From London to Ft. Lauderdale by:  Norman J. Olson 

On Halloween, 2022, we were in Duluth, Minnesota to celebrate with our grandkids… we had a beautiful evening with a spectacular sunset (ribbons of orange clouds behind intricate silhouettes of ragged pine trees and the pointed gables of West Duluth houses) and lots of kids in costumes looking for candy… later in the evening, after the grandchildren had sorted their candy and gone to bed, we left Duluth for the 150 mile drive back to Maplewood…

The next afternoon, we caught a direct flight from MSP to LHR (London Heathrow)… in Heathrow, we topped up our Oyster Cards and caught the Piccadilly line tube (subway) to Kings Cross/St. Pancras… we had one large bag and one small one so tried to arrange the trip with as few subway transfers as possible when we were carrying luggage… anyway, we got to the hotel and dropped our luggage… then we went into the Kings Cross/St. Pancras station and had lunch at our favorite London easy eatery, Pret… then we went back to the hotel on Argile street, a block from the station, checked in, realized that the bed was a bit slim for us old American fatties, but nonetheless, went to sleep about one pm…

We got up around four pm and purchased tickets on line for a West End play… for this first night, we picked Frozen at the Drury Lane Theater… we had dinner at a Greek place, which was super good although, we ordered too much… and then enjoyed the play from our cheap seats in the balcony… Drury Lane is a huge old theater, very ornate and a wonderful place to see a play… everyone is familiar with the wonderful, Scandinavian flavored songs of Frozen and it was a lot of fun, “the snow glows white/on the mountain tonight”… LOL… we bought an ice cream at the intermission from the ushers who set up a portable stand at the foot of the balcony stairs… and after the show, caught the Piccadilly subway back to Kings Cross/St. Pancras… we slept until nearly noon and then had a nice brunch at the Pret…

then it was off to the National Gallery of Art… this museum is just a wonder and every time I am there, I get to see many of my old favorites… like originals by Leonardo Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Turner…. etc. etc… I was a bit disappointed as one of my very favorite paintings of all time, An Allegory with Venus and Cupid by Bronzino, a lovely late Renaissance/mannerist masterpiece and a truly enigmatic painting… was not on display… anyway, it is such a treat for me, a sometime oil painter, to see up close and personal how masters like Titian or Turner smeared their paint around to make these wonderful pictorial effects…. to wonder what part of the small painting attributed to Michelangelo, was actually touched by his hand… to see the magical transformation of paint into picture in a Velazquez portrait of the superbly homely and inbred king Phillip IV of Spain…

we then had dinner at a tandoori restaurant near Trafalgar Square which was superb and then saw Jersey Boys at the Trafalgar Theater… it was fun to hear all of those Four Season songs from our high school years… of course, the songs were done perfectly as all the musical pieces on the West End are… the star did an amazing recreation of Frankie Valli’s weird falsetto delivery… altogether, it was another wonderful afternoon of art and evening of theater… the next day, we took a double decker bus (no, we did not go up to the top deck, we are too old and slow to climb the stairs – LOL) from in front of the station to The Tate Britain….

the bus is nice in that we can see a bit of the town as we pass along the streets, while from the subway, you only see the tunnels… the middle gallery of the museum was taken up by a huge contemporary work that did not seem to amount to much to me, but we walked past it to the gallery with all of my favorite Pre Raphaelite paintings… what a treat for me to again see these works that I have loved and studied for so many years, Watts’ Hope, Millais Ophelia, Burne-Jones Golden Stair… and so many more, two lovely Rossettis including a wildly weird and beautiful portrait of Rossetti’s girl friend (William Morris’s wife Jane) as Proserpine…

