I ended up skipping a yoga class to make a collage and write a poem.
The collage centers around Emily Dickinson, but the poem is more about my desire for a return to innocence. In a way, Emily Dickinson represents for me a kind of purity, both artistically as well as spiritually, a kind of purity or innocence I’ve lost.
Sent from my iPhone
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Published by Christine
Christine Swint’s poems have appeared in Calyx, Birmingham Poetry Review, Slant, a Journal of Poetry, Tampa Review, Heron Tree, Ekphrasis, and others. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets, and she has won first place prizes from the Georgia Poetry Society and Agnes Scott College. Her first collection, Swimming This, was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press. She teaches first-year composition at a metro-Atlanta university and writes about poetry, art, hiking, and yoga at Balanced on the Edge, https://balancedonedge.blog
Twitter @christine_swint
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Nice! I saw “The Belle of Amherst” at Penn State last month, a wonderful, kind of postmodern production that slipped back and forth in time and had Emily directly addressing members of the audience – sharing a cake recipe, telling them to sit up straight. The effect was haunting.
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I’d love to see that play, Dave. It sounds like you bought into the dream.
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This is lovely. How large is it?
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Great collage. Sometimes I think about a return to the innocent days but then I’d miss to much of what I have now. Hope all is well. Have a great night.
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You don’t rate a Scarlet A in the loss of innocence category and I’d have to take your word for it to let you slip by with a B-. 😉
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It’s a small collage, Jo, about ten by ten inches.
Michelle, I know what you mean. In general, life is good.
Thanks for the grade, Bob.
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It’s a lovely collage, C.
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I saw this on Facebook and loved the image. Now I know a little more about what it represents. I wonder if innocence is related at all to the notion of beginner’s mind and a desire to return to that state. Just curious.
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Beautiful! I love the collage. I used to cringe when I looked back at the poems or stories I wrote when I was a teenager. Now it makes me feel good. I like that person. I wish I could physically go back in time and tell “her” what a good person she really was. I tell the teens and kids I know now. By listening to them, I regain some of that innocence and wonder as a poet.
Great topic, Christine. You always get my wheels turning:)
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I love this! Will you hang it in your office when you start teaching comp?
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