Volume 10: Shannon Rae Daniels

1. Rainbow after “The Night Blooming Cereus” 2. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus after “The Peacock Room” 3. Lying in Bed, Thinking of Dumplings after “Elegies for Paradise Valley” 4. Chinatown Koan after “Words in the Mourning Time” 5. Manistique, Michigan after “Stars” 6. Primavera after “Monet’s Waterlilies” 7. Fairytale after “Theme and Variation” 8. A Ringlet in a Ruth Asawa Sculpture after “[American Journal]” 9. January after “October” 10. Murmuration after “A Plague of Starlings” Bio: Shannon Rae Daniels is a writer and visual artist whose recent work has explored questions of impermanence, goodness, language, and beauty as they relate to the self and to communities at large — particularly American Chinatowns. Her art and writing have been recognized by the Poetry Society of America, the Random House Creative Writing Awards, The Guild of Artists & Artisans in Michigan, and the Ann Arbor District Library. She has taught arts and humanities classes at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Arts Academy. She was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she is a bookseller. Artist Statement: These poems were commissioned by the AADL for the AADL 200 in response to the poetry and legacy of Robert Hayden. As someone who’s drawn to poetry that is driven by philosophical and formal elements, it was a joy to grow as a poet through this project. In my work, like Hayden’s, I too try to understand how art and beauty can wrestle with difficult questions.