22
CIRQUE
VOICES OF UKRAINE Cynthia Steele
In Solidarity with the People of Ukraine: Poetry of the Invasion
Steadfast
As of this writing, Ukraine is at day 93 of the RussiaUkraine war. Casualties are difficult to measure. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have died since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. This issue of Cirque provides a forum and breaks down its own walls for that forum. We sent out a call for writings in response to the invasion of Ukraine and all that has followed, not knowing what to expect. This special section and all who worked with it stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. A trickle and then a stream of submissions issued forth and we gift them to our readers with one heart.
Robin Lindley
I sought inspiration to illustrate such an offering. I saw a stained-glass art piece glowing in a Homer, Alaska window of a fisherman and his wife. The image of a dove holding an olive branch. Vivid blocks of glass held fast by a cement setting met me through the window. Ukraine heavy on my mind, I’d rented their small home for the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference this May. With tremors still in my soul of Jericho Brown’s words against and about violence, such as in Psalm 150: “Something keeps trying, but I'm not killed yet.” I asked my short-term landlady, Jane Wiebe, about the artwork. It was constructed by her
