Ink Cloud returned this year with more participation than it has seen in years. With 28 contributors and 60 pages of passionate content, the talented poets and artists of Fort Wayne and Warsaw Ivy Tech campuses collectively created a stirring and thoughtful representation of our city and college.
It was a privilege to compile their work into this year’s edition. Prefaced beautifully by Sumita Chakraborty in the epigraph, their expressions and artistry memorably mark our shared experiences. Please take some time to appreciate their artistry, vulnerability and strength.
It is my pleasure to present this year’s edition of Ink Cloud. Our humble thanks goes to the students, staff and faculty who contributed. We’re all better for your vulnerability and strength.
Our collective voices can provide clarity when shared as art. To me, Ink Cloud 2022 tells the story of hardship and the renewal we inescapably discover by persevering together.
Please take a moment to read the work generously provided by the talented artists of Ivy Tech Fort Wayne and Warsaw campuses. All editions of Ink Cloud can be found here.
It has been a pleasure to again help share the poetry and art of our Ivy Tech peers. While participation this year was down, the work of those who were able to share compelled us to publish another edition. Please consider taking some time to visit the Ink Cloud archive. There you will find this year’s iteration added to our growing collection.
It is my pleasure to present to you Ink Cloud 2020. It has been a gift during quarantine to put this edition together for those who were able to participate.
Please take a few moments to enjoy the transformative effects of art created by Ivy Tech students, faculty and staff. We do not typically receive much traffic on this blog, but if you do stop by and one of these poets or artists reaches you, please let them know in the comments!
Let’s give everyone a reason to keep creating and sharing.
“The poet is the priest of the invisible.” — Wallace Stevens
In 1996, the Academy of American Poets designated April as National Poetry Month “to remind the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters.” Twenty-four years later, during this uncertain shelter-in-place April, we turn once more to poetry.
Poet Mary Catherine Harper, who gave a reading on the Warsaw campus in March, shares that during this time especially, “Poetry reading is a vital part of my daily routine. Poetry sustains me.” Adjunct English professor Shari Benyousky, who thinks of poems as conversations, says that writing poetry, “is really helpful therapy these days of being cut off from so many people.”
This year both the Warsaw and Fort Wayne campuses are actively celebrating National Poetry Month. Ivy Tech Warsaw is posting a poem a day to its Facebook page drawing from a range of poets, styles, and themes, including Lynn Ungar’s timely poem “Pandemic.”
Meanwhile, the Ivy Tech Fort Wayne Library is encouraging students, faculty, and staff to write and contribute poems toInk Cloud, the annual poetry publication which showcases campus poetic and artistic talents. With an extended deadline of April 19th, time remains to submit!
Interested in exploring poetry and making it a sustaining part of your life? Here are some resources to start with.
While we all adjust to the uninvited consequences of the pandemic, please consider investing time in your creativity. Few explorations are more transformative and empowering than cultivating your art.
Submissions for the 2020 Ink Cloud publication will remain open until April 19th. Please share your original poetry with us. Original artwork for the magazine’s cover remains just as welcome.
Contingent on student and staff interest and time, the Ink Cloud Open Mic is still possible, but the venue would be moved online. Expect those specifics mid-April. In the meantime, stay safe and create.
What started as a poetry contest to celebrate National Poetry Month in April of 2015 has become an annual Ivy Tech Fort Wayne Library publication. Ink Cloud showcases the poetic and artistic talents of Ivy Tech Fort Wayne students and staff.
This year we embrace the non-competitive nature of the art of poetry by dedicating the event entirely to its contributors. A poem’s merit can speak for itself. But unlike its merit, poetry expects only one thing from you: You will share it.
Anyone who has shared their work knows that the spirit of poetry waits within its release. So share with us! If you choose to share with us, you can expect to be included in 2020’s publication of Ink Cloud. Then join us and your fellow Ivy Tech poets at the Ink Cloud Poetry Reading to listen and be heard!
In addition to poetry, participants may submit original artwork to be considered for the Ink Cloud cover. We are also looking for talented graphic designers to reimagine the Ink Cloud logo.
Fort Wayne & Warsaw Library Blogs 