Young Ravens Literary Review: A Biannual Online Literary Journal
  Young Ravens Literary Review
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  • Interviews
    • Issue 1 Interviews >
      • Interview with artist Ira Joel Haber
      • Interview with writer S. L. Woodford
      • Interview with poet Dayna Patterson
    • Issue 2 Interviews >
      • Interview with poet Laura Lovic-Lindsay
      • Interview with photographer Michelle Hrvat
      • Interview with author Thalia Spinrad
      • Interview with artist Bobbie Berendson W.
    • Issue 3 Interviews >
      • Interview with author Terri Glass
      • Interview with poet Michael Keshigian
      • Interview with artist Zephren Turner
    • Issue 4 Interviews >
      • Interview with Poet Anne Whitehouse
      • Interview with Artist W. Jack Savage
      • Interview with Author Krisanne Knudsen
    • Issue 5 Interviews >
      • Interview with Poet Seth Jani
      • Interview with Artist Fabrice Poussin
      • Interview with Writer Judith Kelly Quaempts
    • Issue 6 Interviews >
      • Interview with Artist Christine Stoddard
      • Interview with Poet Ricky Ray
      • Interview with Poet Christina Lovin
    • Issue 7 Interviews >
      • Interview with Artist Max Talley
      • Interview with Poet Ali Hintz
      • Interview with Author Lauren Morrow
    • Issue 8 Interviews >
      • Interview with Artist Jesse White
      • Interview with Poet Jeff Burt
      • Interview with Author Daanish Jamal
    • Issue 9 Interviews >
      • Interview with Poet Antoni Ooto
      • Interview with Artist Juan Páez
      • Interview with Writer Meg Freer
    • Issue 10 Interviews >
      • Interview with Shannon Elizabeth Gardner
      • Interview with Karen Neuberg
      • Interview with Vikram Masson
    • Issue 11 Interviews >
      • Interview with Tay Greenleaf
      • Interview with Larry D. Thacker
      • Interview with Jennifer Battisti
    • Issue 12 Interviews >
      • Interview with Shankar Ramakrishnan
      • Interview with Bella Koschalk
      • Interview with Christina Hoag
    • Issue 13 Interviews >
      • Interview with Lauren Walke
      • Interview with Michael Brockley
      • Interview with Donna Pucciani
    • Issue 14 Interviews >
      • Interview with Jemma Leigh Roe
      • Interview wtih Michael T. Young
      • Interview with Judith Ford
    • Issue 15 Interviews >
      • Interview with Richard Levine
      • Interview with Laura Erekson
      • Interview with Leslie Dianne
    • Issue 16 Interviews >
      • Interview with Richard Hanus
      • Interview with Damon Hubbs
      • Interview with Wendy K. Mages
    • Issue 17 Interviews >
      • Interview with Matina Vossou
      • Interview wtih Sigrun Susan Lane
      • Interview with Ariel Mitchell Williams
    • Issue 18 Interviews >
      • Interview with Angela Townsend
      • Interview with Paul Hostovsky
      • Interview with Shelby Lynn Lanaro
    • Issue 19 Interviews >
      • Interview with Kelly DuMar
      • Interview with William Cass
      • Interview with Philip Jason
    • Issue 20 Interviews >
      • Interview with Natalie Shea
      • Interview with Riley Bauer
      • Interview with Willie Carver
    • Issue 21 Interviews >
      • Interview with Benjamin Green
      • Interview with Nancy Machlis Rechtman
