Cultural Studies

Spring brings flowers, abundant sunlight, and the poetic urge. Here are excerpts from verses that Chicago students recited this past April.

"Print Money"
Marco Maisto, a fourth-year English concentrator, presented this original poem at Columbia College's City-Wide Undergraduate Poetry Reading on April 12:

"Aphasia simply begins that way. Indirectly / heard soma or wildflower totally distributing / the waking of your speech and the rock of / sudden geologies between who we were. A soap opera will not clean us from the high / petals fanning, the fallen pollen enumerating / milk crates which are suspiciously holding milk."

"Mylanta"
MOIM ("gathering" in Korean), a student group that translates Korean poetry into English, read works at its annual Coffeehouse on April 10 including this piece by Korean poet Yu Ha:

"Reading the morning paper on the subway my heart suddenly skipped a beat / The deceased dictator was giving me an unavoidable stare / Sitting with such an air of authority After collecting myself / I realized that it was an advertisement for digestive medicine featuring / An actor who got his break for his uncanny resemblance to the dictator / I've dealt with an ulcer myself for a couple of months so I know / That nothing beats Mylanta on an upset stomach"

"A Walk in the Woods"
First-year Sapna Thottathil, a runner-up in the annual poetry contest sponsored by the University's Environ- mental Center, presented her poem at the center's Earth Day dinner on April 21:

"I sit in the sun / with eyes closed my body aware of / every / breath / emotions rise / what has come? / gone? / There are green pines / growing in the woods. / Do they care / about / my / life?"