“Lost Time, Broken Things Forgotten” explores isolation, abandonment, self-reflection in times of change, and ultimately, regrowth and new beginnings. Humans, like places, need encouragement, love, nurturing, and fostering. When we let places fall to ruin and abandonment, what does that mean for our society at large? What does that mean for us, and how do these processes parallel each other? In this time of crisis, I can’t help but wonder what we let fade, what we choose to forget, and the routines we let go of – and how we need to build and adopt new ones to survive and thrive. Bodies are homes, and homes are like bodies. I’ve always been fascinated by that duality – but also fascinated by this trend for humans to build structures and then let them fall to ruin because they aren’t “needed” anymore. We move on without always thinking of ways to use or repurpose what we have, to recycle instead of destroy.
There is, of course, growth in endings and beginnings from something lost. How can we use that process in a better, holistic, and healthier way, for our bodies and our homes?
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of several collections, including Marys of the Sea, #Survivor, (2020, The Operating System), Killer Bob: A Love Story (2021, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), and is the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault. Joanna is the founder of Yes Poetry and the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of their writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Them, Brooklyn Magazine, BUST, and elsewhere. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente / FB: joannacvalente
RESURRECTION mag 