Marjorie Maddox

Professor of English at Lock Haven University, Marjorie Maddox has published 14 collections of poetry—including Begin with a Question (Paraclete, International Book and Illumination Book Awards Winner), and the ekphrastic collections Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For (with Karen Elias) and In the Museum of My Daughter’s Mind , based on her daughter’s paintings (www.hafer.work), and including work by Karen Elias, Greg Mort, Margaret Munz-Losch, and others (Shanti Arts). She also has published the short story collection What She Was Saying (Fomite); 4 children’s and YA books, and Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (co-editor with Jerry Wemple, PSU Press). Please see www.marjoriemaddox.com  

Dr. Karen Elias, who taught college English for 40 years, is an artist/activist, using photography to raise awareness about climate change. Her award-winning work appears in private collections and galleries. She serves as board member of the Clinton County Arts Council, as membership chair, and as curator of the annual juried photography exhibit. Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For, an ekphrastic collaboration with poet Marjorie Maddox, appeared in 2022 from Shanti Arts. Additional collaborations have appeared in such literary, arts, or medical humanities journals as About Place, Cold Mountain Review, The Ekphrastic Review, The Other Journal, Glint, Poetry in Transit, Ekstasis, and Ars Medica. Elias, also a playwright, has work chosen by the Climate Change Theatre Action and performed in 8 countries.  

Curlew Dreams by Karen Elias

The Messenger

—after the collage Curlew Dreams by Karen Elias

“… then this bird will be the messenger that brings them
books…”            —Ali Smith in Companion Piece

Of course, it is the curlew—
cinnamon and winged—

that long-billed bird that sucks
nourishment from the earth,

forages for earthworms,
burrows deep for shrimp and crab

in the soft substrates of mudflats,
the beige plains of beaches,

the uneven terrain of flooded fields,
but also in the overflow of script

in scriptures, epiphany the tasty tidbit
that tempts it to dig deeper,

pull out the squirming unexpected
unearthed in murky dreams, holy visions,

and books. Thin, speckled messenger,
transformed from wet dip

and jerky strut, it rises over
rippling waters, over everyday scribes,

over ordinary saints floating nightly
in currents misty with prophecies

and the blurry assurance of psalms ebbing
toward the foggy edge of consciousness

into insight or inspiration
from somewhere, from everywhere.