      • Interview with Lily Ogden
  • Issues
    • Issue 1 >
      • Introduction Issue 1
      • Cover Art "Girl with Bouquet"
      • Hearing
      • Tiger Nebula & Barnacles
      • 3 Poems by Dayna Patterson
      • A Fruitful Tale
      • 3 Photographs of Spain
      • Sea Ice & Touch the Sun
      • Toad Hunting
      • Touch of Rainbow
      • Moon over Venice & Fontana di Trevi
      • Longboat Key Beach
      • Seashells & Colored Grove
      • Driving Home from the Bar with Frankie, Winter
      • You are the Vision
      • The Embroidery (Vyshyvanka)
      • Safe, Sound
    • Issue 2 >
      • Cover art by Tommy Ottley
      • YR2 Introduction
      • YR2 Bobbie Berendson W.
      • YR2 Laura Madeline Wiseman
      • YR2 Robert A. Kaufman
      • YR2 Laura Lovic-Lindsay
      • YR2 Rebecca Page
      • YR2 Lanette Cadle
      • YR2 Michelle Hrvat
      • YR2 Heather Monson
      • YR2 Maria S. Picone
      • YR2 Mary Bast
      • YR2 Bridget Gage-Dixon
      • YR2 Liz & Elisa Pulido
      • YR2 Katherine Simmons
      • YR2 Thalia Spinrad
      • YR2 Wilda Morris
      • YR2 Ruth Foley
      • YR2 Brent Danley Jones
      • YR2 Sarah Sadie
    • Issue 3 >
      • Cover Art by Zephren Turner
      • YR3 Introduction
      • YR3 Michael Keshigian
      • YR3 Natalie Luehr
      • YR3 Fern G. Z. Carr
      • YR3 Elizabeth Perdomo
      • YR3 Anandi Wilkinson
      • YR3 Terri Glass
      • YR3 Brendan Walsh
      • YR3 Heidi Morrell
      • YR3 Marianne Szlyk
      • YR3 Rachel Bownik
      • YR3 Dennis Trujillo
      • YR3 Dani Dymond
      • YR3 Sylvia Ashby
      • YR3 W. Jack Savage
      • YR3 Krisanne Hastings Knudsen
      • YR3 Dayna Patterson
      • YR3 Mary Buchinger
      • YR3 Linda M. Crate
      • YR3 Nels Hanson
      • YR3 Stephen L. Peck
      • YR3 Debbie Barr
      • YR3 Joanne Esser
      • YR3 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR3 Emily Strauss
    • Issue 4 >
      • Cover art by Kurt Knudsen
      • Introduction: the heart of cyclicity
      • YR4 Page Turner
      • YR4 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR4 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR4 Bridget Gage-DIxon
      • YR4 Lisa Cook
      • YR4 Mary Stike
      • YR4 W. Jack Savage
      • YR4 Michael Pendragon
      • YR4 J. Ellington
      • YR4 Mantz Yorke
      • YR4 John Grey
      • YR4 Carl Boon
      • YR4 Lynn Otto
      • YR4 Ayendy Bonifacio
      • YR4 Yuan Changming
      • YR4 Paul Stansbury
      • YR4 Ingrid Bruck
      • YR4 Helen Patrice
      • YR4 Laura Sobbott Ross
      • YR4 Krisanne Hastings Knudsen
      • YR4 Emily Bilman
      • YR4 Kaye Linden
      • YR4 Edilson A. Ferreira
      • YR4 Jessica Lindsley
      • YR4 Michael Keshigian
    • Issue 5 >
      • YR5 Introduction
      • YR5 Kirchheimer & Piudik
      • YR5 Robert Ford
      • YR5 Mark A. Fisher
      • YR5 Eli T. Mond
      • YR5 Dani Dymond
      • YR5 Seth Jani
      • YR5 Tonya Hamill (Poetry)
      • YR5 Kersten Christianson
      • YR5 Ed Higgins
      • YR5 Thomas Piekarski
      • YR5 Don Thompson
      • YR5 Marc Carver
      • YR5 Carol Smallwood
      • YR5 Mackenzie Dwyer
      • YR5 Michael Keshigian
      • YR5 Banwynn (Suta) Oakshadow
      • YR5 Terri Simon
      • YR5 Richard Fein
      • YR5 Andrew Hubbard
      • YR5 Matthew Burns
