Poetry Reading: Vanquished by Melissa R Mendelson

Performed by Val Cole

POETRY 7 questions:

What is the theme of your poem?

I try not to make a habit on writing about war, but sometimes I can’t turn a blind eye on what it does to us, inspiring me then to create poems such as Vanquished.

What motivated you to write this poem?

I have a drawer filled with old, either printed out or handwritten poems, and Vanquished was one of them. Most of the poems in this drawer have a date on them, but Vanquished does not. I know that I wrote this poem after 9/11, maybe even after Desert Storm, and I also know that something on the news triggered something deep within me to write it.

How long have you been writing poetry?

The thought of writing poetry never crossed my mind until the seventh grade, where two creative writing teachers encouraged me to start…