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Shifting
Get PDFThis collection of poems is about love and loss. It spans over 35 years, from the death of my father to the death of my mother 33 years later, and much in between. As I age and experience more and more loss, I have learned to look at each loss as a shift—not an ending, just a slight shift in context. Loss seems so final, so done. A shift has no bad connotation, no dire consequences; it’s simply a change, not good, not bad, just different. That is what life has become about—shifting to new circumstances. Therefore, I have
titled this collection Shifting. As a poet I have been shifting as well. I am finding my process, my style, and my voice. I tend to work in stages: first free-writing in journals, and then drafting which includes time for it to settle, be it days, weeks, months, or even years. Over the past four
summers studying in Sewanee, I have finally learned how to revise. I really had no tools before then for what revision really meant. Now I know that is where the real work is done. I always thought poetry was a gift—either you had it or you didn’t. Now I know that for me, poetry comes alive in the revision stage. I finally know what I am supposed to do in revision—well, mostly, some of the time at least. The magic has to be coaxed out, but with direction and purpose in the revision stage, I have learned to lasso it. I think of the revision stage as having two parts: crafting and polishing. This helps me to play and experiment where I used to be too attached to my first drafts, therefore reluctant to take chances. The term crafting has an experimental fun connotation to it, leaving me to feel at ease and curious. That first stage of revision is discovery for me, playing with possibilities, breaking the rules. It’s where I may turn the poem upside down; or delete the whole last stanza; or change the point of view; or cut everything but one stanza which then gives birth to a whole new poem. I have learned to let go in the playful crafting stage, cutting every unnecessary word. This is where I separate from the poem, looking at it through the eyes of a reader to identify the jewel in the rough. Then I move on to part two, polishing. That is where the line by line work happens, the questioning of every word, looking for muscular verbs, inspecting each punctuation mark, each line break, the shape and white spaces. This is where the nitpicky work is
done, the slow grueling chisel work.While I can see how far I have come in these last five years, I also am aware of where I need more work. I tend to start off with too much explanation and not enough trust in my reader, especially at the end, often making the poems fall flat. I know most of the time I over-expose in early drafts, so I’m learning to pull back, to leave inspection and mystery for the reader. I also know I still need to reach for stronger imagery and find the flow that comes from stringing image to image, phrase to phrase, sound to sound. While I am strong in narrative, I am pushing to add more lyrical and musical qualities to my work. I need to work on embodying my writing, and by that I mean writing through the body, really striving to use all the senses. I can get to that place where the writing has taken me somewhere else, beyond my temporal experience, but I long to learn to get to that level of writing more often and more easily. I am working on these aspects of my poetry, but still have lots of room for improvement.Numerous poets and writers have influenced me in the development of this thesis.
At Sewanee I have had the opportunity to work with a variety of mentors and some determined blooming writers like myself willing to push through the difficult work. They have been gracious and inspiring, and with their help, I have found my way here.
Classroom activities from the in-depth study of Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop in Danny Anderson’s class, to working on form and structure with Charles Martin, and finally to two years of working on imitation and revision with Nickole Brown, have stretched and pushed me further than I could have ever imagined and more than I could ever find a way to thank them. My own studies of Walt Whitman, Anne Sexton, and Sharon Olds expanded my horizons of what poetry could do. An early workshop experience with Dorianne Laux inspired my determination to pursue this passion. Numerous books have added to my education from craft books like Structure & Surprise by Michael Theune and Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale, to poetry collections by Ross Gay, Nick Flynn, Matthew Olzmann, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Patricia Smith, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly that have shown me how it is done. Every one of these people, and many more, have helped me develop and shift into this new role of poet. After completing this thesis project, I intend to pursue my new goal, that of publication. I am lucky to have developed connections with other Sewanee MFA candidates and graduates here in Nashville. We have a writing group that meets monthly,
and one colleague is very active with The Porch, a local writing community, and I plan to attend some of their workshops and events in the next year. I also will be attending at least one writer’s conference or residence a year, and I plan on becoming an active participant in the writing community through social media and attendance at various readings and poetry events around town and the surrounding area. I will start the process of submitting to journals and contests, using Poets and Writers, The Writer’s Chronicle, and “Submishmash Weekly” from Submittable, in an attempt to gain publication credentials. I will also work on a chapbook, which will hopefully lead to my first book of
poetry. I know I still have a lot of work to do, but the shift from my dream of being a poet to the reality has begun.Nickole Brown
Charles Marti
Conceptions of Heroism: J.R.R. Tolkien's Discussions of Heroism in Anglo-Saxon and Middle English Literature
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Inselberg
Get PDFThis entry includes the abstract only. The author plans to commercially publish the novel.As a former instructor of Philosophy and Religion at a local college and a married man, Wilberforce (Wilby) Inselberg spent his days reading student essays and dutifully going on date nights with his dear wife, Evelyn, but what he wanted most out of life was “deliberately not to live” it-- at least, not in that way. In the summer of 2009, during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Wilby divorces his wife, quits his job and escapes to the north Georgia mountains where he rents a cabin near Lake Winfield Scott to seek solace and solitude. Like a later-day Henry David Thoreau, Wilby intends to become an independent, self-sufficient man by cultivating a vegetable garden, perhaps, or teaching himself ancient Greek and recording his thoughts on all manner of subjects. Wilby’s idyllic plans soon give way to chaos after a series of chance encounters with a trio of locals: his landlord’s inquisitive son, Donnie; a volatile Iraq War veteran named Hamilton; and Victoria, an artistic young woman who makes journals from old hardback books and tends bar in a small town down the mountain. Wilby’s attraction to Victoria draws him down the mountain and into a one-way conflict with a successful, yet vain
