Visual Poetry Series: Empty Cage

by Danielle Hark

 

Author’s Note

Creating the images for this series has been a journey, emotionally and artistically. Over the last year and a half, I recovered memories of trauma from my childhood. Poetry and art have been a part of my therapy, and have helped me start to process. The mediums and pieces have evolved. Currently, I am creating assemblage altered art, and photo-based mixed media, using unconventional techniques like breaking and burning. Using my typewriter, I try to tap into my child self for the accompanying text. It is a very different process than my other poetry. With these pieces, I let my unconscious be the guide.

 

[Editor’s Note: Click on each image below to view it at full size.]

 

Danielle Hark is a writer and artist who lives with PTSD and bipolar disorder. She is the founder of the non-profit Broken Light Collective that empowers people with mental health challenges using photography. Danielle lives and creates in New Jersey with her husband, two sassy young daughters, a Samoyed pup, a Scottish Fold cat, and a typewriter named Cori Blue. www.daniellehark.com @daniellehark.

 

Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.

Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.

Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.

Submissions

Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.

Upcoming

10/12 • Kathy Fish
10/19 • Katherine Garrison
10/26 • Beverly Jackson
11/02 • Robert Scotellaro
11/09 • T.L. Sherwood
11/16 • Susan Buchler
11/23 • Chelsea Stickle
11/30 • TBD
12/07 • TBD
12/14 • TBD
12/21 • TBD
12/28 • TBD