Synkroniciti is excited to welcome the members of Chicago’s P2 Collective with a set of poems and photographs that probe the theme of “Space” and humanity’s relationship to creation and cosmos. We begin with the pairing of Caroline Johnson’s poem “Halo” and “Stardust,” an image by Alexa Frangos. Together, they explore humanity’s place as part of the galactic community of the Milky Way, which lies all around us and through us while remaining paradoxically forgotten and largely invisible. The second pairing, entitled collectively “Prospects” and consisting of a four-stanza poem by Susan T. Moss and a bewitching image of a typewriter mechanism and clean white sheets of paper by Suzanne Metzel, takes a up different facet of “Space,” focusing on the “…pristine page/ hungry for words” and the immense possibility and potential that is activated when a writer begins to put their thoughts to paper. Wilda Morris’s “The Miniscule” is, paradoxically, the longest of the poems, five stanzas exploring the value of small things, which may seem inconsequential when considering the infinity of time of space, but which show a personal and delightful side of the universe–“how they change the scheme of someone’s minute life.” “Black Hole” brings us full circle, back to our relationship to the cosmos, and consists of Steve Geer’s delightful optical trickery captured from beneath Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate,” the image which won our “Space” cover contest, paired with Maureen Tolman Flannery’s extended lune poem (5-3-5-6-5) comparing the distorting effects of a black hole to the co-mingling of love and pain we call grief. This is the first time Synkroniciti has received a collaboration from a collective and we hope it won’t be the last as we enjoyed seeing such range encapsulated so well for our issue.
Visit space with the P2 Collective in Synkroniciti’s November 30th issue, “Space,” Vol. 5, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Top Row: Alexa Frangos, Steve Geer, Suzanne Metzel
Second Row: Maureen Tolman Flannery, Caroline Johnson, Wilda Morris, Susan T. Moss
The P2 Collective was formed in 2019 when Steve Geer invited two other Chicago-area photographers and four Chicago-area poets to join him in a conversation between poetry and photography. The poets send poems to the photographers and the photographers send examples of their work to the poets for response. The resulting conversation sometimes takes unexpected turns, and often results in the creation of works of art which would not have been born without this interaction.
For their public performances in which photographs are projected on a large screen while the related poetry is read aloud, musical interludes are often provided by a violist or cellist. The photographers, all members of Perspective Gallery, Evanston, Illinois, are Steve Geer, Suzanne Metzel, and Alexa Frangos. The poets, Susan T. Moss, Caroline Johnson, Maureen Tolman Flannery, and Wilda Morris are all members of the Illinois State Poetry Society, Poets and Patrons of Chicago, and/or The Poets Club of Chicago.