Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.10, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Inscape Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://inscape.byu.edu/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Side Stretch (Back Cover)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/side-stretch-back-cover/) - by Lexi Johnson - [Gamos](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/06/11/gamos/) - by Jonathon Egan Transcription: 1. Half-life Uranium Thorium Protactinium Uranium Radium Radon Bismuth Polonium Lead Despair? Imagined? Hardly bestead and hungry? We, two things wedded and Temple-stretched taut as new cloth, Began burning oil and wick; Shedding time like bedclothes Back when Pluto was a planet. Decades. Dinners. Diapers. Duck-dogs— Trousers rolled, and Clocked by - [We Begin at Lake Calhoun](https://inscape.byu.edu/2013/09/11/we-begin-at-lake-calhoun/) - by Jia Oak-Baker When the weather grew bitter that winter, we chose to enjoy it. Too in love to feel sorry for ourselves, we couldn’t sulk inside that drafty house. No way we could pay to crank up the heat. Instead, we strapped on skates, etched lines and figure eights on the lake. Our laughter cut through the silence, - [Salad Bar](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/salad-bar/) - by Madeline Rupard - [The Unrecordable Element](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/14/the-unrecordable-element/) - On September fifth, I was lucky enough to see Verina Chen perform her sophomore piano recital to a nearly filled Madsen Recital Hall. Verina played some technically impressive and difficult pieces, including twentieth century Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 2 in D minor, which required virtuosic skill. However, the truly exceptional aspect of Verina’s - [Sorry x2](https://inscape.byu.edu/2017/04/22/cross-dissolve/) - by Sara K. Bown Sára Kasanová Bown was born in the Czech Republic in 1993. Sára works predominantly in the medium of video and photography. Her art is often based on performance and everyday observations of mundane objects and moments. Her work deals with perception of memory as well as current events. - [Sorry](https://inscape.byu.edu/2017/04/22/holubi-sharp/) - by Sara K. Bown Sára Kasanová Bown was born in the Czech Republic in 1993. Sára works predominantly in the medium of video and photography. Her art is often based on performance and everyday observations of mundane objects and moments. Her work deals with perception of memory as well as current events. - [Poli'ahu](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/poliahu/) - by Amelia Eversole - [An Evening Storm at Utah Lake](https://inscape.byu.edu/2013/09/11/an-evening-storm-at-utah-lake/) - by Truedson J.S. The dock rocks up & down & back & forth like my grandma’s antediluvian chair & my shirt flaps like a pennant as the girl’s collar is caught by the wind graciously giving me a glimpse of her bra & I blush & look away as the waves continue to smack spraying - [Mortal Fools' Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/14/mortal-fools-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde/) - by Sara Hinkson On the evening of Saturday, October 12th, I walked tentatively into the doors of Provo’s Echo Theater just off of University Avenue to see the Mortal Fools’ production of the classic tale Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Not quite knowing what to expect theater-wise or production-wise (it was my first time in - [Juxtaposing Lyric and Sound: A Review of Red Yeti](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/14/juxtaposing-lyric-and-sound-a-review-of-red-yeti/) - In the bright green basement of drummer Nick Blosil’s home, all six members of Red Yeti lightly pluck, plunk, or tap their respective instruments as they take a short break from practice to answer a few questions. Red Yeti is an indie/folk rock band based in Provo, Utah. Red Yeti blends unique sounds, gleaning inspiration - [Man in a Small Town](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/man-in-a-small-town/) - by Nick Bontorno - [Eric Photographs](https://inscape.byu.edu/2017/04/27/untitled-photographs/) - by Eric Edvalson Eric Edvalson is an interdisciplinary artist from Richland, Washington. Working in photography, sculpture, and installation, his work uses the visual language of commercial products to explore nostalgia, loneliness, and shared cultural experience. - [Why Do So Many Mormon Bros Rap About Mitt Romney?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/08/why-do-so-many-mormon-bros-rap-about-mitt-romney/) - In my recent adventures with the Internet, I have come across two videos from white male Romney-endorsers. They wear flat-brimmed hats and awkwardly rap intelligent lines like “he’s no sinner, winner, winner chicken dinner” all across Provo. While these videos claim they are trying to help Romney gain some “street cred” that is not the - [Kirin](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/03/kirin/) - by Mike Lee - [On Discovering a Fire](https://inscape.byu.edu/2013/09/11/on-discovering-a-fire/) - by Maddison Colvin ON DISCOVERING A FIRE in the kitchen, flap your hands. Open a window, turn on the stove fan, and hold the burning object under running water until extinguished. Flap your hands some more. If the burnt object was formerly edible, pretend it is still so. If inedible, pretend the fire never happened. - [Review - BYUtv's Studio C](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/07/review-byutvs-studio-c/) - by Evan Hall By entitling their recent venture into the world of TV Studio C, BYU's Divine Comedy crew has subtly but intentionally drawn comparisons to the humor of the show on which it is based: Saturday Night Live. Each episode of the show, which airs on BYUtv, is comprised of a series of unrelated - [Ron Linn—Reflections on the Effect that Repeated Viewings of Mountain has on a Person](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/04/13/ron-linn-reflections-on-the-effect-that-repeated-viewings-of-mountain-has-on-a-person/) - [2 A.M.](https://inscape.byu.edu/2013/09/11/2-a-m/) - by Jia Oak-Baker Bill grabs my hand and guides me into the meditation room. He’s married and I’m married, but we’re not married to each other. He’s a novelist and I’m a poet, which means this night is clocking towards disaster. This night, doomed before he turns the wheel of the skylight as if steering - [Am Abend](https://inscape.byu.edu/2013/09/11/am-abend/) - by Michelle Oakes In the evening, little black ants trickle out, shiver your fingers, tickle your throat, disperse in your hair like curls of smoke. A man on the porch with his slow cigarette romances the porch-swing. His false mustache is the color of smoke. You must play the piano. Little black ants, the sheet-music’s - [High Knees (Front Cover)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/03/high-knees-front-cover/) - by Lexi Johnson - [Hamlet: The 2012 Utah Shakespeare Festival](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/28/hamlet-the-2012-utah-shakespeare-festival/) - by Courtney Manwaring If you need a pick-me-up, perhaps a Shakespearean tragedy is not the first place to turn. But for me and Inscape fiction editor, Tyler Corbridge, the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s production of Hamlet was an invigorating reprieve from the general work of university life—a healthy dose of death, drinking, and delight. For those - [From the Series In Between](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/03/bedroom-facing-back/) - by Kendal Bryan - [From Flower Series 3](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/untitled-3-from-flower-series-3/) - by Kendal Bryan - [Buildings 1-10](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/untitled-10-buildings-1-10/) - by Kendal Bryan - [(Burning)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/untitled-burning/) - by Sutten Garnett - [Group project](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/untitled-3/) - by Jacob Haupt and Noah Jackson - [(Land of One Thousand Dances)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/untitled-land-of-one-thousand-dances/) - by Eric Edvalson - [A post by Jacob Haupt](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/untitled-2/) - by Jacob Haupt - [Halcyon](https://inscape.byu.edu/2014/04/08/halcyon/) - by Lauren Bledsoe I still believe in hunger, knees bent into prayer for more than the usual hour at the table, splitting plums into halves, citrus to quarters. You turned away to rinse your hands of it, the way night is always a circle and a dark away from departure, the way when you touched - [Gothen Music—An Interview with Evan Jolley](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/02/16/gothen-music-an-interview-with-evan-jolley/) - Evan Jolley: Gothen is more of a Moniker rather than a full band, I do get a lot of assistance from others but it is mostly my project. you can specify that if you like. I would also love if you could mention the others who assist me: Dennis Fuller, Danny Orme, Marina Tijerino, Jaren - [Winter 2019 Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2019/12/03/winter-2019-art/) - [Winter Art 2018](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/06/11/winter-art-2018/) - Joselyn Torbenson graduated with a BA from BYU in 2017 and is currently a student in BYU's Education Policy masters program. Joselyn's work often is documentary in nature and records found places of complex order. She is interested in the way that we care for the earth, each other, and ourselves. As a mother - [Inventory](https://inscape.byu.edu/2014/04/08/inventory/) - by Sarah Soderborg How much of this dust is your shedded skin cells: your flashy regeneration and excess, your tedium? All the inside out pants with underwear curled in them; your wake, and the loop in which you peel out of yourself every night, back in every morning. Face half­numb pressed into a pillowcase, - [Response](https://inscape.byu.edu/2017/01/26/response/) - by Sarah Farrar Void response ( ) { string question = “How are you?”; string person = “friend"; string honest = “never”; if ( person == “friend” && question == “How are you?”) { if ( honest == always) { - [That They Would Pray to Google](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/09/28/that-they-would-pray-to-google/) - by Isaac Robertson I am a passenger I am a child of God and friend of God and a cider drinker. I am a woman in love. I live my life in the city the way I want. I live in Spanish and I love in Japanese. Sometimes I don't want to live, but tell - [Paper Games](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/03/29/paper-games/) - by Melanie L. Henderson My favorite restaurants have brick fireplaces, soft lighting, decanters of oil and vinegar on every table—and lots of white paper and crayons at my fingertips. It must have been a full-spectrum hospitality genius who first pulled heavy white butcher paper, tarp-like, over white table linens in grown-up restaurants; there’s something - [Fall 2018 Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2019/04/05/fall-2018-art/) - [Fall 2017 Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/03/02/fall-2017-art/) - [Eggs or Words](https://inscape.byu.edu/2017/01/26/untitled/) - by Michael Turner And I came over with a dozen blue eggs Or I came over with a dozen blue eggs Or he came over with a dozen blue eggs Or he fell over with a dozen blue eggs Or he fell down with a dozen blue eggs Or he fell down on - [Etudes](https://inscape.byu.edu/2013/09/11/etudes/) - by Jia Oak-Baker An auger, placed to the temple of a modern-day man and turned slowly to the right, might let out a penchant for relative clauses, a dependence on first hand accounts, and a required waiver for a remarkable repast. It doesn’t make sense all this sense- making, in these swelling forms that lie - [Oh, Michigan](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/03/29/1524/) - By Ryan Brown “Michigan is shaped like an oven mitt and is about as exciting.” –Bill Bryson Michigan’s geography is often the brunt of a lot of people’s jokes. Bill Bryson hits the subject pretty much on the nose; Michigan is shaped like an oven mitt. But I prefer mitten to oven mitt. It - [Andrea Thompson—Oregon](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/04/13/andrea-thompson-oregon/) - [Andrea Thompson—Mae Sai, Thailand](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/04/13/andrea-thompson-mae-sai-thailand/) - [Andrea Thompson—Frames](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/04/13/andrea-thompson-frames/) - [Andrea Thompson—Florence](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/04/13/andrea-thompson-florence/) - [Andrea Thompson—Fleeting Landscapes](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/04/13/andrea-thompson-fleeting-landscapes/) - [A Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (PG-13)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/14/the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower-a-review/) - by Kelsey Allan When I told a friend I was going to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower, she said she thought it looked cute. Having read the book already, I had to laugh inwardly at her comment. Having seen the movie, I stand by that reaction. Cute is not the word I would - [A Review: Argo (R)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/11/14/argo-a-review/) - by T. Jerald Sandberg If the buzz around the all-knowing Internet is correct, and I believe it is, then two films are going to sweep the Oscars this year: Cloud Atlas and Argo. I saw the latter two weeks ago at the Wynnsong 12’s matinee showing. A small pitch for the Wynnsong at the Riverwoods - [15](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/15/) - by Americo Gariety - [11](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/11/) - by Americo Gariety - [1](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/1-2/) - by Americo Gariety - [Andrea Thompson—Age](https://inscape.byu.edu/2012/04/13/andrea-thompson-age/) - [Bartered](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/bartered/) - by Nancy McBride Soviet women wearing hats lined with white rabbit fur that covers their ears from the lies of poor media coverage not broadcast by satellite or constellation, sell the flannel sheets, knotted, falling from Rapunzel's tower- dripping like juice from rotted fruit. Eclipsed knights nobly strive to win the pillow joust in cheap hotels - [T. S. Eliot and the American Tradition](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/t-s-eliot-and-the-american-tradition/) - by Karl Thomas Rees Thomas Stearns Eliot, arguably the most influential poet of the first half of the twentieth century, is best known for his highly allusive and at times eclectic poems: The Waste Land, Four Quartets, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Born and educated in the United States, Eliot moved to - [Omaha's Stage](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/11/04/omahas-stage/) - by Kim Howey Thirty hours a week—most of it hunched over yellowed toilets like a horse in its trough. Biology, ceramics, and thirty hours a week of janitorial in Helaman Halls men's dorms capped off an equally monotonous year in Utah. At the pottery wheel, I shaped the clay as it spun and slipped through - [Charlie's Angel](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/charlies-angel/) - by Jana Scott (Still in progress) By August, she's sick and thinks she's dying from cancer. Nausea in the mornings. She doesn't make it to the bathroom anymore and throws up red cranberry juice across Charlie's quilt. Wedding gift from his mother. Hands shaking and stained with liquid, she pushes the sheets back with her legs - [A Sense of Things](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/a-sense-of-things/) - by Robert C. Paxton, Jr. CHARACTERS (in order of appearance) man doctor friend ex woman a small, neat bedroom, a bed, a desk and chair, a chest of drawers, a window. no personality revealed other than one large poster of a contemporary pop icon (like Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, etc.). also tacked to the - [A Nurtured Season](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/a-nurtured-season/) - By Maryan Myres The early morning sun shone on the watered fields where men and women bent to plant the crop that feeds the other half of the world. The stalks were individually placed in the ground with care in hopes the rice would sprout and grow. And I hadn't liked rice until I arrived - [Sticks](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/sticks/) - By Zina Peterson When I was born, the doctor