National Poetry Month is quickly drawing to a close, so as a bittersweet farewell we asked the Élan staff for their favorite lines of poetry:

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea”

–e.e. cummings. “maggie and milly and molly and may”.

(Emily Cramer. Editor-in-Chief.)

 

“Well what’s in the piñata they asked. I told them

God was and they ran into the desert, barefoot.”

–Natalie Diaz. “No More Cake Here”.

(Sarah Buckman. Editor-in-Chief.)

 

“You have my permission not to love me;

I am a cathedral of deadbolts

and I’d rather burn myself down

than change the locks.”

–Rachel McKibbens. “Letter from My Brain to My Heart”.

(Emily Leitch. Layout Editor.)

 

“Suddenly I realize

that if I step out of my body I would break

into blossom.”

–James Wright. “A Blessing”.

(Taylor Austell. Layout Editor.)

 

“Now you say this is home

so go ahead, worship the mountains as they dissolve in dust,

wait on the wind, catch a scent of salt, call it our life.”

–Philip Levine. “Our Valley”.

(Raegen Carpenter. Poetry Editor.)

 

“then I awoke and dug

that if I dreamed natural

dreams of being a natural

woman doing what a woman

does when she’s natural

I would have a revolution.”

–Nikki Giovanni. “Revolutionary Dreams”.

(Brittanie Demps. Poetry Editor.)

 

“we are for each: then

laugh, leaning back in my arms

for life’s not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis”

–e.e. cummings. “since feeling is first”

(Mariah Abshire. Poetry Editor.)

 

“I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.”

–Maya Angelou. “Still I Rise”.

(Kiera Nelson. Fiction Editor.)

 

“I had the new books—words, numbers

and operations with numbers I did not

comprehend—and crayons, unspoiled

by use, in a blue canvas satchel

with red leather straps.

Spruce, inadequate, and alien

I stood at the side of the road.

It was the only life I had.”

–Jane Kenyon. “Three Songs at the End of Summer”.

(Emily Jackson. Non-Fiction Editor.)

 

“I’m carrying my box of faces. If I want to change faces, I will.”

–Naomi Shihab Nye. “One Boy Told Me”.

(Shamiya Anderson. Non-Fiction Editor.)

 

“The names of women melt in their mouths like hot mints.”

–Yusef Komunyakaa. “Moonshine”.

(Haley Hitzing. Social Media Editor.)

 

“And I’d like to be a bad woman, too,

and wear the brave stockings of night-black lace

and strut down the streets with paint on my face.

–Gwendolyn Brooks. “a song in the front year.”

(Madison George. Social Media Editor.)

 

“So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.”

–Charles Baudelaire. “Be Drunk.”

(Makenzie Fields. Submissions Editor.)

 

“God comes to your window

all bright and black wings,

and you’re just too tired to open it.”

–Dorianne Laux. “Dust”.

(Stephanie Thompson. P.R. & Marketing Editor.)

 

“come celebrate

with me that everyday

something has tried to kill me

and has failed.”

–Lucille Clifton. “Eve Thinking”.

(Mrs. Melanson. Teacher Sponsor.)

 

The fourth month of the year is a time for poets around the world to rejoice. An entire thirty days strictly dedicated to the craft of poetry. I’m eager to broadcast my passion for this art form beyond just my responsibilities as one of Élan’s poetry editors, even beyond the creative writing department as a whole. Poetry is a universal vehicle of emotion and connection. And so, the craft should be readily available to the universe.

It would be unrealistic wishing for the entire Douglas Anderson student body to be as enthusiastic about National Poetry Month as I am, the tallest of any order. (But if they were, my existence on this planet would be fulfilled.) Instead, I’ll narrow my scope. This April, I hope to reach out and enlighten one non-poet and reveal poetry’s often overlooked allure. I want to shatter the dissecting lens English classes bound to poetry.

I need to prove how poetry can flip a person’s entire world—just as it did to mine.

–Mariah Abshire, Poetry Editor

How to complete a spring book in steps:
Step 1: Find a dedicated staff who are in love with literature and art
Step 2: Make a website and reveal your publication to the world through social media!
Step 3: Open submissions and let the work come to you
Step 4: Organize the submissions and number them so it is a fair blind reading
Step 5: Read everything!
Step 5: Make staff decisions on writing and art
Step 6: Choose finalists and send writing to judges
Step 7: Now that the art and writing finalists have been chosen, you can make the order of the pieces for the actual book!
Step 8: Layout
Step 9: Layout
Step 10: Layout and upload
Step 11: Enjoy your finished masterpiece!
I wish that making a book was as easy as typing out the process, but it is not. Simply put, being in a publication takes a lot of time and effort; you really need to have a passion for what you do. When you have passion however, it makes it easier to stay organized and keep faith in what you do. That is what the Élan staff have always maintained throughout the years, and this year has been no different. We are extremely proud of our latest spring edition, and I hope that you will enjoy all the talent and hard work that has gone into creating it. The edition is on our website: elanlitmag.org We are also working on our print compilation of both the winter and spring books, so please keep an eye out for announcements related to the print book!

–Sarah Buckman, Editor-in-Chief