The Current 2014 Editors Note
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The Current 2014 Editors Note e Current is dedicated to providing the Rivers community with cultural enrichment as well as a stronger appreciation of the arts through poetry, prose, and artwork produced by Rivers students. is year, we decided to go with a vintage travel journal theme. We encorporated elements of scrapbooking, polaroids, and postcards to achieve our design aesthetic. ank you to everyone who submitted or contributed in any way to making this magazine a success. We could not have produced this issue without your help. at being said, there wasn’t enough room to include everyone’s outstanding submissions, but de nitely continue submitting in the future. ank you to all the dedicated Current members. Your help during the play and musical, as well as your weekly contributations were greatly appreciated. A special thanks to Rindy Garner, who has overseen every step of the process and was always willing to o er help whenever it was needed. Lastly, thank you to our readers for acknowledging all the hard work of Rivers artists and writers. We hope you enjoy this issue of the Current! Editors Sareena, Maddie, Jenny, and Saipriya S t a Sarah, Caroline, Jen, Rhea, Elizabeth, Victoria, Ellen, Christine, Ruby, Alicia, and Kate. Judges Prose: Dorothy Vosburgh Poetry: James Lowell 2D: Karen Jerome Skillins 3D: Violet Byrd Photography: Tod Dimmick Faculty Advisor Rindy Garner 1 Table of Contents 4 Here Razzi Hawley 5 Lab Garden Patrick McNally; Slant Victoria Nedder 6 Colors Jenny Park; El Despecho Alex Gaither; Music of the Heart Marissa Birne 7 Into the Woods and Out of My Life Jake Goldberg; Tinted Glass Will Cohen 8 A Short Work of Fiction Razzi Hawley 10 Ode to the Working Class Brendon Argueta; Queen of Hearts Sareena Kamath 11 Nature Poem Kendall Young; Caught in Flight Alex Klein 12 Here Rhea Teng; Lotus Flower Bomb Simone Blake 13 Phoenix Sam Stulin; Humidity Anonymous 14 Requiem Rhea Teng; Contemplation Leah Ci olillo 15 Woman Revisited Brendon Argueta; Red Turtle Hunter Dempsey 16 e R u m o r Jake Goldberg 17 Plot Twist: 43% Silvia Curry 18 Butter eye Wiley Holton; Half Moon Christine Yang 19 Obsession Julia Strauss; Typewriter Wiley Holton 20 rough the Valleys Graydon Hewitt; Backyard Artifacts Campbell Siegrist 21 Anticipation Caroline Rakip; Born to Rise Victoria Nedder 22 And In My Mind He Starts to Leap James Nydam 24 Reach Elizabeth Magnan; Fallen Tears Erin Connolly 25 Loona Sal Sprofera; Montana Caroline Rakip 26 A Drop in the Ocean Maria Burzillo 27 Self Portrait Tali Sprofera; Iceland Lexi Sisitzky; Heading to the Market Alex Klein 28 An Excerpt from e WASPMa a’s Guide to Healthy Living Kendall Young 29 Power Vannie Knisley; Despair Leah Ci olillo 30 A Stag in the White Pines Jen Lowell 2 Winners Prose 1st- A Short Work of Fiction Razzi Hawley 2nd- An Excerpt from e WASPMa a’s Guide to Healthy Living Kendall Young Honorable Mention- Plot Twist 43% Silvia Curry Poetry 1st- Into the Woods and Out of My Life Jake Goldberg 2nd- Here Rhea Teng 3rd- Music of the Heart Marissa Birne Honorable Mention- And In My Mind He Starts to Leap James Nydam Here Razzi Hawley Nature Poem Kendall Young 2-D 1st- Queen of Hearts Sareena Kamath 2nd- Montana Caroline Rakip 3rd- Butter eye Wiley Holton Honorable Mention- Power Vannie Knisley Tinted Glass Will Cohen Fallen Tears Erin Connolly 3-D 1st- Phoenix Sam Stulin 2nd- rough the Valleys Graydon Hewitt 3rd- Red Turtle Hunter Dempsey Honorable Mention- Half Moon Christine Yang Lotus Flower Bomb Simone Blake Photography 1st- Backyard Artifacts Campbell Siegrist 2nd- Contemplationn Leah Ci olillo 3rd- Caught in Flight Alex Klein Honorable Mention- Colors Jenny Park Lab Garden Patrick McNally Heading to the Market Alex Klein 3 Here Razzi Hawley Honorable Mention here is the edge of the tallest, most staggering face of the Cli s of Moher, the rubble and rock imposing its stern surveillance over the bleeding blue below and here is the broad horizon’s fading line of sight, dissolved with baited breath, ducking into the dim crepuscule, she waits, sure that we will turn to face her glow again and here is the cold, mandated breath of the hospital machinery near the old man’s body, lling resigned lungs as he lies, unmoving, imagining the dark mysteries beneath six feet of earth, and here is the ledge of the bridge overlooking the dam where the young man perches, silent, teeth chattering and heart racing as he pockets the letter, that he loves her and he’s so sorry and here is the secret I have to impart, scribed from lines worn across these weathered hands, that they are one and the same. 4 Lab Garden Patrick McNally Honorable Mention Slant 5 Victoria Nedder Colors Jenny Park El Despecho Honorable Mention Alex Gaither Music of the Heart Marissa Birne A grinning face, hands clasped as one, a steady drumbeat ird Place on bright polyphony - I believe in a beautiful world. 