EDITOR: Tom Chandler
POETRY EDITOR: Tad Davies
FICTION EDITOR: Nora Barry
MANAGING EDITOR: MJ Kim
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Lucie Koretsky
STUDENT EDITOR: Erinn Gormley
ASSISTANT STUDENT EDITOR: Erica Lawton
DESIGN & LAYOUT: Chandler Design
Editor’s Note
English writer Graham Greene claimed, “Writing is a form of therapy. Sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in the human situation.” When life is fragile, complicated, and ever-changing, literature provides that means of escape. It also provides hope—the hope that when society seems to value activities that dull the mind, there remain those intellectual and inspiring visionaries who provide friction on the slippery slope.
Working as student editor of the Bryant Literary Review has given me the opportunity to explore the creativity of others. As Cyril Connolly said, “While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.” We respond to creativity; challenge it; feed off of it; and most importantly, escape through the insanity and despair of life into a life of freedom of thought, full of rich imagery and ideas.
The Bryant Literary Review staff would like to thank The Pawtucket Times and The Woonsocket Call, Bryant University’s Academic Affairs and University Advancement Divisions, and the English and Cultural Studies Department for their support. We also thank all of those who submitted their creativity that could not be published at this time. Lastly, I would like to thank the Bryant Literary Review staff for their commitment to the continued success of this publication.
The following short stories and poems have been my means of escape, and I hope they provide the same experience for you.
Please read, reread, escape, and enjoy!
Erinn Gormley
Student Editor
Table of Contents
EDITOR’S NOTE
Fugitive Day, Ellen Prentiss Cambell / 6
Between Us There are More and More Things, Becky Kennedy / 15
Butterflies and Honey, B.Z. Niditch / 16
Terrible Twos, Charles Harper Webb / 18
The Walnut, David Cappella / 20
Dragonflies on the Stairs, Gary Pedler / 23
Two Swans in a Pond Next to the Highway, J.R. Solonche / 41
Maho Bay, Near the Astrologer’s Table, Lyn Lifshin / 42
Photography, Rustin Larson / 43
Compost, Ravi Shankar / 44
The Third of May, 1808, At Madrid: The Shootings On Principe Pio Mountain, Oil on Canvas, 1814, Ravi Shankar / 45
Squid, Mary Ann Mayer / 46
Worms, Gary Guinn / 47
What the Raven Said, Barbara Crooker / 61
Elegy for the Residents of the Niagara Apartments, Ken Meisel / 62
New in Town, Nancy White / 66
For Chance, Keep Beauty Warm, Nancy Lee Craven / 68
The Agreement, Lewis Schrager / 70
The Lincoln-Douglas Debate of 1984, Tom Williams / 83
The Iris and the Blade, Kathleen Hellen / 98
“And Today,” Jack Lindeman / 99
Drawing Blanks, John Azrak / 100
In Some Town’s Junk Shop, John Hazard / 101
Late Visions, Lynn Domina / 102
Country Junction, Tom Miller Juvik / 103
Slow Change, Rane Arroyo / 114
Some Less Well-Tempered Claviers, John Grey / 115
Office Girl, Barry Jay Kaplan / 116
A Field of Pumpkins, Martha Christina / 129
Falling Leaves, Gary Hanna / 130
Rory Gilley, Cody Stratton / 132
The Rocking Cradle, Juned Subhan / 133
Untitled, Sudie Nostrand / 147
Falcon, Colleen Abel / 148
Discussion Questions, Kevin Toth / 149
Body Piercing, Janet Proulx / 155
CONTRIBUTORS