Congratulations Kolleen Carney, recipient of the 2010 Summer Artistic Development Grant. Carney used her grant to cover costs related to poem submissions, and it paid off. Her poem, How a Pearl is Formed, was selected as one of ten poems to be part of the Vision/Verse Art and Poetry Exhibit, which will debut in Lake Charles, Lousiana this June. The exhibit pairs poetry with complimentary visual arts pieces from artists and writers across the country. Carney is a Presidential Arts Scholar of Creative Writing, a mother, an active member of local writing groups, and Salem State's representative at last year's Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Follow her blog at http://www.wordgrrrl.wordpress.com
How a Pearl is Formed by Kolleen Carney
You were conceived in the rare moment my life felt perfect:
the summer sun slivering through the blinds, my hand
tracing the outline of your father's spine.
I believed that you came
from the hollows of his ribs, that the
meaning of the world
hid in those deep
crevices, and I felt safe for a moment--
please realize that I slipped
and let myself feel safe,
forming a crescent against
his dreamless sleeping body.
And like a grain of sand you formed in an oyster shell,
silent at first. And unkowing we played in the sun
under the shadow of a monument, our lips stained
red with hard iced tea and our clothes ripe
with the smell of pot. And you grew.
You grew and you wanted out too soon.
Your father's eyes changed from green to grey;
my mood reflected the moon again, a slivered
waning moon, and I hid in the shadows
and listened to the bells of
Saint Francis De Sales:
your own personal death knell.
I imagine you buried at sea. I think of you
when I see a string of pearls,
knotted tight between each imperfect bead,
and when I walk the streets of your city
I feel your ghost-child hand in mine.
