Photo by Tracey Capobianco Ranauro
Mothers Respond – A folio edited by Cindy Veach and Jennifer Martelli
The poems in this folio explore how we, as mothers, have responded to the seismic changes over the past few months: are we or our children at risk? how do we explain this new year of division or loss? do we face these challenges as opportunities? Each of the poems in this folio gives voice to navigating this tumultuous world. In Amy Strauss Friedman’s poem, “Aleppo,” the speaker states,
Every soul needs a proper chaperone/to say nothing of a champion.
This fine-line of the mother-as-poet, the mother-as-protector, the mother-as-realist is aptly captured in Martha Silano’s “Poem for the New Year,” when the speaker wonders:
. . . . Words I couldn’t read or say, words like
oh, honey, don’t worry–it could never happen again.
But these are also poems of strength, both the mother’s and the child’s. As Kali Lightfoot claims in “Icarus Takes a Window Seat,”
I say you are a hero.
We experienced so much comfort and joy while reading the poems in this folio. We hope you do too!
And remember, “Be ready. To become. Whatever. Is Necessary,” Kelly Cressio-Moeller, “How to Survive a Dictator.”
Featured Poets
January Gill O’Neil – Post-Inauguration
Colleen Michaels – Origami
Amy Strauss Friedman – Aleppo in the Heart of the Living Room; Archipelago
Kali Lightfoot – Icarus Takes a Window Seat
Martha Silano – Poem for the New Year
Jennifer Militello – Instructions for Motherhood; Apocalypse Church; The Problems of Mothers
Carla Panciera – Winter Baby
Jean Monahan – Sunflowers; Lines Written on the Election of 2016
Kelly Cressio-Moeller – How to Survive a Dictator
Tracey Ranauro is a photographer and graphic artist from Boston, currently living in Las Vegas. She graduated from New England School of Photography and has designed several book and record covers, including 2015’s punk-rock mystery “Looking For Lady Dee”, “Unassisted Living”, and “Horizons”.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/traceycr62/albums