Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome back poet Wilda Morris, first featured in our “Space” issue last fall as part of the P2 Collective, a group of artists and poets collaborating in Chicago. Carl Sagan once said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Wilda’s poem “Apple Pie” tells the whimsical story of Uncle Fred, who “told his children,/ If you can read, you can do anything.” Challenged to bake an apple pie from scratch by following a recipe, he proves his point in the most delicious way possible. “After Adopting Five Children” speaks about the literal nightmares Wilda had raising five adopted children who needed the safe space she provided. “I keep looking for a way to safety/ till I wake, sweat-wet and trembling// to another day of caring/ for five wounded children/ who are now mine.” The final poem, “Family Circle,” tells of a game played after a family feast, when “Uncle Laird said, How honest everyone in this family is!” and was challenged to prove it. Passing a twenty dollar bill from person to person under the table, he’s surprised when it turns into a one dollar bill. As mom says, “You’re just too trusting.” Wilda’s sense of humor is matched by her empathy and wonder. This is narrative poetry with a warm heart, gentle rhythm and a dash of mischief.
Read Wilda’s lovely poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Family” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
If Wilda Morris is strange in any way, she says she has come by it naturally; her maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Strange so she must be at least one/fourth strange. Wilda adopted 5 children, who have given her 15 grandchildren. She has served as president of both the Illinois State Poetry Society and Poets & Patrons of Chicago. She is widely published in journals and websites. Wilda’s three published books of poetry are Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant; Pequod Poems: Gamming with Moby-Dick; and At Goat Hollow and Other Poems. The latter is a book about family, focused on her Uncle Norman, the only uncle who had no children of his own.