This anthology combines 2 issues of The Author's Journal of Inventive Literature, a positive, uplifting periodical focused on imaginative work.
Contents Comprise:
Five Stories:
The Many Wise Messengers of Meed by Robert Hegwood
Honeybees and Bumblees take on an interfering man of science; an orphan and a priest connect with a saint who takes the form of white doe; and an elderly, bitter hedge witch gets a chance at salvation. .
Oriana Unbound by Goddard Kay Riddley
Two sisters, with indiviaul styles of faith and individual life paths, experience their father's death in two distinct but mystical ways.
The Tree That Reaches Heaven by Kat Liama Webb
A loving mother and daughter are driven apart by a conniving Rasputin-like character. Locked in a tower on the steppes, the daughter, Ulma, is gifted by angelic white birds with samaras that, when thrown to the ground, grow overnight into a tree that reaches from Earth up through the seven Heavens.
Gerasim by Laura E. Wolfe
In this story based upon the hagiography of a saint who tamed wild animals, a lion learns to live among men, especially one man whose holiness gives him a different fragrance, and makes him absolute master of the king of beasts. (Now available in in much-expanded form as a novella from Ancient Faith Publishing, under the title The Lion and the Saint.)
Sphere Flyer by S. Dorman
This accurate but imaginative tale of a wild sea-bird is told from the bird's untamed and unhuman perspective, with a brief inset from the perspective of sailors who sail by its side for a moment. The life cycle of the Skipjack, also known as Mother Carey's Chicken, sparkles in settings from the Antarctic Peninsula to Ascension Island.
24 Imaginative, Beautiful, and Musical Poems by:
Abert Salsich, Goddard Kay Riddley, Kilby Austin, Abender, Anna Staples, Robert Hegwood, Charles Leggett, Don Wheelock, Colleen Anderson, Isabel Chenot, Leah M. Sommers, Arthur Bardsman, and Steve Bucher
Sample Poem Excerpts:
From "A Town of Trees" by Arthur Bardsman
Clinging clouds,
billowy bosom
of a sympathetic sky,
lean down to lifted leaves:
murmuring mouths,
wanting, whispering,
whispering waves,
gay green gales,
mind immersed -
I'm undersea, I swan -
floating, following
an antique arching avenue;
crushing the carpet,
a verdure of violets;
fluttering fern-fronds;
avoiding puffballs, pendulous
from soaked stalks.
And foliage flies above,
whipping in wind,
while over the surface, stories high,
airy mansions drift in mist.
I? – I am here –
Isolated, inward, and without irony.
I stand in a story
untold, under
a heaving heaven.
From "The Darkwood Bears" by Goddard Kay Riddley
Long you’ve groaned, your feet are sore,
Your human heart is grieved;
For place and face that are no more,
For loves that all deceived.
The Heartfree Grog! The Heartfree Grog!
In gloom we lift it up;
By sunken stump and perished log,
We fill Forgetful Cup.
Long have you worn that human skin,
Now Darkwood is your home;
Strip you down and pour it in,
Stretch out on leafy loam.
The Heartfree Grog! The Heartfree Grog!
In gloom we lift it up;
By lagging lakes and moonfed fog,
We fill Forgetful Cup.