Jaclyn Gilmore is a current undergraduate student at Ursuline College, where she participated in Professor Katharine Trostel’s EN 288 class (“From Rustbelt to Revival: Exploring the Legacy of Segregation, Inequality, and Social Justice through the Lens of the Anisfield-Wolf Canon”) during the Spring 2021 semester.

Her untitled erasure poem was inspired by Tracy K. Smith’s poem, “Declaration,” from her book Wade in the Water.

Note from Ms. Gilmore:

Below I have provided the erasure poem I have created influenced by Tracy K. Smith’s erasure poem titled “Declaration.”  My erasure poem focuses on words that stood out to me that focus on the ideas the United States hope to promise to the American people without the consideration of instilled biases, prejudice, and discrimination. I pulled out words that focus on equality and protection and the duty of government, along with the limits of government and the sole purpose of what government was intended to be.

Untitled

By Jaclyn Gilmore

the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them……. that all men are created equal….by their Creator with unalienable

rights…….Governments… duty….. for the public good..to pass Laws… to prevent populations …dangers…. 

protecting them…..establishing …Boundaries…. with power…….our fellow American citizens……

the Representatives of the United States of America…. and by Authority of the good people……United……ought to be free and

independent