Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome back Iowan poet Martha Sherick Shen, who won our “Vulnerable” poetry contest last year with her compelling visual poem “Hollywood Juniper,” this time with two poems about transformations of identity. The striking visual poem “Blood Letters” was inspired by a biography of the same name by Lian Xi published in 2018, telling the story of Lin Zhao, “a poet and journalist arrested by Chinese authorities in 1960 and executed eight years later at the height of the Cultural Revolution….she rooted her dissent in her Christian faith—and expressed it in long, prophetic writings done in her own blood, and at times on her clothes and on cloth torn from her bedsheets.” Martha’s husband’s parents also went through the purge of the Cultural Revolution and she feels herself drawn to Lin Zhao’s work in a personal and wrenching way: “a Poet’s Life/ indelibly written on the sheets of Time/ flung to the Wind/ ignites China ablaze// i taste the ash in the history of/ the Name i bear.” This dynamic poem reminds us how a government can betray and murder its own people and how powerful one voice can be in dissent. The second poem, “Listening with the Ear of Your Skin,” is a quieter, but no less moving, read, lamenting the way aging diminishes our sense of touch and the comfort and connection it brings: “when you are Old/ it is Listening with your Skin/ you miss most.. hand/ cupped in hand foot reaching out to feel Presence/ in the middle of the night./ the tactile connection to humanity.” Our tendency is to pull away from aging skin, to fear the changes that happen and forget how comforting touch can be. Martha’s imagery is sensual, sweet and heartbreaking and serves to remind us that we can do more to express love and care to our loved ones.
Read Martha’s expressive poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Identity” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/
Martha Sherick Shen is native to Iowa. Born into an academic family, she was labeled a slow learner years before dyslexia was understood. She did not read until she was 13 years old. Suddenly, reading became her world of wonder and writing became her expression. It was a private blossoming, however, since it did not change the way people saw her. After raising her daughters and divorcing, she earned a degree in Zoology from Iowa State University within a specialized program for Neuroscience and Physiological Psychology. She graduated with honors in 2003. During these years, Martha also met, befriended, and later married the man who would bring her a fairytale life, Sheldon Shen. She has written poetry privately throughout her life. Martha currently lives in Des Moines, Iowa with her daughter Abra’s family and her French Bulldog, Judah.
