This past weekend, Latina poet Brenda Cardenas led a workshop for the English Department. Student Jamie Parker was one of the participants. Parker’s major is Journalism with a minor in Creative Writing. She didn’t begin writing poetry until her first semester at Goshen College. She now has approximately 83 poems, including the poems that she wrote this past weekend. Her writing and poetry have been previously published in the Record, and she looks forward to creating more works for Broadside and PinchPenny Press. The inspiration for one poem came from one of Cardenas’ workshop activities—writing a poem about a photo. “She laid out pictures for us to take one and write a poem about it,” said Parker. “I immediately saw the picture of a dove carrying flowers in its beak. It totally reminded me of Noah’s Ark.” The following poem is her inspired response.

Bringing of Life

By Jamie Parker

after Hope by Esperanza Gama

Noah sent out a dove

To bring back life to him

Red, purple, white flowers

On bright green stems

Clouds roll upon clouds

Purple against a black night

The dove does not stop its flight

Ascending with life in its beak

Little white dove

Why fly so high?

Only to gather life

You’ll take back down?