English Department
Professor April Selley was a devoted and beloved teacher and a talented writer (see one of her poems below) who, for many years, shared her love of literature and creative writing with Union students. She passed away on July 13, 2016, after a long illness.
For Once, the Dwarf Gets the Girl
By April Selley
My friend, who raises rich people’s children
in New York, called to tell me of
seeing a movie alone on Christmas Day:
about a dwarf who finds love.
At the end, she stood up and
cheered to the empty seats,
“For once, the dwarf gets the girl!”
The only three other theater patrons walked out
a different door from her,
assuming that Manhattan had driven
another person mad.
On Christmas Day, I walked to the ocean for
a gorgeous solstice sunset,
its colors cavorting on the horizon across the water.
But it grew to be even more:
it splashed over the entire sky,
its mottled beauty dwarfing me in
monumental orange and aqua,
and I thought of how love is a gift like that:
as surprising as a fervid resurgence of light
at the end of a day
at the end of a year.
And I thought of my friend walking
home in silent Manhattan twilight,
buoyed by the filmmaker’s homage to the largesse of love,
buoyed by the exhilarating echo
of two hands clapping.