CALYX – Summer 2003

This issue of Calyx showcases art, poetry, and prose pieces that describe women overcoming adversity and celebrating their individuality. Susan Brown’s acrylic “Monument to New York City,” which uses intricate bird-symbols to communicate her feelings about September 11, was intelligent and moving, truly a visual poem. Equally moving was Smoky Trudeau’s short fiction, “Good-Bye, Emily Dickinson” about a homeless woman who is convinced that she is Emily Dickinson’s daughter. I enjoyed the lyrical images of bats in “I Watch Nature While Breastfeeding” by Melissa Crowe:

This issue of Calyx showcases art, poetry, and prose pieces that describe women overcoming adversity and celebrating their individuality. Susan Brown’s acrylic “Monument to New York City,” which uses intricate bird-symbols to communicate her feelings about September 11, was intelligent and moving, truly a visual poem. Equally moving was Smoky Trudeau’s short fiction, “Good-Bye, Emily Dickinson” about a homeless woman who is convinced that she is Emily Dickinson’s daughter. I enjoyed the lyrical images of bats in “I Watch Nature While Breastfeeding” by Melissa Crowe:

The bat threads night with ribbons
of sound, and everywhere her call gets lost
she flies. Sometimes the sky
reveals itself a trail of crumbs, sometimes
a maze of walls, trees. Before her
flight, food fracture, and only her voice
tells which is which—

Clever and humorous, Chauna Craig’s “Pluma Piluma and the Utopian Turtle Top: A Bedtime Story for Women Writers” weaves a tale of two young girls with speculation about the inner lives of Marianne Moore and Gertrude Stein. This ambitious journal out of Oregon displays a different facet of women’s artistic endeavor in each issue, and presents new voices for use to enjoy. Keep up the great work! [Calyx, PO Box B, Corvallis, OR 97339. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $9.50. www.proaxis.com/~calyx/ ] – JHG