said, "Rose,” (which was my mother's name)"you'd better name the afterbirth." What?" my mother wheezed. "You've got another little girl here," he said. But then somewhere behind him my sister-baby died. So since then I walk around like one drumstick, like one chopstick, like one chromatid - [Painting My House](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/painting-my-house/) - By Susan Fife Six times in the last four months I have gone into town and parked next to the post office in the small lot that serves Sherwin-Williams and D. J.'s Small Engine Repair. Six times I've driven away without buying the paint. Three gallons of flat, white latex is all I need, but - [Neighbors on the Right-Hand Side](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/neighbors-on-the-right-hand-side/) - By Carla Thomas Howard Chittum is a year older than my father and has lived next door to our family ever since my parents moved to McKinley Avenue in 1959. He has silver hair now and belongs to the Senior Citizens’ Group. Most of the other Senior citizens live in the high rise downtown, but - [For the Museum of Natural History](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/for-the-museum-of-natural-history/) - By Carla Thomas They were the last to board the 11:20 Cardinal and had trouble finding two seats together. The cars were packed with sleeping blacks. Ellen could smell their sweet heavy perfume and their hair oils. She kept one hand on Bodie’s back as she followed him through the train. She didn’t want to - [Floating Islands](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/floating-islands/) - By Scott Hatch The old man looked over the herd. His count was short. He whistled, and his note laid across the meadow. The two dogs circled up to him. The dogs watched the sheep and goats, then watched him. They were diligent shepherds. They felt shame and did not want to look at him, - [Dirge for Thomas Kuku](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/dirge-for-thomas-kuku/) - By Margaret Young There is no romance in Patsun, Guatemala. There is nothing romantic about washing dishes with dirt. And the exotic Indians with their bronze cheeks and guttural dialects—there is nothing romantic about not understanding them. The first days, yes, when you wind up the mountain road to the village and look down from - [Cockfight](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/cockfight/) - by James Papworth Each night at dusk eyes of birds engage and in that dancing, feathers flare wings beat back days, dust drops from air its gold and yellow skin decayed. Taut talons scratch dirt as vultures make their turns, and wrinkled hands make ready dirt-filled urns. - [Boys](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/boys/) - By Philip White Voices in the park, boy’s voices. Above empty municipal branches, a football’s predictable flight, nosing up into the grey air, then, toward mid-arc, tipping gently, as if on a long tether, to earth, and wobbling back down to the grass. I stop to watch them darting through the trees, the boys, smearing - [Each Day](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/each-day/) - By James Papworth Each day this reactor loses another clump of plutonium. Brief traces of dust clutter the edges of fingers where cuticles curve the nail. The geiger clicks around us spattering the air with our news, and the people we counted as friends turn red nearby. On days we can no longer sleep, We - [Estates Adjoining Naboth's Vineyard](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/estates-adjoining-naboths-vineyard/) - By Maria Aladren Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard…hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard that I may have it…and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or…I will give thee the worth of it in money…. And Naboth - [Eleven Lines](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/eleven-lines/) - By Gary Frazier On my grandfather's farm there was a hard water well covered with boards curled at their edges from the sun. I wasn't to go near, but the air came too cool between the cracks and against my skin. On my belly in the warm dust, I pushed pebbles and clods over the - [Like a Susan](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/like-a-susan/) - By Eugene Woodbury She looked like a Susan. Like slender grass in an August field, and she wore this thin white dress and the hay was drying in the loft. Yesterday I knew her name. - [Like Him](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/like-him/) - By Eugene Woodbury He woke in the morning brushed aside the curtains of another summer The house was old worn smooth to the touch the barn held up another winter and the ghosts still lived there Like him to think of them as if the feeling could stroke the stone Like him to think of - [Littoral](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/littoral/) - By Carrie Sandholtz We wait on cheap beach chairs, wise to why the sand is flat, fat with the jellyfish. Our children chase the waves beyond the bar, bright-chassied, tumbling in the foam; sunlight flashes on their backs. Their calls are weak beneath the roar, dull as the noise of gulls. The waves will push - [Soliloquy of a Painter's Mistress](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/soliloquy-of-a-painters-mistress/) - By Carla Thomas A slave all day to beauty, you prune the blue from air. Squeezing the sky from tubes, you transpose color Into meaning. When the light goes, dolor Rises—the lunatic sun sucks pigment from the bare That night makes. Every evening it's the same: black laces the room, My skirt scatters cinnamon to - [Portrait](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/portrait-2/) - By Cory Fehlberg A soft sun speckles the room Where she lies dreaming, Her arm curled around the cat. They are of the same quickness. What he seizes with a caper, She finds with her eye— Netted threads of insect wings, A hamster's wistful ways. She will wake soon, A high flush on her face. - [That Light](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/that-light/) - By Philip White One more hot August night. I sit on the barred balcony in a wicker lawn chair listening to what little life is left moving in the heavy air. Evening's final color bleeds through the birch's flickering cut-leaf lace. My back to the empty house, my face to the agonized west, to what - [Short Stops](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/short-stops/) - By Gary Frazier I could never be a shortstop. I haven't the daring to play near the edge of artistry to turn the double play. My younger brother did. He was willing to sacrifice parts of himself for a grounder or a line drive nearly quicker than reflex could allow. Until tired of the game, - [Guavas](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/guavas/) - By Tessa Meyer For four years they floated between wax candles and a broken thermos flask. They waited on the top shelf, hoarding dust, their chrome tops gleaming beneath the glow of an electric light bulb. Mom had forgotten to add the sugar. I drank them for a childhood. They slide down the throat, pink-on-pink, - [Georgia: July, 1961](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/georgia-july-1961/) - By Carla Thomas Through the lush tunnel of Carolina we have come to this moment. Weathered wood beneath our backs, we give our breath to the night in the milky warm sleep of children. There are only the three of us, me and my brothers, asleep on boards. Even in my dreams their soft round - [A Cover Letter & Resume](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/27/a-cover-letter-resume/) - Creative nonfiction piece by Heather Monnett – Cover Letter & Resume – Dear Anyone Who Will (Please) Offer Me Some Form of Employment... - [Genre Highlight: Creative Nonfiction](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/20/genre-highlight-creative-nonfiction/) - Ah, yes, the unsung hero of literary creativity. If you mention creative nonfiction in a casual conversation, you’ll likely be met with confusion. “How on earth can nonfiction writing be creative?” they may ask. Little do they know that the personal essays they wrote in junior high and high school fell within this genre. While - [Talisman](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/04/talisman/) - By Christian Ward I kept a moth under my tonguefor good luck: a death's-headhawkmoth—all velvet and cigarsmoke. As elegant as a flapperdress. Charm borrowedfrom Ryan Gosling. I accidentallycracked the surface of the moonwith my boots one winter,and the moth packed my shadowtight into the trunk of its wing case,zigzagging us both awayfrom angry plane trees - [Confession in a Light-Wrapped Room](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/20/confession-in-a-light-wrapped-room/) - Fiction by Carla Thomas – I began to lose confidence in Dr. Swain when I entered his waiting room for the first time and found it was painted pink... - [Angel Paradise; The Weight of a City](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/22/angel-paradise-the-weight-of-a-city/) - Art by by Camille Petty, an aspiring writer and illustrator. - [The Fall of Cupid](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/24/the-fall-of-cupid/) - Gauche, Acrylic, and Water-based Markers on Illustration Board, art by Cami Petty – "I made this piece after reading the myth of Cupid and Psyche..." - [Swallow Sonnet](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/21/swallow-sonnet/) - By Sophie West I didn’t see them all at once, bright sun In my eyes as I glanced at the black blots Dancing around each other near the bridge By the river—swallows, blithe and undone. Nearby, their hallowed holes loom like brown knots, Homes built on the edge of anything; rich With hope, it’s - [Memorial Nine Eleven](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/17/memorial-nine-eleven/) - Poem by Madison Banfield – I went to the memorial. I remember... - [De Sterrennacht](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/16/de-sterrennacht/) - By Spencer Llana – A line is drawn, but lines can be replaced/When evening comes with candles in pursuit/To fight the madness on that empty space... - [Sentinel, Gundam, Rockabillies, Collision, Confidante, Red Eiffel Tower](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/08/sentinel-gundam-rockabillies-collision-confidante-red-eiffel-tower/) - Sentinel, Photograph Gundam, Photograph Rockabillies, Photograph Red Eiffel Tower, Photograph Confidante, Photograph Collision, Photograph By Jocelyn Boren About Sentinel, Boren wrote, “During my study abroad in Tokyo, Japan, everywhere I went, I kept seeing this same building again and again. It didn’t really have much looks-wise going for it, and yet it kept catching my - [Sparkling Cyanide: Book Review](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/12/14/sparkling-cyanide-book-review/) - Over the years, I have found myself eager to read Agatha's Christie's work more and more; recently, I picked up Sparkling Cyanide and was not disappointed. - [The Final Sky](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/10/the-final-sky/) - Concrete poem by Anderson Griggs – My telescope gets one last, glorious use, with all the cities’ lights abandoned just before smoke and dust hide our... - [La Muerte Blanca](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/10/la-muerte-blanca/) - Concrete poem by Jedidiah Flores – Once a year I go down into the concrete bunker and I make soup and live inside blankets. I know when it’s time because... - [Collaborative Contest Winter 2026: Letter to a Friend](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/10/collaborative-contest-winter-2026-letter-to-a-friend/) - Inscape & Whirligig: Letter to a Friend – Letters are stories written with specific readers in mind. We invite writers of all ages to tell a story in this form. - [To Slumping Trees and Slumping People](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/10/to-slumping-trees-and-slumping-people/) - Letter by Katrina Rudd – To the dying Druid Oak, My father raised me on trees like you. He worked as a forester. Every paycheck came from the fungal sap-blood of white - [Winter 2026: Concrete Shelters](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/10/winter-2026-concrete-shelters/) - Prompt The apocalypse has begun. You must bunker down in a concrete shelter to survive. What do you bring with you? What is the one thing that cannot be left behind, no matter what? After choosing your desired object, use it to create a concrete poem that explains why you need it. Think of what - [Editor's Note Winter 2026](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/10/editors-note-winter-2026/) - These days (and in many before them), our world can be remarkably difficult to inhabit, and even harder to love. In order to survive its seemingly ceaseless barrage of headlines and tragedies, we mitigate our exposure—form quick opinions, forgo further questions, and do our best to move on before anything has the chance to penetrate - [In Sweetness](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/03/in-sweetness/) - Photography By Alena Boud Alena Boud is an undergraduate art student at BYU from South Jordan, Utah. She enjoys creating art around the familiar and the nostalgic. As a lover of variety, Alena explores any medium she can get her hands on, including clay, paint, glass, metal, photography, magazine collage, and graphic design. Read the - [STARLINGS](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/starlings/) - By Eloise Schultz A flock of starlings is pulling up the neighbor’s grass and when they take off suddenly I see a cardinal has landed in their midst. I laugh because you loved cardinals and hated starlings, once threatened to shoot them from the porch with your pellet gun – which is funny, a - [Justice and Mercy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/justice-and-mercy/) - By Taylor Franson-Thiel – Spiral Jetty — around my ankle — yank me nose to — saltwater — bent clockwise toward the sun... - [At the Market in Istanbul](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/at-the-market-in-istanbul/) - By Kate Romney Johnson – The street was so full I wasn't sure where my heart began and where my skin ended... - [The Utah Lake Sculpin Meets the Utahraptor](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/the-utah-lake-sculpin-meets-the-utahraptor/) - Poem by Taylor Franson-Thiel – Take animal in through the spine Shaken with sego lily unending. . . - [IRISES, JUNE 22](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/irises-june-22/) - By Len Krisak – Famished, racked by thirst, their hopeless heads Sink, lying in the solstice flower beds... - [Kensington Garden Walkway](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/08/kensington-garden-walkway/) - Photography By Michael Shoemaker About Kensington Garden Walkway, Shoemaker wrote, “Kensington Garden Walkway is more of a symbol of a stage of artistic learning than a place. In June and July 2025, I went with three other American authors (I being the only photographer) for four weeks, staying at the Wick Farm near Langport, United Kingdom, - [Until We Said Okay](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/until-we-said-okay/) - By Mitchell Nobis – In the blazing sunrise, the plastic bag in the intersection of Metro and Detroit ascended like a roadkill dove... - [Daveners](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/daveners/) - By D. Dina Friedman There are three of them in black suits, faces freshly scrubbed under their graying beards. No yarmulkes necessary. They’re wearing baseball caps: Miami Marlins. It’s important to patronize the local team, even when they’re losers. Come with us. They extend their arms, not toward his bed, but out to their sides, - [Hog Heaven](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/hog-heaven/) - By John Van Wagner – When and how pigs arrived in Bermuda is still open to debate. But by the time of the wreck of the Sea Venture on the island in 1609... - ["Mail within two weeks after the death of deceased."](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/mail-within-two-weeks-after-the-death-of-deceased/) - By Winifred Nimrod “Mail within two weeks after the death of deceased.” —Emily Post’s Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage. Who came up with this rule? Not someone who just left their mother’s body four feet deep in the dark, hard ground of winter. (But that’s what she would want, of course. She - [A Hallowed Haunting](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/07/a-hallowed-haunting/) - By Rebekah Barton I had a