______ FEATURED POET |
| Poetry Corner |
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| COPYRIGHT © 2006-2020 rosalienebacchus.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS PAGE WAS LAST UPDATED ON: 24 JANUARY 2020 |
| LISTEN TO |
| Fear of the Other though we share the same body. House of no doors. HAIKU POEM ROSALIENE BACCHUS |
Is a cave so dark that every ghost shines
with the luminescence of super novas;
wish upon every one, and you would
want for nothing.
The cave is a house with seven windows
and no doors.
The house of no doors is not lacking
an entryway, you have only to open
your imagination. Sometimes
a wall is a fear so old it has become brick.
Sometimes a wall is a wish so fragile
it would crumble if you uttered its name.
The name is a ghost offering
every possibility to the dark: A shining thing.
The name is an echo, is a mirror,
a corridor of clocks between now
and no time.
Now is a single drop of rain
hurtling towards a river.
The river runs, like all rivers – on.
At the mouth of the cave,
in the belly of the house,
at the edge of every hunger, the river
runs on.
Ghosts drink from it.
SOURCE: Interview with Connotation Press, Issue III,
Volume VIII: January 2017.
THE PLACE OF NO DREAMS Lauren K. Alleyne |
| HOUSE OF NO DOORS |
LAUREN K. ALLEYNE is a
Caribbean-American poet
born in the twin island
nation of Trinidad &
Tobago.
She left home in 1997
to study in New York
where she completed a
Bachelor of Arts in
English Literature at
St. Francis College.
In 2002, she
graduated with a
Masters Degree in
English with
specialization in
Creative Writing from
Iowa State University.
She was awarded her
Master of Fine Arts
Degree in Creative
Writing (Poetry) in
2006.
She also holds a
Graduate Certificate in
Feminist, Gender and
Sexuality Studies from
Cornell University.
She currently works at
James Madison
University, Virginia, as
Assistant Director of
the Furious Flower
Poetry Center and an
Associate Professor of
English.
Her poetry, fiction, and
non-fiction have been
widely published in
journals and
anthologies. Her debut
poetry collection,
Difficult Fruit, was
published by Peepal
Tree Press in February
2014.
Her literary awards and
prizes include:
~ 2010 Small Axe
Literary Award
~ 2012 Lyrical Iowa
Award
~ 2016 Split This Rock
Poetry Contest - First
Place
Caribbean-American poet
born in the twin island
nation of Trinidad &
Tobago.
She left home in 1997
to study in New York
where she completed a
Bachelor of Arts in
English Literature at
St. Francis College.
In 2002, she
graduated with a
Masters Degree in
English with
specialization in
Creative Writing from
Iowa State University.
She was awarded her
Master of Fine Arts
Degree in Creative
Writing (Poetry) in
2006.
She also holds a
Graduate Certificate in
Feminist, Gender and
Sexuality Studies from
Cornell University.
She currently works at
James Madison
University, Virginia, as
Assistant Director of
the Furious Flower
Poetry Center and an
Associate Professor of
English.
Her poetry, fiction, and
non-fiction have been
widely published in
journals and
anthologies. Her debut
poetry collection,
Difficult Fruit, was
published by Peepal
Tree Press in February
2014.
Her literary awards and
prizes include:
~ 2010 Small Axe
Literary Award
~ 2012 Lyrical Iowa
Award
~ 2016 Split This Rock
Poetry Contest - First
Place
I love poetry that moves me. I'm not interested in verbal
pyrotechnics, in shuffling words like they're a deck of
cards and seeing what they turn up. I am interested in
poems that harness the immense power inherent in
language, and use that power to enlarge, deepen, and
connect to the human spirit.
~ LAUREN K. ALLEYNE, EXCERPT FROM INTERVIEW WITH BLAST FURNACE,
SEPTEMBER 2015.
I wrote [The Place of No Dreams] after reading Jamaica
Kincaid’s collection of stories entitled, At the Bottom of
the River, which was such a strange and exhilarating
journey, it totally shook my imagination loose and got
me thinking on the nature of the strange, and how
strangeness summons our imaginative power, right?
Which is to say that in order to reconcile ourselves to our
world and our constantly evolving place in it, we must
imagine ourselves in—we make the entrances we walk
through into our realities. Therein lies the power and of
imagination and also the tragedy of a failure to imagine—
we wind up stuck somewhere we don’t want to be.
~ LAUREN K ALLEYNE, EXCERPT FROM INTERVIEW WITH NICELLE DAVIS,
CONNOTATION PRESS, PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2017.
| RIGHT HERE (DEPARTED) BRANDY |
| DIFFICULT FRUIT LAUREN K ALLEYNE PEEPAL TREE PRESS 2014 |
Difficult Fruit, of passage
into womanhood, and this
includes the good fruits,
the bad ones, and
everything in between.
This journey encompasses
coming to terms with
sexual violence and loss,
commemorating love and
connection, and bearing
witness to the world that
shaped her voyage.
Full of vulnerability,
doubt, conviction, and
hope, Alleyne’s poetic
voice conveys the
beauty that can be
found in even the core
of human duress, and
she provides readers
with the chilling truths of
what it is to grow up an
African-American woman
in a troubled world while
simultaneously
displaying her undying
trust in an imagined
heaven.
~ KAYLA BROOKSHIRE, THE
WESTERN CAROLINA
JOURNALIST, MARCH 2016.
into womanhood, and this
includes the good fruits,
the bad ones, and
everything in between.
This journey encompasses
coming to terms with
sexual violence and loss,
commemorating love and
connection, and bearing
witness to the world that
shaped her voyage.
Full of vulnerability,
doubt, conviction, and
hope, Alleyne’s poetic
voice conveys the
beauty that can be
found in even the core
of human duress, and
she provides readers
with the chilling truths of
what it is to grow up an
African-American woman
in a troubled world while
simultaneously
displaying her undying
trust in an imagined
heaven.
~ KAYLA BROOKSHIRE, THE
WESTERN CAROLINA
JOURNALIST, MARCH 2016.