Ode to a Japanese Vessel

(a response to the exhibit “Born of Fire: Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists,”

Spring 2023)

by Nora Jacobson ‘26

Thou pinchèd pot of polished prowess

Child of divine

How did you strike so steadily

This tender heart of mine

I cannot say I walk away

With shivers down my spine

But someday I feel I will recall

The longing in the shine

Of maiden’s pearl, soft and tumbling

O’er sparkling sands of yore

Reaching out in traveler’s doubt

For some distant shore

What hope rests in unique essence

Effervescence projects on aurora aura borealis

Delivering a message with a blessing

Everything will be alright

Undone

by Avery Dennard ‘27

I am floating between things.
time and memory things,
people and person things,
me and Me.

It isn’t not knowing,
it’s unknowing.
Rereading, rewriting.
Undoing.
Redoing.

I am unraveling
then reworking.
The muscle memory is gone;
I don’t know these stitches.

I just want to make something,
to land somewhere
that is somehow
unknowing yet fearless.

Maybe the pattern of it all
will kick in,
the muscle memory.
But I hope not.