[August 2003]

Poetry Heat Hungry Mary Burton The Laugh What it Means to be a Woman Sarah Dopp mourning Setting Sail Jeremiah Schaffer Gould The American West Green Oranges Tim Greenlaw "closed in..." "breaking lines into..." Isaac Harris poverty poetry Psyche Matchsticks Nick Sabin Cassandra Sam Sobel Fingerprints In Passing Julian Esteban Torres Betwixt Tables Bearing Couples Jupiter's Sea M. Cornelis van der Weele IV Song Lyrics Drain the Sea Eighteen Liz Parmalee Fiction Work in Progress Michele Filgate Romance Daniel Lampkin Reflections "Sex is Sex, and Movies are Movies" Jim Duffy Bonfires, Sacromonte, and La Marcha Mike Lavers Writ Reviews Thompson's Fear and Loathing... Caitlin Flynn Lunch with Pablo Neruda Julian Esteban Torres Dear Readers, The excitement is overflowing among the people who've been building The Writ. The project has been evolving since early summer and is finally ready for your eyes. We are honored to be featuring Sal Contreras' famous artwork, and excited to tell you about Harmony Conspiracy's first album. Check out the Contents list above. Our Writ writers are bursting with new ideas and oozing with talent. And take it from me, there is so much more where this came from. I invite you to take a look around at our first issue, breathe in the words, and keep an eye out for where we can improve. You can click here to learn more about The Writ. All comments and suggestions are more than welcome. Please send them to us at thewrit@thewrit.org. And thanks for supporting the writing community with your attention. All the best, Sarah Dopp Editor-in-Chief P.S. Because of your requests, we just added a guestbook!

The Great Man by Sal Contreras Writ Art Pick for August Sal Contreras, originally from David, Panama, has been living in New England since 1978. He is self-taught, with an architectural drafting background as an influence. Of his art, he states with great sincerity, "I offer to everyone my art and inspiration, as a spiritual commitment to my gift, sharing all of my work!" Sal is a man that those who know him well have said, "If he could, he would just give away all of his paintings for free and share with the world and those who appreciate the arts what has brought so much happiness to him." The title of Sal Contreras' painting is "The Great Man". And of a great man it is. The subject is none other than the renowned Russian prose writer of the 20th century, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He was the winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature and was expelled from his home in Russia in the 1970s because the contents of his books criticized communism. Solzhenitsyn's Russian citizenship was restored in 1990 and he returned back to his home land in 1994, ending his two decade long exile. However, before he returned, he lived in Vermont. Sal Contreras lived some blocks away from Solzhenitsyn. The painting was an ode to the great man. Not only is Solzhenitsyn illustrious, but Sal's generosity, sincerity, and kindness is of the same stature. Read more... "All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things." Bobby Knight (1940 - ) Harmony Conspiracy A Poet's Proposal Writ Pick for August Download select tracks Silence speaks in many languages. It throws pebbles into the still ponds that are our ears, hoping its impact will resonate and travel throughout the body of its borders. Harmony Conspiracy is 'armed' with words instead of pebbles. Nonetheless, it hopes to reach the same audience and become just as powerful-for the most profound sound in this world is 'Thought'. Such an objective can be reached just as well through words as by means of silence. This is the purpose of Harmony Conspiracy's Proposal. The cover speaks just as loudly and genuinely as the artists themselves do even before the listener ever gets to experience the thoughts held within. Its facial expression tells it all. There is a guerrilla member, his face covered, caught in the act of throwing a bouquet of flowers in the direction of the opening (the mouth) of the cd case-from where it is the sound will resonate. The five flowers in the bouquet symbolize what this poetry collective is 'armed' with: passion, thought, love, community, and words. Each track is a different fragrance. When we listen, we not only hear, but smell every word. And since taste is thirty percent smell, we also consume each syllable. We sense the scents of many different views and passions. Jeremiah Gould, one of the featured artists on the CD and this last spring's Crooked Verse Poetry Slam Champion, elaborates on this idea, "I think the compilation, by its very nature, embodies the spirit of community. Within it you have varied talented artists with differing world views and styles coming together to support each other and the art of poetry...they each bring something unique to the UNH poetry community and I admire greatly their work." The compilation speaks for itself once it is listened to. Read more...