Exhibition of Student’s Poems Probes the Boundaries of Life and Death

Duke Chapel will present an exhibition of framed poems, written and curated by Duke medical student Kiran Masroor, which explore the intersection of life and death. Titled Sacred are the waters, the set of poems will be on display in the Chapel from October 2 through November 5. 

The exhibition can be viewed along the walls of the main sanctuary during the Chapel’s daily open hours from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Check the Chapel calendar for occasional times when the Chapel is closed to the public. From September 28 through October 16, please enter the Chapel through one of the side doors as the main front doors will be closed due to maintenance work.

Masroor will give a talk about her approach to creating the poems on Monday, October 19, at 5:30 p.m. at the Chapel. 

Masroor is presenting her cycle of original poems as this year’s recipient of the C. Eric Lincoln Theology and Arts Fellowship, which provides funding for a Duke student to complete a sacred art project and display it in the Chapel. Her poetry has been published in VOICES Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, the Yale Daily News, and the anthology Without a Doubt: poems illuminating faith. Her poem "Interrupted Connection" received second place in the forty-fourth annual William Carlos William poetry competition. Learn more about her work on her website.

The thirteen poems in Sacred are the waters are framed individually but are all part of one mythological cosmology. They interweave themes of life and death, building to a climactic section that expresses that tension in ecstatic release.

Masroor’s poems will be on display in the Chapel concurrently with the Day of the Dead altar (Ofrenda), which comes from a Mexican and Catholic tradition of honoring deceased loved ones. Both the Ofrenda and the set of poems probe the boundary between life and death, and how we remember people who are no longer with us.

“A singular line from a poem can often stay in my heart in a way that is incredibly persuasive and emotionally powerful,” Masroor says. “For that reason, when I am trying to understand my own mortality, the mortality of others, or aspects of grief, poetry is an intuitive language for me.”

As a medical student, Masroor says she finds resonance between her professional training and the craft of poetry.

“I learn so much about God and spirituality by witnessing the resilience and hope of patients,” she says. “Through the poetry in this exhibit, I wish to paint a tapestry of the human collective, tracing insights about God, love, and mortality that others have shared with me.”

Masroor’s work was selected from a pool of applications for the fellowship. The selection committee was chaired by Jimmy Paton, development marketing specialist at the Chapel.

“Drawing on her unique perspective as both an award-winning poet and a medical student, Kiran addresses themes of life and death by considering the emotional and spiritual impact of mortality on the patients she encounters daily,” Paton says. “This intersection results in an innovative theological and mystical reflection, beautifully scaffolded through poetry as prayer.”

The fellowship honors the late C. Eric Lincoln, a scholar, poet, minister, and social activist who taught Religion and Culture at Duke from 1976 to 1993. His work chronicled the Black American religious experience in Christianity and Islam, and his life embodied the integration of intellectual rigor and living faith.