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  • Winners' Corner
    • Jesse Weiss
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    • Sarala Berger
    • Joelle Cohen
    • Ty Rocker
    • Shayna Herszage
    • Kayla Cohen
  • Archive
    • 1.1
    • 2.1
    • 2.2
    • 3.1
  • About
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THE BEDFORD LEDGER

Joelle cohen

Joelle's poem "So Lost are You in the Silk Night of Grief" won first place in the January 2017 issue.
She is a junior at Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York.​
This is her first entry into The Bedford Ledger, along with a haunting poem entitled "Void."
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Tell us a little about yourself.
      “Consider incompleteness as a verb.” 
This is a hard question, so I default to Anne Carson quotes. I'm not incomplete, though. Maybe un-molded. Like some piece of rouge clay, I'm free of shape. I know things like my name and birthday, but those exist before I had the choice to feel secure in those decisions. What I'm trying to say is I'm 16, and I have a lot of time to sort myself out. 

When did you first start writing poetry?
       Stories I've been writing forever now, but poems... I think I wrote my first poem in the winter months of 6th grade. I loved the process as soon as I came upon it. 

Who or what inspires your love for writing/poetry?
​     Poetry to me, is like exhaling. It's necessary for the body to expel. I think people who don't write poetry must be filled with so many thoughts- I don't know how they do it. It is paramount to my sanity to write. So maybe it's not passion; it's just another function I carry out to maintain homeostasis. 




Do you have any favorite poets or poems that you like to read or have influenced your style of writing?
      Everyone is a poet. This is vague, I'm sorry. But it's true. Teachers, friends, parents, siblings, etc. - have all said things that merit awards. To be specific to poets: Anne Carson, Margaret Atwood, Gillian Flynn, and Nietzsche have all played a role in my becoming. 
My favorite poem right now is: Jeremy Radin, from Slow Dance with Sasquatch, 
“The Heaven of Mud.” 
​
Give us some background on your writing - do you only write poetry? Do you write for pleasure? Have you won any other contests?
     
 I've only ever entered one other contest, last year with a poem that won a small award. I like to write stories, too. But I have an issue with finishing them. 
​
What was the inspiration or the story behind your winning poem?
​  
Grief. Not my own, but witnessing someone else's formulate in front of me. It's an odd thing. It's like the deconstruction of a person, it's almost uncomfortable. Losing someone to their own pain is difficult. Especially when you love them. But I guess it's part of life. ​
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