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Sean Enfield

ABOUT

Sean Enfield is a writer and educator from Dallas, Texas and recently received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. At UAF, he served as the Editor-in-Chief of Permafrost Magazine, and now serves as an Assistant Non Fiction Editor at Terrain.org. His own work has been published in or is forthcoming from Hayden’s Ferry, Edible, Witness Magazine, Terrain.org, Tahoma Literary Review, and The Rumpus, among others, and he was the 2020 recipient of the Fourth Genre’s Steinberg Memorial Essay Prize. In 2013, his story, "Claudia Who Found the F," was featured on NPR's All Things Considered as a part of their 3 Minute Fiction contest judged by Karen Russell. His work can be found at seanenfield.com, and you can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @seanseanclan.

Twitter/IG: @seanenclan

ARTIST STATEMENT
​
This piece emerges from my own struggles with anxiety and from my thinking about poetry’s (and art, generally) function in a world that often feels apocalyptic. Anxiety, for me, is an internal affliction, but it is also manifested in my external reality. I wrote this piece in conversation with Rebecca Solnit’s book, A Paradise Built in Hell: the Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, which looks at local responses to tragic, disastrous events and how communities move forward or are hindered from moving forward by governing forces. Solnit’s essays inspired me to contend with the anxieties that come from living in a world that is constantly under the threat of climate change while still imagining a path forward. Poetry may not be able to solve the world’s problems, but it allows me—and others, I hope—to embrace the harsh realities of our present while still carving out a better future for ourselves, our kin, and our communities.
Landscape with the Poet as Emergency Responder  

there, where the earth cracks  
          at the whim of black molten blood  
there, where a stream dries—  
          a wound torn through the woods 

I, too, apply poetry to that spot 

dab here 
 & 
rub, gently, into skin 

though I know the ache will persist
 

it’s therapeutic, this medicine, not a cure 

I wrote a poem for my brother 
and applied it to his chest  

​check for pulse 
& 
give two breaths, if needed 

as if it might (un)burrow the splinter  
        that dug its way into his heart 
 

breathe, breathe 

I do not have a brother
  

We, he and I, made a pact amid flat Texas plains
     clasped our bleeding hands together  
and watched the blood drip out from our palms  
     onto dead grass, dead leaves
 

I wrote a poem for that earth  
    some years after they had dug my brother beneath it,  
below that hard to sift,  
    harder still to dig Texas clay
  

administer compressions at a rate of 30bpm 
think: ‘Stayin’ Alive’ by the Bee Gees

I never had a brother 
 

I had questions; I had an aching thought  
    I walked out into an empty field  
on the hottest day on record  
    before the next hottest day on record 

where I stood, a tremor ruptured the flatlands
which folded upright and formed the ruins of walls 
     bits of earth and rock tumbled downward 
     until the walls were barren, stripped, clean 


the shadows which immersed me
  

the doctor will see you now  

contrasted the sunlit terrain ahead
  

the doctor told me once CPR commences  
    the patient is typically lost  
there were hills rolling along that plain  
    and so the horizon was obstructed, not quite a flat line
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Mailing Address:
PO Box 90369
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contact@outnorth.org

About Us

Out North is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Out North advances contemporary art in Anchorage, supports under-represented voices, and promotes cultural dialogue. We are one of Anchorage's longest operating arts nonprofits. We currently produce pop-up art shows around town and operate KONR-LP 106.1FM "Out North Radio."

Support Us

Your generous charitable donation helps pay our rent, state & national nonprofit fees, internet costs, equipment storage, web hosting services as well as all bills and fees associated with running KONR-LP 106.1FM, Arts and Community Programming. We can't do it without you. Thank you!
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  • KONR-LP
    • Stream KONR
    • On-Air Schedule
    • Underwriting
    • Host a Show
    • Podcast Studio
  • Out North Fringe Festival
    • 2023 Fringe Festival
    • 2022 Fringe Festival
  • Mental Health Mosaics
    • Art >
      • Community Art
      • Mosaics Art Show >
        • Andrea Lee Nelson
        • Aqavzik R
        • Astrid Olson
        • Dagny McHugh
        • Donalen Rojas Bowers
        • Dumile
        • Elizabeth Wulbrecht
        • Graham Dane
        • Holly Mititquq Nordlum
        • Lauren Stanford
        • Laurinda A Weston-O'Brien
        • Sam Jackson & Rebecca Brewer
        • Sean Enfield
      • Workbook
    • People
    • Podcast >
      • Breaking the Silence
      • Colonization & Oppression
      • Diagnosis
      • Emergency Response
      • Houselessness
      • Identity
      • Intergenerational Conversations
      • Suicide
    • Events
  • Día de Muertos
    • Dia de Muertos 2022
    • Dia de Muertos 2018
    • Dia de Muertos 2017
  • unAUTHORized
    • unAUTHORized 2022
    • unAUTHORized 2021
    • unAUTHORized 2020
  • Cup'ig Gospel Songs
  • Past Programming
  • About
    • Contact Us
  • Press
  • Donate