Fall 2019
Elephant Man: Notes on Science, Salvation, and the End of the World, by Ross West
The elephant collapses, shaking the ground, his rhythmic breath coming in “long rattling gasps.” The officer fires again.
Artwork by Ysabella Luikart
Ysabella Luikart is a third year Environmental Chemistry major at SUNY ESF. These photographs were created for Anne Godfrey’s LSA 496 class, as part of a final project in which the class tackled current landscape [...]
Artwork by Arik Palileo & Olivia Salamy
Our art is focused on exploring the systems and institutions that dominate the popular narratives of nature. In other words, we look at what and who counts as natural and what doesn't. We want to [...]
Two Poems, by Colleen Coyne
Long, wide pass of the blades, across glass and built-up snow-gut.
Photographs by Allene Nichols
Allene Nichols lives in Dallas, Texas, where she teaches at Richland College and at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is an avid traveler and always [...]
Photographs by Kate Kemp
Photographs
Black Spots, by Gavin Duncan
What does it mean to be alive?
Return, by Tara Campbell
Google, find growths that are pale and stringy, that looked like fat hairs the one time he let you see them.
Braving the Wilderness, by Leslie Sittner
We drive through the parking area and continue down to the pond. There’s not another soul anywhere to be seen or heard.
May 2019
Interview with Stephen Kuusisto
"You go back to the roots and then what comes out of that experience is shocking, it’s beautiful. And it rarely disappoints me if I approach things like that."
Five Poems, Stephen Kuusisto
They speak of god along with cloud-esteem, sheep watching, plenty of softness.
Five Poems, Joyce Sutphen
and by the end of the season we had / enough cash to make it down to Berkeley
Fission, Bethany Elliot
The human body contains an incomprehensible number of atoms ...
Artwork by Katlyn Brumfield
Katlyn Brumfield grew up around the forests and farmlands of central Kentucky. Her work has been featured at several galleries and exhibition spaces including the Lexington [...]
Composition for Distant Sound, Ken L. Walker
These meanings make a map, / remain quiet, anticipate the construction
I Was Raised Catholic, Jack Mungo
It’s when I reflect on my early worldview that I know I will never introduce my children to any religion before they reach their age of reason.
Death Inside Her Head, Crystal Smith
As I ascended to the crest of the hill, the sun broke the edge of the horizon ...
Three Poems, Georgia A. Popoff
For a moment / the worm dazzled in the spotlight / before finding a small crack leading to tunnel,
March 2019
Interview with Patrick Lawler
"You go back to the roots and then what comes out of that experience is shocking, it’s beautiful. And it rarely disappoints me if I approach things like that."
Tahoe Blue, Gayle Brandeis
"Beyond Tahoe, "blue" of course means many things."
A Poemformance, Patrick Lawler
"Did we ring the buzzer in time enough to give the answer?"
A Film by Joni Renee Whitworth
"The green chair was the width of a three-year-old ..."
Two Poems, Kevin O’Rourke
"Its origin is in whim ..."
Two Poems, JoAnna Novak
"I will turn a page for you, right / the city."
Poetry, Richard Meier
"It’s all one I am / thinking. Whistling holds water then / loosens coordination ..."
Three Poems, Linda Tomol Pennisi
"...and threw his small body into a gold mess of tall grass ..."
Poems, Kristofor Minta
"Around other stars, they do not know us ..."
2015-16 Archives
The Thaw
For all the talk of warmth and rebirth, spring is a really ugly season. Trails turn to mud pits and roads to rivers as the thaw begins to take hold, and the brown carcasses of what was left at the end of fall begin to reappear. The ground cover is a layer of partially decayed leaves, and all the damage the winter did is slowly revealed.
Of Wind
White Wind / Frozen layering like ice sheets, / Yet wicked and swift, / It carves and scours its path.
Staring Skyward
Arcturus / Leader of the lucida in their nightly procession, / The key: receiver of lightning
Any Moment
Eurydice didn’t look quite so lost yesterday / as I passed the sculpture garden on the way to class.
Observations
An ice footprint stays / long after maker is gone / snowfall soon obscures.
The Siren
Sometimes someone will drown in another part of the river and I can’t help, because the river is large and I am only one person.
Catching the light
The secondary rain shower / trickles from the leaves of the honey locust
Cloudwatching
wispy thoughts drift / across the dome of the sky / as I lay here / supported on the warm earth / in the stillness of the / wind
Contact Spinning A Fire Staff
“Many of us would say that we are conscious of our daily activity even though we are not actively watching ourselves executing these actions”