Cynthia Atkins

This poem is one we had to highlight--it's Cynthia Atkin's piece "Proba Vitae" in TinderboxPoetryJournal, vol. 1 issue 2. It's got both a very Parisian and American cross-country roadway flavor--one or the other, or even both at the same time. It's reminiscent of Wyeth paintings [all of the painters] in a strong tonal way. What an amazing piece.

At the end, it veers sharply into American future/technology ideological hovering territory, which is more to the taste of perhaps people reading sci-fi or steampunk inspired work, but there's something older and classic in her work; something timeless.

Here's an excerpt:

Because it’s a snapshot
of spring, a bitten plum is open
on a table like a ripe mouth,
               next to a girl reading a book
from the library—stamped return.
[...]
Because flowers are here to serve up
the hard facts, petals are only
for show or blush? [...]