I would love to be able to look closely at every inch of these paintings that I love so much, but they are hung too high to do that… but anyway, it was a real treat for me to again stand before these works and just drink them in with my eyes… leaving the Tate, we walked a bit along the Thames and then took the bus back to near Trafalgar Square where we found a lovely little authentic Italian Restaurant (I had the antipasto and Mary had a wonderful squash ravioli) …. then, a block away to another theater to see a riotous slapstick and very British comedy called Only Fools and Horses, based on a long running British sit-com… we loved it even though we probably missed a good deal of the very British humor… “Bob’s your uncle”… okay…

the next day was Saturday and our last full day in London… we started out toward noon taking the Piccadilly subway to Kensington to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum… this place is an enormous repository of arts and crafts with thousands of exhibits ranging from casts of classical sculpture to very old and gorgeous stained glass, jewelry, silver, and other “collectables…” they have two original paintings by William Blake that were amazing to see… William Blake was a genius and a visionary… he is my favorite of all the British poets and while his painting is quirky and interesting his lyric poetry is some of the best ever written and these small paintings are interesting to me more as artifacts touched by the hand of the great poet than as works of art in their own right… here is a line from a Blake poem that has always haunted me: “when the stars threw down their spears / and watered heaven with their tears…”

my purpose in going to the Victoria and Albert was to see one of my favorite Dante Gabrielle Rossetti paintings, another amazing weird and witchy portrayal of Mrs. Morris, in a painting called The Day Dream… I would never argue that Rossetti is a great painter, a Velazquez or Titian, for example, but for all his flaws, I love his work and especially his portrayals of Mrs. Morris… I guess because they do look so weird and witchy to me… Rossetti was also a poet, but his ornate, complex poetry is virtually unreadable today… and certainly not read by anybody… well, we then took the Piccadilly line back to Charing Cross and walked along the Strand until we found a lovely little Thai restaurant where we had a fabulous Pad Thai… and a few blocks further to the Strand Theater where we saw the musical, Pretty Woman… another retelling of the old Pygmalion story (like My Fair Lady)… it was very nicely done… and a lot of fun… we were sorry as we left the theater that we did not have more time to sample the artistic and theatrical treasures of London…

the next morning, we said goodbye to the skinny bed LOL of our hotel and lugged our bags to the subway station across the street… the Victoria Line also stops at Kings Cross/St. Pancras so, we were able to get to Victoria station without changing trains… just outside the station, we found a little restaurant where I was able to get another “full English breakfast” (two eggs, back bacon, pork and beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms and toast) for a reasonable price… and it was right on the way to the Victoria Coach Station where I had booked coach tickets to leave at one pm for Southampton… it had rained/drizzled on and off for our whole time in London, typical of the weather there at this time of year… but we had our rain jackets and an umbrella so we were fine…

for the coach ride to Southampton, it poured rain all the way which made the incredibly green English countryside even more green and lush, looking for all the world like the England we saw in the John Constable paintings at the National Gallery… or the misty landscapes of Turner… we even saw a gorgeous rainbow as we were approaching Southampton… I had booked the motor coach because of a pending rail strike that never actually materialized, but the coach is a fine way to travel and to see the countryside and was less than $20 for two tickets from Victoria Coach Station to Southampton… the rain stopped just as we were pulling into Southampton so we got off the coach and lugged our bags the half mile or so to our hotel which was near the cruise port… this hotel was far cheaper than the hotel in London but relatively sumptuous, with a big bed and a large room with a fancy shower… we dumped our bags and walked through a thin drizzle to the nearby shopping mall where we had a very nice Italian dinner looking out over the city…

the next morning, it was raining lightly, but we had our rain jackets and I thought I knew the way to the cruise port (about three quarters of a mile), so we started walking… a few minutes into our walk and we could indeed see the beautiful Emerald Princess tied up at the dock ahead… about the time we passed a street called Cuckoo Lane, it stopped raining, so we continued walking toward the ship… taxis and buses hurried past us, but a few hardy souls were also headed out on the dock on foot…

we paused briefly to be impressed with the lovely white and blue bulk of the ship looming over the dock and I could not help thinking of the accounts I have read from people like Somerset Maugham or the movies I have seen featuring travel from the classic era of ocean travel one hundred years ago, that was all but ended with the explosion of cheap air travel in the late 1950s… we dropped off our bags, glad enough to be rid of them and boarded the ship which was to be our home for 16 days… our stateroom was one with a window looking out on the lifeboats… the bed was super soft and comfortable and since our first stop was the buffet, we discovered that the food was just terrific… everything fresh and tasty…

