Tracey Gass Ranze

TRACEY GASS RANZE    from H i G H   W A T E R M A R K   S A L O [O] N  volume 2 number 4

I believe art is the physical bridge to realizing the spiritual self or inner being. The process of making art seems to open a vortex where I can tap the resources of energy from the non-physical world that we all share and inhabit, simultaneously with the physical. People respond to art at deep levels of consciousness. I think this weaves the human race together as one, outside of linear time.

When I write poetry it often feels like the words and rhythm stream in from the universe, a trinity of spirit, thought and form. I am grateful for this. I feel that art is a universal blessing, like a continuous prayer that we all make together and share.

pieces of a thousand years

are we going around and around
the same war for a thousand years
are we finding ourselves or just pieces
fragments of our original nature

      today people hunt under steel columns 
                collecting gold dollars 
                instead of green leaves

                sixty stacked floors try to remember 
                the sky and luscious trees 
                bird songs of the woods 
                endless fresh air to breath
    
are we going around and around
for a thousand years knowing
no matter how quickly children serpentine
they fail to navigate the shrapnel of bombs
the rubble of collapsing buildinings
    
       mothers pick up the pieces
                 arms and legs, fingers and feet
     
are we going around and around
a cruel thousand wars reducing 
children to torsos with heads
    
       wherein lies all the memory 
                  of their missing arms and legs.

Tracey Gass Ranze is a member of The Milanville Poets, UnLtd. and the Upper Delaware Writer’s Collective (UDWC). Her poetry appears in various publications including three chapbooks of the UDWC; Gatherings, Collective Memory and Wheel. She has been a guest poet for the Wayne County Arts Alliance, PA. Gass Ranze’s poetry has also been featured on WJFF’s Public Radio programs Jeff Horse and Ink in the Air. In 1981, she received dual B.S. degrees in Special Ed., V.I. and Elementary Ed. from Kutztown University, PA and works as an itinerant Teacher of the Visually Impaired. Gass Ranze lives in Milanville, Pennsylvania on a mountain top along the Delaware River with her husband, Mike, where they have been raising their four sons, Cole, Leif, Sage and Skye.

TRACEY GASS RANZE from H i G H W A T E R M A R K S A L O [O] N volume 2 number 4
I believe art is the physical bridge to realizing the spiritual self or inner being. The process of making art seems to open a vortex where I can tap the resources of energy from the non-physical world that we all share and inhabit, simultaneously with the physical. People respond to art at deep levels of consciousness. I think this weaves the human race together as one, outside of linear time. When I write poetry it often feels like the words and rhythm stream in from the universe, a trinity of spirit, thought and form. I am grateful for this. I feel that art is a universal blessing, like a continuous prayer that we all make together and share.
pieces of a thousand years

	are we going around and around the same war for a thousand years are we finding ourselves or just pieces fragments of our original nature today people hunt under steel columns collecting gold dollars instead of green leaves sixty stacked floors try to remember the sky and luscious trees bird songs of the woods endless fresh air to breath are we going around and around for a thousand years knowing no matter how quickly children serpentine they fail to navigate the shrapnel of bombs the rubble of collapsing buildinings mothers pick up the pieces arms and legs, fingers and feet are we going around and around a cruel thousand wars reducing children to torsos with heads wherein lies all the memory of their missing arms and legs.

	Tracey Gass Ranze is a member of The Milanville Poets, UnLtd. and the Upper Delaware Writer’s Collective (UDWC). Her poetry appears in various publications including three chapbooks of the UDWC; Gatherings, Collective Memory and Wheel. She has been a guest poet for the Wayne County Arts Alliance, PA. Gass Ranze’s poetry has also been featured on WJFF’s Public Radio programs Jeff Horse and Ink in the Air. In 1981, she received dual B.S. degrees in Special Ed., V.I. and Elementary Ed. from Kutztown University, PA and works as an itinerant Teacher of the Visually Impaired. Gass Ranze lives in Milanville, Pennsylvania on a mountain top along the Delaware River with her husband, Mike, where they have been raising their four sons, Cole, Leif, Sage and Skye.