SPARK

Darice Jones and Kathleen Finn Jordan

Darice Jones “Y’all Be Tryin’ It” Response Our Turn By Kathleen Finn Jordan Inspiration piece Say their names—you don’t know them But the world is aghast; As each death repeats We hope it’s the …

Kathleen Finn Jordan and Darice Jones

Darice Jones “Setting with Verve” Inspiration piece Mind Screen By Kathleen Finn Jordan Response Since Covid blasted into my space My mind screen’s been the same A sparkling sea … a warming sun A …

Kamika Cooper and Jonathan Ottke

Jonathan Ottke “Cherry Petals on Water” Photography Inspiration piece Abandoned By Kamika Cooper Response you heard what they said about me and you believed every word shook me right off your tree like the fruit …

Alyscia Cunningham
and Marisa Bevington

Marisa Bevington Inspiration piece Im·pen·e·tra·ble By Alyscia Cunningham Response Time flies Years go by Her insight intensifies. Though tired and worn She passes the locust thorn Unadorned Grown accustomed to hurdles Her soul sets and fertiles And visions …

Diane Mayr and Lisa L. Leibow

Diane Mayr “If We Go Any Slower, We’ll Be Going Backwards” Digital collage Response Girls Are Flyers By Lisa L. Leibow Inspiration piece It was so cold, Chapman Pond had frozen over. …

Diane Mayr and Anne-Marie Ross

Diane Mayr “Beasts” Digital collage Response I Know Where the Bodies Accrue Freezer Burn By Anne-Marie Ross Inspiration piece One eye sees one eye remembers. The mouth tears flesh flashes back to when it reached only …

Jenny Forrester and Jennifer Fendya

Jennifer Fendya “Fire Department” Inspiration piece Jenny Forrester Response My capacity for self-destruction has been breathtaking. I’ve found people who’ve helped me destroy myself, people with destructive ideas, violent behavior, …

Jennifer Fendya and Jenny Forrester

Jennifer Fendya “Eat My Words” Response Jenny Forrester Inspiration piece I see you spreading bad news, misinformation, lies, because it’s cool to spread bad news, misinformation, and lies. You’re a …

Jewel Beth Davis
and Margi Smith

Margi Smith Inspiration piece Working the Magic By Jewel Beth Davis Response Sylvester stood around a large table made of waterlilies and pearls many, many leagues under the ocean surrounded …

Matthew Levine and
Robert Haydon Jones

Matthew Levine “Whispering Pines” Response The Best Christmas Tree Ever By Robert Haydon Jones Inspiration piece When Jimmy O’Hara decided on his Christmas tree at the outdoor lot at Home Depot, …

Robert Haydon Jones
and Matthew Levine

Matthew Levine “Longshore, late in the season at 17” Inspiration piece Golf By His Lonesome By Robert Haydon Jones Response Rob knew this golf course very well. It was close to …

Sarah Priestman and Marisa Bevington

Marisa Bevington Inspiration piece Resolute By Sarah Priestman Response She’d waited before. Waited outside shul for her father, who’d refused to be rushed since racing from his burning Lithuanian village. …

Marisa Bevington and Sarah Priestman

Marisa Bevington Response A Visit from Mom By Sarah Priestman Inspiration piece It’s an overcast Sunday; more Edinburgh than Arlington on what should be a sunny Memorial Day weekend. I …

Mary Lee Hahn
and Victoria Nessen

Victoria Nessen “Finding Your Way” Inspiration piece Six Weeks One Summer By Mary Lee Hahn Response 1985 After the first job, before the second degree. Between. Blue Highways South — tobacco fields West — Navajo Nation North — …

Amy Souza and
Kathleen Finn Jordan

Amy Souza “Trail Closed” Response Covidian Dreams By Kathleen Finn Jordan Inspiration piece As the isolation and distancing young tree like grows ……and burgeons spitting flowers of solitary time into lysoled air The …

Meg Max and Diane Mayr

Diane Mayr “The Elephant and the Jester” Inspiration piece A Visit to the Circus By Meg Max Response It was easy to lead her home. She was willing to accept peanuts from you, …

Kathleen Finn Jordan and Amy Souza

Amy Souza Inspiration piece Everything Will Be O.K. By Kathleen Finn Jordan Response The explosion of the isolation will soon come …

Diane Mayr and Meg Max

Diane Mayr “Terra in Cognita” Response Meg Max Motherhood in Maps Inspiration piece Motherhood In Maps Enjoy every second of this, here’s your map a grocery list, forgotten. They grow up so fast, here’s …

Channie Greenberg and Erika Cleveland

Erika Cleveland “Night Vision” Goauche and watercolor crayon in handmade book Inspiration piece Fecundity By Channie Greenberg Response Amal, Carrie, Gertrude, Hilary, Joanne, Linda, Maribelle, Princess, and Suzanne became gravid at the …

Erika Cleveland and Channie Greenberg

Erika Cleveland “A Select Group of La Casa Nostra Wives Had Aspired to Take Down ISIS” Goauche and watercolor crayon in handmade book Response Do Good or Feel Good By Channie …

Donna JT Smith and Karen Schmitz

Karen Schmitz “Simplicity” Inspiration piece The Legacy By Donna JT Smith Response Any fabric she embraced Succumbed to her control; Every needle with her touch Realized their starring role. Thistledown would fill the air Late-summer on …

Colleen Anderson and Dominic Mazzilli

Colleen Anderson Response Market Street By Dominic Mazzilli Inspiration piece Market Street. The pulsating heart of town throbbed with wealth and an everlasting flow of people in, but not necessarily …

Chandra Achberger and Amy Moffitt

Chandra Achberger Calm Chaos Chemigraph, 5×7 on 1970s Kodak Photo Paper Response Home By Amy Moffitt Inspiration piece All I ever see these days is the dust and the fur, and some …

Amy Moffitt and Chandra Achberger

Chandra Achberger Inspiration piece Never By Amy Moffitt Response You may forget me, (you have, in so many ways and so many times forgotten me so completely) but I will never forget you… kneeling in …

Betty Nichols and Jenny Forrester

Betty Nichols Response Cherish By Jenny Forrester Inspiration piece I cherish the Bluebird of My Happiness. Beyond myself and even beyond The River, The Writing, The Story of My Story. …