we have done several of these trans Atlantic crossings and usually the ships have been pretty full, but this ship was half empty leaving with about 1300 passengers and nearly as many crew… it was the end of the European cruising season and so, the ship was “repositioning” to Los Angeles for the winter… the ship sailed at five pm as we were sitting down to our first dinner in the sumptuous Da Vinci dining room… the next morning we were docked at Cherbourg France by about seven am… I had found that one of the ships tours went to Mont Saint-Michel… we usually do not do organized tours in cruise ship ports, preferring to explore on our own… but we had never seen this famous site and since it was an hour and a half drive each way from the port, we thought we better take the ship tour, so the ship would not leave Cherbourg without us…

so, we left by about nine am on a motor coach for a lovely drive across the Normandy landscape to arrive at Mont Saint-Michel… Mont Saint-Michel is a small medieval town built on a rock in the middle of a bay… at high tide, it is surrounded by water but at low tide, it is surrounded by mud flats… there is a church at the top of the rock… there is a shuttle bus from the parking lots across a causeway to the town… we got off the bus and walked around the cobble streets of the old town… we were told that less than fifty people actually live there now… and the town is full of restaurants and souvenir shops… we did not walk the 400 steps up to the abbey… it is supposed to be very beautiful but we cannot do that many stairs anymore and so we stopped in a coffee shop and Mary had a coffee while I had a soda… it was fun to watch the tourists from literally every corner of the planet walk by and to see the old stone work of the houses and walls… we were told the history of this place but I don’t remember much except that before it became a tourist destination, it was last used as a prison…

the next day the ship stopped at Le Verdon sur Mer, where a shuttle brought everybody to a small French seaside resort called Soulac sur Mer… the resort season was over, so this town was very quiet with many resort cottages shuttered for the season… it had a small shopping street with a shop where we bought a wonderful French pastry… we walked a few blocks to where the street ended with an esplanade that overlooked a long, wide beach where we could see the waves of the Atlantic Ocean crashing on the sand… it was a lovely day, so we sat in the sun and watched the people walking on the beach and the waves rolling in… the next stop after a day at sea, was Bilbao Spain… this is the site of a branch of the Guggenheim museum of modern art in New York… the actual building is designed by Frank Gehry… this is one of his famous “tin can” buildings that looks like a building made of shiny metal that has partially melted… other examples of his work can be seen at the Weisman Museum of art on the campus of the University of Minnesota and other places around the world… I do love these odd looking buildings… my favorite is in Las Vegas, Nevada… I find going into these museums of modern art sort of depressing… I am sure that is some kind of personality failing on my part, and I am sure that if I went into the place, I would see things I found interesting, non the less, I took the path of least resistance and enjoyed the Guggenheim from the outside…

it is sited on a river that is developed with a very nice river walk… we had a gorgeous sunny day, so we walked along the river enjoying people watching with breaks to enjoy one of the many benches with a view of the river, the Gehry building and the buildings across the river… it was fun to see the many fit and stylishly dressed Spaniards of all ages strolling along the river, many with little dogs on leashes… there were trolley tracks near the river walk, so we hopped on a trolley and ended up in the “old town” part of the city where we had a nice long Spanish lunch with a view of the Cathedral square… we then took the trolley back to the shuttle bus stop and made it back to the ship, tired and a bit sunburned… the next port was A Coruna, also in Spain…

looking at a map at the tourist office when we got off the ship, we found the old Roman lighthouse which was the main tourist attraction in the town… the very helpful information person told us how to catch the city bus to get to the lighthouse… so we hopped on the city bus, paid the 1.2 euro fare and got a nice tour of the old town part of the city as the bus made its way to the lighthouse… the lighthouse was up a steep hill, so we contented ourselves with looking at it from the parking lot instead of climbing the hill… we then walked into the neighborhood where we found a Tapas Bar and had an amazing lunch of Tapas… this lunch was at a table on the sidewalk with a warm sun and a gentle breeze… then we caught the bus back to the ship and sat in the lovely park overlooking the marina and the huge graceful bulk of the Emerald Princess until it was time for all aboard…

