to the bee crawling on Maya Angelou’s book by Sharisa Aidukaitis sure I suppose you can read along, traversing pathways of love and aspiration and tasting sublimely crafted phrases, except your presence makes me queasy and the lyrical ink is starting to swim so I wonder if you could fly down [...]
The Tomato Juice Betrayal by Ellen Notbohm I didn’t set out to betray my mother. What a horrid way that would be to repay her years of selfless devotion. But betray her I did. The instrument of my treachery—a tiny glass of tomato juice. Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen, a legendary steak [...]
A Theory of Four Walls by Aaron Lelito Stepping out onto the street —self and other— to look for the cracks suspended in bodies and how real they seem in the moment you realize that breaking the egg is both an expression of avoiding extremes and the creation of a series of [...]
Stories of Corn and Kindness by Mariana Castro Azpíroz At the Octagon Art Festival in Ames, my friend Marisol is doing letterpress demonstrations in one of the stands. They have it set up with the phrase “The world needs more,” and people get to choose how to fill in the blank. [...]
Buying Supplies on the Island by Donna J. Gelagotis Lee En route to the village with shops for food and supplies, I calculated how much I would need to buy and how much I would need to hide, such as extra toilet tissue and bottled water, because villagers didn’t drink bottled water and [...]
Gathering Day by Jeff Howard As we become readyfor new ways of findingourselves, for new ways of locating ourselves in the local continuum that rings through,we will find ourselvesin new rituals that remind uswe are not from somewhere else, not parked here by an entityfrom outside, but woven and heldin the fabricof all [...]
"Chicken Legs, Viet Nam," "Tomato Worm," and "Eating Lunch, India" by Roger Camp To enlarge, click on images below. ~ Roger Camp is the author of three photography books, including the award winning Butterflies in Flight, Thames & Hudson, 2002. His documentary photography [...]
Painting the Snow by Vivian Drescher The ExperienceI find myself in the cold winter wood, slightly off the path. Looking ahead, I discover a gap in the trees basking in the light of the moon. The area, foreign to me; is it a lake or is it just a field? Will [...]
An Interview with Environmental Artist Sheila Novak I first met Sheila in 2024 at a book club event in Ithaca—an intimate, monthly gathering focused on exploring themes of environmentalism and outdoor recreation through literature. Since then, we've both become regular participants, finding shared inspiration in the stories and conversations that unfold. [...]
Sonnet with Character Triangle You were a doting bee on purple asters and whenever I opened the back gate trying to reach my Subaru by the garage, I disturbed you. We could’ve pruned a path, but I didn’t want to remove your favorite spot. Love was an overgrown hedge like a [...]