pet a long time ago. Now, each year, I take time to remember and honor him. Despite his hard exterior, he was a softy. He was sweet and reliable and, unfortunately, he was taken too soon. I don’t know exactly where he came from, but I’m assuming he - [A Confession](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/07/a-confession/) - By Olivia Flynn Everyone kept telling me there was nothing to be ashamed of. And I hadn’t said anything about being ashamed, which was how I knew they were thinking there was something to be ashamed of and didn’t want me to think they thought it. I don’t think their intentions were mean-spirited. It - [Generational Wealth](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/generational-wealth/) - Art by Pablo Cruz-Ayala – Pablo Cruz-Ayala is a Mexican-born, Utah-raised artist and immigrant advocate. They explore the impact of undocumented migration on... - [Immigration without Integration](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/immigration-without-integration/) - Embroidery, Oil, and Acrylic, 45 x 48 inches By Pablo Cruz-Ayala Pablo Cruz-Ayala is a Mexican-born, Utah-raised artist and immigrant advocate. They explore the impact of undocumented migration on cultural identity through urban and Chicano-inspired materials through the lens of remembrance and the power of activism through art. Holding deep respect for the cultural heritage - [Conquest of Teotihuacan](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/conquest-of-teotihuacan/) - Art by Pablo Cruz-Ayala – Pablo Cruz-Ayala is a Mexican-born, Utah-raised artist and immigrant advocate. They explore the impact of undocumented migration on cultural - [Nightly Rituals](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/09/nightly-rituals/) - Art by Pablo Ayala – Pablo Cruz-Ayala is a Mexican-born, Utah-raised artist and immigrant advocate. They explore the impact of undocumented migration on cultural - [Old Bottles on Windowsill at Sunset 9](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/08/old-bottles-on-windowsill-at-sunset-9/) - By Jim Ross Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after a rewarding career in public health research. With a graduate degree from Howard University, he’s published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, hybrid, interviews, and plays in 200+ journals on five continents over ten years. Photo publications include Alchemy, Spoon, Barnstorm, Burningword, Camas, Feral, - [Lamb of God](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/08/lamb-of-god/) - By Christina Sandholtz Christina is a wife, mom, chocolate lover, and artist. She finds joy in the process of creating beautiful and meaningful things. Read the rest of the Winter 2026 Issue - [Wrapped in Autumn Hues](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/08/wrapped-in-autumn-hues/) - Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches By Noémie L. Côté About Wrapped in Autumn Hues, Côté wrote, “Wrapped in Autumn Hues was inspired by that fleeting moment when fall feels both alive and still, a golden hush before winter’s quiet. I wanted to capture the symphony of the season, where every brushstroke moves like music through - [Garden of Eden](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/08/garden-of-eden/) - Pastel on paper, 32 x 40 inches By Mark Graham About Garden of Eden, Graham wrote, “This piece is part of a series of pastel works I created as a response to the stories of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. The Garden and the experience of Adam and Eve are themes that - [Based on a Book](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-3-2/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "Yeats as a Book of Mormon Prophet." - [Lovers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-7-2/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "The Company of Lovers." - [fallen pieces](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/fallen-pieces/) - By Lindsey Hunter Image Lindsey Hunter is from Santa Clarita, California. She uses paint, pen, and different materials put together to create emotion into simple drawings. Her “organized mess” style has developed over the years because of her own personal breakdown of perfectionism. The only art education Lindsey has studied is Art 101 and 102, - [Quiet Days](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/10/art-2/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "Of Quiet." - [Fall 2004: Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/fall-2004-art/) - [Ice](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/ice/) - By MTS Pillay About Ice Pillay wrote, "Creating art is a passion. There is no better way to respond to life but through art.... - [Wake](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/wake/) - Poem by Carolyn Oliver. I saw eternity the other night like a great ring of pure and endless light all calm, as it was bright and round beneath it... - [Revealed](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/revealed/) - By Christopher Stewart A slate-gray sea melded with a cinereous sky, and coal-colored clouds were hurled toward the shore by a ravening west wind. I walked for hours and saw no one, only gulls pecking into the flesh of a seal’s cadaver at the water’s edge. Carrion driftwood bleached to bone caught rancid seaweed - [Lobster Eyes](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/lobster-eyes/) - “You’re Chinese, aren’t you?” The question stumps her, gives her a slight pause. “Well. Yes, I am.” “Were you born there?” “No. I was born here. My parents are from China.” - [Lineage in an Orange](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/08/lineage-in-an-orange/) - By Madison Reber – I sit on the weathered brown deck where the chairs remember how we sat— my father and I— - [Range Fire Stains & Range Fire Scars](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/range-fire-stains-range-fire-scars/) - By Katelyn Garcia Katelyn Garcia’s art centers on performative interaction with the land, documented through video, photo, and installation work. She draws from the history, ecology, and geology of the areas in which she works, as well as religious and spiritual symbolism from her own religion and others connected to the land. Predecessory Prayer is - [Ashley](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/ashley/) - Image By Aïsha Lehmann Aïsha Lehmann is an artist based in Provo, Utah. She is currently in Brigham Young University’s Studio Art BFA program, with minors in sociology and Africana studies. She is an artist and researcher, grappling with the complexities of identity in race, ethnicity, gender, and spirituality. As she researches, she examines academic - [Searching for light](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/searching-for-light/) - Image By Max Fisher Max Fisher is an artist currently residing in his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Max spent a year at Emily Carr University of Art and Design before continuing his studies at Brigham Young University. He has experience in a variety of art-making methods and often seeks to engage in - [A Coast](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/a-coast/) - Image By Tess Cowley Tess Cowley is an artist from Eagle, Idaho and is currently earning her BFA in studio art. The oil paints she used to create A Coast were gifted to her by her grandma. She says, “Thanks Grandma!” - [Untouchables](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/20/untouchables/) - Image By Liza Trépanier - [A History](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/13/a-history/) - Picture Ink on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches By Teija Bresler Teija Bresler is a Sophomore at BYU pursuing an Acting Degree with a Minor in Art. Bresler has participated in both visual and performing arts since she was a child, and believes that art can bring healing to the world. She is from Benicia, - [Offering Accepted](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/20/offering-accepted/) - Picture By Liza Trépanier - [Image 15](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/image-15/) - Picture By Richard Hanus Had four kids but now just three. Zen and Love. - [Jazz Piano](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/jazz-piano/) - Picture By Curtis Bay Portland-based artist Curtis Bay creates drawings, paintings, and collages in watercolor, oil, and mixed media. His work is expressive and personal, inspired by the tension between competing realities. His subjects are often from his own circle of friends and family and the natural world, but he freely jumps between figuration and Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Jazz Piano Picture By Curtis Bay Portland-based artist Curtis Bay creates drawings, paintings, and collages in watercolor, oil, and mixed media. His work is expressive and personal, inspired by the tension between competing realities. His subjects are often from his own circle of friends and family and the natural world, but he freely jumps between figuration and - [Roadside Stand](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/20/roadside-stand/) - Picture By Berkeley Richard - [George's Day](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/16/untitled-6/) - by James Gunter George woke up feeling odd. He took a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, and brushed his teeth before lea,·ing the house. He sniffed the morning air, smelling nothing. A man walking a dog passed him. George tried to smile, but the feeling came back to him. He looked around. "Nothing, " he - [Palm Trees](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-20/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Seeing Egypt" - [Comfort](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/10/page-0/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "In a Strange Light." - [A long road](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-6/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "When the Coyotes Take the Bandstand, the Small Houses Lean" - [Pumpkin](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-34/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Autumn Hands" - [One more time](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-52/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Treasure in Black" - [Rings](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-48/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Ring Seller" - [A branch](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/untitled-4/) - By Olivia Moskot Is this tree a god She asked And plucked a leaf And tore a twig Is this tree a God She asked Its body in her hands Read the rest of the Fall 2019 Issue - [Decade of one's self](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-8/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "Alive and Single in a Decade of Self." - [The Presence](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-5-2/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "The Presence of Fact." - [One for One](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-9/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "Giving Blood." - [Blessed Day](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-10/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "My Blessing Day." - [Hero Sings the Blues](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-6-2/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "Hero Sings the Blues: Music and Transformation in Black American Literature." - [A Sense of Things](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/18/untitled-11/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "A Sense of Things." - [If you were a plum](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-60/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "If You Were a Plum" - [Fall 2020 Student Journal](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/08/untitled-5/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Amelia O'Neill Art Fall 2020 Student Journal - [Totter of life](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/untitled-7/) - by Bryce Rytting O the totter of thinking-men minds that crawl down life's boardwalk, lest they topple and fall from a too reckless run. (Deep grass is on one side, all golden green warm, and the other? the sea shooting day stars backlit by Sun. - [Pardon the Blues Here](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-62/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Pardon the Blues Here" - [Wild Horses](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/untitled-4-2/) - by Brant Day This piece was inspired by "Wild Horses." - [Thank you Jesus](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-22/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Say 'Thank You, Jesus!'" - [Wonder and Wondering](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-70/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Wonder and Wondering: Five Meditations" - [Companionship](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-78/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "Companionship" - [The Web](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/page-36/) - by Quentin Lee Webb This piece inspired by "The Web" - [Allie Condie](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/02/allie-condie/) - About the Episode Ally Braithwaite Condie is the author of the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling Matched Trilogy, the instant USA Today bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick novel The Unwedding, the Edgar Award Finalist novel Summerlost, and many other nationally published works across multiple genres (picture books, middle grade fiction, young adult fiction, adult fiction, and - [Lance Larsen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/01/lance-larsen/) - About the Episode Lance Larsen is the former poet laureate of Utah and a current professor at Brigham Young University. He is the author of six poetry collections. His work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Southern Review, The Sun, Harvard Review, Brevity, and elsewhere. His awards include a - [Against the Dying of the Light](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/04/01/against-the-dying-of-the-light/) - By Harlow Clark “What idiot ever thought of carpeting the basketball court? ” “Probably some sweet old lady in the Relief Society, ‘ came the reply. Then in a high old croak, “The cultural hall will look so much more cultural that way.” Cefyn looked up from the letter he was writing and smiled; if - [Numinous](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/31/numinous/) - By Gonzalo Rojas 1 In a diamontine exercise we give the world its name, grape by grape of its cluster, we kiss it blowing the number of origin, there is no chance only navigation and number, character and number, net in the abyss of things and number. 2 We go sonambulant in the blind office, - [Beneath This All There Sleeps a Horse](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/31/beneath-this-all-there-sleeps-a-horse/) - By Gonzalo Rojas Beneath this all there sleeps a horse white, an old horse long-eared, broad- brained, worried about things, the pulse of speed is the mother that inhabits him: they mount him, the children, like a phantom, they mock him, and he sleeps there sleeping, standing in the rain. He hears everything while I - [To Die in October](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/10/to-die-in-october/) - By Olivia Flynn My first experience with death that I remember was in an October long gone when my parents told me my grandma was dead. I was five, and it didn’t mean very much to me then, both because I didn’t really know my grandma and I didn’t really know death. As a five-year-old - [To My Mother, Who Doesn’t Like Feminists but Loves Me](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/24/to-my-mother-who-doesnt-like-feminists-but-loves-me/) - By Joanna Brooks Mom, you should know I’m now one of those, a feminist. Still recognizable, though. I swear I haven’t butched my hair, won’t bring some guitar-strumming womyn home: I still love men too much, I know. You told me those feminists are hurt along the way— bruised bad fruit left broke as is. - [Dreaming in the Movies](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/dreaming-in-the-movies/) - By Gabriella Warnick Gabriella Warnick is a visual artist from St. George, Utah, studying at BYU in the studio art and theatre sound design departments. - [I Am Trying To Stop Doing That Same Thing](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/i-am-trying-to-stop-doing-that-same-thing/) - By Caroline McCann Caroline McCann paints psychological and internal narratives as landscapes. She takes experiences from her life and documents how she perceives them through land layouts and formations. McCann looks at the natural world to source ideas for the visual aspects of her paintings such as organic systems, microorganisms, and natural structures. McCann looks - [Mardi Gras & Harmony](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/13/mardi-gras-harmony/) - by Phyllis Green Phyllis Green is an author, playwright, and artist. Her art can be found at ArLiJo 123, Gulf Stream magazine, Novus, New Plains Review, and soon in CALYX, Aji, I 70 Review, Rip Rap, and Cinematic Codes Review. - [Contributors 1992](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/24/contributors-1992/) - John L. Adams Mary Lynn Bahr Joanna Brooks Alison Craig BJ Fogg E. Brian Gentry Michael Hassett Jill Hemming Valerie Holladay Laura Moulton William Powley David Pulsipher James Stanger Pilar Stewart Sean T. Ziebarth - [Still from “Predecessory Prayer”](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/still-from-predecessory-prayer/) - By Katelyn Field (Garcia) Katelyn Garcia’s art centers on performative interaction with the land, documented through video, photo, and installation work. She is interested in the land as a meditative and spiritual space. She draws from the history, ecology, and geology of the areas in which she works, as well as religious and spiritual symbolism - [Jamison](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/04/jamison/) - [Hi, out there! 