the next port was Lisbon Portugal… we have been to Lisbon a few times and this time Mary suggested we go to the elevator…. this elevator is a huge very old steel structure with an ancient elevator that goes up to a viewing platform overlooking the city… we bought an all day bus pass for a few Euros which included the entrance fee for the elevator… we took a bus from the station which was right across from the ship to the old town part of the city and walked around until we found the elevator properly, Elevador de Santa Justa… after waiting in a short line we did indeed go up to the viewing platform and had a wonderful view of that part of Lisbon, including the old fort on the mountain across the valley from the elevator… descending from the viewing platform, we stopped for our usual coffee, soda and people watching and then took the bus back to the ship…. our final port before six days at sea crossing to Ft. Lauderdale, was Ponta Delgada on San Miguel Island in the Azores… these islands are part of Portugal but the small city is far more laid back than the bustle of Lisbon… it reminded us of what Europe was twenty five years ago…

we went to the farmers market and bought some honey and jam… the woman in the market stall gave us two small and surprisingly tasty mandarin oranges…. we spent the rest of our time here just walking around or sitting and watching the people… we have seen the tourist sites on the island and someday would like to go to the mineral baths, but this day, we did not feel that ambitious, so we had a lovely quiet day roaming around and people watching, talking about our trip and how lucky we have been in this life to still be seeing these amazing places at age 74…

the Portuguese people we met were invariably friendly and seemed to enjoy talking to us and helping us find our way to things like bus stops and cafés… the next six days were spent at sea… we enjoyed the sea days… the ship provided various “enrichment” lectures, which were lectures by retired college teachers on all kinds of interesting subjects… Mary enjoyed many of these talks… I mostly spent the days in a deck chair on the Promenade Deck, reading, drawing and just looking at the ocean… Mary also enjoys spent many relaxing hours looking at the ocean and reading… on these ocean voyages, one seldom sees any sea life… occasionally we will see flying fish jumping out of he way of the ship’s bow wave and there are sometimes frigate birds swooping over the waves… mostly, it is just vast, blue water right up to the knife edge of the horizon….

we had great weather for the crossing with it getting a bit warmer everyday until the last two days, the highs were in the 80 degree Fahrenheit range… every morning, I would start with my usual forty minute walk, except instead of walking around Beaver Lake, I would be walking around the Promenade Deck, Deck 7 on this ship… during the morning walks, I would recognize the same people who liked to get out and walk at that time… it was never crowded, in fact, the ship was never crowded anywhere due to it being half empty… then Mary and I would have a breakfast at the Buffet on Deck 9… I would usually have a modified English breakfast with lovely fresh croissants substituting for toast… then I would spend the whole day and Mary part of the day reading and drawing on Deck 7…

every day at noon, the captain of the ship would come on the sound system that covered all of the public areas of the ship and make an announcement of just where we were in degrees and minutes and make comments about the condition of the sea (very calm for the last six days) and other points of navigational interest… it was impressive to me when he said for several days in a row that the water beneath the ship was three and a half miles deep… we saw little shipping but would occasionally see a container ship or a tanker on the horizon… on a couple occasions, we saw other cruise ships… we would have a light lunch at noon, usually a salad from the extensive salad bar… and then back to Deck 7 for a few more hours of drawing and reading…

Mary had brought one of her favorite board games with so we would end our day on Deck 7 at three pm to find a quiet spot out of the wind on Deck 9, to play Ticket to Ride… at five pm, we would go to the Da Vinci dining room… usually, we would have a table of six people, so it was nice to meet different people and we could brag about how wonderful our respective grandkids and kids are… the people on the ship were mostly in our age range, aging baby boomers… and the ship catered to us by playing the greatest hits of the fifties, sixties and seventies continuously over the sound system in the buffet room and on the open deck by the swimming pools… the crew were mostly youngish, early 20s people from Philippians, Indonesia and dozens of other countries and from their constantly hearing those songs these people who knew nothing of our history or pop culture would be walking around singing “Sherry… Sherry baby” in a Jersey Boys falsetto… or “Pretty Woman…”

after dinner, there was always a show of some kind in the theater at the front of the ship…. sometimes it was singers, sometimes dancers… they were mostly young, beautiful and talented and obviously delighted to have an actual job as a singer, dancer, etc… there was a juggler who did magic tricks and a group who sang show tunes… there were a few production shows with the regular singers and dancers of the ships entertainment group… after the delicious meal and the show, we would sometimes go out on deck so Mary could finish her “steps” or else we would just sit and look at the black water and sky…

