witness marks: A Poetry Chapbook

• Main Author: Lubinski, Briana
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 2024
• Subjects: poetry; poem; chapbook; nature; environment; climate change; humanity; witness; marks; Creative Writing; snowy owl
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/795; https://cladesong.com/lubinski.whatthesnowyowlmeant.html

This collection of poems explores the concept of “witness marks†as evidence of the impact humans have on each other and on their environment, as well as the impact the world leaves on us. The term “witness marks†refers to a physical mark that is left on each part of a machine during assembly to make note of its position, and these poems expand upon that idea as a way to document where things have been (whether those marks are intentional or naturally occurring). Other themes of the collection include the natural world, the climate crisis, transformation, togetherness, memory, life, death, cycles, and what it means to be a witness. The project is a chapbook (a shorter, more condensed version of a poetry collection) containing 21 poems that were then printed and hand-bound with representative cover art. This link leads to the website for Clade Song, Issue 13, in which the first poem in the collection, “what the snowy owl meant,†was first published.