| Darkness and Light |
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Recently Christopher and Ho and I were talking of the way each issue of Caveat Lector develops a theme that wends its way among the pieces. Christopher admitted that he usually selects material based simply on when we accepted the submission. Mere chronology wouldn't seem likely to create this thematic unity and yet, issue after issue, it does. As this hemisphere turns its face from the sun into darkness, many pieces here touch on death. This is particularly apposite as we mourn the loss to cancer of longtime, frequent contributor Deanne Bayer, whose exquisitely perceptive and perfectly balanced poems have brought quiet joy over the years. We also sadly acknowledge the loss of poet and interviewer Frank Anthony, |
whose erudite essay introduced us to American artist Ivan Albright. From Herbert Orlofsky's “No harbingers, nothing, whiteness, fear” through my terse biography of Donald Goines, a prolific author of gut-wrenching novels murdered through the greed of his own publisher, to R.T.Castleberry's “Just a Shout Away,” death is “caked in the corners of our mouths like meat, /like mud.” But as half the planet turns toward darkness and the other half toward light, cool winds and rain promise rebirth. Ben Wilensky finds in a dying whale a prophecy of one who might “come and hold us in his arms. /At the very least, teach us how to die, ” Carol Carpenter is caught in a cross  |
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