“Among Elders”

Posted on September 1, 2022 • Words by Cecelia Hagen • Art by Janice Redman

Collaborators’ Q&A

Poet Cecelia Hagen: I was surprised that the artist took an abstract approach to the poem, which has several visual elements–trees, a possible fox, or maybe robbers. But I can also see how the art illustrates the poem, the speaker’s sense of awkwardness, the unraveling self, the oafish loafishness of the rock/potato/bar of soap becoming unencumbered in spite of its immobility. Artist Janice Redman: When I read “Among Elders” the first time, I felt soaked in something I recognized, particularly as I got closer and closer to the last verse. It’s the feeling I have when I walk to a pond in the woods and then into the water—leaving the car, leaving the phone, not knowing if I will be alone—and always the trepidation I feel as I enter and immerse into the unknown of the water.

Artist Janice Redman is a sculptor and mother who lives in Truro. Her work is in the permanent collections of The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. She is represented by Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA. Poet Cecelia Hagen‘s poems have appeared in New Ohio Review, Guesthouse, On the Seawall, and EcoTheo Review. She is the author of Entering and two chapbooks, Among Others and Fringe Living. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she teaches writing and volunteers as a community recycling coordinator.

Tagged: Angst, Animals, Black & White, Ecopoetry, Existential Crisis, Fear, Philosophical Meditation, Print / Monotype, Rural

Contributions by Cecelia Hagen:

“Among Elders”