Synkroniciti is pleased to welcome poet Susan Shea, a New Yorker now living in the Pennsylvania woods, with two beautiful poems. The first, “On Leave,” is a tribute to her favorite uncle, who possessed an otherworldliness, perhaps a kindness, openness or assurance that most people did not have. His energy reminded her of “that heaven town, where we recognize/ each other, adore each other, where we only/ see flawless, feel thrill in every cell…” Remembering a dance step he taught her, she mourns his passing, but recognizes that he never really belonged here, wistfully observing that he is already home. The second poem, “Filling in the Blanks,” is about the dissonance we feel as children confronted with society, language, and concepts that don’t make sense. Her mother was her translator in those early years, but even mother couldn’t explain everything: “even in church, when I asked her if she knew what the priest/ was saying, she whispered that he spoke in Latin, and no one/ knew what he was saying, but we had to be silent and listen…” Children often have surprising powers of discernment and will ask questions that reveal the absurdity of the adult world. Susan’s poetry is full of wonder and curiosity, gently rhythmic and alliterative with striking imagery that is both relatable and unique. It is her vulnerability, openness and assurance that comfort us and draw us to examine our lives for similar experiences, reminding us that sometimes our need to fit in overrides our authenticity.
Read Susan’s insightful poems in Synkroniciti’s “Belonging” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
In the past year, Susan Shea made the full-time transition from school psychologist to poet. In that time, more than one hundred of her poems have been accepted for publications that include: Invisible City, Ekstasis, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Feminine Collective, Amethyst Review, Green Silk Journal, Flora Fiction, Agape Review, The Write Launch, The Gentian, Across the Margin, October Hill Magazine, Litbreak Magazine, Beltway Poetry, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Foreshadow, and others. She grew up in NYC, and now lives in a forest in Pennsylvania.