THE VESSEL DOES NOT HOLD

Author

• Joa B. SmithFollow

Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis - Campus Access Only

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Degree Name

Creative Writing (Poetry)

Department or School/College

English

Committee Chair

Sean Hill

Committee Co-chair

Brian Blanchfield

Commitee Members

Sean Hill, Brian Blanchfield, Heather Cahoon

Keywords

Mythic, Utopia, San Juan Islands, Queer, Familial Units

Subject Categories

Poetry

Abstract

In The Vessel Does Not Hold, poems act as a site where multiple sufferings collide. They explore how perception behaves when it can no longer rank experience into stable hierarchies. Family structure, queerness, intimacies both re-imagined or current, and decay—whether in the larger world or in their mother’s hoarded house—appear as simultaneous pressures. Vessels asks what remains when both queer utopia and catastrophe arrive at equal intensity. How does one begin to gather their scattered losses? Above all, the speaker calls on the mythic to deliver them. A ferry becomes a train set, the nautical term “knot” becomes a “real thing you can hold”, land migrates as the birds do. In the end, and despite a fear of loss through abundance, poetry becomes an act of naming as the speaker brings the unnameable things of their life to surface. What kind of shape do we make? The speaker asks. What kind of pod? When the speaker attempts—and fails—to name or label, the act of noticing becomes the only remaining structure.

Recommended Citation

Smith, Joa B., "THE VESSEL DOES NOT HOLD" (2026). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12743.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12743