I know that some people are hostile to cruise ships as guzzlers of fossil fuels and disrupters of the sea… I am not a scientist or a politician and the ship is the only way a person like me can have the experience of sailing across the Atlantic ocean… which is an amazing experience… I hope that even as the future charges toward us with all of the many challenges known and unknown that it will bring, that people will still be able to travel… meeting people from all over the world, I have learned that we are not that different from each other… we all have the same wants, needs, loves and desires… and solutions to problems will come from us being able to come together across walls, borders and barriers as brothers and sisters…

on November 23, the day before Thanksgiving, we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale… after a quick breakfast, we were off the ship into the hot south Florida sun… we made it to Miami and caught our flight at noon and were back in Minneapolis on a bus heading for McKnight Road by four pm… now, a few days later, we are getting 7 inches of snow in Maplewood, Minnesota… so from sitting in the shade looking at the ocean to shoveling snow in only a week… Yikes… we certainly are a couple of lucky old baby boomers…

Crab Nebula

a tenuous spoon bent into black
whirlpool joy at a trillion volts
 
orange whispers out 
just touching the void
thankful for unencumbered elements
 
what's it like to spin thirty times a second?
do you get dizzy?
what would Lao Tzu have to say about you?
 
rings form, concentric
trying to hide the numbing density 
you've thought about slowing down
taking a look around the neighborhood
but that's best left to the wear and tear guys 
or the wishes of the slide rule
 
you lost some of your shine over the last
millennium
but heat and beat
they're all yours

acorn sermon

live with the acorn sermon
that sits for a long time in the stubble fields
that seems boring 
until it razors home
 
greet the duck as a distinguished guest
quacking tales from hither and yon
he knows both North and South
and his wife can tell East and West
 
words dangle on cool air come fall
they sprinkle the ground
racing again in spring
then everybody talks summer
and sun waits for blossoms to sweeten the life
 
history of my body

Right index finger:  Carbon created in a supernova in the Sculptor 
Supercluster 8 billion years ago, travelled to Earth via 
Sculptor Void
Left knee:  bone atoms from a Blue Giant in Leo Supercluster 6.8 billion years ago
White blood cells:  material from Fornax cluster, type 1a nova over 5.5 billion years previous
Hair: spun from a molecular cloud in the Andromeda galaxy, carried to Earth via a comet 3.7 billion years ago
Eye:  a rain of organic material from the small Magellanic cloud, 4.5 billion years travel time
All other parts from unidentified parts of the Universe.  Estimated travel time:  5-10 billion years

Aldo Leopold

at a pure stone table
I write in a way cognizant of bumps, ridges and purple flowers
Coolness in the wind seeks out its own kind of day dream
the peculiar symphony of trees holds a memory of seed, the last rainfall and buttercup sky
curved pathways lead who knows where?
Overhead a small plane plies cloud, but the labyrinth branches ground eyes and birds soar sound.

Mary E. Croy lives in Madison, Wisconsin where she works as an administrative assistant. She spent nine years teaching English Language Learners in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. During her free time, Mary likes reading poetry and hanging out with her cats, Buster and Gabby. Her work has appeared in Better than Starbucks, Woven Tale Press, and Valley Voices, among others.

The Sun's Farewell To Its Flames

I confuse myself to buy a coffin 
I am no longer curious about 
pursuing my dreams anymore!

I don't want to feel comfortable 
I want to wear the image of a sad 
soldier, with a pack of cigarettes.

I envy everyone's in the cemetery 
People's treatments are no longer 
offensive, nor an intense silent pain.

I blinded the universe of my direction
I drank the cloud's latest drops of rain  
I giggled at the sun's farewell to its flames.

I might smile & nearly describe the world 
-as the reason why I collaborate with my 
tears to fall in an empty room with a coffin. 