12](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/hi-out-there-12/) - By Sarah Stoddard Sarah Stoddard is a senior in the BFA studio arts program currently living in Meridian, Idaho. She loves music, reading, animated movies, and documentaries about animals. In her collages she mixes images she associates with memory and imagination to create 2D daydreams—nonsensical scenes, odd pairings, curious encounters, personal sanctuaries. She finds inspiration - [Holding Space](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/holding-space/) - By Leilani Bascom Leilani Bascom, born 1982 in San Diego, California, received a BFA in 2006 from BYU-Hawaii. Bascom is currently an MFA candidate at BYU in Provo, Utah. Her works in photography and video involve nature and natural materials, witnessing cyclical processes and patterns of growth and decay in an exploration of separation and - [Arch Becky Ravenberg](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/arch-becky-ravenberg/) - [Legend Only](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/19/legend-only/) - By Anonymous In a castle on the hill, there lived a coward. It was not a grand, austere, saintly castle. It was dingy, worn, filled with attendants and maids. Its stones were chipped and faded, its grounds airy and distant. There were no guards, for the reputation was enough. The king was his own - [The Final Rose](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/19/the-final-rose/) - By Ilse Eskelsen Time works differently for witches. I am not a witch, exactly, though I’ve often been called one. I am more precisely a magician, but in this world, that is a man’s title, one I am presumed to have stolen. I could have been a faerie, like Morgan, or a princess with - [Winter 2026: Topsy-Turvy Tales](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/17/winter-2026-topsy-turvy-tales/) - Prompt Theme: Alternate Ending to a Familiar Story Rewrite a fairy tale, twist a classic epic, or reimagine a famous canon moment. Change the ending. Change the premise. Subvert expectations with a bold new take on a familiar story. Submit your creative fiction retellings for a chance to win a cash prize! Dates January 12th - [Love Poems: A Dramatic Reading](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/09/love-poems-a-dramatic-reading/) - About the Episode We know Valentine’s Day has passed, but we hope you enjoy this episode as The Author’s Inscape’s homage to the month of love. Brydee will be the guest host for today’s episode full of love poems. Brooke Miller, a volunteer at Inscape: A literary Journal, will be reading two poems by - [Ann Dee Ellis](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/09/ann-dee-ellis/) - Join us today to talk with Ann Dee about her writing process and the inspiration behind her newest novel, This Cookie Will Change Your Life. - [LOVE IS NOT A POMEGRANATE](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/06/love-is-not-a-pomegranate/) - By Kira Christensen – the poets write much about pomegranates, peeling love to pieces with deft hands, tearing open white rinds of red berries. . . - [Inconvenience Dinner](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/03/06/inconvenience-dinner/) - By Amelia Scott – You’ve never told me why the devil made you, aluminum can. Though I suppose even Satan wants chicken soup at midnight. - [Resurrection](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/28/resurrection/) - Poem by Britney Wells – You who are living on this earth for a moment stop and marvel at children, nimble as birds limbs bent like wings tossing rocks... - [Snail Season](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/20/snail-season/) - Poetry by Taryn Evans – crunch; - [A History of Viola Jones Taylor](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/26/history-of-viola-jones-taylor/) - By Madelyn Taylor Derived from “History of Viola Jones Taylor,” written by Viola’s sister, Ruth Jones Lang, after Viola’s death Madelyn Taylor is an English major at Brigham Young University. She grew up in an Air Force family and moved around most of her life. Her interests include the history of oral poetry in the - [Unblocking Writer’s Block: 10 Ways to Get Unstuck](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/01/23/unblocking-writers-block-10-ways-to-get-unstuck/) - How many times have you been faced with writer’s block? Staring at an empty screen, wondering when inspiration will strike and words will start to flow. - [Summer 2024: Flash](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/09/29/summer-2024-flash/) - Prompt We are excited to host our first ever Inscape contest! We strongly believe that writers should be paid for their work and this contest is our first step to make this happen. First place winner will receive $100. Runner up will receive $50. Summer goes by in a flash, so we’ll be hosting a - [Fall 2024: Halloween Spooky Short Stories](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/28/fall-2024-halloween-spooky-short-stories/) - Prompt Think you can send shivers down our spine? Enter our Spooky Story Contest for a chance to showcase your eerie storytelling skills! Winners will be announced on October 23rd at our Spooky story reading. Dates September 20th to October 14th, 2024 Find Other Contests Winner Toes, Teeth, and the Thing Under the Bridge by Eli Tillemann - [Winter 2025: An Ode to Anything But a Person](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/27/winter-2025-an-ode-to-anything-but-a-person/) - Prompt Inscape Journal is looking for submissions for the first annual 2025 Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest! The theme is “An Ode to Anything But a Person.” Poems should be no longer than 1,000 words in length (feel free to write less) and should express a love for someTHING. Examples might be a love poem to - [Spring 2025: Metamorphosis](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/spring-2025-metamorphosis/) - Prompt Inscape is looking for submissions to our Spring Art Contest! The theme is Metamorphosis: pieces might include themes of transformation, growth, and change. Please submit a digital scan of your artwork if the piece is physically created; digital artwork is also welcome. Dates February 1st to February 28th, 2025 Find Other Contests Winner Self-Portrait by Moriah - [Winter 2026: Great Expectations](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/01/23/winter-2026-great-expectations/) - Prompt Imagine opening a gift from a loved one; what were your expectations? Were they met or did they fall flat? Have there been other times or experiences in your life when you were extremely surprised or bitterly disappointed? We are looking for submissions from across all our featured genres: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and - [Fall 2025: Haunted Eulogies](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/06/fall-2025-haunted-eulogies/) - Prompt Inscape invites you to submit creative nonfiction inspired by the theme Haunted Eulogies. A Eulogy is a speech typically offered at funerals to celebrate the life of the deceased. The speaker often pulls from memorable moments in their relationship. The tone can vary from the heartfelt to the comical and from the sorrowful to the frightening. - [Balancing the Literary Scales: Does Highlighting Women Mean Diminishing Men in YA Literature?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/11/balancing-the-literary-scales-does-highlighting-women-mean-diminishing-men-in-ya-literature/) - Where are my healthy male characters? Male authors and characters have dominated the literary sphere in previous centuries, making it difficult for female authors and characters to have their viewpoints and strengths recognized. But modern feminist literature isn’t balancing the scales, it’s diminishing male characters at the expense of representing both sexes well.Diminishing the intelligence - [The Sacred Ritual of Reading](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/10/the-sacred-ritual-of-reading/) - There’s something almost holy about reading—not in a religious sense, but in the way it commands quiet, reverence, and intention. - [[The Dead, Floating Towards Syria]](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/the-dead-floating-towards-syria/) - By Alexandra Malouf My father’s father, Hakob, was forcibly deported with his parents in the days of the Armenian Genocide from the village of Karmounj, near Yedessia. Going on foot, hungry and thirsty, sun-scorched and exhausted, they had reached Der-Zor. There the Turks had started to cut off the heads of the Armenians with axes - [Winter 2001: Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/03/winter-2001-art/) - [Nightly Rites of a Florida Childhood #1](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/nightly-rites-of-a-florida-childhood-1/) - By Kyle Singleton In Florida we eat lightning, sitting inside our screened-in patio the white framing black with dust and mosquitos. We wait for static to rifle through the air mouths open, tongue licking for a shock to remind us all that we are still there: Julie in the cracked white wicker chair chair - [Fall 2003: Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/03/fall-2003-art/) - [Fall 2002: Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/03/fall-2002-art/) - [Winter 2002: Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/03/winter-2002-art/) - [STAGES OF SURRENDER](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/stages-of-surrender/) - By Kashiana Singh I. Threshold The prayer does not arrive as thunder. It drips, slow as honey, from a wound I thought was sealed. I kneel not because I’m small, but because the ground knows the shape of my body. There is no asking left, only the quiet unmaking of names. God does not - [Summer 2025: Unclaimed Luggage](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/19/flash-summer-2025-unclaimed-luggage/) - What are you carrying that no one else can see? What have you left behind—on purpose, or by accident? - [Fall 2025: Faith Feels Like This](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/fall-2025-faith-feels-like-this/) - Prompt Hierophany is defined as a manifestation of the divine through the mundane or ordinary. We are looking for poetry submissions that explore sacred experiences through the senses. How do you feel, hear, see, taste, or smell the spiritual? What evidence do you have of holiness in the human experience? Is there a particular vista, - [Why Society Needs Humanities Majors (Even If It Won’t Pay Them)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/05/why-society-needs-humanities-majors-even-if-it-wont-pay-them/) - I’ve had to answer for my impractical dreams since I blew out my candles on my sixth birthday, because I never grew out of them. - [5 Things Keeping You from Being Published (And What You Can Do About It) Inscape Edition](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/02/03/5-things-keeping-you-from-being-published-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-inscape-edition/) - I can still remember the first time I submitted my writing to a contest for publication. I was afraid of rejection but hopeful that someone would like... - [Constellations](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/constellations/) - Try connecting the dots like the ancients–each lonely star born into an image, this one the image of God. - [Maisonette](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/01/23/maisonette/) - By Richard Stimac - To have our own space at less of a cost, we lived in the back unit of a duplex. - [He Hath Made Every Thing Beautiful in His Time](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/01/23/he-hath-made-every-thing-beautiful-in-his-time/) - By Britney Wells - December twenty-fifth, and the quilt you tenderly assembled, handstitched all summer, fall, wrapped... - [The One and Only Habit That a Writer Needs](https://inscape.byu.edu/2026/01/20/the-one-and-only-habit-that-a-writer-needs/) - This blog post isn’t going to give you eight different tips on how to help you elevate your writing. There is really only one word that every writer must remember: consistency. Just the other day, I was reading about a study commonly called the “Quantity vs. Quality” study that was done by a photography professor. - [TOWARD CÔTE-VERTU: ON ABORTION](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/toward-cote-vertu-on-abortion/) - By Joshua Benjamen (i) late twenties hovering over a rayon tablecloth its unsettling vacancy wandering thoughts at a crawl blanching the quietude, from within which i can recollect the brown-haired boy that has decided he enjoys boy-dom enough to embrace it, paints his sleeves with it wipes off half his dinner with it, who - [to make a home of time](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/to-make-a-home-of-time/) - Poem by Alexa Brockamp Hoggatt – How green it feels here—You sang to the wind and it carried me away. Not a sweet song... - [The Fishmonger](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/the-fishmonger/) - By Jeremy Radin You arrive at sunrise, just as I return to scrape away the scales of sturgeon brought back by the fishermen who sleep, it’s said, curled up in their own beards. It’s taken years—I’ve tracked the time through several generations of ravens waiting on the outskirts of the market- place, a chuckling - [Ebenezer Cave](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/ebenezer-cave/) - By Micah Daniel McCrotty Two boys had come through small corridors and fissures, tall ceilings between narrow tubes of mud and rock to find the streambed a half mile down in the cave where the lowest runnels flattened and the passage opened to a pool’s edge, translucent as a mule’s eye, darters hiding from their headlamps - [Ode to the Maidenhair Tree](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/ode-to-the-maidenhair-tree/) - By Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad I have filled my phone with hundreds of sunsets, live and burst and unfiltered horizons, products of impulsive tapping and urgent recapturing, chromatic snapshots I have never revisited, not once did I scroll back for the umbrella pines silhouetted by scarlet aflame, or the ocean’s pink and fiery ribbon shimmering to the - [Ode to Sounds I Hear Only in Iran](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/ode-to-sounds-i-hear-only-in-iran/) - By Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad In order of increasing yearning, the quake of my sour palate as it receives salted green almonds, the labored slice of a practiced knife through washed parsley, the translucent drip of citrus soaking vermicelli, the spill of dried mulberries cascading in the bin, the split of winter’s body limp in the lion’s - [Isfahan, Half the World](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/isfahan_half_the_world/) - By Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad I hate that the English translation for Isfahan, nesfeh jahan, doesn’t rhyme like it does in Farsi; Isfahan, half the world—do you hear how offensively