      • YR5 Allison Gish
      • YR5 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR5 Anthony Rubino
      • YR5 Tonya Hamill (Art)
      • YR5 Jennie Harward
      • YR5 Chad M. Horn
      • YR5 Shandi Kano
      • YR5 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR5 Alec Solomita
      • YR5 Review
    • Issue 6 >
      • YR6 Introduction
      • YR6 Christine Stoddard
      • YR6 Ahrend Torrey
      • YR6 Jenn Powers
      • YR6 Felicia Mitchell
      • YR6 Brandon Marlon
      • YR6 Natalie Luehr
      • YR6 Sarah Rehfeldt
      • YR6 Terri Glass
      • YR6 Christina Lovin
      • YR6 Kelly DuMar
      • YR6 Joan White
      • YR6 Peggy Turnbull
      • YR6 Nate Maxson
      • YR6 Vivian Wagner
      • YR6 Tushar Jain
      • YR6 Gordon Kippola
      • YR6 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR6 Ashley Park Owens - Art
      • YR6 Marianne Peel
      • YR6 Lindsey S. Frantz
      • YR6 Mark Bonica
      • YR6 Ed Krizek
      • YR6 Ricky Ray
      • YR6 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR6 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR6 Cat Dixon
      • YR6 Barbara Brooks
      • YR6 William Doreski
      • YR6 John Grey
      • YR6 Michael Keshigian
      • YR6 Maureen Solomon
      • YR6 Kersten Christianson
      • YR6 Jennifer Liston
      • YR6 Shawna Sommerstad
      • YR6 Ashley Parker Owens - Poetry
      • YR6 Claire Blotter
      • YR6 Zev Torres
    • Issue 7 >
      • Introduction Issue 7
      • YR7 Max Talley
      • YR7 Thomas O'Connell
      • YR7 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR7 Archita Mittra
      • YR7 Ali Hintz
      • YR7 Lucía Damacela
      • YR7 Steven Sher
      • YR7 Cynthia Blank
      • YR7 Kathryn Knight Sonntag
      • YR7 Holly Day
      • YR7 Judy Shepps Battle
      • YR7 Allegra Forman
      • YR7 Kristen Wood
      • YR7 Sarah Rehfeldt
      • YR7 Don Thompson
      • YR7 Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz
      • YR7 Dan Brook
      • YR7 Michael Maul
      • YR7 Dennis Trujillo
      • YR7 Lauren Morrow
      • YR7 Daginne Aignend
      • YR7 Ann Christine Tabaka
      • YR7 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR7 Michael Keshigian
      • YR7 Karen Poppy
      • YR7 Matthew Barron
      • YR7 Krikor Der Hohannesian
      • YR7 Linda M. Crate
      • YR7 Natalie Schriefer
      • YR7 Bob Carlton
      • YR7 Roger Sippl
      • YR7 Jake Sheff
      • YR7 Dan Brook - NF
      • YR7 Jim Zola
      • YR7 Kelsey May
      • YR7 Mark A. Fisher
      • YR7 Meg Freer
      • YR7 Chris Connolly
      • YR7 DJ Hill
      • YR7 Mantz Yorke
      • YR7 Mark J. Mitchell
    • Issue 8 >
      • Issue 8 Introduction
      • YR8 Jesse White
      • YR8 Barbara A. Meier
      • YR8 Meg Freer
      • YR8 Andrea Wolper
      • YR8 Emily Warzeniak - Art
      • YR8 Emily Warzeniak - Poetry
      • YR8 Parul Gupta
      • YR8 Robert Beveridge
      • YR8 Chris Stolle
      • YR8 Maria Pascualy
      • YR8 Daanish Jamal
      • YR8 Roberta Senechal de la Roche
      • YR8 Wendy Schmidt
      • YR8 Kevin Casey
      • YR8 Constantin Preda
      • YR8 Suzanne S. Rancourt
      • YR8 Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz
      • YR8 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR8 Jeff Burt
      • YR8 Michael Keshigian
