This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Together Apart: Freshman Colloquium

Panel 4: Poetry / Lines Across the Distance

Through tercets, abecedarians, lists, free verse stanzas, and even prose, the poets of this panel use form to explore distance and connection. In these poems, you will find experiences new to our 2020 lives: learning online, watching a parent work from home during lock-down, attending a Zoom funeral. You will also find experiences that transcend time: growing out of an old self, picking a major, falling in love. Whether the experience is new or familiar, these poems investigate the tension between self and other, past and present, pulling apart and coming together. In doing so, they remind us that the written word can help us face the most challenging of circumstances. --C. S.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

Contents of this path:

By Hayley LaBonte

A collection of poems inspired by the emotions I experienced in quarantine, and my desire to be heard, seen, and felt in an increasingly chaotic and isolating world. The idea of the personal and the political, and becoming a witness of change is addressed throughout this collection with a brief reflection and interjections of playwright Tony Kushner's essay "Notes About Political Theatre."
By ToriAnn Abe

This collection of poetry is inspired by the many themes of 2020, including family time, political messiness, and a reconsideration of values. Because we are learning apart from each other due to the pandemic, the poems also discuss the role of school in the "grand scheme of life." Among many other reactions, I miss feeling connected to people. These poems are an attempt to make sense of the complicated, even if it might be impossible. If nothing else, I hope to have acknowledged what I’ve observed as this year’s chaos and to have brought some sense of beauty to light.
By Victoria Frank

This creative piece was created for the class The Art of Poetry taught by Professor Christopher Freeman with the prompt of writing a poem incorporating the rhetorical mode of comparing and contrasting. It explores one of my challenges this year, which was starting to choose a major or general educational path as a freshman, as referred to in the line “a major decision.” The two options I compared and contrasted through this abstract lyrical poem are committing to my passion for arts and creative writing or my pull to social justice and public policy. Humanist tendencies heavily influence my collegiate career, but the way in which I approach these interests is unclear. I question whether devoting such valuable years to myself or to others is the right approach to life. Growing up in a time where the future is more daunting than ever, maximizing my time and my privilege to access higher education weighs on my shoulders. While I since have discovered there are ways to incorporate both passions, this poem reflects on a period of great uncertainty that may resonate with other students.