Welcome to WNIJ's Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours features poems by northern Illinois poets. This week we highlight Paula Garrett.
Garrett is a WNIJ Perspectives writer from Geneva. She is drawn to water, especially the sea and Lake Michigan where she finds inspiration and rejuvenation. Her poetry has been part of the City of Aurora’s annual celebration of Poetry Month. This year’s theme is rebirth, and her poem “SeaChange” is on display in downtown Aurora. For Poetically Yours she also shares “Clara’s Bow,” which gives another take on rebirth. Garrett said this poem is “whimsically biographical.”
SeaChange
The sea waves me in, and
I wade and float until it takes my hand.
The beach sees me-
A flash of shoulder
A splash of ankle-
And hears one long inhalation
Blown out bubble by bubble
Depth by depth.
I’m on a sunbeam, gliding
Past other waterbodies
Diverse in their geometry
Dazzling in their color.
My terrestrial boundaries blur
And the waterbodies gather to reassemble.
Shoulder and ankle loosen and transform.
I’m a blue-green necklace
Strung with beads of early beings
That scatter across a sandy landing
Where new breath arises
Clara’s Bow
Hallelujah!
Let the baptism begin.
Barely six years born
But Clara heard the call
And she was ready for submersion.
With the preacher’s hand across her back,
She pinched the freckles on her nose,
Arched backward and went under.
All that the congregation could see
Her red satin bow,
Floating.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
