Sigrid Hice, October 9, 2008

A native of Germany, Sigrid Hice has been an active member of the arts community in the Hickory area for the last 20 years. She has played a vital role, in fact, in organizing local arts activities as well as in pursuing her own creative expression. In 1991 she helped found the Hickory Writers Group, and has also been judge, docent, and leader for various arts organizations in the area.

She serves as a visiting artist in schools throughout the Carolinas through organizations such as the Mountain Arts Program and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Her work has earned her grants from the Catawba County Council for the Arts and the South Carolina Alliance in Arts, and her prose, poetry, and photography have been published in numerous regional journals.

I am very pleased to reprint Hice’s poem “Lifelines,” which was originally published in Iodine Poetry Journal.

Lifelines

Guided by sight and vision
The lines of life intersect
Encountering chance and choice
Confronting stop and go
After passing lonely days and years
And luring fields of play
That seemed but were not

Strong lines drafted in happiness
Vague lines drawn with uncertainty
Fine lines sketched by discomfort
All stretched as a steely tightrope
Across colorful dead end angles
And landscapes of relationships
Tangled like a spider’s web.

Marked by a maze of moods and mass
Forced through daylight and darkness
Lines intertwine with the future
Exploring foreign microcosms
While traveling the route of suspense
On a road map of invisible wrinkles
Like a measurement of being





"Musings" is a weekly column featuring original poetry by Hickory-area writers or others giving readings of their work in the area. Submissions to "Musings" should be sent in the body of an email to Scott Owens at asowens1@yahoo.com. Please include a photo (jpeg) and a biography of 50 words or less with your submission. Previously published work is acceptable, but please include information about that publication with your submission. 2008 Visiting Writer at CVCC, Scott Owens is the author of four books of poetry, co-editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, and coordinator of the Poetry Hickory reading series, held the second Tuesday of each month at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse. See more of his work at www.scottowenspoet.com.