First Advisor

Joel Bettridge

Date of Award

Spring 6-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Creative Writing and University Honors

Department

English

Language

English

Subjects

poetry, trauma, confessional, poetic devices, coming of age, avant garde

DOI

10.15760/honors.1719

Abstract

Begin Again: blooming is a poetry thesis that explores the complexities of trauma, recovery, and identity through a feminist lens. Drawing from the lyric tradition, each poem serves as an emotional excavation, using voice, fragmentation, and address to create intimacy while resisting linear narrative and traditional poetic conventions.

The collection examines how pain imprints itself on the body and memory, with pieces like "Dear Dad," "Clean," and "My Baby" demonstrating the tension between tenderness and pain. Visually experimental and emotionally charged, these poems refuse erasure, reclaiming agency through raw articulation and form. Rather than seeking resolution, the speaker circles truth, inviting the reader into a space where confession is both act and artifact.

Begin Again: blooming asserts that healing is nonlinear—that to bloom is to survive and return to oneself again and again.

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43826

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