      • YR8 Ray Ball
    • Issue 9 >
      • YR9 Introduction
      • YR9 Juan Paez
      • YR9 Antoni Ooto
      • YR9 Dennis Trujillo
      • YR9 Kersten Christianson
      • YR9 Stephen Register
      • YR9 Rasma Haidri
      • YR9 John Grey
      • YR9 Terri Glass
      • YR9 Meg Freer - Art
      • YR9 Keith Moul
      • YR9 Thomas Piekarski
      • YR9 Jared Pearce
      • YR9 Sunil Sharma
      • YR9 Paul Bluestein
      • YR9 Linda M. Crate
      • YR9 Meg Freer
      • YR9 Hugh Cook
      • YR9 Marc Carver
      • YR9 Mary Buchinger
      • YR9 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR9 Robert Wexelblatt
      • YR9 Don Thomposon
    • Issue 10 >
      • Issue 10 Introduction
      • YR10 Shannon Elizabeth Gardner
      • YR10 Vikram Masson
      • YR10 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR10 A1 Shelby Lynn Lanaro
      • YR10 Nate Maxson
      • YR10 Ed Ruzicka
      • YR10 Carol Alena Aronoff
      • YR10 Wendy Schmidt
      • YR10 Meg Freer
      • YR10 Marly Youmans
      • YR10 Diane Dickinson
      • YR10 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR10 Susan Blevins
      • YR10 Shelby Lynn Lanaro
      • YR10 McKenzie Lynn Tozan
      • YR10 Christian Mack
      • YR10 Bridget Gage-Dixon
      • YR10 A1 Edward Lee
      • YR10 Richard Luftig
      • YR10 Rachael Nazzaro
      • YR10 Jan Ball
      • YR10 Michael Keshigian
      • YR10 Anne Doran
      • YR10 George Moore
      • YR10 Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal
      • YR10 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR10 Edward Lee
      • YR10 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR10 Juliette Sebock
      • YR10 Eve Lyons
      • YR10 Tamam Kahn
      • YR10 Patrick Haas
      • YR10 Victoria Elizabeth Ruwi
      • YR10 Tim Kahl
      • YR10 Jennifer Stuart
      • YR10 Laura Stringfellow
      • YR10 Mary Anna Kruch
      • YR10 Tracee Clapper
      • YR10 Marianne Szlyk
      • YR10 Robin Wright
      • YR10 Cynthia Elder
      • YR10 Agnes Vojta
      • YR10 Karen Neuberg
      • YR10 Antoni Ooto
      • YR10 DS Maolailai
      • YR10 Cheryl Caesar
      • YR10 Alec Solomita
      • YR10 Hibah Shabkhez
    • Issue 11 >
      • Issue 11 Introduction
      • YR11 MD Marcus
      • YR11 Donna Pucciani
      • YR11 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR11 John Sweet
      • YR11 Holly Day
      • YR11 Antoni Ooto
      • YR11 Judy DeCroce
      • YR11 Mark J. Mitchell
      • YR11 Margaret King
      • YR11 Meg Freer - Poetry
      • YR11 John Grey
      • YR11 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR11 Lily Beaumont
      • YR11 Katherine Johnson
      • YR11 Gary Duehr
      • YR11 Fariel Shafee
      • YR11 Tay Greenleaf
      • YR11 J.I. Kleinberg
      • YR11 Barbara A. Meier
      • YR11 Rebecca Fullan
      • YR11 Duane Anderson
      • YR11 Jennifer Battisti
      • YR11 Dayna Patterson
      • YR11 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR11 Meg Freer - Art
      • YR11 Janina Aza Karpinska
      • YR11 Larry D. Thacker
      • YR11 Bob MacKenzie
    • Issue 12 >
      • YR12 Introduction
      • YR12 Bella Koschalk
      • YR12 Lori Levy
      • YR12 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR12 Barbara A. Meier
      • YR12 Charlotte Fong