6 Into e Woods and Out Of My Life Jake Goldberg First Place Into the woods I went seeking the woman I secretly call my own, she who I claimed at a young age, she who by all must remain unknown. e woods’ towering trees heard our shared words, the blossoms observed our rst night together, and the doves our second and third. It was the private con ned place that bounded our endless emotions, our actions dimmed from the populous lands, our words hushed from the teeming oceans. Our passions collided there in ery ways, the same desires elsewhere chained by the day’s light, were here set free by the moon’s rays. Yet pleasure was seized by horror that night, and much to my alarm, Tinted Glass for instead of my vivacious beauty waiting for me, she was weak and limp under a massive tree’s arm. Will Cohen Trapped under the branch, she was lying short of breath, Honorable Mention unable to help her, she was seized by death. With chilling tears rolling down my face, I screamed that she be brought back, looking into the dark forest, that administered the sinister attack. Despite our best e orts, our love did not go unseen, the towering trees, blossoms, and doves, watched, heard, and deemed our intimacy unclean. e place we went to be with each other tore us apart at the same time, observed our rst night together, second and third, and judged our hidden passion to be only a crime. Now from my life, my lover is gone, never to be heard or seen again, solely in my heart is where she’s lived on. 7 A Short Work of Fiction Razzi Hawley First Place e story I have to tell you is that of a girl who is in many ways very much like yourself. She came into this world, bearing a smile, into the arms of a family who loved her be- yond e ective description, and a world that would soon see the turning of a bright new century. She came into this world, happy and healthy and with eyes full of pale blue light, into the ranks of a society that would privilege her race and social class that would nurture her easily into a successful and con dent young woman. She came into this world with a erce wit, with an imagination that knew no bounds, with an intellect that would allow her to go unnoticed and unchallenged in school, so long as she would not become a disruption. But she came into this world, wailing with a feeble rst breath, leaving no trace of a critical piece of information, as if the manufacturer had forgone tying the warning label around her tiny ankle: ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION is story is that of a girl who is in many ways very much like the girls you may o en see milling about with their friends a er classes let out, laughing and smiling with mouths full of glossy, white teeth—girls who you could not imagine curled behind a bookshelf late at night, pulling out strands of their own hair in a consuming panic as their thin, pale bodies heave with wrenching sobs. But such is the case of our protagonist. It didn’t have to be the way life with mental illness had been conditioned for the generation before her, she told herself with proud diplomacy. Not in this bright new century. She would be con dent, and casual, and candid, and from this would gain understanding and respect for her struggles. But when asked why she had missed so much school in eighth grade, she answered honestly, and was met with a burrowing silence which none of the other freshman girls quite knew how to break. But when asked about the orange bottle with the child-safe cap that she brought with her on overnight trips, she answered honestly, and was met with casual disbelief. But when she sat at the lunch table and heard a friend o -handedly mention that it’s really just not the sort of thing you should bring up with anyone other than a psychiatrist, she found she didn’t know how to be honest anymore. 8 And so the bright new century faded into a sallow, orescent glare. She wrapped around her shoulders a thin shroud of secrecy, a shield of little white lies and words unsaid that protected her from the calculating gazes and pitiful smiles of those around her. When asked about her frequent appointments, she threw out names—dentist, chiropractor, dermatologist.