Don't mention my name, just slice my tongue
Don't remember my words, just burn my poems, 
Don't drink a bottle of alcohol & cry about missing me.


Bleeding Heart Poet ©️

Moon Meets the Sun

I remember when I first saw you, your shining face smiling at me from afar

Said the moon.


You are so bright, so golden and sweet 

I can almost taste your laughter

how it fills the holes of my heart with joy

Said the moon. 


I  know I hide in the shadows 

I am shyer, only showing my face once in a while

but when I look at you, I light up

You make the darkness go away

as you smile 

and fill the space around me with warmth 

Turning my world 

into the perfect place

Said the moon.

BRAVO! OLE¡

         One cold, sad and sunny morning, I was walking my grandson along the Paseo de la Isla, in Burgos, when, suddenly, I had a horrible urge to urinate, remembering that my family doctor, in his day, already told me that: “every individual who has undergone prostate surgery, the cold makes him urinate a hundred times.”

         The itch to urinate caught me next to the “Punto de Lectura” (Reading Point) booth; leaving my grandson in his car right next to the side of the booth, urinating where no one could see me.

         While I was urinating, while I was ecstatic in the piss as if I were contemplating a masterpiece by Velázquez, Goya or “El Greco”; suddenly, an old and ugly lady appeared to me like a “Menina” by Velázquez, who told me:

– Hello, friend: have you lost the horn, because I only see a skin? I thought we could have rented the booth for both of us!

It’s been a few days since I’ve seen you coming to this place to urinate, but I never thought you’d have a penis smaller than my husband’s when, at the funeral house, they embalmed him to take him to bury.

-Ma’am, I replied, from the scare that you have given me, I have saved “the skin” as you say, before finishing, and with the zipper of my fly I have caught it.

Don’t even dream that here, in this booth, we’re going to ride. Zambomba!

“Whoa!” she replied. What annoyance I have taken to see myself represented, seeing you, in the “Burial of the Count of Orgaz”from “El Greco”.

Her copulative conjunction is minuscule, master!

– But, ma’am, I answered, I don’t ask that they give me a rabbit, but money. You are similar to the grandmother of Little Red Hood, when she told the wolf that she was, when she said no; and this one, instead of fucking her, ate her.

         Unintentionally, a fart escaped me, telling to the lady:

-There goes, Menina, the service and the tip. Bye¡

         I took the car with my grandson, marching towards the Castilian and Leonese Language Institute, listening to the lady yelling at me:

– What a blow you have given me when you peered, scoundrel!

         Instantly I saw a crowd approaching; a brave man came out from among them and shouted:

– Bravo! Olé! The task that you have done to the lady is reckless. You could have given her a spanking!

-Daniel de Culla

Living in dreams

The dead do not die 
When you expect them to. They live on,
Ghosts trapped
 In the minds of those, who loved them, feared them.

The living don’t live 
When you expect them to. They exist
In the trudge of reality, 
Living in their dreams. 
Dying in their lives.

Ghosts live in the dreams of others 
Family friends and lovers.
And the living live in their own dreams
With lovers friends and family,
With strangers exotic places a hopeful future,
With the past of their mundane world.

The dead don't die,
The living don't live
Because of dreams.


Unusual places I have been

Each with their own moment
 salted into the web of my memory
A tenuous painted contrail 
A trail traveled many places
The smell of a place evoking

It is the one stool ramen stall 
next to a small westernized Chinese hotel In Wuhan
It is fool's gold sparkling on a dreary day
 in the cold rocky shallows of Donner Lake in California 
It is the dry smell of a late summer day
at the hot train station in Havre  Montana 
Each a unique serendipitous memory, each a thread 
One of many woven
to be clutched in the hands of Lachesis 
Measured and imbued by a fate
An unintended interesting life.

Welcome to December’s first issue of Synchronized Chaos Magazine!

First of all, we encourage you to come on out to Metamorphosis, our New Year’s Eve gathering and benefit show for the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan and Sacramento’s Take Back the Night. This will take place in downtown Davis, CA, at 2pm in the fellowship hall of Davis Lutheran Church (all are welcome, we’re simply using their room as a community space). 4pm Pacific time is midnight Greenwich Mean Time so we can count down to midnight. Please sign up here to attend.

