STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
KELLY VANCE
We circle the flames in camp chairs, with blankets,
wine, and shielded eyes. Periodic coven
convened for commiseration, endurance.
Longer nights need the sound of women’s voices,
hushed sibilance broken by laughter,
like burning logs need to fall upward into sparks.
Time stops while children sleep and men
hold their impatient counsel elsewhere, soothing
themselves, alone for just one evening.
In the circle, another mien, another means by which
we hold the meaning of ourselves, outside
a world unwilling to hold the moment, still the whip.
Here the moon is our witness, a darkened companion
heralding a welcome progression from absence to fullness.
Kelly Vance earned her MFA from Eastern Kentucky University, where she received the Emerging Writers Award for poetry in 2021. In selecting Vance for this award, Jen Currin wrote, “Vance’s voice is at turns humorous, tender, elegiac.” In addition to writing poetry, Kelly has a passion for encouraging young poets and is the Chair of Kentucky State Poetry Static,"Society's Annual Student Poetry Contest (2019-2023). In 2019, she completed the Conscious Feminine Leadership Academy affiliated with Women Writing for (a) Change, Cincinnati, and incorporates many conscious leadership concepts into her writing, mentorship, and professional work as a psychiatrist.
