CYNTHIA SOWERS

Cynthia Sowers was a Senior Lecturer at the Residential College of the University of Michigan until her retirement in 2019.  During her teaching career, she explored the mutual engagement of literature and the visual arts.  This interdisciplinary approach informs her creative work as well, both poetry and painting. Find her at https://cynthiasowers.rc.lsa.umich.edu/.

TRANSPORTED

 He ran, with elbows keyed

to right and left,

as on an ancient stele;

But unlike that warrior

bereft — without helm,

shield or spear — what remains

of perished might;

Without the smile

of hard submission

to closing stone

and all the turning transformation

of stone, out and beyond

seeing and hearing —

to the marbled eyes 

of gods in their element —

the ears that do not hear

from within beauty’s calm.

He ran, he fell, he ran

ungathered against the bars

of fingers pointing and backs turned,

he ran against remorseless

natural weight of stone,

Alone;

Now practically invisible,

To us.

Read more of Cynthia’s work in Solum Journal Volume I, Volume II, and Volume IV.