Quiet solitude encounters uncertainty and transformation in Jocelyn Ulevicus’s pensive and curious poem, “Breathing and Swallowing in Montreal, 2017”. This brilliant poem seems to be the start of something, ending with a question, teasing at growth secured somewhere in the colors of that stark horizon. Jocelyn told The Dewdrop, “‘Breathing and Swallowing in Montreal, 2017’ explores the ephemerality of life across latitudes of physical and emotional distance.” She explained, “The poem is drawn from the soon to be released collection The Difference Between Breathing and Swallowing (Sunday Morning’s At The River Press 2023), and was written based on notes collected during the summer of 2017 in Montréal at the start of a five year healing journey.”
Breathing and Swallowing in Montreal, 2017
Orange cut with blue
a crack in the horizon
all the faces I haven’t
seen in a while remain
in the distance
not as a passing cloud
not as a mountain / but
more the deep and private
purple that lives in the
blue / a stroke of light,
a touch of sun—is that
God, a nothing that
cancels out nothing?
Jocelyn Ulevicus
Jocelyn Ulevicus is an American artist, writer, and poet. In her visual work, you’ll encounter colorful & energetic floral arrangements. At the same time, in her writing, she more closely explores her experiences of being a woman growing through and beyond loss and trauma. Her work is either forthcoming or published in magazines such as SWWIM Every Day, The Free State Review, Blue Mesa Review, Humana Obscura and elsewhere. Ulevicus is a Pushcart and Best Poets nominee, and her in-progress memoir, The Birth of a Tree, was shortlisted for the 2019 Santa Fe Literary Awards Program. Her favorite quality in a person is kindness to strangers and animals. You can follow her work on Instagram: @jocelyn.ulevicus or visit her website: www.jocelynulevicus.com.