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Issue 4 Poetry

The trees loom blooming above me

I received feedback about the clarity and content of my poem. [Writing Center tutor] suggested altering the eight line of the poem to make it clearer I was referring to the “alcoves of my heart,” which I did by calling it a “hollow nook.” In the final stanza, I originally had a line reading, “i cannot keep my contempt for the trees, fog and rain any longer.” My [tutor] wrote how the first stanza does not seem contemptuous. Her suggestions were to add more negative adjective to the first stanza, or rework that line. I reworked it into “is this a tranquil delusion, or is it hope? / i cannot keep asking the asking the trees, fog, and rain.”

the trees loom blooming above me, 

the low fog waltzes around my feet as the rain clouds roll in

rumbling and thundering, the petrichor of life fades away. 

pitter-pattering down, the rain’s a melody i’ve heard before 

cascading off the trees the moonlight slithers into the alcoves of my heart— 

solemn shards of myself i thought were long forgotten emerge here. 

my soul hangs within that hollow nook, so i step inside, walk around and let in the light

the same light that stuffed into a lantern warms me in this forest of grief. 

amidst the fog appears a pond that settles between the trees. 

the rain’s tune echoes through this canyon of repose as

the sunlight quells my succored soul as i sip away, and 

for a moment i can touch my spirit and there are no lacunas here.

is this a tranquil delusion, or is it hope? 

i cannot keep asking the trees, fog, and rain. 

i can only keep singing until no more 

trees loom blooming above me.

Jules Furgal is a rising senior at DePaul university, studying Vocal Performance at the School of Music. Jules has always been very passionate about music, reading, and writing and finds that operatic singing and poetry go hand in hand. Jules has gotten many opportunities to study and perform beautiful poems that have been set to music and is excited to continue this in their career. Some of Jules’s current favorite poets include Ocean Vuong, Nikita Gill, and Rainer Maria Rilke. In their free time, they enjoy baking and spending time with their friends. This is Jules’s first time being published, and they are very grateful for this very special first.