{"id":11748,"date":"2023-03-17T11:36:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/?p=11748"},"modified":"2023-03-28T15:50:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T19:50:20","slug":"nearer-to-vital-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/nearer-to-vital-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearer to Vital Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][CORRECTION: The poem originally attributed to T.J. Anderson III in the print edition of the Winter 2023 issue (\u201cWest Fork of the Little\u201d) was in fact written by Thorpe Moeckel and attributed to T.J. Anderson III in error. The two poems now included below (\u201clive lyre\u201d and \u201cinterview\u201d) were written by T.J. Anderson III and are from his new book, t\/here it is<\/em>. We regret this error.]<\/p>\n

\n\n\tH<\/span>ollins has long been championed as a creative hub, and perhaps in no category is this better known than in its creative writing. Its online Hollins Authors (糖心传媒.edu\/authors) database includes over 1,000 alumnae\/i who have had works published across a wide range of topics and categories, with a sizeable portion of those in the areas of fiction and poetry.<\/p>\n

Since October 2022, three current and former Hollins professors and one alumna have had books of poetry published, and we highlight a selection from each here in the closing \u201cCreative Corner\u201d section of this issue. T.J. Anderson III recently published t\/here it is<\/em> in January 2023. Thorpe Moeckel published According to Sand: Poems<\/em> in October 2022. Professor Emerita Cathryn Hankla \u201980, M.A. \u201982 published Immortal Stuff: Prose Poems<\/em> in February 2023. Annie Woodford \u201999, M.A. \u201900 published Where You Come From is Gone: Poems<\/em> in October 2022.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”custom” style=”dotted” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#81d1e0″ css=”.vc_custom_1678993936247{margin-top: 40px !important;margin-bottom: 40px !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text]\"t\/here[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

live lyre<\/h4>\n

Mr. Woodworth
\nthe toupee
\nwearing choral
\ndirector
\nwarned me
\nmy \u201cpower to
\nthe people\u201d
\nbutton was
\ntoo incendiary<\/p>\n

interview<\/h4>\n

\u201cand you are so
\narticulate\u201d
\nwas the ass-end
\nof a backhanded
\ncompliment dispensed
\nby a business man
\nwho prided himself
\non his ability to discern
\nmy curriculum vitae<\/p>\n

\u2014T.J. Anderson III<\/h6>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”custom” style=”dotted” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#81d1e0″ css=”.vc_custom_1678993936247{margin-top: 40px !important;margin-bottom: 40px !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_height=”yes” columns_placement=”top” equal_height=”yes”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text]\"Where[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

We Have Come
\nThrough to the Grass<\/h4>\n

after James Still<\/em><\/p>\n

All the little calves rising
\nall the mud all the sarvis berry
\nwild cherry the valentine tips
\nof maples and plum all
\nthe lavender of unopened
\noak velveting the mountainside
\nall the morel all the smell
\nof chicken shit spread on fields
\nall the suffering stink of it
\nlay me down beside your dying
\nmy shame is that I wasn\u2019t there
\nto hold you keep you clean
\nconjure lambs and measure
\nmorphine moisten your lips
\ntell you the story you told me
\nhow your father once
\nhid a case of moonshine
\nfrom the law that was knocking
\non your door by tucking jars
\nall around your mama dog
\nand her new puppies suckling
\non a pile of rags in the basement
\nand you knelt there tending
\nthem while the men shined
\nflashlights over your mama\u2019s
\ncanning the inside of her chest
\nfreezer the wardrobe full
\nof clothes and found nothing
\nwhile the puppies whined
\nand struggled to draw closer
\nto their mother their eyes
\nstill closed their bellies
\nstill tender from their bitten
\numbilical cords knotted blood
\nyou could feel against your palm
\nas you lifted them to your cheek
\ntheir paws scrabbling the air
\nand they searched blindly
\nwith their perfect snouts
\ntrying to lift their heads<\/p>\n

