The Vanderbilt Project on Unity & American Democracy\u2019s 2023 Poetry Contest<\/p>\n
First Place<\/p>\n
By Sophie Kaiser, Vanderbilt University<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After Sophie Klahr\u2019s \u201cTender\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n kiss like my grandparents in their wedding photo\u2014each _______<\/span> _____<\/span> _____<\/span> _____<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Vanderbilt Project on Unity & American Democracy\u2019s 2023 Poetry Contest First Place By Sophie Kaiser, Vanderbilt University After Sophie Klahr\u2019s \u201cTender\u201d Start by unfurling your hands like the severed end of a rope, then betray that splay of fingers by bridging the divide between pointers and thumbs, knitting them in a kiss like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[78,77],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-4Pp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18563"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18594,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18563\/revisions\/18594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n Start by unfurling your hands like the severed end of a rope,
\nthen betray that splay of fingers by bridging the
\ndivide between pointers and thumbs, knitting them in a <\/p>\n
\nin the folds of the other, of Colorado brown and white, they spite their
\nsevered neighborhood, quilting my cafe con leche-colored mother with both fabrics.___<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMarry index to thumbnail, but don\u2019t just let your hands sit there, separate-signing
\nF-shapes as if to fingerspell fissure & fracture; no, thread the needle, link the two loops how
\nmy grandmother\u2019s selfless sutures mend the rips in my sweater, knitting holes into tender<\/p>\n
\nembrace, like my mother\u2019s warm arms interlacing with mine after fighting again about
\nwho and what we vote and march for, stopping to admire how, outside our home, an aspen
\ngrove unfurls from the same mesh of tangled roots, running through soil the way rivers<\/p>\n
\nweave through states, sewing them with the shared act of living. Now, move your hands
\nin a flat circle before your chest, as if to pour unity all over the land, or to collect
\nthe unravel at the rupture of a seam and wrap it around the spool of your heart.<\/p>\n
\nIn my poetry class today, we learn how to write a villanelle
\nby taking disparate things and braiding them together:
\nthe sever of a rope\u2014the unfurling of your hands,
\nthe divide of your fingers\u2014the fray of a land.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n