by Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick
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Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick‘s work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Gulf Coast Journal, Salamander, Poetry London, Salt Hill, Plume, The Texas Observer, Four Way Review, and Passages North, among others. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College’s MFA program, Hardwick is Editor-in-Chief of The Boiler.
Description: Acrylic painting bordered with black edges with sweeps of white, yellow, blue, and black, mixed with grey streaks across the page from the top right toward the lower left corner as the background. The top right portion is heavier in white paint streaks, giving an almost ghost-like feel to the image created by the broad brush strokes in that area. In the upper left foreground is a figure in black and white of a goddess-like woman holding a cage, surrounded by smaller images of oxen, farmers, lover figures, etc. In the lower far-right corner is another black and sepia-toned image of a sun, stars, and a traveler in a field passing a tree. In the middle foreground is the poem, which appears in cut-out words from print. The poem reads: “a cathedral in my hair / like a damaged moon / filled with halos / I bombarded / the exhausted / fields / with my inadequate prayer.”
Psaltery & Lyre 