Abstract

Nothing Buried Stays Buried is a collection of poems that embraces raw imagery, threads of magical realism, and allusions to classical mythology in an attempt to make sense of the tangible and intangible losses experienced by its speakers. Told through the voices of confessional speakers who struggle with loneliness, identity, faith, and death, the collection aims to delve into contrasting themes that have long been perpetuated by Greek and Roman mythology: passionate love and violent death, liberation and violation, the natural alongside the celestial. Poems such as "What You Left Behind," "Loneliness Braids My Hair," and "If You Die First" dwell on the idea of loss not as a past occurrence, but as an active emotional experience that can haunt an individual, follow them throughout their daily life and into their dreams like their shadow. Speakers within the collection reexamine memories of withered relationships and explore imaginary realms (a floating island and the second circle of hell, for example) in their search for answers to the questions: What do we make of loss? And how do we go on after something or someone has been lost to us: a pair of saltwater earrings, a loved one, a part of ourselves which has left a throbbing absence we still carry in our hearts?

Notes

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Graduation Date

2018

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Thaxton, Terry

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Degree Program

Creative Writing

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0007076

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0007076

Language

English

Release Date

May 2023

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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