Motion and Rest

Author

Claire M. TunaFollow

Year of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Degree Name

Creative Writing (Poetry)

Department or School/College

English

Committee Chair

Brian Blanchfield

Commitee Members

Sean Hill, Elizabeth Hubble

Keywords

time, attention, biking

Publisher

University of Montana

Abstract

Motion and Rest is a collection of lyric, experimental, and hybrid poems that feature transit as a recurring trope. The speaker of these poems travels through town on a bicycle, through the sky on a plane flying backwards in time, on a train through the countryside, and, among water aerobicizers, from one end of the pool to the other. Along with physical space, the speaker traverses emotional space, moving through boredom, worry, curiosity, aching, inertia, presence, and play, slowing at times, but avoiding a full stop.

Conveyance is also investigated as it pertains to communications sent and received. The speaker entertains AI suggestions of email etiquette and chooses which, between two unwelcome programs, to watch on the communal Crunch Fitness TV. Poems are ostensibly occasioned by text messages or are plans to upload civic complaint. Even in poems belonging wholly to their physical environment, messages and signals transmit from the wind, from a neighbor's sprinkler, or from a group of teenagers at play in the street.

Troubling distinctions between what distracts and what matters, Motion and Rest meanders through embodied and virtual reality, private and public life, and concerns of the present, future, and eternity, sounding an impossible wish to attend to it all.

Recommended Citation

Tuna, Claire M., "Motion and Rest" (2024). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12251.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12251