The theme “Metamorphosis” refers to having people there from different generations to speak and read and learn from each other, challenging us to honor the wisdom of our parents and ancestors while incorporating the best of the world’s new ideas in a thoughtful “metamorphosis.” We’ve got comedian Nicole Eichenberg, musicians Avery Burke and Joseph Menke, and others on board as well as speakers from different generations.

Second, our friend and collaborator Rui Carvalho has announced our Nature Writing Contest for 2022.

This is an invitation to submit poems and short stories related to trees, water, and nature conservation between now and the March 2023 deadline. More information and submission instructions here!

This month, our issue explores the often quite thin veneer between ourselves and the world’s wildness.

J.K. Durick’s work looks into time, memory, and the fears humans and animals bring into the most mundane encounters. Daniel DeCulla, in a more humorous vein, writes of people who embrace dog poop as part of our world.

Nathan Whiting’s concrete poetry reflects layered physical sensations of nature: intimacy, hibernation, and composting fruit. J.D. Nelson points out a few of the hidden natural encounters people may miss in a suburban neighborhood. Christopher Bernard illustrates a mysterious character who forms a deep bond with the ocean.

Rose Knapp’s pieces reference theology and cultural history along with the natural world. And Thomas Reisner’s artwork reminds us that the natural world can be one very wild place indeed.

Jim Meirose highlights the “wildness” of the general public by illustrating one type of distinctive character clerks encounter while working at a store. Jaylan Salah analyzes the film Emily the Criminal and suggests that the main character is perhaps more of a regular person facing the gritty reality of life rather than a villain. As in Meirose’s shoe store, the workplace can be as harsh and uncivilized as any natural landscape.

Lisa Reynolds suggests that there can be more drama than meets the eye within a simple family scrapbook.

Emdadul Hoque Mamun contributes a sensual ode to the beauty of raucous Parisian nightlife.

Our problems, the unpredictability of our lives, are another aspect of “wildness.” Alison Owings describes a gathering of Native American people for dinner and a drum circle in a piece that touches on their everyday struggles and society’s inequities.

Jalaal Raji references Greek mythology in his piece on the possible instability of romantic love. Christina Chin and Uchechukwu Onyedikam’s collaborative haikus capture moments of connection and loneliness.

J.J. Campbell describes the ferociousness of our modern highways, along with glimpses of bravado and defiant cheer in the face of illness.

Our own minds can be as untamed as any wild place, and several contributors’ work represent that reality or efforts to manage it.

Fernando Sorrentino posits a seemingly ludicrous situation, a man repeatedly hitting the narrator with an umbrella, which becomes a meditation on how we can get used to just about anything and then become anxious about any change, even a return to normalcy.

Ivars Balkits evokes how our minds wander while watching blue screens on old television sets or staring out the window. Debarati Sen probes the restless and absorbing nature of memory.

Aisha MLabo writes of the hidden passion burning within her creative mind. Z.I. Mahmud analyzes various narrative techniques behind the structures of internationally recognized literary works.

Poet Shine Ballard arranges words on a page, then trims them down to fit certain poetic structures. Mark Young crafts experiments with language that approach an internal logic.

Channie Greenberg exhibits a diverse collection of photographs unified by the color beige.

Some writers explore how and where we can experience the world’s wildness, or assert and defend our place within it.

Sayani Mukherjee suggests that tattoos on adults are a natural part of the process of claiming one’s physical body and identity that begins in childhood.

Clyde Borg stares intently into a painting, imagining and interacting beyond the flat canvas with the living woman who served as its model.

Gaurav Ojha points out how we can claim mental and psychological freedom from the world’s pressures. Gerard Sarnat points out the give-and-take needed for a marriage to stand the test of time, along with the many “subtle absurdities” of aging and educational pursuits.

Christina Chin and Matthew Defibaugh collaborate on haikus of autumnal scenes, reminding those in the Northern hemisphere that most of December is still fall. Meanwhile, Chimezie Ihekuna continues his Christmas countdown.

Finally, Mesfakus Salahin offers up a gentle blessing for those who live within the many layers of our world.