      • YR12 Sivakami Velliangiri
      • YR12 Vivian Wagner
      • YR12 Bailey Bujnosek
      • YR12 Joan Leotta
      • YR12 Kelley White
      • YR12 Bob MacKenzie
      • YR12 Richard Luftig
      • YR12 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR12 Janette Schafer
      • YR12 John Kaprielian
      • YR12 Antoni Ooto
      • YR12 Shelby Lynn Lanaro - Poetry
      • YR12 Ann Weil
      • YR12 Ellen Dooling Reynard
      • YR12 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR12 Stephanie Hauer
      • YR12 Stephen Kingsnorth
      • YR12 Cynthia Trenshaw
      • YR12 Shobhana Kumar
      • YR12 Phoebe Backer
      • YR12 Christina Hoag
      • YR12 Shankar Ramakrishnan
      • YR12 Meg Freer
      • YR12 Bob MacKenze - Art
      • YR12 Shelby Lynn Lanaro - Art
      • YR12 Christopher Woods
      • YR12 John L. Stanizzi
    • Issue 13 >
      • YR13 Introduction
      • YR13 Donna Pucciani
      • YR13 Marie C Lecrivain
      • YR13 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR13 George R. Kramer
      • YR13 Vern Fein
      • YR13 Terri Glass
      • YR13 August Smith
      • YR13 Don Thompson
      • YR13 John Raffetto
      • YR13 JBMulligan
      • YR13 Gordon Kippola
      • YR13 Meg Smith
      • YR13 Theric Jepson
      • YR13 Melanie Cox
      • YR13 Shannon Cuthbert
      • YR13 Preeth Ganapathy
      • YR13 Laurinda Lind
      • YR13 Michael Brockley
      • YR13 Lauren Walke
      • YR13 Page Turner
      • YR13 Meg Freer
      • YR13 Cheryl Johnson
      • YR13 Dayna Patterson
      • YR13 Charles J. March III
    • Issue 14 >
      • YR14 Introduction
      • YR14 Agnes Vojta
      • YR14 Michael T. Young
      • YR14 L. Ward Abel
      • YR14 Kelly Morgan
      • YR14 DS Maolalai
      • YR14 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR14 Anneliese Kvamme
      • YR14 Claire Drucker
      • YR14 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR14 August Smith
      • YR14 George Moore
      • YR14 Jennifer Schomburg Kanke
      • YR14 Gena Schwam
      • YR14 Angele Ellis
      • YR14 Matthew Mayes
      • YR14 Jennifer Novotney
      • YR14 Cameron Morse
      • YR14 Shelby Lynn Lanaro
      • YR14 Kate Meyer-Currey
      • YR14 Mark Heathcote
      • YR14 Arlene Weiner
      • YR14 Rebecca Patrascu
      • YR14 Gabrielle Langley
      • YR14 Gary Lark
      • YR14 Michael Keshigian
      • YR14 Cathy Shang
      • YR14 Linda M. Crate
      • YR14 Mark A. Fisher
      • YR14 Jerin Anne Jacob
      • YR14 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR14 Jack D. Harvey
      • YR14 Ana Pugatch
      • YR14 Tracy Donohue
      • YR14 Roger Singer
      • YR14 Judith Ford
      • YR14 Dayna Patterson
      • YR14 Jemma Leigh Roe
      • YR14 Maxwell Suzuki
      • YR14 Meg Freer
    • Issue 15 >
      • YR15 Introduction
      • YR15 Richard Levine
      • YR15 Mark J. Mitchell
      • YR15 Rob Piazza
      • YR15 Luke Maguire Armstrong
      • YR15 Aaron Hahn
      • YR15 Morgan Bazilian
      • YR15 Christopher Clauss
      • YR15 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR15 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR15 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR15 Lea Galanter
      • YR15 Ursula O'Reilly
      • YR15 Mark Hammerschick
      • YR15 Brendan Todt
      • YR15 Greg Hill
