Synkroniciti is excited to welcome back poet, writer and visual artist Rachael Ikins from New York. “False Dawn,” is a lament for lost family members and a longing for the Truth behind existence. “You seek your dead cousin on YouTube. Her tired eyes speak with her/ mother’s voice, a scalpel searching for trust.” Rachael confronts doubt unflinchingly, the vulnerability of love for those who have gone shining like a candle in the dark as alliterative music and dreamlike archetypal imagery shepherd us. As a foil to this introspective poem, “Invisible Me” is a whimsical two-panel tribute to two of her cats who have passed on, Katie and Leonard. Each cat is playing, as cats are wont to do, that they are invisible behind a houseplant when they are quite obvious to our eyes and quite vulnerable. These photos are painterly in style and quite expressive.
Experience Rachael’s unique and lovely vision in Synkroniciti’s “Vulnerable” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Rachael Ikins is a 2016/18 Pushcart nominee, 2018 Independent Book Award winner, 2024 winner 2nd place Northwind Writing Awards, author/artist of 13 books. Her cats remain unimpressed with this and will sit on the keyboard if she works past their mealtimes.
Her work has appeared across the region and in NYC, Paris, France and Washington DC. She’s a Syracuse University grad, member Bayou City branch NLAPW, and Associate Editor of Clare Songbirds Publishing House, Auburn, NY.
Follow Rachel at Clare Songbirds Publishing House, as @rzikins.author.artist on Instagram, @nestl493 on Twitter, and at Rachael Ikins Books and Poetry on Facebook and Ask the Girl Arts.