Synkroniciti is honored to welcome back poet Lori Lasseter Hamilton of Birmingham, Alabama, who won our “Intersections” poetry contest a year ago. “Space” features “A Star Shirt In Your Portrait for Brian Voice Porter Hawkins.” It is a glowing tribute to a fellow poet, gone much too soon, and a thank you for the nurture he provided by hosting open mikes and encouraging others to find their voice. “And now I’m reborn because of how brightly you shone,/ inspired like fire/ ‘cause you spit flames and waited for the echo.” Lori reminds us that it is not only the poetry and expression we leave on the page that creates new worlds. The poetry, authenticity and kindness we exhibit in our daily lives creates space as well, room for ourselves and others to grow. Her imagery is vivid: new galaxies born from ancient stars, butterflies winging, a newborn babe lying beneath a swirling canopy of nightlights. Lori paints the grandeur of the poet’s spirit and how he infuses life with the power of words, her voice clear, sometimes ringing with bounding alliterative rhythm and sometimes simple, small and vulnerable. This is the paradox of human life, that it is both strong and fragile, and that it is in fragility that strength is made complete.
Experience “A Star Shirt In Your Portrait for Brian Voice Porter Hawkins” in Synkroniciti’s November 30th issue, “Space,” Vol. 5, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Lori Lasseter Hamilton is a 53-year-old breast cancer survivor and rape survivor. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she earned a bachelor of arts in journalism, with a minor in English, from UAB in 1998. Some of her poems have appeared in Ghost City Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, Global Poemic, Avant Appalachia, Parousia Magazine, Steel Toe Review, SWWIM, and Glass: A Journal of Poetry. Her fourth poetry chapbook, limo casket, published in October 2022, is available from Voice Lux Press.