{"id":4598,"date":"2025-07-13T18:06:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T22:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=4598"},"modified":"2025-07-13T18:06:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T22:06:43","slug":"lucinda-trews-debut-poetry-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2025\/07\/13\/lucinda-trews-debut-poetry-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucinda Trew\u2019s Debut Poetry Collection\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many years ago, I came across a poem by Christina Rossetti’s called “Who Has Seen the Wind?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a short poem, only two stanzas long.\u00a0\u00a0The second stanza reads, \u201cWho has seen the wind? \/ neither you nor I: \/ But when the trees bow down their heads, \/ The wind is passing by.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The underlying theme of Rossetti\u2019s poem is that our daily lives are shaped by forces that we cannot see with our eyes.\u00a0\u00a0I thought of Rossetti\u2019s poem when I discovered Lucinda Trew\u2019s new poetry chapbook titled\u00a0What Falls to Ground.<\/em> Like Rossetti, Lucinda writes about an unseen force, but for Lucinda that force is gravity.\u00a0\u00a0Also like Rossetti, Lucinda writes about trees in her poetry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I found out about the publication of Lucinda\u2019s chapbook, I contacted her and asked her for more information about her collection.\u00a0\u00a0Here is what she sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"What<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

My collection, <\/em>What Falls to Ground, is intended as a quiet hymn to gravity, dwelling in the delicate spaces where physical meets feeling, and where loss yields to grace. These poems trace beauty in descent, in the overlooked and ordinary: a spoon, a moth, the hush of soil. They explore the sacred in the broken, the celestial in the rooted, and the wondrous alchemy that turns falling into flight. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find myself intrigued and inspired by nature. Both its impermanence and its season-to-season, odds-defying resilience \u2013 and the peace that comes from paying close attention. This collection focuses closely on trees and their mystical, mythical properties. The trees in <\/em>What Falls to Ground serve as more than a backdrop; they are elders, witnesses and purveyors of wisdom. Through bark and branch and fallen leaves, they teach us about seasons, survival, and the cycles of decay and renewal. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent most of my adult life in Charlotte, juggling words in all sorts of ways \u2013 as journalist, magazine editor, adjunct professor, and a long and gratifying stint as an executive speechwriter. I find great affinity between the pursuits of rhetoric and poetry: Both rely on rhythm, tempo, inflection, metaphor, and vivid language. Both are meant to be heard as well as read. And, importantly, both poetry and prose aim to convey the personal universally \u2013 distilling lofty thoughts (leafy thoughts in my case!) into lines that resonate and connect.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In writing this collection, I received invaluable feedback from Dannye Romine Powell, whom we lost last year.  She had a profound impact on me as a writer, and so many others here in Charlotte. A most gifted poet herself, she encouraged me and many aspiring writers with her joy of craft and kind, insightful feedback. I still hear her voice when I\u2019m writing and revising \u2013 urging precision, revelation, and \u201cI wonder if you need that last stanza?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about Lucinda Trew and and What Falls to Ground, <\/em>please click on the following link:  https:\/\/charlottelit.org\/press\/chapbooks\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I congratulate Lucinda on the publication of her debut poetry collection, and I thank Kathie Collins, the Editor-in-Chief of Charlotte Lit Press, for publishing Lucinda\u2019s What Falls to Ground.  <\/em>As Lucinda\u2019s poems show, life in Storied Charlotte is shaped by unseen forces, including gravity, which grounds us, and the creative spirit, which sends us soaring.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ten<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many years ago, I came across a poem by Christina Rossetti’s called “Who Has Seen the Wind?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a short poem, only two stanzas long.\u00a0\u00a0The second stanza reads, \u201cWho has seen the wind? \/ neither you nor I: \/ But when the trees bow down their heads, \/ The wind is passing by.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The underlying theme of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[342,35],"class_list":["post-4598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-lucinda-trew","tag-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4598"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4604,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions\/4604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}