      • YR15 Seth Ketchem
      • YR15 Nolo Segundo
      • YR15 Elizabeth McCarthy
      • YR15 Cameron Morse
      • YR15 Bruce McRae
      • YR15 Stephen Mead
      • YR15 Leslie Dianne
      • YR15 Laura Erekson
      • YR15 Jamie Ortolano
      • YR15 Robin Wright
      • YR15 Lauren Walke
      • YR15 Page Turner
      • YR15 Paola Bidinelli
      • YR15 Edward Lee
    • Issue 16 >
      • YR16 Introduction
      • YR16 Sharon Wright Mitchell
      • YR16 Mitchell Untch
      • YR16 Lynn White
      • YR16 Kate Falvey
      • YR16 Hamad Al-Rayes
      • YR16 Daniel A. Rabuzzi
      • YR16 Damon Hubbs
      • YR16 Tricia Lloyd Waller
      • YR16 Johanna Haas
      • YR16 Meg Freer
      • YR16 Ethan Blakley
      • YR16 Cameron Morse
      • YR16 Michael Keshigian
      • YR16 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR16 Marie-Elizabeth Mali
      • YR16 Allen Ashley
      • YR16 Kersten Christianson
      • YR16 Kyle Singh
      • YR16 Shari Lawrence Pfleeger
      • YR16 GTimothy Gordon
      • YR16 Ursula O'Reilly
      • YR16 Meekha Roper
      • YR16 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR16 Peycho Kanev
      • YR16 Stevenson & Auclair
      • YR16 Wendy K. Mages
      • YR16 Richard Hanus
      • YR16 Cynthia Yatchman
      • YR16 Jared Rich
      • YR16 Carl Scharwath
      • YR16 Kersten Christianson-Art
      • YR16 Meg Freer-Art
    • Issue 17 >
      • YR17 Introduction
      • YR17 Merryn Rutlege
      • YR17 Sigrun Susan Lane
      • YR17 Elizabeth McCarthy
      • YR17 Kersten Christianson
      • YR17 Alixa Brobbey
      • YR17 Sharon Lopez Mooney
      • YR17 Mary Alice Williams
      • YR17 Ann M Lawrence
      • YR17 Lauren Cox
      • YR17 Karla Linn Merrifield
      • YR17 Chloë Rain
      • YR17 Colette Tennant
      • YR17 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR17 Elizabeth Cranford Garcia
      • YR17 Holly Day
      • YR17 Darlene Young
      • YR17 Robin Wright
      • YR17 Sandra Salinas Newton
      • YR17 Nancy Machlis Rechtman
      • YR17 Dorothy Johnson-Laird
      • YR17 Adrienne Stevenson
      • YR17 Diana Raab
      • YR17 Shirley Harshenin
      • YR17 V. Bray
      • YR17 Christa Fairbrother
      • YR17 Ariel Mitchell Williams-Fiction
      • YR17 Ariel Mitchell Williams-NF
      • YR17 Liz Busby
      • YR17 Matina Vossou
      • YR17 Wendy Lou Schmidt
      • YR17 Richard Hanus
    • Issue 18 >
      • YR18 Introduction
      • YR18 David Henson
      • YR18 Diane Webster
      • YR18 Adrienne Stevenson
      • YR18 Michael T. Young
      • YR18 Meg Freer-Poetry
      • YR18 John Kaprelian
      • YR18 Terri Glass
      • YR18 Hugh Carroll
      • YR18 Marie-Andrée Auclair
      • YR18 Neile Graham
      • YR18 Rick Rohdenburg
      • YR18 John Savoie
      • YR18 Sariah Gibby
      • YR18 Louis Efron
      • YR18 Holly Day
      • YR18 Heidi Naylor
      • YR18 Gary Lark
      • YR18 Carlene M. Gadapee
      • YR18 Ben D'Alessio
      • YR18 John Brantingham
      • YR18 Peycho Kanev
      • YR18 Joseph Farley
      • YR18 Lori Levy
      • YR18 John Delaney
      • YR18 Marc Isaac Potter
      • YR18 Krystle Eilen
      • YR18 Andrew Mauzey & Jeff Stillion
      • YR18 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR18 Paul Hostovsky
      • YR18 Sarah Bricault