mediocre the maxim sounds, the music of the city’s tagline hushed in the travel from one language to another, what if I paraphrase the hemisphere to preserve - [Sequin](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/sequin/) - By Rose DeMaris A suddenness of someone wild clarifies the long opacity when I go out to latch the gate, feel a disturbance of grass, hear one flute’s silver whistling in the roots of our staggered breaths. I don’t know who it is until, in a beam of the same blue supermoon under which I prayed - [Stingray](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/stingray/) - By Christopher Stewart -for Marie The summer I worked on a longline boat out of South Padre Island, we hooked a stingray. As Terry cut off its tail, the ray gave birth to eight pups. They made swim-like motions on the deck slicked with saltwater and beer. Terry gathered them onto a cleaning - [Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/editors-note-10/) - Sincere attention has always been my way into the world. As a writer, it’s how I enter a new project—letting the light catch all the facets of my subject till focus becomes devotion. It is both curiosity and faith; a willingness to be changed by what is unfamiliar; a deliberate refusal to flatten complexity into - [Power Within](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/power-within/) - Porcelain, resin, found objects, wood, 120 x 96 x 7 inches By Vincent Frimpong About Power Within, Frimpong wrote: “Power Within draws from personal memory and diasporic identity. The found objects recall the artist’s childhood—spaces filled with broken electronics, mechanical tools, and the tactile curiosity of taking things apart to understand how they worked. - [Watching My Three-Year-Old Run Across the Playground is a Celebration](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/watching-my-three-year-old-run-across-the-playground-is-a-celebration/) - By Bethany Jarmul Even now she can barely jump two inches and doesn’t alternate feet when climbing stairs, but before, she wore ankle braces, couldn’t walk when she was supposed to, couldn’t crawl when she was supposed to, and before, she was a baby who cried unless I held her against my body like - [Cathedral Gorge](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/cathedral-gorge/) - By Michael Jones This valley is shaped by the words we use to name it. Clay rises along cliff faces, pressing the earth into towers. When they called the gorge cathedral, they gave those to follow another imagination of the stone. It’s all Gothic architecture, chiseled with the careful attention by a mason of - [FIELD OF VIEW](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/field-of-view/) - By Douglas Fritock Because my father always insisted on taking my photo with the sun at his back, so its rays would shine squarely on my face, imparting warmth and color to my otherwise pale complexion while I tried hard not to squint, his shadow frequently appears in the foreground, casting itself on the - [in-between spaces](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/in-between-spaces/) - CNF piece by Jessica Mohsen-Crellin. The indent between the tiles contained multitudes of miniscule nothings: fibers of short, curly black hair ... - [It Wasn't The Sun](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/03/it-wasnt-the-sun/) - Illustrated digitally, 1080 x 1920 pixels By Teija Bresler Teija Bresler is a Sophomore at BYU pursuing an Acting Degree with a Minor in Art. Bresler has participated in both visual and performing arts since she was a child, and believes that art can bring healing to the world. She is from Benicia, California. - [Bittersweet Bingeing](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/03/bittersweet-bingeing/) - By Gwen Rich There is only a ten-calorie difference between Dove’s milk chocolate and dark chocolate. Not a big enough gap between the added sugars to warrant thinking of dark chocolate as a “healthy” choice. That didn’t stop my mom. She could always justify a dark chocolate treat when a milk chocolate one would - [Journeyer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/journeyer/) - By Christie Gardiner I am perched like a desert blue jay on a cliff’s carved face, dangerously close to the edge of the world. Twenty feet from me is a collection of trees, each with clusters of spindly alien-arm branches reaching from the red Sedona dirt like the beginning of an apocalyptic event. Google - [On Needing a Brother](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/on-needing-a-brother/) - By Carly Quereto I. When I was five, I found two matching dresses packed away in a storage bin. I didn’t think to wonder then where they came from. My mother only had one daughter when I was five—she didn’t need two matching dresses. Even years later, when my sister Avery finally arrived, neither of - [Second Shift, Eve](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/second-shift-eve/) - Poem by Nick Fife. Between the ribs, a tangle knotted itself from cartilage and bone, from wherever hurt, from whatever was relevant, from the smell that hissed... - [Barn Dreams](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/barn-dreams/) - Digital photography, 20 x 24 x 1.5 inches By Michael Shoemaker About Barn Dreams, Shoemaker said, “Barn Dreams represents the metamorphosis that occurs when we dream. While something maybe altogether recognizable in a dream, it also maybe so different than in the natural world that we feel displaced by its presence and seek to understand a - [Self Portrait](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/01/self-portrait-2/) - Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches By Teija Bresler Teija Bresler is a Sophomore at BYU pursuing an Acting Degree with a Minor in Art. Bresler has participated in both visual and performing arts since she was a child, and believes that art can bring healing to the world. She is from Benicia, California. - [A Team](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/25/a-team/) - A Team: Ink on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches By Teija Bresler Teija Bresler is a Sophomore at BYU pursuing an Acting Degree with a Minor in Art. Bresler has participated in both visual and performing arts since she was a child, and believes that art can bring healing to the world. She is from - [On Breath](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/22/on-breath/) - Breathe out. Breathe in. When a child emerges from the womb, it needs to breathe to clear its lungs. Not normal breaths, though. They need forced, ragged... - [When I Am Awake](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/when-i-am-awake/) - By Angela Townsend “When I am awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139:18 I thought it meant the morning, “Rise and shine!” from the God of pancakes. Sleep is a trust walk with limp legs. Dawn comes, and the chair by the bedside is warm. As God’s neurotic daughter, I heard this as - [finite being](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/finite-being/) - By Nathaniel Lachenmeyer I realize of course that you are and him and her and that circle of people over there obviously are (is?) and if I asked I’d bet they’d admit it themselves but who says their being automatically means that I must be too not everybody’s the same so even if it’s - [Hare in the Wire](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/hare-in-the-wire/) - By Jacob Dayton I drive stiff-armed, knuckles fluorescent white in the dark car, eyes darting at any movement in the blue-dark fringes, flinching at headlights, far from that house, that still-cornered feeling, still feeling caught in a net, caught on a line. I pull off the shoulder to a wreck where barbed wire scratches - [Autumn's Warmth](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/autumns-warmth/) - By Noémie L. Côté Noémie L. Côté is an award-winning artist who transforms landscapes into symphonies of color and reimagines familiar scenes with renewed vitality. Her open-impressionist style invites viewers to see the world through her unique lens, feel a deeper connection to nature, and embrace the beauty and wonder of the world around them. - [Field and Mountains](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/field-and-mountains/) - About Field and Mountains, Swofford wrote, "I was inspired by the terrain of the western United States, in part because of its dramatic contrasts.... - [The Milky Way Is Dying](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/the-milky-way-is-dying/) - My eyes lingered on the horizon where dusk had fallen last, where pale lilac still churned with deep pinks and yellows in contrast to the dark purple hue of... - [Crocuses](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/12/05/crocuses/) - By Holly Castleton It must be deafening,the sound of them.The tension of tenderstalks, the crackof seedlings,peeling of petals,a cacophony of retchstretching growth,sluggish contortion,pushing up with behemoth strength,eons of earth, to burstinto the squelch of decomposingwinter leaves. Then,the nervous flutter of violet wings. Holly Castleton is a master’s student at the University of Edinburgh - [The Green Maja](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/20/the-green-maja/) - Ink and marker on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches. By Teija Bresler Teija Bresler is a Sophomore at BYU pursuing an Acting Degree with a Minor in Art. Bresler has participated in both visual and performing arts since she was a child, and believes that art can bring healing to the world. She is from - [There, There with Him](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/18/there-there-with-him/) - By George Dibble “Before I went to college.” “So, two years?” “Yeah.” “Hopefully it’s not awkward,” he says. “I hate being in uncomfortable places with people I don’t know. I just don’t know how to act or get away ’cause I’m the one you’re bringing, and I can’t just walk out.” I stick my head - [A Pseudo-Intellectual Take on Pseudo-Intellectuals](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/15/a-pseudo-intellectual-take-on-pseudo-intellectuals/) - I originally started writing this blog post because I was tired of someone not taking me seriously because I watched a Drew Barrymore movie last night... - [A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/11/a-night-divided-by-jennifer-a-nielsen/) - A Night Divided has palpable tension and powerful action that makes the experience of reading it almost movie-like. Gerta is a spunky young girl living in East Germany in the year 1961. Two days after her father and younger brother leave to visit West Germany, she wakes up to find that a wall is being - [Blue Dockline Reflections, Turkey](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/10/blue-dockline-reflections-turkey/) - By Roger Camp Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award winning Butterflies in Flight, Thames & Hudson, 2002 and Heat, Charta, Milano, 2008. His work has been awarded the prestigious Leica Medal of Excellence for European photography. His images have appeared in numerous journals including The New England Review, - [Triumph of Persephone](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/11/26/triumph-of-persephone/) - By Torrin Omokoh Torrin Omokoh is a Utah-based student at Brigham Young University in her senior year. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Fine Art and has completed minors in Art History and Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry. She lives happily in Provo, Utah with her loving husband and affectionate cat. Read - [Alewife](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/08/alewife/) - By Kaden Nelson When the doors zip to a relieving close, I take rest on a sullen, graying seat to gaze at musty bricks and sway with those stops and goes of which this ride is replete. The air down here brews in sheer loneliness, untouched by soft elm trees or sunlight’s ray. Her - [Shatterpoint](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/07/shatterpoint/) - Creative Nonfiction by Paige Melton – A single word, tattooed on the inside of my left wrist. It’s usually covered up by my watchband, and when it’s not... - [Eulogy of Lives Unlived](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/07/eulogy-of-lives-unlived/) - By Haley Roberts We gather here today, in the crux of youth, to bury the lives that we have not and will not live, which leave as quickly as they came. So much time is spent mulling over decisions, especially in the early years. Majors, cities, partners, and the like feel like they’ll make - [Small Town](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/09/11/small-town/) - Depends on what you mean by small⸺ Holsteins stand like punctuation in a field; a car passes the church and turns up Creamery Lane. It could be a matchbox car, a toy coy swishing its tail, moved by a boy on his knees in go-to-meeting clothes⸺ the way things move in a small town, one - [White, Blue, and Yellow House](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/26/white-blue-and-yellow-house/) - By Jeffrey Czum Read the rest of the Winter 2020 issue - [Love, An Index by Rebecca Lindenberg](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/01/love-an-index-book-review/) - In Rebecca Lindenberg's debut poetry collection, Love, an Index, her poems vacillate in time, reverberating between Lindenberg’s real-time experiences with Arnold and her attempts to cope in the aftermath of his death. - [You’ve Finished Your Draft: Now What?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/04/youve-finished-your-draft-now-what/) - We, as writers, spend so much time trying to get words on a page. We struggle through writer’s block, plot holes, and characterization; but what do we do when we’ve finished? What comes after “The End”? One redditor put it this way: “Drafting is just throwing words on a page and not caring if they’re - [Sister Vol.2](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/31/sister-vol-2/) - By Nicole Konecke - [The Meek Shall Inherit](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/31/the-meek-shall-inherit/) - By Pamela Parsons - [RESIDUAL I](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/31/residual-i/) - By Samantha Atzbach - [Banana Snouts](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/11/01/banana-snouts/) - By Neah DePoe I’ve touched more teeth than you. Way more. I’ve wrestled and wrenched them down with wires and bands and springs. Cleaned them with chemical-flavored paste. Studied their X-rays and fastened on retainers. Watched their teenaged owners wriggle and writhe in protest in my chair. That orthodontist assistant job was my first introduction - [We can't all be the heroes we wanted to be](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/19/we-cant-all-be-the-heroes-we-wanted-to-be/) - By Colby St Gelais Part of the Summer 2025 Contest: Unclaimed Luggage - [Instead of Her, the Night](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/28/instead-of-her-the-night/) - By George Dibble In the truck-bed her face freckled with lamp-light; skin dust-red. We ate raspberries and hid from bugs in thin raincoats. She pointed patterns in the sky; told me: when she was ten she hiked, was lost, hunched beside sage which crowded a cedar on a snowed-slope; waited until found while watching the - [Everything I Know About Space](https://inscape.byu.edu/2018/10/04/everything-i-know-about-space/) - By Jacob Haupt Read the rest of the Fall 2015 issue - [The Taste of Absence](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/19/the-taste-of-absence/) - By Bethany Bruno – My father drank black Maxwell House from a repurposed Big Gulp cup, the kind with a faded NASCAR logo and a plastic straw he never used. - [Lost Item Report 12151920](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/19/lost-item-report-12151920/) - By Asher Lee Case Number: #12151920 Description: Checked bag left on Baggage Claim Terminal 2 following UA0028 (LAX-JFK). Red bandana tied to the handle with “for GraMpa, LOVE ellie” embroidered in the bottom right corner. Identification tag reads: “R. Johnson, 6465087022, ??? 