Bramble Fall 2025 print issue is now available.

Editor’s Note

It was difficult to select only 20 poems out of the many strong poems submitted. Wisconsin has many excellent poets! This makes me joyous and I have tried to hang onto that joy during these turbulent times. I have varied the order of the poems between those that directly address the challenges our country is facing and those that present a scene or more visual snapshot of life. I think the order of the poems adds to the power of this collection. All are specific and moved me. What can poetry do to help people through difficult times? Poems ground us in lived experience, make us see different perspectives, ask us to consider questions we’ve never thought of before. This helps. Poems help. When we read the same collection of poems, we create community. This helps, too. The call for submissions for this issue was titled “What America Means to Me” and perhaps “now” should have been added to that title. All the poems represented touch on important aspects of life in the United States today. I hope as you read them you think of all the other people reading them, and remember that we are all community, we are all connected.

P.R. Dyjak
Fall 2025

P.R. Dyjak [aka Patricia R. Dyjak, aka Pat] is a poet and recently retired professor who taught creative writing, ethnic literature, literary theory, and composition at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. “Compassion” and “And it harm none” are her watch-phrases. The spirituality of the web of life and social justice issues are of great importance to Dyjak. She is a lyrical poet trying to be brave enough to push her language and silence to do more. Pulitzer Prize winning poet Carolyn Kizer called Pat’s poem “Killing Angels” “brave.” She lives with her dog Zoey and cats Flora and Chianna in the very green city of Stevens Point in the very white, northern part of WI. Her chapbook Symphony for the Cutters (2013) is available through Kattywompus Press, Boston. [“Dyjak” is pronounced DEE-jack].

Artist Bio

Jessie’s love for beeswax painting began during her first year of college, when she discovered The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt by Euphrosyne Doxiadis. Captivated by the luminous beauty and rich history of this ancient technique, she’s spent the past 21 years dedicated to working with beeswax as her primary medium.

In 2004, she received a research grant from UW-Stevens Point to explore encaustic painting, teaching herself how to work with molten, pigmented beeswax. She earned her BFA in Studio Art with a painting emphasis in 2006. When graduate school didn’t pan out, she pivoted—exhibiting at art festivals across the Midwest, where she continues to share her work.

She began teaching encaustic workshops in 2019 and opened Buzz in Art Studios in rural Arnott, Wisconsin, in 2022. Each month, she hosts small-group encaustic workshops, private lessons, and custom sessions—sharing this ancient and luminous medium with curious creatives of all backgrounds.

She’s also active in arts leadership: she has served as Director of the Stevens Point Festival of the Arts since 2015, has been on the Hidden Studios Art Tour steering committee since 2019, and is a member of the Gallery Q Artists Cooperative (2018–2020, rejoined in 2023).

Artist Statement

I paint because I was raised surrounded by a creative and arty family who always supported my artistic talent and ambition.

I chose encaustics for its ancient roots and the compelling tension between heating and cooling amongst chaos and control—a rhythm unlike any other medium. The process of encaustic demands both a confident hand and one that can embrace the spontaneity of the wax's natural flow. My work, and my life, reflect this dance between structure and unpredictability.

My drive is to make art, teach workshops, protect the pollinators, and help support a vibrant art community in Central WI.