Table of Contents


Views and Mechanics
Publisher's Note
Editor's Note
Review of The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You
Review of If Instead of Apes We Had Come from Grapes
Review of Anson County
Review of Dissolution of Ghosts
Crossword
(Solution Posted in July. Printable version in pdf format of journal.)
Mar/Apr Crossword Solution
Creative Nonfiction
1998
By Samuel Hazo
Booing the Pope
By Matthew D. Taylor
Sgt. Robert Starbuck, USMC: Elegy and Essay
By John Guthrie
Shrink Wrap, Diet Cokes and a Kazoo
By Sara J. Ford
Poetry
And the Time Is
By Samuel Hazo
In His Winter
By Wanda D. Campbell
Lester
By Thomas Reynolds
Generation Gap
By Valerie Lauria Stanske
Two Poets
By Gary C. Wilkens
Mongolia, 1930
By Gary C. Wilkens
Fiction
A Death in the Family
By John Speeking
Letters
By Suzanne Abbot
Among the Briars
By Pat Tompkins
Filling in the Angles
By Jessica DelBalzo
Miss Mary
By Beth L. Block
Cover Art
Photography by Seth Brown
About the Contributors

© 2006, River Walk Journal and respective authors and artists. All rights reserved. Do not use or reproduce without permission.

River Walk Journal, Inc.
Board of Directors

Chairman - Elizabeth Ross
Vice Chairman - Joseph Koch
Secretary/Treasurer - Geri Stock-Ross
Editorial Director - Patti Kurtz, DA
Literacy Director - Bill Mausteller
Policy Director - PA State Rep. Jess Stairs
Advisory Board
Chairman - Patti Kurtz, DA
Asst. Chairman - Dan Lachenman, PhD
Samuel Hazo
Christopher Leland
Edwin Yoder
Joseph Bathanti
Journal Staff
Publisher - Elizabeth Ross
Editor-In-Chief - Joseph Koch
Sen. Fiction Editor - Patti Kurtz
Sen. Poetry Editor - Neeldhara Misra
Sen. Creative Nonfiction Editor - Brenda Coxe
Contributing Editor - Robert Dittman
Publicity Director (PA) - Geri Stock-Ross

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River Walk Journal, Inc. is a non-profit corporation run entirely by volunteers. For information about volunteer opportunities and internships, visit http://www.riverwalkjournal.org/volunteer.html.

And The Time Is
By Samuel Hazo

We have come to the point of decision,
and the hands of the clock say---be careful.
We’ve learned from the past that our choices
are one or the other or neither,
and the hands of the clock say---be careful.
We have readied ourselves for the challenge
by weighing the odds and the chances
of what will result from our choices,
and the hands of the clock say---be hopeful.

We’re not what we were when we started,
and the hands of the clock say---it’s over.
Our yesterdays lengthen like shadows
that fade when we no longer cast them,
and the hands of the clock say---it’s over.
Despite what it brings to surprise us,
we treasure each day in its passing
though we know that we pass as it passes,
and the hands of the clock say---discover.

We sit on the porch every evening,
and the hands of the clock say---be watchful.
We study the leaves in their turning
from green to vermillion to purple,
and the hands of the clock say---be watchful.
While we stare at the sky in its vastness
and name every star in the distance,
we dwindle to scale in the balance,
and the hands of the clock say---be grateful.

The dead come to life in our dreaming,
and the hands of the clock say---remember.
The words of a prophet keep haunting
the ones who ignored him when living,
and the hands of the clock say---remember.
The world that we think is beyond us
is neither behind nor around us
but always within us, within us,
and the hands of the clock say---forever.