my life thus far. The lotus reminds me that we are capable of growing away from our pasts and towards a brighter future. I quit a job that was making me miserable and to celebrate, I got a tattoo of a lotus flower and a line from this poem on my right arm.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
