Stone Telling Issue 2: Generations
Stone Telling Issue 2 went live this morning. As I said in an earlier entry, this magazine is the brain- and heart-child of Rose Lemberg who wished to elicit and showcase poetry that crosses boundaries. I’m triply represented in the latest issue by a poem, an essay and participation to the contributor round-table.
The focus of issue 2 is the chains that sustain us even as they bind us. My dear friend Francesca Forrest has a deeply affecting poem in it, The Old Clothes Golem, amid a dozen equally stunning others.
I originally wrote my poem, Mid-Journey, in Greek. It is about feral loners like me who walk between worlds. The Greek text is there alongside my English translation, and there is also an mp3 file of me reciting it in the original.
My essay is about Sapfó, the Tenth Muse, the Blackbird of Lésvos. She has been different things to different people, so I thought I’d write about who she really was — and why she deserves her immortality.
Yay! Thank you for contributing your work to the issue! Excellent, as always.
Your check should go out tomorrow 🙂
I had fun writing the essay! The poem was sheer serendipity… but I think it’s happy to have a home, unlike its maker.
A terrific poem and a terrific essay.
Thanku, thanku!
I love your poem–as you already know from our e-mail exchange, back when you wrote it–it’s great to be next to you in the table of contents.
The whole magazine is beautiful–image, word, sound–really beautifully conceived. I love that we can see the Greek of your poem, as well as hear it, and the same with the sung fragment from Sapfo.
Indeed, Stone Telling is put together with loving care and great discernment. The poems in this issue have enormous cumulative power. For mine, as well as the Sapfó essay, I suggested to Rose that we put the Greek texts side-by-side with the translations and the mp3 files. She agreed it was the best way for the readers/listeners to get a flavor of the originals.
Thank you very much for your kind words, Athena! And yes, your poem is excellent – and I am very happy to have it in the issue! 🙂
Among all its fellow outlaws! *smile*
Seriously, you should be proud of Stone Telling and let nothing divert you from celebrating it.
I *loved* that essay and have retweeted it!
Susan, I’m delighted you enjoyed the essay, and thank you for the signal boost!
Wonderful essay! Thanks again for teaching us so much. I’ve always been a bit of a Hellenophile (I recently re-read The Bull From the Sea and the King Must Die, which may be inaccurate but are very evocative, LOL) so I love these digressions into Greek culture!
Thank you, Brian! If you like evocative stories about Crete, I recommend Secret Passages by Paul Preuss and Ariathne’s Children by Roderick Beaton. My story Dry Rivers is the start of an entire universe in which the Minoans are a nexus (you can catch a glimpse of that future in Planetfall… novels lurk behind that as well).
Dry Rivers: http://crossedgenres.com/archives/009/dry-rivers-by-athena-andreadis/
Planetfall: http://crossedgenres.com/archives/013/planetfall-by-athena-andreadis/
Congratulations to your triple appearance! The essay was very interesting and educational. I also loved hearing you read the poem in Greek.
Thanks, Sophy! Most people are intrigued at the sound of Greek. It’s Indo-European, but alone in its group — it has no close linguistic relatives: it’s not Romance, Slavic, Germanic or Celtic.
Oh, I do know what Greek sounds like (been there a couple of times) but I like to listen to it.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned before that my younger daughter’s name is Ariana.
Is it a family name, or did you just like the sound?
Not a family name; I just like it.
A wonderful, evocative poem, and an excellent essay. 🙂
I’m very glad you liked them, Heather!
The poem will come as no surprise to you, you have read my fiction — Ariáthne Ouranákis, who launches The Reckless, could have written those words.