Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Major
Creative Writing
Date of Defense
11-13-2023
Graduate Advisor
Shane Seely
Committee
John Dalton
Lauren Obermark
Abstract
Confluence is over one hundred pages of poetry exploring one writer's return to a region of the country he had abandoned many years prior. However, it is not just a collection that reflects the present and the future of the city of St. Louis. This title reflects the past of the area reflecting on the people (famous, infamous and unknown) that built this community. Through poems about the Old Cathedral, John O’Fallon and the Tivoli Theater, the author explores the iconoclastic landscape of one midwestern city as it sees its highs and lows over its nearly three hundred years of existence. The writer also takes a look at the indelible nature of the area and why it was also a center for urbanized America during the pre-Columbian period as well. The collection looks at the future of the region and how that uncertain outlook affects the process of living in an ever-changing part of the country. In the end, Gallagher’s poems are humbled looking at St. Louis as a home and prospective haven for those that have come from uncertain circumstances.
Recommended Citation
Gallagher, Jason, "Confluence" (2023). Theses. 445.
https://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/445