by Charise M. Hoge
 |
| Irina Ratushinskaya in 1986. Photo by Jane Bown/The Observer. |
What would Irina say,
Irina Ratushinskaya,
poet in a prison camp
in 1983?
She saved her art
with a matchstick
and soap––
carving stanzas,
committing
to memory,
washing
away evidence.
Would she capture
the omissions,
the dying brilliance,
as she did the pattern
of frost from the gulag?
Would she take
the matchstick
of our outrage?
Would she put
soap in the mouth
of untruth?
Charise M. Hoge is a dance/movement therapist, writer, and performing artist. She is the author of Striking Light from Ashes and Muse in a Suitcase. Her poetry is also featured in Next Line, Please: Prompts to Inspire Poets and Writers (edited by David Lehman, Cornell University Press), as well as various journals. Charise is poet-in-residence for Art on Cullers Run (Mathias, West Virginia) and Art All Night H Street (Washington, DC).
Irina Ratushinskaya,
poet in a prison camp
in 1983?
She saved her art
with a matchstick
and soap––
carving stanzas,
committing
to memory,
washing
away evidence.
Would she capture
the omissions,
the dying brilliance,
as she did the pattern
of frost from the gulag?
Would she take
the matchstick
of our outrage?
Would she put
soap in the mouth
of untruth?
Charise M. Hoge is a dance/movement therapist, writer, and performing artist. She is the author of Striking Light from Ashes and Muse in a Suitcase. Her poetry is also featured in Next Line, Please: Prompts to Inspire Poets and Writers (edited by David Lehman, Cornell University Press), as well as various journals. Charise is poet-in-residence for Art on Cullers Run (Mathias, West Virginia) and Art All Night H Street (Washington, DC).
