UNDER FOSTER GRANTS

by Tom Bauer

Joni Mitchell Performs Surprise Show at Newport Folk Festival: The 78-year-old artist performed a full set, her first in about two decades, at the renowned festival in Rhode Island on Sunday. —The New York Times, July 25, 2022

Joni at the Newport Folk Fest sings "Both

Sides Now." Anyone else remember that one?

Is that the first time you saw her face? The

album with her face on it? Was that the song

you first heard by her? Your first impression?

How a voice splits and changes over years,

through all kinds of stages, shaped by time

and keeping time. It can be a long long way

to go to recognize a lilt that’s aged in

a paint box of mellow feelings and thoughtful

remonstrances, lilts, dances. So like a book

that opens, one each side, beginning to end,

making her way, flitting along, hearing

her turn the words one chapter at a time.

Tom Bauer's an old coot who lives in Montreal and plays a lot of board games.

A "NEW" YEAR BEGINS

by Gordon Gilbert

wild geese, Hudson River Park, NYC

the same earth that buries the dead 

nourishes new life coming forth from that same soil 

 

the same air through which the dead leaves fall 

lifts the wings of those who call it home

 

the same water that overwhelms in sudden storms 

and drowns those who can't escape to higher ground 

gives life and shelter to aquatic beings 

and is from whence we came and still we need

 

the same fire that destroys all in its path 

we harness for our purposes and progress 

 

destruction and creation, condemnation, resurrection 

but alternatives among a multitude 

coexistent in a four dimensional realm 

in one of a multiplex of universes 

the one that we inhabit

 

we are no different from that from which we came 

neither truly good nor evil in our nature 

 

we are but the natural progression and expression 

of a larger whole with this exception:  

we self-conceive and give that self expression 

 

now here we are again the same side of the sun  

this moment that we choose to call a "new" year 

a starting line across the oval track our planet travels 

artificially designated, of recent origin 

not that once chosen by

hunters, gatherers, herders and farmers 

in many lands, in many other eras 

 

we have come so far we tell ourselves 

but we have gone so far from where we were 

and we are lost now to the earth that birthed us 

before it is too late, we must return, reclaim

who and what we truly are 

we must be born again 

Gordon Gilbert is a long-time resident of the West Village in NYC who has found solace and inspiration for the past two years in his walks along the Hudson River, photographing and writing about the wildlife, flora and river traffic during the pandemic as the seasons changed.

BEFORE THE FIRE

by Marc Swan

"You say you want a revolution... " —John Lennon

Thoughts turn to the Founding Fathers—

an oxymoron perhaps. I envision 

them around the hearth,

wooden tankards, pewter mugs in hand 

contemplating the future of this new land. 

Did they foresee manifest destiny—

a two-coast country, 

French and English speaking to the north, 

Spanish speaking to the south, 

expanse of prairie, native beasts hunted 

down, more importantly 

Indigenous peoples decimated 

in the name of a united states? 

What of states, 

offshoots of a federal land grab—

thirteen to start then the quest began. 

In framing that constitution written 

so long ago— 

a two-party system 

now stuttered and stalled,

amendments sporadic, difficult 

to achieve, did they envision

blue states on edge, thick-bellied

red center, chaos, political turmoil, 

climate wracked by indifference.

Settled in front of my hearth,

feet resting on the ottoman,

thoughts turn to 2022—

rivers rise, forests burn,

a black sky holds the night.

Marc Swan’s fifth collection, all it would take, was published in 2020 by tall-lighthouse (UK). Poems forthcoming in Chiron Review, Gargoyle, Steam Ticket, Coal City Review, among others. He lives in coastal Maine with his wife Dd, a maker and yoga teacher.