鈥淟isten, only night is watching the night nurse,鈥 read , MFA 鈥82, Cornell鈥檚 Ann S. Bowers Professor of English, from her poem 鈥淪till World Nocturne.鈥
The poem is about the time she spent as a caregiver for her dying mother. As a caregiver, Fulton told an audience gathered in Klarman Hall auditorium April 27, 鈥渁 lot happens at night.鈥 The poem goes on: 鈥淥ur mother crying 鈥楳other!鈥 / and asking if the world鈥檚 still here,鈥 and 鈥淥nly night will watch as I, the night nurse, // wake up to a world unhere, unyours.鈥
The reading was part of 鈥淚n a Word,鈥 a once-per-semester conversation series sponsored by the Creative Writing Program. Fulton discussed the motivations and characteristics of her poems with , professor and chair of the English department, and read from her 2015 book, 鈥淏arely Composed.鈥
Time, love, and death are key themes in 鈥淏arely Composed.鈥 In addition to free verse forms, the book includes sonnets and a villanelle. 鈥淪till World Nocturne鈥 was the first villanelle Fulton had ever written; she chose the form because its repeating lines enacted the obsessive quality of grief.
Fulton recalled for the audience a funeral she went to in which the funeral home gave death-themed coloring books to children. The coloring book, which told the story of a chipmunk whose sibling had died, included scenes from the wake and funeral for children to color. While this was intended as a kind of grief therapy, Fulton regarded it more likely to traumatize than comfort a child. Her poem 鈥淔orcible Touching鈥 rewrites quotes from the ill-conceived coloring book, and includes the line 鈥淓ven the hospital will die.鈥 Another poem, 鈥淩eckoning Frame,鈥 invokes censorship by blacking out strings of words and letters.
While reading 鈥淩eckoning Frame,鈥 Fulton projected the redacted poem so the audience could see black boxes of deleted text. She called this poem 鈥渁 document of dissociation and horror,鈥 composed in a 鈥渢hwarted, mutilated tongue,鈥 and in a 鈥渓anguage forged by secrecy and marked by duress.鈥 Some of the lines from this poem include: 鈥渢he tongue is ex-ed,鈥 鈥淚t is good to have ouching,鈥 鈥淭ime does us鈥 and 鈥淜eep your Never person laced in the dark.鈥
Gilbert read some of his favorite one-liners from Fulton鈥檚 book, such as 鈥淭here鈥檚 no dress code, / though leg irons // are always appropriate,鈥 鈥淲e have a saying: nothing is allowed / but that which is allowed is compulsory.鈥 鈥淭he suicide prevention fest was canceled / 鈥榗ause of rain,鈥 and 鈥淒o you really think / those shades you wear above your head // will keep the sun out of your mind?鈥
鈥淏arely Composed鈥 is available at Buffalo Street Books and other booksellers.
Amanda Bosworth, a Cornell doctoral student in history, is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.
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