Melinda Thomsen, Poet
2025 Eric Hoffer Honorable Mention Award
Judges' comments: Dropping Sunrises in a Jar, Melinda Thomsen, Finishing Line Press - In this poetic and philosophical collection, climate change, war, and other social justice issues take center stage. Thomsen develops her own type of eco-punk poetry, one that places nature at the center of everything and celebrates the undeniable role in humanity's existence. These verses beautifully capture nature's—and the world's—chaotic cycles and routines. This is about finding hope in even the smallest moments and actions. "I want to believe the ring on my finger reflects a bit of streetlight," says the speaker of "Looking at the Sky on April 3rd." These poems remind us about the importance of being the light that someone finds during their darkest times.
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November 2024: VERSE IMAGE : Dropping Sunrises in a Jar
Dropping Sunrises in a Jar
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I love that poet-philosopher Melinda Thomsen has turned her wise but uncynical eye and voice towards the tragedy of climate change. Thomsen writes, “I wake to the sky’s daily burning/in these—my sunset—years to collect sunrises…like candles gathered from my forgiving earth… But this burning keeps flushing out the birds…” Thomsen writes extensively of birds, those things with feathers, to give us what I love best in eco poetry, hope-punk. But, sad and knowing as her poems often are, Thomsen can’t help but bring her child-like wonder to the world, and for that I am grateful.
–ELIZABETH J. COLEMAN, editor of Here: Poems for the Planet, Copper Canyon Press, 2019
In Dropping Sunrises in a Jar, Thomsen skillfully highlights and juxtaposes the cyclical nature and beauty of sunrises and the corresponding splendor and chaos of local fauna, flora, as well as man made technologies. From mynas in Maui, bridges in New York City, construction in Prague, to warblers in Maine, Thomsen’s celebration of origins and beginnings cleverly serves as an homage to rebirth, routine, and hope.
–JOSE HERNANDEZ DIAZ, author of The Fire Eater, Bad Mexican, Bad American, and The Parachutist