FLESH IS NARRATIVE: a collection of poems
Date
2013-11-15
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MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa
Abstract
This manuscript contains 64 poems, written in primarily open verse with some use of meter and measure in the line, as well as a blending of forms. The collection is comprised of variations on the theme “loss” within the presented subjects of family relationships, marriage and motherhood; loss and recovery; betrayal and forgiveness. One focus is the duality of our existence, sweet/bitter, sorrow/joy, mind/body connections, and explore that balance in poetry by making use of imagery and layers. The collection can be viewed as a lifespan within a female voice, somewhat chronological. This progression is echoed in the title “Flesh is Narrative” as well. In some poems, the body is overt; in others, the probing spills from woman into the natural world, though even poems that depict landscape often do so in bodily terms: the ash tree as a woman’s beauty, a rosebud becomes a vagina, and the wild violets’ leaves are outstretched hands. The collection is a composition about a life in progress and is varied accordingly. Any development in the poems has been toward the idea of exploring the narrative life of mind and emotion in the more tangible experiences of the flesh.
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Keywords
Poetry, Open verse, Loss, Family relationships, Marriage, Motherhood, Betrayal, Forgiveness, Femininity, Body