Views and Mechanics Publisher's Note Editor's Note Review of Bliss Review of Atheist Manifesto Review of The Stones Cry Out Film review of "Karov La Bayit" Creative Nonfiction A Reverence for Words By Virginia Hendry For the Wife of Bath and the Wife of Yeats, I Give Thanks By Sara J. Ford Birth By Clint Pearson Poetry Gong Fu By Tim J. Brennan Phases By Tolu Ogunlesi They Are Driving Their Cars Again, They Are Driving... By Anne Cammon Death of the Travelers By Abigail Grant Leaves By Matt Gee Fiction The Wood Splitter By Michael Phillips Boogie & Sarah Leigh By Sandra L. West What Happened to Matt Dillon By Chris Drangle Red, Manhattan, 523 By Beth Hogan Titanic Hat By D.K. McGill About the Contributors © 2007, 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 - Vacant 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 Senior Editor - Patti Kurtz Senior Editor - Neeldhara Misra Senior Editor - Mike Munsil Assistant Editor - Steve MacNeil Copyeditor - Kathy Skaggs Blog Contributing Editor - Maggie Koster Publicity Director (PA) - Geri Stock-Ross For information about submissions, visit http://www.riverwalkjournal.org/subs.html. Questions about promotions, subscribers' services, and advertising should be sent to publisher@riverwalkjournal.org. River Walk Journal, Inc. is a non-profit corporation run entirely by volunteers. For information about volunteer opportunities and internships, visit VolunteerMatch. |
Editor's Note Hello everyone, and welcome to the March/April 2007 issue of River Walk Journal. This issue’s poetry selections are simple and to the point. Tim J. Brennan’s “Gong Fu” and Tolu Ogunlesi’s “Phases” are both “still life” sorts of poems, each capturing a particular instant. “Gong Fu” is a snapshot of an ordinary moment that becomes contemplation between two people, and “Phases” is one person’s meditation on the eternal vault of night. Anne Cammon shares “They Are Driving Their Cars Again, They Are Driving…” with us this issue. Her poem is less about the ephemera of moments and our place in them, and more about how moments in our more practical lives can really tick us off. Bottling things up isn’t a good thing after all… We’ve also decided to add two poems from our latest collegiate edition, Abigail Grant’s “Death of the Travelers” and Matt Gee’s “Leaves”. For those of you that might not be familiar, we periodically (pun intended) work with a collegiate level creative writing professor and his or her students, introducing new writers to the publishing industry and the nuts-and-bolts of the publishing process. For anyone who’s ever wondered what it’s really like to be unable to read, Virginia Hendry’s CNF piece “A Reverence for Words” is a must read. It’s a must read for anyone who hasn’t wondered too. Sara J. Ford’s “For the Wife of Bath and the Wife of Yeats, I Give Thanks” takes us into the stressful, confusing, sometimes purely off-the-wall world of high academia. Our protagonist battles the outer “demons” of at-odds professors, and her own inner anxiety imp, while giving a thankful nod to a special woman whose words (in part) made it possible for the narrator to be in her current pickle at all. Clint Pearson’s “Birth” is our third CNF offering. “Birth” is a tense, “Man vs. the Elements and Man vs. Self” roller-coaster ride that doesn’t let up. For fiction we have Michael Phillips story, “The Wood Splitter”. Its story’s title is a metaphor for “getting back to basics” after a major life change. I like this one quite a bit because it refuses to descend into sentimentality; real life isn’t usually like that. Sandra L. West shares her story “Boogie & Sarah Leigh” with us. Her piece takes a clear-eyed look at how a woman can grow from blind acceptance, defining herself by her man, into her own person. “What Happened to Matt Dillon” by Chris Drangle is a very sobering look at what really happens when men take liberties with women (or maybe don’t) and the woman’s brother finds out. Have you ever really fought someone physically? Could you beat someone badly? How would you know for sure you were doing the right thing? Read on to see what Drangle’s narrator does. In “Red, Manhattan, 523” Beth Hogan takes us on a lovely, slightly surreal trip through the memories and regrets of someone I wish I had met. D. K. McGill’s “Titanic Hat” is a look at how a man can loose himself in the slow grind of time, or perhaps find himself, in the terrible realizations of one instant. I hope our faithful readers and new arrivals are reading this having come safely through winter, basking in the return of warmth and light. Cheers! JK |