Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome back poet and writer Stacie Eirich, who first appeared in our “Empowered” issue. ” We present two thoughtful and inspiring poems that chronicle her teenage child’s journey (and by extension hers) with brain cancer, as well as a lovely photograph she took at St. Jude’s Target House Garden which aligns with the poems in substance, speaking in a different fashion of mutability and transformation. The first poem is “In Order to Rise.” Stacie muses about how she will find the strength to continue and wonders “at what might come: in the next scan, the next/ blood draw, the next symptom, the next surgery.” Nature, sunshine, writing, are all helpful, and yet, at times they fail to provide hope and sustenance. It might surprise you what it is that Stacie finds most constant and I will let her tell you in her gentle, yet soaring way. Her use of imagery and repetition build, spinning moments of transcendence into a fabric of confidence and encouragement. “Wings of Hope” is a photograph of a lovely butterfly, wings extended, resting amongst technicolor New Guinea Impatiens. Anyone who has ever tried to photograph butterflies knows how difficult it is to capture them at rest. The final poem, “Thursday Evening at St. Jude’s Target House on the Lawn” is a prose poem sharing a community experience at a three-year-old’s birthday. Stacie’s child is enjoying the party when one of the other children decides to gate-keep the experience. Stacie doesn’t hear about this until they leave the party. “As we rise in the elevator, they tell me how one of the children didn’t like them, how he told them they were too big for the party. We agree that no one is ever too big or too old for a party, for bubbles and watermelon and things that bring happiness.”
Read Stacie’s wise and insightful poetry in Synkroniciti’s “Vulnerable” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Stacie Eirich is a mother of two, writer and singer near New Orleans, LA. She has written poetry, short fiction and nonfiction that has been published in literary journals, magazines and anthologies. Her children’s fantasy series, The Dream Chronicles, is available on Amazon and in independent, local bookstores. Her current project is a memoir in-verse about the journey to her child’s cure from pediatric brain cancer in 2023.