Jean LeBlanc

Jean LeBlanc taught college writing and literature for twenty-five years. Her most recent collection is Terrible Terrain: Poems Inspired by the Life of Lavinia Dickinson (Shanti Arts Publishing, 2023). An artist as well as a poet, she explores the transformative power of imagery using collage, asemic writing, and other visual media.

Lesson with Wings (POEM)

what could I—maybe five, maybe six—

have known of this brief life: green tissues for wings

no mouth parts (how could I have known)

sixty years later, remembering

the luna moth in a circle of light

on my grandmother’s porch

my mother coming down the steps

my father reaching out to hold her hand

let us all

stencil a luna moth near our front door

to remind us: how brief