\u2014Annie Woodford \u201999, M.A. \u201900<\/h6>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”custom” style=”dotted” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#81d1e0″ css=”.vc_custom_1678993936247{margin-top: 40px !important;margin-bottom: 40px !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_height=”yes” columns_placement=”top” equal_height=”yes”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text]\"According[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

LITTLE REED CREEK<\/h4>\n

Here\u2019s about to, the prepwork,
\nsaprise & seepdrip. Here
\nis all there
\nisn\u2019t to know.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Schisms in the soilsphere \u2013
\ntoothwort, violet, cleaver.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Early April,
\npoplar\u2019s green shiver,
\nvisibility for glades.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

This ridge Terrapin Mountain,
\nthat one, White Oak Knob \u2013
\nno morels yet, many ferns still curled.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Plungepools & pocketwater \u2013
\ntrillium there, & there, trillium.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t call it work
\nwhat the boulders do,
\nbut what they don\u2019t do, the rest.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The punchbowls, the hollows in every hollow.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Here is lair, and the waterthrush
\nat evening piping up,
\nat morning, too.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Still a little bite in the air,
\nstill a little gobbler scratch, & rue.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The duff a treatise on parchment,
\nweather\u2019s imprint,
\nnotes on the future,
\nthe last next generation all at once.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Buckrub & split trunk, a tick in your flanksteak,
\ndeadfall, more deadfall.
\nIf zest, if spritz.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

That it go on, the hellebore,
\nthe black birch\u2019s shelf life,
\npolypore & parasitic burls.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Anemone, anemone.<\/p>\n

\u2014Thorpe Moeckel
\nfirst published in Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review<\/em><\/h6>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”custom” style=”dotted” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#81d1e0″ css=”.vc_custom_1678993936247{margin-top: 40px !important;margin-bottom: 40px !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_height=”yes” columns_placement=”top” equal_height=”yes”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text]\"Immortal[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

HeLa<\/h4>\n

Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant across the tracks in my<\/p>\n

town in 1920. My mother was also born at home in the same<\/p>\n

town in 1918 and named Joyce. After being dropped in Clover when<\/p>\n

her mother died, Henrietta had to plant and harvest tobacco<\/p>\n

until her hands were sticky and stained. Growing up, my mother<\/p>\n

spent as much time as possible in the public library, turning<\/p>\n

pages of books. In college, she got a summer job there. Joyce and<\/p>\n

Henrietta both married in 1941, one couple in April, the other<\/p>\n

in June. Henrietta already had two children and would have three<\/p>\n

more. Ten years later, Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer<\/p>\n

in Johns Hopkins hospital the year my mother gave birth to<\/p>\n

her first child. Nothing touched the pain Henrietta endured.<\/p>\n

Without her knowledge, her cells were harvested and cultured for<\/p>\n

medical research. The HeLa immortal cell line is still doubling<\/p>\n

and redoubling in test tubes around the world. Both of the<\/p>\n

houses where Loretta\/Henrietta lived in my town have been torn<\/p>\n

down. The houses where my mother lived are still standing.<\/p>\n

My mother died in 2016 of old age without any grandchildren.<\/p>\n

I asked her to spit into a vial, so I could learn more about<\/p>\n

my ancestry. She was skeptical but took the test for me. When her<\/p>\n

results came back they revealed mostly what she\u2019d said, British<\/p>\n

Isles. I have no idea where I\u2019m going with this. There\u2019s really<\/p>\n

no comparison to make between my mother and Henrietta Lacks.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/em>Cathryn Hankla \u201980, M.A. \u201982, professor emerita, Immortal Stuff: prose poems<\/em> (Mercer University Press, 2023)<\/h6>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][CORRECTION: The poem originally attributed to T.J. Anderson III in the print edition of the Winter 2023 issue (\u201cWest Fork of the Little\u201d) was in fact written by Thorpe Moeckel and attributed to T.J. Anderson III in error. The two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-11748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-winter-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11748"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11881,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11748\/revisions\/11881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}