      • YR18 Kendra Whitfield
      • YR18 Julie Allyn Johnson
      • YR18 Cynthia Gallaher
      • YR18 Yariel Luna
      • YR18 CLS Sandoval
      • YR18 DM Lichen
      • YR18 Elizabeth McCarthy
      • YR18 Michael Salcman
      • YR18 Paula Reed Nancarrow
      • YR18 Wendy K. Mages
      • YR18 Angela Townsend
      • YR18 Patricia Feeney
      • YR18 John Janelle Backman
      • YR18 Jane Hertenstein
      • YR18 Meg Freer-Art
      • YR18 Shelby Lynn Lanaro
      • YR18 Janis Butler Holm
      • YR18 Julie Pinborough
      • YR18 KJ Hannah Greenberg
      • YR18 Jason C. Gadsky
      • YR18 Emma Huang
      • YR18 Maura H. Harrison
      • YR18 Elizabeth McCarthy-Art
    • Issue 19 >
      • YR19 Introduction
      • YR19 Carol Barrett
      • YR19 Holly Payne-Strange
      • YR19 Michael Sofranko
      • YR19 Vanessa Niu
      • YR19 Philip Jason
      • YR19 Joseph A Farina
      • YR19 Jonathan Ponder
      • YR19 Agnes Vojta
      • YR19 Matthew Praxmarer
      • YR19 Stephen Mead
      • YR19 Isaac James Richards
      • YR19 Craig Kirchner
      • YR19 Mykyta Ryzhykh
      • YR19 Roger Singer
      • YR19 Sarah Das Gupta
      • YR19 DS Maolailai
      • YR19 John Delaney
      • YR19 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR19 George Freek
      • YR19 Casey Killingsworth
      • YR19 Gerard Sarnat
      • YR19 Bart Edelman
      • YR19 Vern Fein
      • YR19 Lisa Ashley
      • YR19 David Milley
      • YR19 Terry Cox-Joseph
      • YR19 Diana Raab
      • YR19 David M. Schulz
      • YR19 John Davis
      • YR19 Kersten Christianson
      • YR19 Thomas R. Bacon
      • YR19 William Slattery
      • YR19 Michael Keshigian
      • YR19 Morgan Neering
      • YR19 Terry Trowbridge
      • YR19 Helen Patrice
      • YR19 Jacquelyn Shah
      • YR19 Alan Altany
      • YR19 Sean Eaton
      • YR19 David Summerfield
      • YR19 Darsie Bowden
      • YR19 William Cass
      • YR19 Kelly DuMar
      • YR19 Michael Moreth
      • YR19 Mandy Ramsey
      • YR19 Meg Freer
    • Issue 20 >
      • YR20 Introduction
      • YR20 Judy Clarence
      • YR20 Colette Tennant
      • YR20 Rosemary Dunn Moeller
      • YR20 Jeffery Allen Tobin
      • YR20 Sarah Das Gupta
      • YR20 Willie Carver
      • YR20 Alexander Etheridge
      • YR20 Kersten Christianson
      • YR20 Roger Singer
      • YR20 Jess Woolford
      • YR20 Sarah Banks
      • YR20 Catherine Arra
      • YR20 E Eugene Jones Baldwin
      • YR20 Lorraine Jeffery
      • YR20 E.C. Traganas
      • YR20 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR20 Grant Vecera
      • YR20 Mark Belair
      • YR20 Tammy Snyder
      • YR20 Hadyn Adams
      • YR20 Natalie Tisler
      • YR20 John Grey
      • YR20 Russell Rowland
      • YR20 Alison Hicks
      • YR20 Ossian Houltzén
      • YR20 Teesta S
      • YR20 Meg Freer
      • YR20 Jon Wesick
      • YR20 Glenn Moss
      • YR20 Liz Craig
      • YR20-Audra Burwell
      • YR20 Geoffrey Aitken
      • YR20 James O'Brien
      • YR20 John Delaney
      • YR20 Michael Morris
      • YR20 Laurie Didesch
      • YR20 Bonnie Demerjian
      • YR20 Jannett Highfill
      • YR20 Cathy Joyce Lee
      • YR20 Dorothy Johnson-Laird
      • YRLR20 Bruce Morton
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Rochambeau and the Mystery of Racetrack Playa
By

