indefinITe
by Aubrey Gerhardt
I have always written poetry in notebooks without lines to accommodate the sketches that would appear in the margins. What began to take shape in my rough drafts was the use of distorted lettering to create visual art within a poem, or to accompany a poem. These drawings were stripped away by word processors, never shared. I began to feel as though the images unseen were parallel to the invisible nature of my chronic disease. I bought my first canvas with the intention of creating a visual map of my pain in words within the outline of my body. I have found that building images with letters and words, sometimes plucked directly from the accompanying poem, provides a more powerful impact than the poem alone can achieve. There is an emotional response triggered from the sight of an image that provides an entry into the deeper realm of language. “IndefinITe” is one canvas in a series of poetry, canvases and sketches that address the themes of chronic disease, personal relationships, and human potential. The three mediums mixed in this work include a tea-stained canvas, Sharpie on sketch paper, and résumé paper run through a trusty typewriter.
Aubrey Rahab Gerhardt is the founder of South Jersey Poets Collective and hosts World Above: Free Poetry Nights at Dante Hall in Atlantic City on a monthly basis. She serves as Director of the Otto Bruyns Public Library of Northfield, New Jersey. Gerhardt is a graduate of Antioch College with her BA in Creative Writing and a graduate of Simmons College with a masters in Library and Information Science. Support of her family, friends, and peers in the poetry community has made it possible for Gerhardt to continue creating works of poetry in an otherwise too busy life.
Originally appeared in the online supplement to the Beyond Category issue 43.2-44.1