town councilman, who is having an affair with her. It is through Wilby’s journaling that his younger brother Reeve -- himself on the verge of
embracing the domestic tranquility that Wilby has just let go -- learns of these exploits, which become the basis of a thesis (a not so great work of American literature) for a creative writing degree years later. Stitching together the narrative of Wilby’s life in the mountains, Reeve ruminates on his brother’s malfunctioning yet not quite failed attempts at being a man. He is at
once unimpressed by Wilby’s seeming inability to understand a thing about himself or the world around him, yet compelled to chronicle his haphazard heroism. Wilby dives drunkenly into a scheme to get even with the councilman by stealing his nameplate at the bar where Victoria works. To complete the mission, Wilby must enlist Donnie and Hamilton’s help and resurrect a
college prank organization called the Animal Apostasy. Inselberg is a comic novel that features ample proof of Wilby’s faltering valor filtered
through the thoughts and feelings of his inconspicuous younger brother as narrator. It is both a critical and compassionate account of one man’s problems with the most rudimentary elements of manhood. However, by banding into a group of similarly-unsettled misfits, Wilby realizes
that no man can be an island unto himself, that brotherhood might be the better option. Even Reeve can’t help but play a part in his brother’s revenge plot so it is four animals that descend from the mountain, infiltrate the bar to lift the councilman’s nameplate and disappear. With the caper a success, Wilby takes his place among the brotherhood of man and finds the courage to
live again
Faulkner’s Folly Views on the Future of Race Relations From a “Liberal” Southerner
Get PDFScholars agree that William Faulkner’s novels are groundbreaking in their representation of race relations. While Faulkner was indeed ahead of his time, among white writers, in his willingness to confront the atrocities of the past, ultimately his approach to race was limited. Despite Faulkner’s efforts to portray race as a social construction, his sympathies consistently fell on the white side of the color line. “Faulkner’s Folly; Views on the Future of Race Relations From a ‘Liberal’ Southerner” attempts to closely examine the mulatto landscape Faulkner presents in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County. Through this examination the central struggle in Faulkner’s life and work becomes clear. In trying to make sense of the South’s approach to the color line, Faulkner reveals his own inability to fully accept the inevitable solution of integration and full social justice; instead he envisions a future where the problems surrounding race relations will eventually work themselves out organically. Faulkner’s solution to race relations in the South, as he expresses in his fiction as well as in his own personal statements, is that eventually the African American population will “bleach out,” or cease to exist through interracial relations. This thesis begins with an overview of the history that inspired Faulkner’s works. Part 1, “Fertile Soil,” begins by looking at American history after reconstruction and traces the mentality of the white population towards the newly freed black population and how that mentality led to the legalization of segregation. It focuses on images formed by the white population, like the mammy and the black beast rapist, and how the propagation of these images led to atrocious acts, such as lynchings. The general history is followed by Faulkner’s personal history and examines how his
upbringing in the South influenced his writings. This section ends with the comparison of real-life history to images and scenes found in Faulkner’s novels. Part 2, “The Genius of Faulkner,” focuses on the more brilliant aspects of Faulkner’s novels. This part begins
with scholars who were Faulkner’s contemporaries and notes how the racial aspects of Faulkner’s work alluded them. This leads into the examination of the many critics who do write about race in Faulkner’s work in sophisticated and demanding ways, and focuses
on the mulatto landscape that Faulkner conceives in Light In August, Absalom, Absalom!, and Go Down, Moses. The scholarship leads into theory, focusing on Charles Mills’ The Racial Contract and this section ends with a close look at some of the more vivid images
that Faulkner conjures within his novels. In the third part, “Faulkner’s Folly,” the focus turns to the inherent problems found in these novels. This part begins examining what scholars have to say about Faulkner’s marginalization of his black characters which leads
to my primary argument. Faulkner’s use of the words “bleach out” in both Light In August and Absalom, Absalom! are closely examined, followed by a look at Isaac McCaslin’s refrain of “not now” found in Go Down, Moses. These phrases are compared to Faulkner’s statements in speeches and interviews where he repeatedly tells the black population to “go slow” in their pursuit of integration and he brazenly claims that, “In the long view, the Negro race will vanish in three hundred years by intermarriage.” The conclusion states the importance of not overlooking either Faulkner’s accomplishments or his failures of vision, for his genius is undeniable, but, instead, to examine and learn
from his shortcomings. This thesis attempts to illustrate that in understanding the missteps of the past we may find a clearer path for the future. In examining the flaws in Faulkner’s writing we can better understand the mindset of the present
For all the Saints: The Funeral Homily as Revelation of God Embodied
No full textThe following project aims to address a prevailing homiletical problem in funeral preaching today. The endeavor of funeral preaching is practiced most commonly in one of two ways. The funeral sermon is completely doctrinal, articulating an eschatology only accounting for that which happens after death, devaluing the life lived. Conversely, the funeral sermon is predominantly biographical, speaking only of the deceased’s life, without any eschatological—and very little theological—reflection.
