The Juniper Cure

• Other Authors: Boles, Adam (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2016SP_Boles_fsu_0071N_13256

This collection of poetry explores the intersections between devotion and loss, anger and guilt, grief and hope. While some poems are buttressed by straightforward narratives, others are more impressionistic. The poems strive for precision in language, simple musicality, and emotional resonance. This collection also attempts a wide lens, a focus which looks outside of the speakers' individual experience and interior emotionality, and toward the chaotic world in which a work like this is created. In developing my poetic stance, I've wrestled with Shelly's claim that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." On the other hand, Auden admonishes that "poetry makes nothing happen." There appears to be some middle ground between these sentiments, and I find my poetry exploring that mid-space. Studding the outskirts of the manuscript are poems about war and religion; environmental degradation and disaster; and the commonplace violence that is an ever increasing aspect of our country and world. The title poem in the collection, which serves as a centerpiece for the work, is a meditation on memory as it pertains to the dementia suffered by the speaker's father at the end of his life. This relationship reoccurs throughout the collection, and is the subject behind the emotional core of the thesis. More broadly, the notions of loss and endings permeate the other poems presented in the collection. The dissolution of relationships, and the guilt, regret, and anger that go along with these moments between people inform many of the manuscript's poems. Images and ideas that point to disruption and instability are centrally figured. === A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. === Spring Semester 2016. === April 6, 2016. === poetry === Includes bibliographical references. === James Kimbrell, Professor Directing Thesis; David Kirby, Committee Member; Andrew Epstein, Committee Member.