Synkroniciti is excited to introduce emerging writer and poet Larysa Labiak, based in Denver, Colorado. In “Grandma’s House,” Larysa uses vivid sensory imagery and visual space to create a sense of the emptiness that occurs when a loved one dies. And yet, despite that emptiness, or perhaps because of it, grandma’s house and the flora and fauna in and around it come alive with suppressed emotion and take on human characteristics. The house “Has roots growing through the pipes/ as if the oak tree reaches out to the house and asks/ you won’t go, will you?” “Babushka Doll House” deals with the bond passing from mother to daughter over generations. “My family tree is a shelf/ of babushka dolls. Brightly painted,/ wooden scarved Slavic women.” This truth is borne out on a cellular level–part of the daughter existed inside the mother as she formed inside the grandmother–as well as showing up in recognizable physical and mental patterns. Larysa’s poetry is a lovely marriage of intelligence and emotion.
Read Larysa’s insightful poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Family” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/. This is a new voice you do not want to miss.
Larysa Labiak is an emerging writer, Denver local, and long-time spelling enthusiast. She graduated from the University of Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing, and has spent time as a creative writing mentor for students in public schools. Her work has been previously published in Mapping the Body: Poetry & Anatomical Art, Little Creatures, Tempered Runes Press, and 2Elizabeths.