The Potter
By Poetry Issue 62
So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw [her] working at the wheel. —Jeremiah 18:3 Coming in from the wind, disheveled, we cluster like commas around the woman at the wheel. Her foot…
Read MoreWaiting
By Poetry Issue 62
On the hospital bed, a body: long, straight, and still breathing, though the eyes don’t open and the ears can’t hear. No sound escapes the body’s vocal cords to slip across its lips. Two women on straight-backed chairs watch and wait. The woman who is the mother naturally insists on hoping. Says she sees eyelashes…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Conversation with Nicholas Samaras
By Interview Issue 62
The summer issue of Image includes four poems by Nicholas Samaras, one of which was influenced by Michael Sitaras’ conceptual art project, Sacred Air. All poems are part of his work on a book of poems in response to the biblical Psalms. We asked Nicholas how these poems began. Image: You’ve been working on…
Read MoreTigris and Euphrates: The Cradle of Contemporary Short Fiction
By Book Review Issue 62
Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch A FEW WEEKS AGO, I sat in my office reading Joan Didion’s essay “Goodbye to All That” and came upon a line that sent me reeling back into my past: “Was there ever someone so young?” The question struck me…
Read MoreThe Rosary
By Essay Issue 62
I SOMETIMES CARRY a rosary these days, a Spanish one of wooden beads that a friend gave to me. I used to think that it reflected the same impulse as needlework, which I do inexpertly—a desire for the consolation of repetition. Now I consider it a spiritual discipline, as I try, in middle age, to…
Read MoreDepartures
By Essay Issue 62
Departures: Journeys with Asian Filmmakers I’M HALFWAY OVER the Atlantic on a 777, and I’ve just unfolded myself from my seat. It feels like needles are threading blood back down through my legs and feet. Teaching myself to walk again, I grimace up the aisle of the darkened plane. As I go, I scan…
Read MoreScordatura
By Essay Issue 62
Upon Listening to Biber’s Rosary Sonatas Scordatura: Abnormal tuning of a stringed instrument in order to obtain unusual chords, facilitate difficult passages, or change the tone color. —Harvard Dictionary of Music, second edition ALTHOUGH I AM a piano tuner who used to play a violin, I would not dream of referring to the violin as…
Read MoreRedemptive Grit: The Ordinary Artistry of Gerald Folkerts
By Essay Issue 62
DUTCH-CANADIAN, of Midwestern Winnipeg, an ordinary follower of Jesus Christ. This is perhaps the most succinct way to situate the artist Gerald Folkerts. Readers may ask, “Can any artistic good come out of Winnipeg?” Come closer. Take a look. Winnipeg, Manitoba, is not like Bible-belt Alberta, but is hard-working Mennonite farming country. Under God-blue skies,…
Read MoreSacra Conversazione
By Interview Issue 62
What follows is a written conversation between painter Bruce Herman and patron Walter Hansen. The two just completed a three-year project that involved producing a cycle of images on the life of the Virgin Mary in two large altarpieces that have been exhibited in the United States and are now installed semi-permanently in Monastery San…
Read MoreA Conversation with Eugene Peterson
By Interview Issue 62
Eugene Peterson is a pastor and author of more than thirty books, including A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, The Contemplative Pastor, and Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading, one in a multi-volume series of book-length “conversations” in spiritual theology. He has also written a bestselling Bible translation, The…
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