In This Together: A Community Anthology

The Mesa County Public Library and the Western Colorado Writers’ Forum put together an anthology of art and writing about the pandemic, and on Friday, January 7th, they had a reading to celebrate the book. It was a lovely event and I was so happy to be a part of it! I reconnected with other writers and even a former student who I taught poetry to at GJHS during one of my writing residencies. To my surprise, she has already graduated from college (Where does the time go?) and is now a graphic artist! She was the library’s artist in residence not too long ago, so she was giving me pointers on how to make the most of my residency, which started today!

You can still buy anthologies from the library for $10. It’s a beautiful book, and all of the art is in color. If you’re in Grand Junction, you can also swing by the library, where you will see all of the writing and artwork from the book framed and hanging in the long hallway by the east entrance. It looks great!

I wrote my poem, “Hope” in the spring of 2021 when I thought the arrival of the vaccine meant an end to the pandemic. Here is the poem:

Hope                                                                                                           

Hope is a woman rising from sleep

to join hundreds of others in a lab near the Rhine

to invent something that will save humankind.

Hope is a man delivering a box of tiny vials

containing a clear liquid miracle

just in time for Christmas.

Hope is a needle piercing a purple rubber stopper

drawing into the syringe

the life-saving message it will send.

Hope is a line of people moving forward

for their shot, their body’s chance to armor itself

and claim victory over the virus.

Hope is a retired physician volunteering day after day,

greeting a grateful public with a smile in his eyes

as he slips the solution into their arms

igniting each immune system one tiny spark at a time.

So simple, and yet so complex,

nothing I could ever invent,

and yet as a human race, we have done it,

despite all our differences, inequities, and obstacles,

we have come together to save ourselves.

Hope is a whisper of a pinch

as the needle sinks into my skin,

and suddenly my body is part of the fight.

I carry the answer inside me, and my heart is light.

 Copyright Jill Burkey              

Written 5/12/21