88th St., 3 ?? St, NY, 113??.” Telephone number is no longer - [Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/25/between-shades-of-gray-by-ruta-sepetys/) - Sepetys captures the hearts of readers with her hauntingly beautiful prose and themes of the importance of identity, the power of art, and the strength of the human spirit. - [Green Jell-O](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/19/green-jell-o/) - By Ryklee Bench She slept a lot when I was five. So much so, I don’t remember her awake. But she slept so beautifully. September, she lays in a room of white. A room of beeping, a room of sound, yet you wouldn’t hear her there. So you wander. And you find something. Not - [Bed(s)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/beds/) - By Therin Jepson We would roll like spiders in the dust of our skin then watch Dan Rather or Cheers, or just stare at a lovelier past which, too close, disappeared into dots— much as choosing to hold you as we fell into slumber meant waking trapped, sticky, in the crack between mattresses, twenty - [Purity Lost (2019 AD)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/purity-lost-2019-ad/) - By Alixa Brobbey No halos here, only stale rings of smoke diffusing above greasy hair, chaperoned by pungy odors. Your hazel eyes two pools of quiet amidst this canopy of painted faces, jungle of moon-like earrings, miles of cleavage spilling from chests clutching cans of fruity memory thieves. Notes float towards the midnight ceiling, - [Sister](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/sister/) - By Dylan Robinson My sister and I, who boarded as cargo. With nothing, we made The promise to be good. But I recall an unchained Abed leaping into the ocean And how they forced the able-bodied men into a small lightless room Where a few holes let air in. For hours they fought and gasped - [Ekphrastic Repose](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/ekphrastic-repose/) - By Andrew Levine Jesus and Mary: The Moment After by Trevor Southey I. Mary, was there a hint of the breath ready to enter his Hermionean lips as they moved his clay back to the tomb? His eyes catching yours. The hollow look, your babe before he inhales again. Life, deadless, lifeful, death read it - [Some Gentle Cures for the Reading Blues](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/21/some-gentle-cures-for-the-reading-blues/) - If you’re a fan of Inscape, you’re probably a reading enthusiast. But even the most avid bookworm can catch a case of the reading blues. You know how it goes—you look at the book lying on your nightstand with guilt and loathing, begrudgingly flipping through the pages that should feel like a joy but instead - [Enclave by Ann Aguirre](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/18/enclave-by-ann-aguirre/) - A vivid and believable dystopian culture complete with its own set of rules. Death comes for us all, especially in a post-apocalyptic world where disease and war have decimated New York City. As society was forced deep into the tunnels under New York, Deuce—who has earned the right to a name at age 15—fights - [Proxymoron](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/11/20/proxymoron/) - By Sam Niven you are the purebred product of a monk & a mortician you sculpture of romance you wood burning of spite you keep the furling leaves of trees that named you you keep the names of trees that no longer flourish when the sun returns to you & the sun does not always - [Out of Touch](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/26/out-of-touch/) - By Madelyn Taylor When I was young enough to know everything–and know being grown was sleeping in nothing but sheets and other people–I shivered into bed next to my sister, giggled guilty against her chicken-bump legs, bare belly, bruise on bruise, read books, and grew too warm. - [A F R I C A](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/08/a-f-r-i-c-a/) - By Stefanie Shepley Dreaming Without a Toe on the Continent: The grass lolls drunkenly under the shivering rays of sunlight. Thick trunks, like the rutabaga roots of trees growing upside down, dot the landscape. The wind is what catches you. Syrupy sweet with the blood of plump hibiscus petals and the faint stench of - [Saturday at the Campus Chick-fil-A](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/08/saturday-at-the-campus-chick-fil-a/) - By Nathan Young I didn’t know where all of the strange people came from, but somehow, the campus Chick-fil-A was packed. Every Karen and their 4 kids were trying to order some odd combinations of three sandwiches and two tenders and two large fries and a lemonade and a sugar free lemonade but one - [Human Anatomy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/08/human-anatomy/) - By Natalie Van Wagoner “Body Worlds” I typed into my iPod Touch’s Safari search bar and pressed enter, then toggled the results to Google Images. There’s a dead man, skinned, holding up his hide in one hand and staring out of my four-inch screen through glass eyes that won’t shrivel like his real ones did. - [Wilson](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/08/wilson/) - By Gillian Walch My father is quiet. He isn’t the same kind of quiet as a rock but the same kind of quiet as a book. He is particular with his words, as if they were stepping stones. He relies on his few strong words to support him and convey his thoughts. He never speaks - [Udong](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/08/udong/) - By Idongesit Ekpo Kpom! Kpom! Kpom!: The familiar majestic sound that my mother’s grand wooden mortar and pestle communicate to each other. They recognize their status as the most important utensils in her Nigerian kitchen and chatter away oblivious to the red splatter of scotch bonnet peppers between them. I hold the pestle timidly, but - [Jesus the Pyromaniac](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/08/jesus-the-pyromaniac/) - By Tom Fairholm Cinderella is on fire. Her platinum hair melts away in thick, waxy puddles. To be honest, there’s something kind of mesmerizing about it—jarring, sure, but oddly captivating. Kind of like how you can’t look away from a nasty car wreck even though you know you probably should. Her blue dress, yellow - [Heartbroken Man Seeks Time Machine](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/06/27/heartbroken-man-seeks-time-machine/) - By Lisa Christensen The sun was sinking fast in the western sky when Luke and Sari climbed the hill—their hill—to watch the day fade away. Things had been difficult on us lately, Luke thought, with the stresses of the day-to-day minutia and the toll that life takes on love. And yet, here they were, hand - [A Million Kinds of Happiness](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/20/a-million-kinds-of-happiness/) - By Karina Andrew Monday. Sunny. Low of 68. High of 94. Nineteen percent chance of rain. The scent of dirt follows me into the house. People say “dirty” like it’s a bad thing, but I like dirt. It clings to me, to the knees of my jeans, to the undersides of my nails, to all - [The HOA](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/06/27/the-hoa/) - By Allie Manner “We’ve been waiting for you for hours, Cynthia.” All the lights are off in the dusky house. White, hazy sun filters in through the blinds. Cynthia tilts her head to the side and carefully pulls her right hand behind her back as the front door swings shut. She fumbles for the - [New Year's Eve](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/new-years-eve/) - By Olivia Moskot In the year’s final breath we ate lemon sorbet on the stoop of your porch We blew resolutions like bubbles We wondered at their flight and giggled as they burst Read the rest of the Fall 2019 Issue - [Slipping (Flash)back(s)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/slipping-flashbacks/) - By Mauri Pollard She put her fingers to her rib cage (which jutted out, her skin pulled taught against the brittle bones in the way it had before) and then wrapped them around her frail wrist (like her husband often does to measure her health and caloric intake and how much he should worry) - [Kingdom Awakening: A Play](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/kingdom-awakening-a-play/) - By Dallin Hunt In the custodial closet-turned-dressing room beside the stage, Brandon stood wearing purple robes and a red vest in front of an old vanity mirror. His friend Austin, dressed as a sheep in fluffy felt and cotton, assisted him with the final pieces of his costume. He wrapped Brandon’s arms and wrists - [I Dreamed That We Were Sister Wives](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/i-dreamed-that-we-were-sister-wives/) - By Chanel Earl And I wasn’t upset in my dream. We wore the long dresses and little white bonnets on our heads. There were children, but I didn’t know if they were yours or mine or if they belonged to another woman, who was another sister wife. She was both present and not present - [Uintah Lichen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/15/uintah-lichen/) - By Clairen Rae Cook I bend low, knees creaking lethargically, the genetically failing tendons stretching, straining, aching. The dew coats the soft june grass, the rubber soles of my shoes—the petals of the red flowers effervescing to my right are bejeweled, besotted with it. I reach one chilly hand towards the rock, eyes trained on - [Surviving the “Ugly” Phases of Creativity and Overcoming Perfectionism](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/14/surviving-the-ugly-phases-of-creativity-and-overcoming-perfectionism/) - You type away at your keyboard in a writing flurry, feeling like you might have struck gold. Only it doesn’t look so great the next day . . . - [Organizing Your Workspace to Work for You](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/11/organizing-your-workspace-to-work-for-you/) - Are you feeling stuck, uninspired, or just plain distracted every time you sit down to write? You’re not alone. Sometimes, the biggest obstacle... - [Autoimmune](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/autoimmune/) - In the bathroom mirror I examine myself with the intensity of a razor—think of what he wanted to say but couldn’t. . . - [Piranesi by Susanna Clarke](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/01/piranesi-by-susanna-clarke/) - Clarke’s work is fresh, inviting, and clever. The House is infinite. Its Halls contain thousands upon thousands of marble statues, each unique in their depictions and stories. Piranesi knows these walls well. He has charted the Tides, explored many of the Halls, and found some of his favorite statues. He dreams to one day explore - [Painted](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/painted/) - By Rebecca Cazanave A couple weeks ago I painted my fingernails. That statement in and of itself doesn’t sound too extraordinary. Except I’ve never once, in all of my life, felt the need to paint my fingernails. For a long time, I was actually opposed to the idea. There’s just something impractical about it. - [A Woman Here](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/a-woman-here/) - By Ranae Rudd I’ve tried to sing, “Heavenly Mother, are you really there? And do you hear and answer every child’s prayer?” but I always get stuck on that intangible word—prayer. Afterall, Gordon B. Hinckley said we shouldn’t pray to our Mother in Heaven, and I wonder what praying to her would look like. - [Elegy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/elegy-3/) - By Logan Davis My sister never calls. That was my first sign of trouble, but I held the phone to my face as I took the elevator to my next class, my final undergraduate semester. “What’s up?” I said. “Have you been on Facebook at all today?” “No.” She took a deep breath. “Hyrum - [Make it Up](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/06/27/make-it-up/) - By Rachel Leishman Maren wielded the black crayon like a paint brush. “Thank you so much for doing this Maren. I never got around to practicing it and you’re just so good at makeup and—” “Yeah of course! And you’ve got beautiful eyebrows, by the way.” The women fell silent again. Maren held the - [Gail Enough](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/gail-enough/) - By Gail Roberts Abigail Pumba: And, oh, the shame Timon: He was ashamed Pumba: Thought-a changin’ my name Timon: Oh, what’s in a name? -The Lion King (1994) According to the U.S. Social Security database, the name “Abigail” as a female first name has been in the top 1000 names used every single year - [Back to the Salt Mine](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/back-to-the-salt-mine/) - By Chanel Earl Normally when Martin spends the evening in the kitchen my nose clues me in to what he is making. Sautéed onions, garlic, steak, limes—his cooking leaves a trail of scents which inspire hunger even on a full stomach. Not tonight—tonight I see water boiling, hear the spice grinder, and watch him - [Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/07/book-of-the-new-sun-by-gene-wolfe/) - Political intrigue and murky mysteries permeate every page. Pain, though uncomfortable, can be useful. The Guild of Torturers is well acquainted with this concept, and Severian, a journeyman of the guild, has found its application to be his life’s purpose. However, he has one flaw: mercy. After helping an inmate end their life painlessly, Severian is - [Self-Portrait](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/self-portrait/) - By Moriah Smith This piece depicts me and my own spiritual and personal growth. As a self-portrait piece, I decided that my hand would be a better representation of who I am rather than my face. This is because I am connected to the idea that creating and doing things with my hands is a - [Toes, Teeth, and the Thing Under the Bridge](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/28/toes-teeth-and-the-thing-under-the-bridge/) - By Eli Tillemann – The night was dark and Maria had somebody's toes in her mouth. - [I Tried Famous Writers’ Routines for a Week—Here’s What Happened](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/10/07/i-tried-famous-writers-routines-for-a-week-heres-what-happened/) - For the past five days, I've lived like five great writers to see if their routines help me write better and more often... - [Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/27/six-of-crows-by-leigh-bardugo/) - A heist with heart, magic, and intrigue: a peek into Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows A ruthless teenage gang leader teams up with an assassin, a sharpshooter, a demolitions expert, a witch, and a witch hunter to attempt an impossible heist. Six of Crows, a YA fantasy novel, is the first in Leigh Bardugo’s - [Interview with Ross Gay](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/interview-with-ross-gay/) - Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has - [Wintertime](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/wintertime/) - By Deborah Bacharach In twenty years, it won’t matter that I put in baseboard heaters. My son will not move home. He’ll move in with two young men who own a start-up, take turns scrubbing the grill. My son will put himself in charge of the pumpkin chocolate chip bread. He won’t call me for - [Automated Retro-conscience and Ontological Subsystem](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/27/automated-retro-conscience-and-ontological-subsystem/) - By Jacob Liljenquist Turning away from the battle, you think back to blue skies, and the day you left Springville. Hard not to, when you find yourself squinting at twin suns on a sunburnt horizon and wondering how the hell you ended up on an ugly hunk of red sandstone eighty lightyears from Earth. - [Say Goodbye to Writer’s Block: How to Unlock Inspiration by Writing About Travel](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/09/23/say-goodbye-to-writers-block-how-to-unlock-inspiration-by-writing-about-travel/) - Every writer understands the internal turmoil of facing the white void of a blank screen. The sterile space of nothingness—no ideas, no experiences, no words to write—stares back at you and grows thicker by the second. Writer’s block feels so insufferable due to our own beliefs that we have no experiences nor thoughts worth writing - [Trestles](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/21/trestles/) - By Jared Swenson The sun melts into sea, painting hills of warm poppies on open sky. Gulls glide through color in strings of silhouetted wings half-spread. While Hope sings Halah in my head, waves churn white and then extend too thin over sand. She kneels by the shore and she breaks a branch of Editors Inscape Editor's Choice Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Unpunctuated Love](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/unpunctuated-love/) - By Jamie Holt Unconditional love is not something I think mortals have the capacity for. Don’t get me wrong, we strive for it, we hope some big guy upstairs has it . . . but to say I love someone unconditionally would be false in my eyes. Not fair for them. There are always