Issue 7: Visions
Cover art: “The Dreamscape Horizon” by Tinamarie Cox
Editor’s Letter
Dear readers,
Welcome to Issue 7 of Heimat Review!
When we are young, many of us dream of flying—sprouting wings to soar away, explore, and test our limits. We long to feel the wind in our hair, to see new landscapes, and later, to remember, return, and to rest. Issue 7 embarks on this very journey through visions, dreams, and sight, exploring the transformative power of flight and the poignant landscapes of memory. This thread of birds, feathers, flight, and movement permeates this issue. We all want to grow, to sprout wings, and to fly.
Joanna Grant’s “The Lesson” beautifully captures this journey: “if we stayed out too long, we might change ourselves—sprout pinfeathers, pinions, even whole wings.” This sentiment resonates throughout the section “A tall wading bird, the teacher,” where stories of transformation unfold amidst the backdrop of grief, as seen in “Sleeping Lady,” where “The child pleads with the gulls…with anyone / who will listen, but the sound of its voice is eaten by the grey / of the sea…”
The section Flight Paths responds with its own lessons in movement. Ellen Notbohm in “Tricycle Dreams” writes of “the wraith of wistfulness” that “The tricycle, she mused, was her first lesson in how we sometimes must accept things we don’t understand.” Some desires and dreams end in disappointment as in Lynn D Gilbert’s somber reflection, “None / of our static destinies required / acquaintance with… wayward comets sweeping paths / like a wet mop across a kitchen floor.”
Amidst recollections and dreams, Robert Estes’s search for a nonexistent film in his poem “Charmed, I’m Sure” gives a name to the sections“Song was in the air…” and its companion, “…and spawned / a dream,” that lead us through a spectrum of emotions and visions—from vibrant colors to dreamlike monochromes in Edward’s Lee’s “A Dance Barely Seen” and Michael Smith’s “Seascape.”
In “Wonder after Wonder” and “Echoes of Magic,” we glimpse futures filled with hope and the enduring beauty of everyday joys. Jen Murphy Parker’s call to find joy in life’s trials echoes throughout, reminding us to savor the ladybug on a flower stalk in Janice Kim’s photograph “Connecticut” or the mesmerizing dance of fireflies in Philip Rösel Baker’s “Fireflies,” where “a lighthouse fractured the darkness…myriad gleams of pinhead beacons, flashing, in unison.”
Finally, “Light Before Waking” offers solace in the chaos of daily life. As we navigate relationships and seek understanding in Barry Garelick’s “Pretty Girls” and Daniel Addercouth’s “Getting in the Way,” Beate Sigriddaughter’s poignant closure in “A Golden Window” encapsulates our shared yearning for connection and meaning. We all at times echo Sigriddaughter’s “She wanted to touch those worlds, to be inside them somehow, but her place was always out in the mist, on the outside of the glow, hurrying forward into her future, stopping for just a moment.”
As M F Drummy urges us to listen closely for “the solitary call of the loon as it dissolves in the vagrant wind,” let us embrace the magic in our lives—both big and small. We should look closer, take note of small joys such as birds in flight and the magic of our version of normal. Issue 7 reminds us to take off the blinders and look for the beauty in others and in ourselves. To see and seek a kinder future.
Welcome to Issue 7.
Hannah Cole Orsag
Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief
Discover the stories behind the stories!Dive deeper into the creation of each piece with our Artist’s/Author’s Notes, located at the end of each work, where the creators share insights into their favorite lines and reflections on this issue’s theme of flight, movement, and visions. |
|
"A tall wading bird, the teacher"
The Dreamscape Horizon by Tinamarie Cox // Visual Art (cover)
The Lesson by Joanna Grant // Poetry
Sleeping Lady by Reyzl Grace // Poetry
Visit to the Community College by Lynn D Gilbert // Poetry
Destiny by Lynn D Gilbert // Poetry
The Lesson by Joanna Grant // Poetry
Sleeping Lady by Reyzl Grace // Poetry
Visit to the Community College by Lynn D Gilbert // Poetry
Destiny by Lynn D Gilbert // Poetry
Flight Paths // Lessons on the Road
Pappou by Ophelia Monet // Poetry
Tricycle Dreams by Ellen Notbohm // CNF
To Anyone Who Has Ever Said That a Poem Cannot Teach Us Anything Practical by M F Drummy // Poetry
Encounter by Philip Rösel Baker // Poetry
Fluency by Jacqueline Goyette // CNF
Tricycle Dreams by Ellen Notbohm // CNF
To Anyone Who Has Ever Said That a Poem Cannot Teach Us Anything Practical by M F Drummy // Poetry
Encounter by Philip Rösel Baker // Poetry
Fluency by Jacqueline Goyette // CNF
Wonder after Wonder
Like and Like by Bob Brussack // Poetry
Fireflies by Philip Rösel Baker // Poetry
Oasis by Nuala McEvoy // Visual Art
Connecticut by Janice Kim // Visual Art
Fireflies by Philip Rösel Baker // Poetry
Oasis by Nuala McEvoy // Visual Art
Connecticut by Janice Kim // Visual Art
"song was in the air..."
The Brandenburg Concerto by Ava Mack // Poetry
Valentine’s Day Party by Allison Plourde // Fiction
Intimately by Michael Moreth // Visual Art
Valentine’s Day Party by Allison Plourde // Fiction
Intimately by Michael Moreth // Visual Art
"...and spawned a dream"
Charmed, I’m Sure by Robert Estes // Poetry
A Dance Barely Seen by Edward Lee // Visual Art
Seascape by Michael Smith // Fiction
A Dance Barely Seen by Edward Lee // Visual Art
Seascape by Michael Smith // Fiction
Echoes of Magic
Two Summers by Hannah Katerina // Fiction
Magic by Edie Williams // CNF
Space City 5 by Nuala McEvoy // Visual Art
The Least Happy Child by Jen Murphy Parker // CNF
DREAM03 by Jacelyn Yap // Visual Art
Magic by Edie Williams // CNF
Space City 5 by Nuala McEvoy // Visual Art
The Least Happy Child by Jen Murphy Parker // CNF
DREAM03 by Jacelyn Yap // Visual Art
Light Before Waking
Pretty Girls Who Never Wear Lipstick by Barry Garelick // Fiction
Getting in the Way by Daniel Addercouth // Fiction
A Golden Window: The View from Inside by Beate Sigriddaughter // Fiction
Getting in the Way by Daniel Addercouth // Fiction
A Golden Window: The View from Inside by Beate Sigriddaughter // Fiction