First Advisor

Michele Glazer

Term of Graduation

Spring 2022

Date of Publication

7-14-2022

Document Type

Closed Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing

Department

English

Language

English

Subjects

Motherhood -- Poetry, Mothers -- Poetry, Mother and child -- Poetry, Loss (Psychology) -- Poetry

DOI

10.15760/etd.7955

Physical Description

1 online resource (vi, 49 pages)

Abstract

This collection is about motherhood lost and motherhood created. These poems explore the pang of a mother lost and what it means to have been mothered by a memory. The collection touches on how vast motherhood can be. To be a mother is to be connected, but willing to let go, willing to let a thing (often a human) live outside of oneself. What does it mean to create motherhood? The womb and its ability to gestate is a mystery, and the choice to consider pursuing motherhood is bizarre.

This collection is about the strangeness of loss, especially of loss of a mother from a child's perspective.

This collection is about the paradox of being a child. Children have desires, deep thoughts, and the ability understand and make connections, but children are often moved about by adults who do not inquire about the rich inner life of the young person they love and care for.

This is a collection of watching. Obvious conclusions are often not proffered by the speaker. The reader is offered space.

In this collection deliveries are dry, dark, and understated with a sharp point possible. The question often wafts around in the air--is this supposed to be funny?

In this collection, emotional response is paramount. What is literally true in the physical world may or may not carry weight within this collection, but there is always space for emotional experience to be true, even to the point of opposite emotional truths looking at one another, neither presented as truer.

This collection considers what it means to speak and be heard or not heard.

This collection contemplates the importance but not all-importance of individuality. What does autonomy mean in a family? How can one be connected and apart? This collection is about owning one's emotions, calling them important, and letting oneself be a part of the larger picture, be a part of the community, exist because of and within the community, the family, the world. It is about living in the web of human and earth connection, and calling one's own experience unique, important, valid, and still a part of the multitude.

This collection is about being cared for and about caring for others.

This collection is about what is not said. It is about the space around the poem and after the poem. This collection is at times mundanely fantastic and at times, seemingly about nothing.

In this collection time is significant. It is rarely mentioned by name but felt in cycles. How quickly a child finds herself the one with children. How swiftly death whispers that she is here, and she is gentler that we thought she could be and that is okay to die and be shrouded, still, in the salve of mystery.

In this collection miniature realities are created, each with its own rules, contained and unique unto itself, loyal to itself.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

This thesis is only available to students, faculty and staff at PSU.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38260

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