This selection, chosen by Guest Editor Maggie Rue Hess, is from Elegy with Clouds & by Robin Turner (Kelsay Books 2025).
Water
Make of me an emptiness,
a morning clear & present,
night’s terrors muted,
its details obscure.
Carve me. Crush me. Shadow-
shift me. Make me
a figure shining.
Robin Turner is the author of two poetry chapbooks: bindweed & crow poison (Porkbelly Press) and Elegy with Clouds & (Kelsay Books). Her work has appeared in Anacapa Review, Pithead Chapel, Rattle, Rust & Moth, Verse Daily, The Texas Observer, and elsewhere. She is a longtime community teaching artist in Dallas currently working with writers from the Cancer Support Community of North Texas. Find her on FB and IG @robinsmithturner.
Maggie Rue Hess (she/her) is a PhD student living in Knoxville, Tennessee, with her partner and their crusty white dog. She serves as Poetry Co-Editor for Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts. Her work has appeared in Rattle, Connecticut River Review, SWWIM, and other publications; her debut chapbook, The Bones That Map Us, was published by Belle Point Press in 2024. Maggie likes to share baked goods with friends and can be found on Instagram as @maggierue_.
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