conditions. - [Upon Seeing a Student Carry Two Swords Across the Campus Courtyard](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/upon-seeing-a-student-carry-two-swords/) - By Isaac Richards These were real swords, mind you. Long as a leg, snug in their scabbards, boasting ornamental handles. By my best recollection, one was a cutlass, the other a fencing foil. He carried them under his arm, nonchalant. I happened to be listening to Montaigne via audiobook at the exact moment he crossed - [Sharq Driving School for Women](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/sharq-driving-school-for-women/) - By Wendy Weitzel I drove myself to my driving test. In fact, I had been driving illegally in Saudi Arabia for over two years. Though the crown prince had lifted the ban on women drivers, no kingdom guidance existed for women—especially non-Saudi women—to obtain a driver’s license. Women were given the green light to drive, - [The Ache that Blankets the World](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/the-ache-that-blankets-the-world/) - By Kristen Hogan And it came to him then that it should never be taken lightly, the essential loneliness of people, that the choices they made to keep themselves from that gaping darkness were choices that required respect. —Elizabeth Strout, Olive, Again It’s Thanksgiving Day in the 1980s. At ten or eleven, I’m skinny, long - [The Art of Chewing Ice](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/the-art-of-chewing-ice/) - By Lisa Pettit Begins with a mild case of anemia exacerbated by pregnancy, preferably beyond the first trimester nausea which can be made worse by cold water or chewing ice. Disregard the slight anemia your OB tells you about and nod your head when she suggests iron pills. Attempt to take the pills but stop - [Collagen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/collagen/) - By Erika Price I met Satan today. Actually, his name was Shawn. He was standing outside a beauty product store at the mall greeting patrons, his hands outstretched with moisturizer samples. Now, to be clear, I haven’t purposely set foot inside a mall since leg warmers were cool, and I had no idea that it - [Broken Dishes](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/broken-dishes/) - By Jessica Mohsen-Crellin The day the storm rained down I saw her, dressed in her Sunday best with her usually perfectly placed lace collar askew and timidly tame pantyhose torn, bringing all the dishes out to the yard to catch the rainwater. There was a weightlessness in her step that was foreign to me as - [Stroganoff](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/stroganoff/) - Fiction by Ann Dee Ellis – I say, No thank you. She says, Too bad. She spoons on the noodles and then the sauce. She spoons on mushrooms and onions... - [At Final Glance](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/at-final-glance/) - By Chanel Earl At first glance, I know that I know Amanda: young, white, with no signs of an abundance of either intelligence or stupidity. Her hiking boots and chipped nails tell one story, her piercings and her vague stare another. She answers questions with plainness. She walks with a sort of quick purposelessness and - [Hell is a Road](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/hell-is-a-road/) - By Kath Richards I died on an annual work retreat and found out that Hell is a road trip with my co-worker Dwayne, who I hate so bad. I’ve had to share a cubicle with him for the last three years and he always brings—brought—fish to work which he’d microwave, because gains, and he drank - [The Hankering](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/the-hankering/) - By Kiri Case You live your life as a math problem. It’s no surprise, given how you graduated with a degree in mathematics and now you work as an accountant. You’re surrounded by numbers every day. You can’t help but see them everywhere. Here’s an example: You have 3 roommates. That’s 4 people in 1 - [Sonata in Three Movements](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/sonata-in-three-movements/) - By Jeanine Eyre Bee I Dolce One of John’s earliest memories is her singing voice, sweet and pitted and gravely. Not in a deep, growling, Louis Armstrong kind of way, but in the way that water washes over sand—gentle, and just perfectly blemished by a pocked, rushing sound. Her voice, once beautiful and robust, was - [Silence](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/silence/) - By Sue Latta Sue Latta is a determined and intuitive sculptor who creates visually poignant, skillfully executed artwork utilizing a variety of processes, including welding, woodworking, carving, casting and photography –she’s continually exploring new materials and processes in service of artistic expression. Sue has held over 20 solo exhibitions. Her work is found in collections - [Offering](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/offering/) - By Sue Latta Sue Latta is a determined and intuitive sculptor who creates visually poignant, skillfully executed artwork utilizing a variety of processes, including welding, woodworking, carving, casting and photography –she’s continually exploring new materials and processes in service of artistic expression. Sue has held over 20 solo exhibitions. Her work is found in - [This is the End](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/this-is-the-end/) - By Sue Latta Sue Latta is a determined and intuitive sculptor who creates visually poignant, skillfully executed artwork utilizing a variety of processes, including welding, woodworking, carving, casting and photography –she’s continually exploring new materials and processes in service of artistic expression. Sue has held over 20 solo exhibitions. Her work is found in collections - [The Rape of Europa](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/11/26/the-rape-of-europa/) - By Andrey Sledkov Andrey Sledkov was born in 1987 (Taganrog, Russia). He has been a sculptor for 20 years. He has sculpted many notable monuments in several cities (Ivan the terrible, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Seraphim Swarovski, Nikola Tesla, etc.) - [Racing Thoughts](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/11/26/racing-thoughts/) - By Erica Galera Erica Galera is a passionate individual with a deep love for creativity and self-expression. She earned her BFA in Studio Art from Silliman University, Philippines. Her exploration of the creative process is through the use of a variety of mediums. - [Fish in the Greenhouse](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/11/26/fish-in-the-greenhouse/) - By Jim Ross Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after rewarding career in public health research. With graduate degree from Howard University, in eight years he's published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, hybrid, interviews, and plays in nearly 200 journals on five continents. Photo publications include 3Elements, Alchemy Spoon, Burningword, Camas, Feral, Inscape, - [See You Around](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/see-you-around/) - By Edward Supranowicz Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, The Door Is A Jar, - [Earth Tones](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/earth-tones/) - By Torrin Omokoh Torrin Omokoh is a Utah-based student at Brigham Young University in her senior year. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Fine Art and has completed minors in Art History and Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry. She lives happily in Provo, Utah with her loving husband and affectionate cat. - [Promise Me](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/promise-me/) - By Torrin Omokoh Torrin Omokoh is a Utah-based student at Brigham Young University in her senior year. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Fine Art and has completed minors in Art History and Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry. She lives happily in Provo, Utah with her loving husband and affectionate cat. - [Blue House](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/11/26/blue-house/) - Artwork by Rylee Nelson, entitled Blue House - [Blue Tile Fountain, Turkey](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/11/26/blue-tile-fountain-turkey/) - Artwork by Roger Camp, entitled Blue Tile Fountain, Turkey - [Faceless Man, Lucca, Italy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/11/22/faceless-man-lucca-italy/) - By Rodger Camp Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award winning Butterflies in Flight, Thames & Hudson, 2002 and Heat, Charta, Milano, 2008. His work has been awarded the prestigious Leica Medal of Excellence for European photography. His images have appeared in numerous journals including The New England Review, Paris - [Surreal](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/surreal/) - By Lauro Palomba Alongside a country rode unoccupied by progress ranked deep and wide a cornfield army Xerxes might’ve envied arrayed to march in morning glory glinting sunrays off the helmeted ears of its boundless prime awaits its orders commanded by a goliath oak from its lowest bough h a n g s a - [East-West](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/east-west/) - By Debasish Mishra The glistening neck of blue and an extra eye of fire a sight of wonder of Shiva I’d have touched his feet had the whirring of the fan not stirred my untimely afternoon nap I had dreamed two disparate things that almost formed - [Your Aspen Home and Growing Children](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/your-aspen-home-and-growing-children/) - By George Dibble Over a dinner of crumbling bread and always filled glasses Friends spoke of the dead and how they’ll sleep; Of what grain of wood we’d take, Lowered into our deep and eroding peace. But you leaned in your wicker chair, And swirled your amber glass and tapped the table. Brushing your umber - [Fantasia on Picasso’s “Mandolin, Fruit Bowl, and Plaster Arm” (1925)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/fantasia-on-picassos-mandolin-fruit-bowl-and-plaster-arm-1925/) - By Trenton Hickman The point of the whole thingIs that mandolins and fruit bowlsAre so infrequently at ease togetherOn wooden tables Crowded with plaster arms, not to mentionArms that clutch rigid white bars and smash themThrough gray shadows, slivering themInto hints of a thousand fists. So much coiled on a lonely table:Music, food, violence. An - [It Looks Like a Firefly](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/it-looks-like-a-firefly/) - By Savannah Brantley I wake up and the light in the driveway is on. It floods my room, through my window, like a voice, yellow and dull. Mom has been missing for two days. Dad calls her a bad mom, says she doesn't love us anymore, calls her a whore. I’m not sure what a - [A Vernal Pool in Summer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/04/a-vernal-pool-in-summer/) - By Nathaniel Lachenmeyer We discovered it in the spring in a bright and unexpected dell—a shallow pond, noisy with insects and frogs, ringed by plants and reeds we could not name. To my son, who was six, a great lake could not have been any more exciting. We both felt the thrill all explorers feel - [Last Hours](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/last-hours/) - By Lily Jensen My grandfather lay dying at a care center, twenty feet away from the cemetery and five hundred feet from his Century Farm. Time was running out, but for some reason my aunt decided to turn on the TV and invite Guy Fieri into the room. We’re takin’ you - [On Livestock](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/01/25/on-livestock/) - Rays of sun touch the pasture, caressing it.... Inside, her sobs... Outside, the cows and their impatient bellows. The shotgun askew in the corner. - [Drops of Asteroid](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/06/drops-of-asteroids/) - By Anna Pellerin The astronaut had to act quickly. Once he cut through the bag, water would swim around the cabin, suspended in the antigravity. If the astronaut wanted good tea, he had to be precise. He’d been sent into outer space three days ago; satellites reported massive, unknown masses moving steadily closer to Earth, - [Impermanent](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/impermanent/) - By Abigail Erdman As we go about our lives, we often experience the same things every day, never taking notice to them. We live in the same home or apartment, never noticing how the sunlight casts different shadows through the windows at different times of day, how our belongings and furniture shifts as we interact - [Amy Stops Traffic](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/amy-stops-traffic/) - By Rosie Nielsen The piece is about watching someone you have loved since childhood blossom into the powerful, beautiful, unique being you always knew they would be - full of independence, the quirks that make them shine, grace, and bravery. - [Hands: A Love Story](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/hands-a-love-story/) - By Ellie Munoa This is an accordion book about a two people falling in love, but only shown through their hands. It shows growth and change throughout life as the hands age and as their feelings change. This piece shows transformation in different stages of life, as well as transformation of the physical body and - [Little Tear Girl](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/little-tear-girl/) - By Ellie Munoa We all learn. We all grow. We all cry. I cry a lot, and so this piece is very near and dear to my heart. It’s messy, it’s beautiful, it’s freeing, it’s whatever I need it to be. But sometimes I feel like we’re all just our own version of a - [Husk of Body](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/husk-of-body/) - By Donelly Clark sever me let me bleed take the things i do not need and peel away this dark facade that takes no heed to a God rest assured when i split you will see the awful bits but they will go and they will fade as colors flood the empty space for deep - [When I Let It Go](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/when-i-let-it-go/) - By Avlynn Hammond Tangled up thoughts, regretted actions, words I can’t take back. Pains of the head, knots of the heart, the ills of the day. When I let it go, I’ll be free. Medium: Clay - [Braindead](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/braindead/) - By Keira Hansen The routines within our lives can lead us to feel that we are being exhausted, like a machine with an expended battery. This piece draws a connection between a lithium battery fire and the feeling of occupational burnout. I liked this connection because batteries consist of a series of chemical cells, while - [Tolmie State Park](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/tolmie-state-park/) - By Morgan Cardon We can learn from the ever-changing natural world, that change is a good thing. The never ending cycle of seasons brings a period of rest and recovery and a period of growth and abundance. But nature never tries to hold all these things at one time. Rather she embraces the changes, she - [Knowledge is Evolution](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/knowledge-is-evolution/) - By Isabella Mercer My piece is about how learning can transform your view of the world. However, learning the wrong things, like misinformation, can blind your perspective, shown through the butterfly being pretty but covering her view. Education and learning on important topics can make a really big impact on the world if enough people - [Broken Wings](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/broken-wings/) - By Alyssa Brown I chose to create this piece to explore the delicate nature of butterfly wings. Even though these butterflies have been through trials, it doesn’t make them any less beautiful, and it doesn't detract from their worth. - [What the Flesh Surrenders](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/what-the-flesh-surrenders/) - By Daniela Busse This piece explores the vulnerability and beauty of transformation. The male figure, with his back turned, invites the viewer into a moment of quiet emergence. His wings—part human, part something more—break through his back, a physical manifestation of inner change. The bright, radiant colors surrounding him suggest both pain and release, the - [Ancient Mosaics Gone Astray](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/ancient-mosaics-gone-astray/) - By Aleta Goodwin In order to survive, nature finds ways to adapt to its environment. This flexibility serves us as well, especially