Although most of the poets here are from Ohio, we do have space for occasional pandemic poems from other US states and around the world. This poem by Jennifer Keevill takes a practical problem – the E string being missing from a violin. This becomes a metaphor for adaptation under pandemic conditions, and what emerges is a sensitive poem processing the many different emotions we have experienced in lockdown.
Jennifer Keevill lives in Devon, England. She has been published most recently inSarasvati, Poetry Salzburg Review and South Bank Poetry. Her poem ‘Exeter Interrupted’ was published in the anthology Places of Poetry (Oneworld Publications) in 2020. She is working on a poetry collection about life in a coastal community.
Also find this accessible word doc version of ‘My Year without an E String’