Lindsay Nelson
English (Comparative Literature)
Poem: “Shade,” 2008

Much like Cormac McCarthy’s despairing post-apocalyptic novel The Road, Nelson’s short poem conjures a world that has sadly moved on from our own. An unearthly pall hangs over the imagery she paints; the pastoral vision of a shady tree beside a warm, gentle riverbank that led Alice into her fantastical drowsy dream has been transformed into a lone charred husk in a burnt and barren landscape. However, in her accompanying statement, the poet signaled a positive note: “Whatever kind of destruction the world may witness, the imprint left by stories and their storytellers, by dreams and their dreamers, remains . . . even when there is no one left to dream them or write them down.”