SEARCHING FOR A PULSE
FORLORN LIGHT
VIRGINIA WOOLF POEMS
SYLVIA PLATH POEMS
Nazifa Islam
Sylvia Plath Found Poem in DIALOGIST
My final publication of 2022 is "Always the Outcast," a Sylvia Plath found poem in DIALOGIST! A lot of my Sylvia Plath poems are about the act of writing since Plath was pretty preoccupied with the subject. Some of the poems see writing as a necessity and others see it as an unpleasant obligation. "Always the Outcast" is a poem about writing as a necessity—something that the speaker is grateful for. I used a paragraph from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath to write this
Sylvia Plath Found Poem in The Texas Review
I have a Sylvia Plath poem in the latest issue of The Texas Review! "Sitting with Figs" was written using the well-known figs paragraph from The Bell Jar. Here is the paragraph I used with the words I selected for the poem in red: I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famou
Sylvia Plath Found Poem in The Missouri Review
So thrilled that my poem "Death-Spot" is Poem of the Week at The Missouri Review! You can read the poem along with an artist statement here. I wrote this poem using a paragraph from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. Here is the paragraph with the words I selected in red: A morbid fear: that protests too much. To the doctor. I am going to the psychiatrist this week, just to meet him, to know he's there. And, ironically, I feel I need him. I need a father. I need a mothe
Sylvia Plath Found Poem in Invisible City
"Skeptical and Inferior" appeared in Invisible City this past September. The very thoughtful editors included a short section on the writing process as well as the paragraph I used from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath to write the poem alongside the piece. You can see which words I used to write "Skeptical and Inferior" at Invisible City but I'm including the paragraph here as well with the words I used in red: Mother wrote today with a good letter of maxims; skeptica
Sylvia Plath Found Poems in SAGINAW
Last summer, David Harrison Horton invited me to contribute some found poems to SAGINAW No. 9 and so the first of my Sylvia Plath found poems were introduced to the world! Read "I Wanted a Nice Life," "Wanting," "Soft Blossoms," "Spring," "Tongue-Shy," "Some Sleep Is Bleak," and "No Solace" here. David was kind enough to nominate "Wanting" for a Pushcart Prize later in 2021. All seven of these poems were written using paragraphs from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. T
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Zoeglossia
Stephanie Heit was kind enough to invite me to contribute to Zoeglossia's January Poem of the Week series! Zoeglossia—a community for poems with disabilities—published "The Middle of Alone," a poem from Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems, alongside stellar poems by Stephanie, Roxanna Bennett, and Airea D. Matthews. You can read and/or listen to me reading "The Middle of Alone" here. Here is the a paragraph from The Waves that I used to write "The Middle of Alone" with
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Blood Orange Review
So pleased to share that I have a Virginia Woolf found poem in the new issue of Blood Orange Review! You can both read "The Playing-Field" and listen to me reading it online. Small fun fact: I pulled the title of my Woolf found poems collection from this poem. Here is the a paragraph from The Waves that I used to write "The Playing-Field" with the words I selected in red: 'Now we move out of this cool temple, into the yellow playing-fields,' said Louis. 'And, as it is a half-
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in RHINO
I feel very fortunate to have a Virginia Woolf found poem in RHINO 2021! This is a print journal so you'll have to wait for Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems to be released this summer by Shearsman Books to read "Fortunes." This is the last Woolf found poem I wrote (over a year ago) before sitting down and arranging all my Woolf poems into a collection. In what's basically a half-baked preview, here is the paragraph I used from The Waves to write the "Fortunes" with t
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Aquifer
I figured it's better to share good news late than never: I had a Woolf found poem published in Aquifer: The Florida Review Online last month! You can check the poem out online now. Here is the paragraph I used from The Waves to write "Another day"; the words I selected are in red: 'I hate darkness and sleep and night,' said Jinny, 'and lie longing for the day to come. I long that the week should be all one day without divisions. When I wake early—and the birds wake me—I lie
Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Dreginald
I'm excited to share that I have five Virginia Woolf found poems in issue twenty of Dreginald! Four of these poems are from The Waves and one is from Mrs. Dalloway. Here are the four poems taken from The Waves' paragraphs, with each poem title paired with its paragraph and the words I used for each poem in red: "Before the Wave" 'All my ships are white,' said Rhoda. 'I do not want red petals of hollyhocks or geranium. I want white petals that float when I tip the basin up. I