Therefore, this paper explores the cultural, historical, and theological influences which have led to these practices. While there are many factors which have had an impact on the funeral and funeral preaching over the last 100 years, it is the Church itself, most notably well-intended clergy, who have had the greatest influence. In the midst of a great deal of cultural change, clergy have allowed the funeral ritual and, subsequently, the funeral homily to morph into what is experienced today.
Building on Thomas Long’s recent work, Accompany Them With Singing: The Christian Funeral, which encourages the Church to reclaim the funeral service as worship, this project seeks to move the church toward a corrective in funeral preaching, reclaiming the funeral homily as proclamation of God’s Word.
Using the Anglo-Catholic tradition of feast days for saints as a model, I argue that for Protestants, who claim all people are made in the image of God, every funeral is an occasion to reflect on the life of a saint. By doing so, the saint’s life becomes primary for the preaching occasion, while scripture plays a secondary role, interpreting that life.
The sermon, then, is not an obituary or eulogy; nor is it a means of converting others to Christian faith. Instead, the funeral sermon becomes a reflection on the ways in which God is revealed through the life and death of the individual being remembered. Such an approach is more balanced, integrating both the theological and biographical, which can reveal the many and varied ways in which God is embodied in humanity.
The conclusion of the project includes four sermons, with commentary, which serve as examples for the homiletical model this project proposes. Each sermon provides one possible approach, given the particular circumstances of the person’s life and death. An effort is made at offering a variety of sermons given the diversity of life and the varied circumstances surrounding death.
My hope is that this project is a continuation of those efforts being made to place value back on the rituals and traditions of the Church, which are increasingly being devalued as the Church declines. Specifically, it attempts to be part of the ongoing conversation regarding the significance of the role of the Church at a time of death and its potential to facilitate healing in the midst of loss and brokenness.Dr. William Brosen
Five Parties
No full text“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
--James Arthur Baldwin
How is the past dealt with? Or perhaps more aptly not dealt with? In this novella, weighing the decisions of the night before is avoided all together—until it becomes the looming spectre, the tripwire, the bile that won’t be pushed into the stomach, even as it disintegrates the throat. One fears spraying the night-grey rose bushes of an unimpressed acquaintance with undigested debri. It shouldn’t be freed—yet it must be. When a thing is faced, the feeling is transformative, even when the feeling is disgust.
This ro·man à clef is constructed into five segments or “parties.” Over the course of an eventful weekend, a reunion of sorts, each section delves more deeply into the dynamic between old friends. But how much the reader learns about the characters is questionable. The narrator, Sydney March, is unreliable at best; even her own motivations aren’t apparent. Akin to Ford Madox Ford’s John Dowell, she tells the story in a sequence of flashbacks and time shifts that obfuscate as much as they reveal. But throughout the intermingling of time, there is a trajectory. It is an emotional movement from denial towards acceptance.
The setting is a college town, populated with college youth. But the placement of the story is paramount. Each of the parties shows another face to Athens, Georgia; a city that is as much a character as its inhabitants. The out-of-time, scenic excitement is reminiscent of the Lost Generation’s Paris, but scaled down to a liberal bubble floating delicately atop southern conservatism. Athens culture. It’s a microcosm that presents an alternate lifestyle to the adulting world, and maintains a locals-only gravitas. Every bar and street corner reveals a memory that provokes the narrator. In her alma mater, Sydney is both an interloper and a ghost. As she struggles to reconcile a present self with a former life, it is evident that the she is out of step with the mad scene she has re-entered. At the edge of the party, she is harried by spectres—the perpetually young
Music as a Tool for Spiritual Formation
Get PDFThis project is about music and, specifically, how singing music in the Episcopal Church can be a tool for spiritual formation. I set out to see if others had been formed by music in the church in the same way I had been formed. I looked at both psychological and pedagogical aspects of music on childhood development to show how music helps us learn any subject, but particularly learn scripture and theology. I interviewed seven people connected to music and the church to see what impact music has had on them and how they use it as a tool for spiritual formation. I surveyed clergy to see if music was important to them in their own parishes and how they view it as a tool for formation. I found that those I interviewed agreed with music being a tool for spiritual formation. It was fascinating to hear examples in their own ministries of how they had experienced this and, also, how they taught it to their choirs or parishes. The results of the surveys were mostly positive about the importance of music both to those in the choir and to the congregation. Some negative results showed that not everyone views music in the same way. I came to the overall conclusion that I was not alone in my experience, and that many of us who have been formed by music in the church see it as a tool for spiritual formation. I also concluded that I now have the tools and resources to start a music program in a parish should one not exist, so that others may continue to be formed.Rev. J. Neil Alexande
