Epiphanelle by Adrienne Stephenson

May 31, 2023
Poem title: Epiphanelle Poet name: Adrienne Stevenson Poem: after “Winter Uplands” by Archibald Lampman The loneliness of this forsaken ground the long white drift upon whose powdered peak I sit in the great silence as one bound Wild lands our urban neighbourhoods surround so near and yet so far, that which we seek: the loneliness of this forsaken ground Escaping halls cacophonous with sound of those who do not think, though yet they speak I sit in the great silence as one bound Who knows what native beauty I have found; what mercy for my musings ever bleak? The loneliness of this forsaken ground awakes in me a genius to astound though wage-slavery binds my workday week now I sit in the great silence as one bound In frozen rapids lies this sacred mound its former denizens no longer meek I sit in the great silence as one bound in the loneliness of this forsaken ground End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Adrienne Stevenson Previously published in Poets’ Pathway: The Lampman Challenge (Poets’ Pathway Press: Ottawa, 2018) [“Epiphanelle” won first place in the challenge] Adrienne Stevenson lives in Ottawa, Canada, on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People. A retired forensic scientist, she writes poetry and prose. Her poetry has appeared in over fifty print and online journals and anthologies in Canada, USA, UK, Europe, India, and Australia. She is a member of two active local poetry workshops and a fiction critique group, and is on the board of her neighbourhood community association. Her stories have won or placed in short story contests of Capital Crime Writers and the Canadian Authors Association-National Capital Region, with two published in Byline and one in Mystery Magazine. Several non-fiction articles have appeared in Byline and Anglo-Celtic Roots. She has completed and is querying an historical novel, Mirrors & Smoke. When not writing, Adrienne tends a large garden, reads voraciously, and procrastinates playing several musical instruments.