Philly Poetry Chapbook Review is pleased to feature Colleen S. Harris’s poem “Challenger” as our second monthly featured poem from a full-length book for Issue 8: Spring 2025. You can find more poetry in their book, The Light Becomes Us now available from Main Street Rag.
Challenger
It takes eight minutes
for light to travel from
the sun, slide through classroom
windows and spark the down
on my forearms. Four point three
years for the shine of the next closest
star to mosey to earth and peek
over pines to see the insistent Atlantic
tugging at the skirts of Long Island.
Other stars are tens of thousands
of years dead. Millions. Billions. Zeroes
spill from my pencil and roll
down the page. But it is morning,
I am seven, and those starghosts
are consumed by the sun.
The anchors are excited, so are
the teachers. One of their own
will fly. Thirty minutes
to launch, and I am thinking
of peanut butter. I am not
scared by the rumbleroar of
liftoff. A victory cry against
the crystalline sky, and the school
is palsied with applause.
For seventy-three seconds.
(First published by Tipton Poetry Journal.)
About the Poem
Writing “Challenger,” I was trying to hearken back to a memory I know many from my generation have of the shuttle disaster. I think it’s interesting to wrestle with events we were present for that create enormous “befores” and “afters” in our mental timelines, particularly when we did not know it would be a demarcation point.
For this poem in particular, what kept drawing me back to the idea of writing it was not the explosion itself, but trying to capture the moments before the event, the moment before reality shifted. Sun and starlight were just facts of life, calculating celestial distances was just another math problem to tackle, lunchtime was approaching, and space travel was simply something a child believed we could do.
We often focus on an event or its aftermath, and forget to reflect on the reality (or banality) of the “before” because it doesn’t become significant to us until afterward. If we look beyond the voyeuristic tendency to focus on the tragedy, what might we see? This poem was a chance for me to zoom in on the calm before the storm.
Author Bio
Colleen S. Harris earned her MFA in Writing from Spalding University. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, other poetry collections include Babylon Songs (First Bite Press, forthcoming), These Terrible Sacraments (Bellowing Ark, 2010; Doubleback, 2019), The Kentucky Vein (Punkin House, 2011), God in My Throat: The Lilith Poems (Bellowing Ark, 2009), and chapbooks That Reckless Sound and Some Assembly Required (Pork Belly Press, 2014). She co-edited Women Versed in Myth: Essays on Modern Women Poets (McFarland, 2016) and Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing, and Teaching (McFarland, 2012). Harris grew up on Long Island, and as an academic librarian has made her home in places including Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, California, and Texas.
From The Light Becomes Us
The Light Becomes Us is a collection of narrative poems exploring how the American family holds both the grace to save us and the tragedies that doom us. Poems from the perspectives of mother and daughter delve into the details of love won, lost, fought for, discarded, and salvaged.
Contents
Book Excerpt: The Prize of Québec by Jennifer Nelson
“I tend to lean into the transconstitutory powers of ekphrasis. … Only in poetry can one go to the moon in a way that critiques the quest for the moon.” Read a poem from Jennifer Nelson’s new collection from Fence Books, On the Way to the Paintings of Forest Robberies.
Chapbook Poem: This Is How They Teach Us How to Want It . . . by Shanta Lee
“This poem explores the levels of our participation in handing ourselves over, often to the people, places, or things that deserve no such delight.” Read a #poem from Shanta Lee’s new book from Harbor Editions, This Is How They Teach Us How to Want It . . . The Slaughter.
Three Poems by Jonathan Fletcher
“Instead of having to choose between religion or the LGBTQ community (which I know many member of the latter feel they have to do), I think it is possible (and maybe even biblical) to integrate both into one’s life.” Read three original poems from Jonathan Fletcher, along with words from the author.
What Happened? On You are Leaving the American Sector by Rebecca Foust
“Rebecca Foust’s new chapbook of poems has a strange prescience. … Foust isn’t alone in making the obvious connection between Trump’s first term and Orwell’s dystopia.” Read the full chapbook review by new contributor Rick Mullin.
‘What if we started creating together? What if we looked at who we are from the side and saw a much more complete and honest perspective?” Read four poems by poet Sarah E N Kohrs, along with words from the poet.
Book Excerpt: Challenger by Colleen S. Harris
“If we look beyond the voyeuristic tendency to focus on the tragedy, what might we see? This poem was a chance for me to zoom in on the calm before the storm.” New poem from Colleen S. Harris’s new book from Main Street Rag, The Light Becomes Us, along with words from the poet..
Chapbook Poem: What I Did This Summer by Elinor Serumgard
“I love New Year’s and the promise of a new start, but I like to remind myself that you can start fresh at any point throughout the year.” New poem from Elinor Serumgard’s chapbook from Bottlecap Press, Analogous Annum, along with words from the poet.
Four Poems by Christa Fairbrother
“Since women aren’t allowed the power of our anger, we take it out on each other, and that’s what this poem is hinting at.” Read four poems by Christa Fairbrother, along with words from the poet.
Multilingualism and Metaphor: On Desire/Halves by Jaia Hamid Bashir
“Bashir’s elegant debut collection investigates identity as the result of choices between individual appetites and cultural frames. … [It] announces an exciting addition to the global chorus of contemporary literature.” Read D.W. Baker’s full review.