Anna M. Evans
My Life as an Anglo-Saxon Novitiate
I was quite lonely here at first. Each day
Vespers took a long time coming round.
I missed our dog, but then, in lieu of pay
the Abbess got a German hunting hound
and I was singled out to be her keeper.
Hilda, as they named her, has bright eyes
that take in everything. I swear she's deeper
than most people I meet. Now, when I rise
at Prime she waits for me with wagging tail.
I feed her scraps and then on our long walk
she catches rabbits, hares, and once a quail.
I know it's silent time, but still I talk
to her. I think we're part of God's great plan--
how, we can't know. We just do the best we can.
My Life as Ghengis Khan's Morganatic Wife
Some nights he would have nightmares and awake
all drenched in sweat. I dared not ask him why,
and so I'd just distract him, aim to make
him laugh or turn him on. He was quite shy
in bed--I always tried to drive him crazy,
yet he preferred to lie there, let me do
the work. In truth, he was a little lazy,
or tired perhaps. He always looked worn through.
Of course, he'd leave for months, off on campaign
and I would mope around the palace, bored,
wishing I were on horseback on the plain,
a crack shot archer with the Golden Horde,
but I was just a girl. Some nights, he'd weep,
and after sex I'd sing him back to sleep.
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>We are pleased to announce that Anne-Marie Thompson is the recipient of the Mezzo Cammin scholarship at the West Chester University Poetry Conference and Wendy Sloan is the recipient of The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project scholarship.
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Judith Schaecter: I found the beauty of stained glass to be the perfect counterpoint to ugly and difficult subjects. Although the figures I work with are supposed to be ordinary people doing ordinary things, I see them as having much in common with the old medieval windows of saints and martyrs. They seem to be caught in a transitional moment when despair becomes hope or darkness becomes inspiration. They seem poised between the threshold of everyday reality and epiphany, caught between tragedy and comedy.
My work is centered on the idea of transforming the wretched into the beautiful--say, unspeakable grief, unbearable sentimentality or nerve wracking ambivalence, and representing it in such a way that it is inviting and safe to contemplate and captivating to look at. I am at one with those who believe art is a way of feeling ones feelings in a deeper, more poignant way.
I would describe my process as derived almost entirely from traditional techniques in use for centuries. The imagery is predominantly engraved into layers of glass; only the black and yellow are painted and fired on in a kiln. The pieces are soldered together in a copperfoil and lead matrix.
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