Since 2021, Dr. Guertin and Betsy Wilkening have been masterfully blending fiber art with critical scientific topics like global warming, climate change, and environmental threats, all while offering potential solutions. In 2024, Dr. Decker proposed an innovative expansion: a multimodal ekphrastic project that pairs powerful poetry with evocative art.

 

This book is the stunning result. You'll find a diverse array of artwork—from exquisite fiber art quilts to compelling drawings, paintings, and even museum pieces—each carefully selected to illuminate the theme of "making the unseen, seen" and to forge a powerful connection between science and art through the medium of poetry.

 

We strongly encourage you to delve into the Artist/Scientist Statements at the back of the book. These illuminating insights provide brief, accessible explanations that enhance the thoughtful poems, making complex scientific topics relatable and engaging for everyone.

 

It has been a true joy to bring this project to life. We hope you'll return to these pages again and again, discovering new layers of meaning with each reading.

 

Contributors to this book include: Donald Beagle, Emily Bilman, Joyce Brinkman, Sarah-Beth Bradley, Megan Brown, Emma M. Burkett, Samantha Carr, Joan Ellen Casey, Loralee Clark, Tricia Coulson, Marcela Bianchessi da Cunha-Santino, Dr. Kathleen P. Decker, Zoey Dudding, Jae Dyche, Christie King Eckardt , Kerry Faraone, Catalina Florina Florescu, Anna Isabella Fratarcangelo, Chapman Hood Frazier, Dennis Owen Frohlich, Gail Giewont, Dr. Michale Glennon, Marjorie Gowdy, Jody Gruendel, Dr. Laura Guertin, Cathy Hailey, Lauren Haygood, Kate Hedstrom, Wayne David Hubbard, Mark Hudson, Piper Jameson, Robert J. Keeler, Dr. Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Barbara Martina Linde, Sally Harcum Maxwell, Greg McNamara, Susan Copley Novack, Holly Panzera, Sarah Parker, Tessa Peixoto, Suzanne Underwood Rhodes, Lynne Schreiber, Mattie Quesenberry Smith, Ron Smith, Alica Swain, Johannes Vermeer, Betsy Wilkening, Diana Woodcock, Nicole Zwolinski.

My father, Joe Thomas Pound, graduated from Sullivan High School on a Friday in May 1943. The following Monday he was on a train to begin basic training in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF). Less than two years later he was flying "The Hump". He was 20 years old.

With one of the worst wartime survival rates ever, “The Hump” airlift was achieved at the cost of over 1600 airmen in over 700 plane crashes. "Every 340 tons delivered cost the life of a pilot," wrote historian Francis Pike in his book, Hirohito's War: The Pacific War, 1941-1945.
Before she passed away, my mother gave me the letters between her and Dad from during the war, before they were married. All her life my mother kept the small local newspaper clipping that reported her marriage to Dad. We found it in her wallet after she passed away. For such an admirer of Dorothy Parker and advocate of women’s independence and liberation long before that was even a term, it has been remarkable to learn how fully she devoted herself to Dad, their marriage, and our family. That is love.
Mom and Dad married on 26 January 1946.