Delmarva Review: I Am the White Space by Irene Fick

Author’s note: “As a narrative poet, the process of creating this piece was somewhat of a departure for me.  Lately, I have been intrigued by absence—what is not visible, not said, not done—even my own mental absence from much of what is going on around me.  This appeal to ‘white space’ is especially strong on the page. It allows readers to fill in the blanks, interpret, create their own meaning.“

I Am the White Space

that drifts through the bold and blackened strokes       the breath
between lines        silent witness        on the lettered

page       the pause that lasts too long      the longing
that lurks behind each key         the lonely hiss
of memory       the land       the ones who loved      missing       frozen 

ghosts in weathered frames       I am the ivory wind

the invisible wilderness       eternal winter       frost
that never melts        bones that won’t decay       all that remains 

unspoken        all that aches for meaning       the promise of grace 

⧫

Irene Fick is the author of The Wild Side of the Window (Main Street Rag) and The Stories We Tell (Broadkill Press). Both received first place awards from the National Federation of Press Women. Her poems have been published in Delmarva Review, Poet Lore, Gargoyle, The Broadkill Review, and The Blue Mountain Review.  Her essays have appeared in River Teeth Journal,  Schuylkill Valley Journal, and Hippocampus (forthcoming). She lives in Lewes, Delaware.

“I Am the White Space” was a runner-up for inclusion in the fourteenth annual Delmarva Review, to be released in November. The review publishes compelling new poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction  from thousands of submissions annually by authors across the region, the nation, and beyond. As an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary publication, it is supported by individual contributions and a grant from the Talbot County Arts Council with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council.

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