Michele Pagen and “Poem”
Michele Pagen appears in Issue 2 with a brief untitled lyric presented simply as “Poem.” The piece compresses bodily sensation and technological imagery into ten short lines: blood stings, skin tingles, wires hang exposed, circuits disconnect, and thought struggles against overwhelming noise.
Pagen’s later public biography records a long career in theatre education, directing, journalism, and arts leadership. The surviving poem adds an early literary fragment to that record, built from clipped syntax and a nervous vocabulary of body, circuitry, emptiness, and thought.
Poem
Blood stings under my
Skin tingling like
Wires hanging exposed
Circuits disconnected
Thoughts swimming in my
Head aching with emptiness
Vast thoughts try to break
The noise deafening
Me my heart my mind
Won’t make it all go away
Public record
The Issue 2 contributor list records Michele Pagen among the writers in the historical issue. The Mon Valley Performing Arts Academy identifies Michele Pagen as a longtime theatre professor, director, journalist, published author, and arts educator.