Some years ago I had the absolute honor of writing poems to be included as part of Bonnie Ferrill Roman’s vivid, striking installations at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities Paper.Works exhibit. Her work was a diptych in two alcoves of the gallery space, entitled Ready to Burst, and Unravelling, on the themes of pregnancy and pregnancy loss, in her signature medium of handmade paper. These poems are now being published this spring in the literary magazine Collaburature, the focus of which is the pairing of verbal and visual art.

It features “Render,” which was part of Unravelling: https://collaborature.blogspot.com/2025/03/render-mb-fr.html?m=1

and “Gravida,” which was part of Ready to Burst: https://collaborature.blogspot.com/2025/05/gravida-mb-fr.html?m=1
Render – Maria Berardi
Everything is weeping,
unspooling, sinking,
dissolution condensing
into bright wet beads.
The red tent rends itself.
Rivulets of ribbon unravel.
This is where Nature
and whatever
it is
that is
God,
meet.
Nature, red in tooth and claw,
fundamental, essential, unkind.
Mothers – tender.
Mother Nature – never.
Cherubim tumble toward their undoing.
Stars go dark. The great cord frays.
The elements unhook themselves
and fall, atom by atom,
giving way to more and still
more space, more sadness.
Something is shining through
this pain, this depletion,
so much more empty
for having begun to be so full.
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Thank you.
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