Tag Archives: otherness

Seeing through the Other’s “I”: Robert Rees’ “Blind Tears”

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Poet Highlight: Robert A. Rees, “Blind Tears” In “Blind Tears” Robert A. Rees becomes a mother in Cambodia. Speaking from her “I,” he strives to put on this fictive woman’s skin, to walk in her shoes, to see the world through her eyes and thus to connect with her and her world in a very personal way. This effort requires… Read more »

To Speak the Language of Animals: Marilyn Nielson’s “Sheep”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 38/82: Marilyn Nielson, “Sheep” [audio:http://fireinthepasture.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/tumblr_lx79b4k4DH1qldxkx.mp3](Marilyn’s reading of “Sheep”) To speak for those who otherwise can’t, to give the unvoiced a voice, the other languaged means by which to understand and be understood by others: these seem to be fundamental functions of the gospel of Christ, at the center of which rests the atonement. In this eternally-in-force act… Read more »

Jonathon Penny’s “Confession, after battle”: A Soldier’s Litany

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Anthology Poet Highlight 29/82: Jonathon Penny, “Confession, after battle“ At first glance, “Confession” seems a simplistic poem: the poet repeats the same structure for four, essentially five, stanzas, changing only a word per stanzaic turn. The structure is thus something of a template— I’m sorry that I killed your ______ I did not know he was your ______ I only… Read more »

Breaking Bread with Laraine Wilkins: “Make Yourself at Home”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 12/82: Laraine Wilkins: “Make Yourself at Home“ (scroll down)   While Laraine Wilkins has passed on and while I never knew her (though we did share a few brief emails when she was editor of Irreantum: A Review of Mormon Literature and Film and I’d submitted some poems for publication), I believe her impact on the world… Read more »

On Terresa Wellborn’s “Welcoming the Epilogue”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 2/82: Terresa Wellborn, “Welcoming the Epilogue,” Inscape (Winter 2011) [soundcloud id=’41736361′ playerType=’Standard’ width=’54%’ color=’#003366′] (My reading of “Welcoming the Epilogue”) Terresa’s voice is distinctive, clear, and strong and her phrasing is often striking. Notice, for instance, the alliteratives that hold this stanza together and that propel the tongue toward climax: the r’s, th’s, w’s, s’s, c’s. And… Read more »