Editor’s Note: Welcome to Issue 5, The Empress. With this contest issue, I wanted to take inspiration from Pamela Colman Smith’s tarot deck, and channel the energy of The Empress: her lush abundance, confidence, and feminine power. We found both a First Place winner and a finalist in the poetry of Angelique Urquizo, whose wildly creative interpretations sunk us deep in the earth and the body, while also bringing us the ecstasy of the cosmic. These pieces did what the best writing and art does do for us: they gave us a point of entry for a transcendent experience. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did. We thank you for reading The Green Sheaf.
Embodied (First Place)
by Angelica Urquizo
a planet for each socket
to carry clouds
I blink my eyes
weather shifts over
red vein horizons
my sleep, gentle night
my dreams, an eclipse
a strand for each river
I brush my hair into tide and stream
clean salt from the mouth
to braid is to weave
creatures into crevice
my kin, adorned by scale
my ancestor, lateral line
a cleaving for the womb
conceiving constellations
clump of cells, molecular cloud
a tomb where the nebulous
dissipate from star to void
my menses, a turning timepiece
my plasma, the vast unknown
Renewal (Finalist)
by Angelica Urquizo
My roots in the soil
Graze along an ancient voice in the dark
It is grounding and firm
Glows from an ember to red spark
Held safe within the earth
She sends me her message
Buries burdens into dirt
She composts my detritus
A storm takes my dead leaves
And as the wind slows down
I stand to relish in the depths I breathe
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Angelica Urquizo (she/her) is a poet and collage artist who seeks magic in the mundane, often finding inspiration from the natural world, mythology, shadow work, and the overall human experience. She is interested in further exploring her creative expression among the crossroads of genre, technology, and fiber arts. She is earning her MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics at the University of Washington Bothell and has publications in Marrow Magazine, Genrepunk, and Suburban Witchcraft, among others.
Website: angelicaurquizo.com/website
Instagram: @acraftyname