mnLIT presents: Elizabeth Dingmann
This week's mnLIT-winning piece, "Double Bound" by Elizabeth Dingmann, was selected for the 2009 cycle of mnartists.org's What Light Poetry Project by poet Leslie Adrienne Miller.
Double Bound
Wasn’t the comparison drawn, perfect
beside the flawed othera new generation and shame,
am I assumedexemplary and corrective–
I remember how our childhood felt, blithe and even,in parallel alignment, didn’t the young girls play,
I can’t account for divergence,for the pulls of circumstance, stripping you naked
I am left clothed, but burdened by your nuditywhen was I shrouded by this illusion, when did I first feel
the necessity to retain dignity for us bothhow we differ doesn’t alter our common germ–
do I have to masquerade,
is it my responsibility to redeemcan I live rightly enough?
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About her poetry, Dingmann says: “A poet chooses not only her words, but where to put them on the page. New undertones bloom with a simple line break or an unconventional bit of punctuation. But then, a reader always turns up a new meaning, a new analysis that surprises even the poet. All the poetic precision in the world can’t hold back a poem from taking unexpected flight.”
About the author: Elizabeth Dingmann writes fiction and poetry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the College of Saint Benedict. Elizabeth’s work has been published in Studio One and Among Women. She currently lives and writes in Saint Paul, where she is working on her first novel.
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