Teacher spotlight: Susanne Barrett
Yesterday we highlighted a student’s fragment poem based on a Daily Writing Tip and the building game, Minecraft. One of our lovely instructors, Susanne Barrett, also wrote a fragment poem. Hers was inspired by e. e. cummings’ unconventional sonnet, “the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls.”
fragments of Cambridge ladies
by Susanne Barrett
after e. e. cummings
not caring,
not them—
as they bandy coy scandal,
fluttering eyelashes and tongues
simultaneously.
their perfectly-furnished souls
so stale and unbeautiful,
padded to stifle spirit.
cornered in futile cornerlessness
the precise hue of the invariably
lavender sky.
while the moon rises
presently writing,
trembling its poignant phrases
with mind wailing,
distinctly un.comfortable.
rattling, dull needles
ever knitting,
pearling,
knitting,
twisting
ever twisting
into the unscented, the shapeless.
ever ripping reputations
into miniscule shreds
ever fragmenting.
while the sky-lavender sky
refuses to blame the candy
for its righteous anger.
The image above is of “The Artist’s Wife Knitting” by William James Glackens
