Portraiture and Personhood: Hubbard and Birchler’s Flora
By Visual Art Issue 111
The soundtrack alternates between David speaking about his mother’s life and his memories of her, and a voiceover narration in which Flora recalls her life in Paris. However, a viewer can only watch one side of the screen at a time—either Flora’s or David’s.
Read MoreAfter Reading Song of Songs I Take Out the Garbage
By Poetry Issue 111
The syllables of my beloved are sweeter / than the cherry yogurt that once brimmed / these cups, her clavicle sturdier than corncobs, / her skin fairer than papery onion skins.
Read MoreSelf-Portrait as Sarai
By Poetry Issue 111
Three hours, midday: state minimum. / Three hours, midday: the god and her child deep in the forest.
Read MoreMy Desert Saints
By Essay Issue 111
It is said that a certain woman went to visit her sister. Before she knocked, she peeked through the curtain and witnessed something she had never seen.
Read MoreI Have Lost Faith
By Poetry Issue 111
I like to be a little cold what / / I mean is I need to feel just / uncomfortable enough to know I’m still / alive
Read MoreThe Means of Healing: A Conversation with Martha Serpas
By Interview Issue 111
Becoming involved in a poem, allowing the lines to unfold, not knowing if there’s going to be a surprise, a turn, or deepening—this is very similar to being with a patient or family as a chaplain when I don’t have all the answers. Part of my job is to sit with them in uncertainty. It’s a big white space.
Read MoreBlessings Brighten as They Take Their Flight
By Poetry Issue 111
I’ll tell you what / a proverb does. A proverb waits / for the knowing / / animal. A proverb talks / when no / one listens.
Read MoreSonic Theology: Heather Christian’s Musical and Theatrical Liturgies
By Culture Issue 111
The musical metaphors and techniques here surpass a simple recitation of the creed, in part because the music is doing something deeply trinitarian, and you don’t need music theory to feel this in your body.
Read MoreWorking in the Dark
By Visual Art Issue 111
The heaviness of the questions I was trying to answer demanded a slower pace than photography alone could give me. I began sewing plant material from the farm into prints, and when I put the results in my scanner bed, I discovered that they became illuminated in unique ways, transformed into cosmic-looking abstractions.
Read MorePilgrim
By Poetry Issue 111
Lie beside me in this fallowland / / crossed through with tramps’ tracks wandering / lost at even these short spans
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