Rain & On My First Day in Texas
by Alix Rogé
University of the Incarnate Word
Alix Rogé is an exchange student from France, and more especially from the Université Catholique de Lille, where she is an English major. Alix has always been fond of writing, yet, it was only when she arrived at UIW in January 2023 that she started to deeply involve herself in writing poetry.
Rain
And then, among the roar of the
road, the rustle of
aircraft, the ramble of the water
heater furnace,
a sprinkle.
Strangely soothing sound.
Foreign familiar thump soaking the
soil and suddenly
flooding my frame
of familiar flashes metamorphosing
into muddy watercolors, melting
into the misty sky, silver waves, mahogany
mane, soaked shirts, stained
slacks, sandy mouths humming
Simple Minds' “Someone
Somewhere in Summertime”
Why were five thousand miles
necessary to transform the
despised drizzle into an
essential solace?
Why were five thousand miles
necessary to weep and
mourn the now missing home?
On My First Day in Texas
On my first day in Texas,
The following question was asked;
“What is your Motherland?”
And I answered without a doubt,
“It is my house.”
But then, the teacher gave me a notepad
And told me “Write”
But about what?
I’ve never done such a thing,
I’m just a passive being
Who has been waiting
for dreams to strike her like a flash of lightning.
To this, he answered, “But that’s fantastic!”
I was trapped, no door through which I could exit.
I took the pen
And suddenly something happened.
I don’t know how or when,
All I can tell
Is that I started to think.
So when I was asked to write about my Motherland,
I suddenly faced a tricky problem;
Is it my house, this place where
I’ve been raised and never left
Or this remote house where
I’ve always felt safe?
End of the day, run to my dorm, I cross the park
And I see a spark,
A message on the cold and dark
Screen; “That’s the end of our day,
Time to say goodnight and to go on separate ways” –
Mom.
It’s already 4 pm
Like in Cinderella’s tale
It is the end of the magic spell;
Why do I suddenly feel so lonely?
Why am I suddenly so thirsty
To return to my native city?
And now I realize,
Despite five thousand miles,
She was talking to me,
Messaging me,
Looking after me.
She was with me.
Now strikes 4 pm
And here I am, lost and alien.
Nevertheless, I now have an answer in my hand
To the question “What is your Motherland?”
Interview with the Author
What pieces inspired you to start writing poetry?
The first piece of poetry I really enjoyed was written by a modern French poet, Charles Juliet. His poetry struck me; he managed to convey so many emotions and images in just a few words. It was at this very moment that I realized the agency of language, how words could carry electricity and spark a cascade of feelings and emotions to the reader. Nevertheless, it was Patti Smith who encouraged me to write. I discovered her work when I was in high school, yet, when I re-read her novel Just Kids several years after that I deeply fell in love with her prose. Like Juliet, she manages through her choice of words to convey emotions and feelings to her reader. Yet, while reading her work, I felt that she was inviting me to write. It is quite difficult to put words on what I feel reading her work... But the main thing is, when I read these authors’ works, I feel.
What theme do you find yourself constantly writing about in your works?
I only started writing poetry at the beginning of January, I haven’t written enough poems to be able to distinguish recurring themes in my work. However, I can assert that music is very present in my work; I try to pay attention to the sounds of words and on rhyming schemes. I also like making reference to songs, music has always shaped important events in my life, by hinting at them in my poems, I try to confer a different energy to the subject of the poem.
What do you think are important elements in thought provoking poems?
I am convinced that diction and plays on words are primordial in a poem as it confers life to the situation, the reader can thus experience the poem not only through words written on a page, but through an auditory perception. The reader will therefore be more involved into the poem and its meaning, thus making the artwork more striking and memorable.
What role do you think poetry has on our society today?
Poetry is everywhere nowadays. In books, in songs, in advertisements, in commercial slogans... We are living in a society which has been deeply affected by mediatisation and the internet, we have access to everything, everywhere, at any time. To stand out of this overwhelming flow of information, you have to be short, concise but also memorable. And to do so, newspapers, artists, journalists, commercials, have to pay attention to the diction, the layout, the sounds, the images they use, like a poet does in his work. Consequently, we can argue that poetry is no longer a sacred and difficult literary genre which is only devoted to an elite, but that poetry is everywhere nowadays and we don’t always see it.