A Painting and "The Birds" Poems in Entropy
I'm excited to share that I have four poems and a painting in Entropy! The poems are all part of Entropy's "The Birds" series and they're accompanied by an abstract black-and-white painting of mine: "#58." It would be swell if you could take some time to check out all the art. I wrote "The Seagull" a few years after graduating with my MFA. It was a relief to write. I'd been completely tapped out creatively for months and months and then one random afternoon, "The Seagull" cam
Virginia Woolf Found Poems in DIAGRAM
I have long wanted to have poems published in DIAGRAM. It's such a great journal and I've always thought that the work they publish is perpetually innovative, remarkable, and really interesting. After a few bouts of submitting, I'm finally fortunate enough to have two Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Issue 20.3! Check out "She Admired the Dark" and "Us"! What makes this publication all the better for me is that my found poems are published alongside two poems from one of my very
Virginia Woolf Found Poems in The Journal
I'm so excited to share that two of my Virginia Woolf found poems have found a home in the 44.2 Spring 2020 issue of The Journal! Check out "Brim and Break" and "Seized Up." I believe all writers have (out of their own work) favorite poems. "Brim and Break" is one of my absolute favorites out of the seventy-ish Viriginia Woolf found poems I've written at this point. The source paragraph I used for it is one of the shortest I've worked with, and it was really gratifying to see
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in The Indianapolis Review
I'm pretty excited to kick off the month with a publication. "Everything Is Clear" is in the Spring 2020 issue of The Indianapolis Review! In terms of providing commentary on the bipolar experience, this poem is much more about mania than depression. Mania can be a pretty lovely change from the depression that defines most of my bipolar episodes. Obviously, it can go really awry—especially the longer you're stuck in a manic phase—but it does often feel like a respite from the
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Figure 1
My found poem "This Is Us" was published by Figure 1 just a couple days ago. I very deliberately picked the paragraph for this poem; I wanted a paragraph that had a lot of "we"s in it. So a search for a "we"-heavy paragraph led me to the following paragraph from The Waves—the words I selected are in red: "'Now we have fallen through the tree-tops to the earth. The air no longer rolls its long, unhappy, purple waves over us. We touch earth; we tread ground. That is the close-c
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Queen Mob's Teahouse
My found poem "I Know Permanence" was published by Queen Mob's Teahouse earlier this month! Here is the paragraph I used from The Waves with the selected words in red: "'It is true, and I know for a fact,' said Bernard, 'as we walk down this avenue, that a King, riding, fell over a molehill here. But how strange it seems to set against the whirling abysses of infinite space a little figure with a golden teapot on his head. Soon one recovers belief in figures: but not at once
Virginia Woolf Found Poems in Passages North
I have two Virginia Woolf found poems in the latest issue of Passages North, which was published earlier this month! "Presence" and "Born Falling" were both surprisingly easy to write. I remember sitting down with the paragraphs and "finding" the poems really quickly. Sometimes it's a very slow process to get a found poem written, but for whatever reason these two emerged very easily. Here is the paragraph from The Waves I used for "Presence" with the words I selected in red:
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in The Believer
I have a new found poem in the latest issue of The Believer! It's quite exciting. Check out "Ourselves" for a chance to dip your toe into some existential weirdness. I used a paragraph from Mrs. Dalloway to write this poem. Here's the paragraph from the novel with the words I used in red: "She frowned; she stamped her foot. She must go back again to Septimus since it was almost time for them to be going to Sir William Bradshaw. She must go back and tell him, go back to him si
Poems in Random Sample Review
So I somehow did not get around to writing about the two poems—"Frozen" and "Marred"—I had published in Random Sample Review back in August. I was really excited to have poems in a journal with so many Oregon State MFA Program graduates at the helm. I wrote both of these poems back when I was in grad school actually, so it felt all the more fitting that they ended up at Random Sample. I don't remember much about writing "Frozen." All I recall is visualizing a small snow-cover
Virginia Woolf Found Poem in Beloit Poetry Journal
I am so incredibly excited to have a Virginia Woolf found poem in the Spring 2019 issue of Beloit Poetry Journal! "Her Instinct" is one of my favorites of my found poems actually. In just a few short lines, I think it really sums up just what anxiety and mania feel like—the unsettling agitation of it all. Here is the paragraph I used to write the poem—it's from The Waves—with the words I picked out in red: "'There is Susan,' said Louis. 'She does not see us. She has not dress