Terri Glass

Something strange is happening on Racetrack Playa, a dry and extraordinarily flat lakebed in Death Valley California. Large singular rocks sail over the clay surface of the lakebed, creating a trail that is sometimes linear, but sometimes veers off in other directions as if Zeus has been playing shufflepuck. Some of their tracks are over hundreds of feet long, and the rocks can weigh up to several hundred pounds. No one has seen the rocks in motion. Once the rocks slide in to the middle of the lakebed, they look like randomly placed chess pieces. There is no rhyme to it.
 
Scientists speculate that after a rain and/or a thin layer of ice develops, the surface is slippery enough for gusty winds to actually push these rocks across the desert. Rain and wind. Water and Stone. Scissor and Rock. Rock and Paper. What trumps the other? Can wind and water really move a 400-pound rock?
           
When I think about getting anything heavy to move like my sleep-laden body out of bed in the morning, like my mind before coffee, like asking my father for the keys to the family car when I was in high school, we are talking about a force to reckon with. We are talking about some magic formula that breaks inertia like a lightning bolt. That cracks some kind of code like when the Muse enters a writer. Words spill out on the page similar to a sliding rock that skids across a lakebed, changes direction and then abruptly stops in the middle of nowhere.
 
This reminds me of the game, Rochambeau, another name for “Rock paper scissors.”
Rock breaks scissors. Scissors cut paper. Paper covers rock.  Rock slides in desert. No one there sees the event. Rock slides in the desert. We catch the aftermath. Van Gogh paints the picture Starry Starry Night and it sells for millions after his death.  The glowing stars still mesmerize us. The rocks still bewilder us, the secret remains hidden until….
 
Movement begins. Something is pulled from the universe that rearranges water, air, earth and fire. A volcano erupts, spewing debris and a large rock lands in the middle of a flat field. Or glacier pushes large chunks of granite and deposits them at the end of a valley floor.  Or an asteroid crashes into earth causing climate change and mass extinction of brontosaurs and pterodactyls and other unwieldy creatures.
 
Perhaps a stone has a life after all. Something glacial inside my mind begins to push ideas horizontally across the contours of my brain, and the Corpus callosum connects intuition with logic, and a poem mysteriously appears. Or the Muse enters my atmosphere like a meteorite and shatters any preconception of what I was planning to say. Rochambeau. Go ahead, Muse. Shatter my plans, surprise me with something as strange as those large stone heads of Easter Island.
 
I read Aku, Aku, the Secret of Easter Island when I was in high school. The author, Thor Heyerdahl, tried to explain the mystery of 887 large stone heads carved between 1250-1500 that stood upright like mini skyscrapers on this Chilean Polynesian island.  These stone figures called moai were huge, some tall as 33 feet and weighing up to 86 tons. They are thought to represent living faces of deified ancestors.  How were these massive stones positioned strategically along the coastline?
 
Heyerdahl theorized the moai were moved from the original quarry to the coastline by swiveling the statue on its corners, rocking it side to side in a walking fashion. However, when Heyerdal attempted this experiment, it broke the edges off the statues. An archeologist named Charles Love experimented with a ten ton replica and found by placing the statue upright on two sled runners, atop log rollers, 25 men were able to move the statue 150 feet in two minutes.
 
The latter theory could explain why the natives stopped creating the moai. The island was almost entirely deforested by 1650, indicated by records of the disappearance of tree pollen. It took massive amounts of lumber to transport these statues. The islanders devastated the ecosystem of Easter Island and their civilization by consuming all their timber for fire, shelter and perhaps their desire to carve these monoliths and move them.
 
What remains on Easter Island is stone, not trees, not animals nor the original natives. Rock overrode paper and scissor here. A game that ended all games. A dead end to evolution, like the demise of the dinosaurs from a crashing asteroid.
 
Some rocks fly, some sail, some are carried across the land with the help of human intervention.  But how do the rocks really move on Racetrack Playa and why do we want to know? These rocks may hold the secret to our continuation as a species, something that stretches our imaginations in a new way. “Think outside the box,” these stones are telling us, which humankind must learn quickly if we are to adapt to the forces of climate change and overpopulation. Meanwhile the universe keeps throwing us clues. Whether any of us can crack the code is unpredictable as the Muse herself.
 
Right now I’d welcome a 90-mile an hour wind and some slippery mud to sail me into the unchartered territory of the blank page.  I could use a moonscape such as Racetrack Playa to heighten my senses, implode my neural pathways just as stars implode to create supernovas.  Then maybe a little genius of Van Gogh could slip in and I could embody those bold brushstrokes that halo the stars.

 

Terri Glass has been active teaching poetry writing to both children and adults in the Bay area for over 20 years with workshops in schools, colleges, hospitals, wildlife and senior centers. She served as Program Director for California Poets in the Schools from 2008-2011.  Her poems have recently appeared in About Place, ViVace, Adventum,  San Diego Poetry Annual, Fault Lines, California Quarterly, Fourth River, in the anthologies, Back to Joy, Trees: Marin Poetry center anthology, Shadow and Light, What the World Hears, Mountains & In Between and Drumvoices. Her book of nature poetry, The Song of Yes, came out it 2011 and a book of haiku, Birds, Bees, Trees, Love, Hee Hee came out in 2015.. She holds a MFA in creative writing from USM.

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