Elephant

Shannon Ryan's Elephant is a piece of stream-of-consciousness poetry, which invites you to follow her on a journey from trauma to healing. Her spare yet powerful verse is adept at delivering a story steeped in nuance and emotion. The poem follows the speaker from childhood to adulthood, the format thinning and growing, mimicking the speaker's emotional maturing. These textual elements are centred upon the figure of the elephant synonymising protection, healing, and love. In Elephant, Ryan weaves a thoughtful and candid verse converging around the metaphor of the Elephant, and the healing it provides.