Ghosts of Sondra

Watching the films we watched

Out of Africa
Somewhere in Time


Read The Necropastoral
Incorporate

poems will be about ghosts but also the body--cancer--her healing through biofeedback methods

dolphins

animal imagery

hospital system
partner wife

she was married in the hospital



6 to 20 poems to submit to The Missouri Review

ypically, successful submissions include 8-20 pages of unpublished poetry (note: please do not send complete manuscripts—published or unpublished—for consideration). The Gerald T. Perkoff Prize in Poetry is an ongoing series, awarded at least once a year at the discretion of the editors. This prize is given to a poet published in the most recent volume year whose poetry addresses some aspect of the experience or meaning of illness, healing, death and dying, or the practice of medicine.

https://submissions.missourireview.com/


https://vimeo.com/244055651

https://lithub.com/poetry-ritual/

This ritual will be holding on to the books Sondra had listening to the music she enjoyed and thinking of the films we watched together. Sandra was both a Mystic and someone traumatized. Sadly her mysticism came through when she went under in near-death experiences. She foresaw when she was going to die as well as when my mother was going to die by someone she met when she was almost dead or dad. The thing about her life was that a lot of the many early traumas had translated then into spending addictions and creating many of her selves of what the southern people call tall tales. She called herself Southern on many occasions even though we know she just came from Joplin. But she would spend summers at her aunt's down in the South and enjoyed those times which is what I'm guessing she grew fondness of the rich life and all the sophistication of culture. But because of her spending she was always poor that great contradiction that we can find also in poetry. As this year I have finally shaken off all of my addictions and those family secrets I'm wanting to prepare a memorial ritual a poetry dedicated to her so that both Cassandra in the past as well as the ghost Sondra can be healed. If scientists are right that there is no reason for time to exist and if CA Conrad is right and what they have done with their own rituals I'm going to adapt from these sources that feel right to me and create these poems and one of the worst months for both of us July and August.


The reason why I call it ghosts of Sandra is because our culture still has not created a name for her that I could call her a one word name that people would understand who she is to me. When I say mother people will assume my birth mother. Or even if she wasn't my birth mother people would assume my single mother. Saying other mother or another mother also seems like I'm placing her second. Saying stepmom really messes things up too. So I have to say Sondra just for my own psychological sake so I can concentrate on her name as a being. Mom so no one would understand until I could tell them.