when we strive to navigate the vicissitudes of life. Nothing stays the same. Everything is constantly changing. - [The Discovery of Others](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/the-discovery-of-others/) - By Cecily Nicoll Curiosity challenges stasis, and at no point is that more evident than at the moment of discovery. "The Discovery of Others," leans on the concepts of breakthroughs and insights, pushing the idea that there is so much more to be discovered and so much more to the horizons than meets the eye. - [BLOOM](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/15/bloom/) - By Mary Ann Jensen For the past six years, I have battled trichotillomania (trich): a condition where I pull out my eyelashes as a coping mechanism for stress. My trich has brought me shame, heartache, and distress — but like a caterpillar shedding its cocoon, I've undergone my own metamorphosis. Through the years, I've learned - [Ode to Chekhov](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/01/22/ode-to-chekhov/) - Short Story by Carter Mosteller – Anton was in no mood to be rejected. He needed a sale, not another difficult customer. - [Ode to Chekhov](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/11/ode-to-chekhov-2/) - By Quinn Cain Anton was in no mood to be rejected. He needed a sale, not another difficult customer. The nerve of this woman, he thought. “So, Carol—” He made his voice sweeter, higher pitched, in an attempt to calm her down. It didn’t work. “What?” “Carol, dear, if you’re not going to buy, I - [Me and Maya Hawke](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/me-and-maya-hawke/) - Me and Maya Hawke by Travis D. Roberson explores the tension between dreams and reality through this celebrity interaction. - [Interview with Laura Reece Hogan](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/interview-with-laura-reece-hogan/) - Laura Reece Hogan answers questions about her recent poem collection titled Butterfly Nebula, the writing process, and her background. - [Editor's Note Winter 2025](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/editors-note-winter-2025/) - Inscape Journal is named after the concept coined by Gerald Manley Hopkins, meaning the inward quality of a thing. He wrote about “inscape” often in his journals and letters. The essential and only lasting thing left out—what I call ‘inscape’, that is species or individually distinctive beauty of style. G. M. Hopkins, Letters to Robert - [3rd grade religion](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/3rd-grade-religion/) - By Brooke Standish i colored Jesus with markers. i learned the word for atonement. sweet tea in a dixie cup, a lime green marker fallen to the floor. i pick it up & kiss its head, i pray for its salvation in chapel, after recess, i become the 7th plague of Moses: a thunderstorm - [Mercy is all the body wants](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/mercy-is-all-the-body-wants/) - By Michael Imossan The world may end with a mango squashed inside my mouth. Its yellow splutter splattered over my rose-colored lips. Father, forgive me for I have turned off the lights on my neighbor, held food in my mouth when another was hungry, shooed a stray dog off my veranda and back into - [Interview with Alyson Hagy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/interview-with-alyson-hagy-2/) - Alyson Hagy answers questions about character creation, mentors, and advice to new writers. - [Interview with Sean Enfield](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/interview-with-sean-enfield/) - Sean Enfield answers questions about education, the writing process, and current issues. - [Interview with Sonya Huber](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/interview-with-sonya-huber/) - Sonya Huber answer questions about the role of memory, truth, and influences in nonfiction writing. - [Orbits](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/orbits/) - Orbits by Zach Keali’i Murphy explores the concept of time through a father-daughter relationship. - [Three Weeks Ago, I Found a Body, Dead.](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/three-weeks-ago-i-found-a-body-dead/) - Three Weeks Ago, I Found a Body, Dead by Christie Gardiner ruminates on death from a mother's perspective. - [Pietà](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/pieta/) - Pietà by ruminates on the changing seasons through the Christian lens of death and resurrection. - [A Pixel Odyssey](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/a-pixel-odyssey/) - By Claudia Tong Claudia Tong is an artist and quantitative researcher based in London, creating at the intersection of traditional and digital art. Her practice spans from painting, illustrations, and mixed media to visual computing, photography, and music. She graduated from Brown University in computer science and has lived, worked, and exhibited internationally. Visit Claudia’s - [Creation, Fall, Atonement](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/creation-fall-atonement/) - By Rachel Jensen Fourteen years ago, Rachel took an art class that reignited her passion for creating art. Through additional classes and experimentation with a variety of media, she found herself drawn most often to colored pencil, soft pastels, and acrylic paint. After initially focusing on nature and portraits, she eventually felt compelled to create - [Bathroom Still Life](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/bathroom-still-life/) - By Savannah Allred Savannah Grace Allred was born in 2000 in Gilbert, Arizona. She currently lives and works in Provo, Utah, while also attending Brigham Young University where she will receive her bachelor’s in art with a minor in art history. Allred has already been included in various school exhibitions and hopes to show her - [Vernal Awakening](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/vernal-awakening/) - By Susan Moss Throughout Susan Moss’s artistic journey, classical training laid the foundation for her creativity. Art has been a source of joy for her since childhood. As she raised her family, the untamed creativity of her children inspired collaborative art sessions. Over time, her fascination with abstraction deepened and grew stronger. Guided by mentors - [Connection](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/connection/) - By Savannah Allred Savannah Grace Allred was born in 2000 in Gilbert, Arizona. She currently lives and works in Provo, Utah, while also attending Brigham Young University, where she will receive her bachelor’s in art with a minor in art history. Allred has already been included in various school exhibitions and hopes to show her - [Moonlight by the Dock](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/moonlight-by-the-dock/) - Moonlight by the Dock by Michael Shoemaker captures the brilliance of green surrounding a dock in this photographed image. - [Image 1](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/image-1/) - Image 1 by Richard Hanus portrays a moving contrast of color on a dark background, utilizing negative space - [Girl and Dragon](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/girl-and-dragon/) - Girl and Dragon by Irina Novikova contrasts the image of a girl with a striking dragon in a thought-provoking display. - [Interview with David James Duncan](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/interview-with-david-james-duncan/) - David James Duncan answers questions about his writing journey and what advice he would give to aspiring authors. - [Communion of Saints](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/communion-of-saints/) - Communion of Saints by Kathleen Fields masterfully captures the nuance of friendship throughout time in just a few paragraphs. - [No Crying in Baseball](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/no-crying-in-baseball/) - No Crying in Baseball by John Van Wagner contemplates on the role of gender, age, and relationships in crying. - [Forgetting](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/forgetting/) - By Beth Sherman All kinds of birds come to our backyard—robins, jays, sparrows, wrens—but my mother is obsessed with the pigeon. There’s only one. It flies in at dusk, perches on the deck railing by the begonias, and swivels its purple-green head back and forth as if answering a question no one’s asked. Perhaps - [Don't Eat the Raspberries](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/dont-eat-the-raspberries/) - By Janaya Young The ones that grow on the bushes lining the fence at your grandparents’ house in Wyoming that you arrive at after an eight-hour journey taken each summer through tumbleweeds and roaming cell service. The ones littering the backyard grass, getting squished and splashed as too many feet for this once-big-but-now-small space - [Jobs](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/jobs/) - Jobs by tells the story of love, marriage, and infidelity within the constraints of a single workplace. - [The Family Plot](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/the-family-plot/) - The Family Plot by struggles with death through the lens of the family's plot in the local graveyard. - [Heavy Fog, Thick Mist](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/heavy-fog-thick-mist/) - By Caleb Jagoda Early spring: The air, pluming wetly, ignores your existence; the grass blades with their chins down, saddled and askew with droplets of dew; the lavender, its purple indifference. You lost someone out there in the field, in the fog, someone who looks just like you. He busied himself burying chunks of your - [Interview with Ashley Farmer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/interview-with-ashley-farmer/) - Ashley Farmer answers questions about emotions, the writing process, and memory in nonfiction. - [Interview with David Lawrence Morse](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/interview-with-david-lawrence-morse/) - David Lawrence Morse answers questions about folklore, fables, and prevalent themes in his short story collection titled The Book of Disbelieving. - [The Silence of the Sea](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/the-silence-of-the-sea/) - By Kendalyn Murdock For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, - [Fall 2024 Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/10/fall-2024-editors-note/) - Dear readers, I remember reading our mission statement when I first joined Inscape and thinking about how cool it was that it mentions both following Jesus Christ and celebrating the stories of many diverse people. I was so excited to be able to hold what seemed to me at the time to be two opposites - [Don’t Cry for All the Loves You’ve Lost](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/08/dont-cry-for-all-the-loves-youve-lost/) - By Rose DeMaris or all the birds who vanish from the sky (in fifty years alone, one in four have gone), but listen with attention to what remains of song. Pour the citrus colors of the Marianne white-eye into a cut-glass tumbler: juice of lemon, pulp of lime. - [Middle (4)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/30/middle-4/) - By Sarah Waldron Brinton Sarah Waldron Brinton is an interdisciplinary artist living in Utah. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a BFA in studio art in 2016. She currently teaches high school art party time, is beginning a design studio with her husband, and is a mother to a beautiful baby boy. - [The First](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/30/the-first/) - By Dalan Grundvig This morning birthed a hollow kind of quiet, It stooped below thermometers to kiss The ground in blue. The shreds of last night’s riot Were blown to gutters in the paved abyss Around them. Eyelids bobbed like windswept trees. How could this be when yesterday was June? Earth’s puffed away the sun - ["Upstate Veterinarian: Some Opioid Users Abuse Pets to Get Pills" - Fox Carolina News, 20 Aug 2018](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/30/upstate-veterinarian-some-opioid-users-abuse-pets-to-get-pills-fox-carolina-news-20-aug-2018/) - By Isaac Robertson I twitch as a kid punts a cat figurine And it clicks, rolls on linoleum; while Streams of a night vision flux past my trapezii Like a mane spun taut—heavy and stiff, but WHO MADE MAN’S MOUTH plays over the particulate Technicolor store-bought box-set in the corner of the Unsettling, in a - [Ceres](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/30/ceres/) - By Scott Porter In the shadow of the table, some flies and other flies intermittently contest and drink a spot of lemonade on the concrete. And across from me she wrings her hair and circles her legs, uncrosses and then crosses them, folds them in the shadow of the table. - [Roses Climbing a Wall](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/07/30/roses-climbing-a-wall/) - By Cliff Saunders In plain sight the windows are making us deaf. Now we talk about being minus a soul and weep over sparks jumping between two ruby slippers. We are a people of love who’ve fallen into holograms of Stonehenge. Our daily bread hurts more than we knew. As we channel-surf through time, we - [September, My Brother](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/05/september-my-brother/) - By Scott Porter The snow weighed down branches of early autumn red, caught flower out of season, nested on the black of mother’s dress. - [Interview with Clinton Crockett Peters](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/20/interview-with-clinton-crockett-peters/) - By Tyler Parsons and Candice Boren Inscape Journal: In one of your essays, you talk about your time in Europe and how you tended to make detailed plans earlier in your life. I know the essay genre doesn’t really go with plans necessarily. So how did you balance that: your need to make plans with - [The Dark We've Grown Used To](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/26/the-dark-weve-grown-used-to/) - By Carl Boon 1. I sit on the steps in the dark we’ve grown used to and braid Ingrid’s hair. There’s milk tonight, and Rote Grütze—Grandfather shielded the berries all July barehanded as the bombs dropped east and west of Dresden. It seems a paradise, this unusual fruit, a pair of fireflies at the window. - [Detroit](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/26/detroit/) - By Carl Boon When our nightflesh wasn’t enough we put on Bob Seger Mitch Ryder and sometimes Smokey Robinson to remember America when it was Cadillacs and soul and we were the center of it all. The old guys in the back of the bar reminisced about Al Kaline and Hank Greenberg and beer five - [Lexington Avenue](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/26/lexington-avenue/) - By Carl Boon I shall speak of blue flowers, Blake, and graceless boys. I shall watch you behind the glass of a bar on Lexington and pummel you with half-rhymes and the certitude of God. You’ll fall and I’ll make sure you rise again, for you must in this metropol of dragons and chance. I - [The World in Sinhalese](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/08/26/the-world-in-sinhalese/) - By Carl Boon Recall when you were mesmerized— a parlor of rococo design, the curves ascending into hips, rivers as witnessed from above. You’d had three martinis & wine with dinner, many scallions, & waited for the lines to reconnect. A girl with alabaster skin, tattooed, brought Sri Lankan tea & pastry, & suddenly your - [My sister must speak her mind, sometimes](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/my-sister-must-speak-her-mind-sometimes/) - By Isabella Zentner FROM: Arin Z TO: Prof Carla (music) BCC: n/a DATE: 10 JUN 2020, 11:08AM SUBJECT: Make-Up Assignment Carla, Would it be possible for me to turn in my missed assignment tomorrow? I know you told me I don’t need it, a 98% can stand the blow of a one-off mistake, - [Ode to Spell Cheak](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/ode-to-spell-cheak/) - By Paul Guajardo “I don’t see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing.” —Mark Twain While I love the English language, I have found that creative orthography is the only way - [Channel Thirty-Eight](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/channel-thirty-eight/) - By Cody Byers I’m not a bad person, your honor. You know that, right? You know me. I’ve only lived here my whole life, and everyone has seen me. Channel thirty-eight, eleven at night or so. “For dents and pings, Carlisle’s the thing!” I did that. I’m the perky blonde, in the tank top and - [Possibility #257](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/possibility-257/) - By Madelynn Jones This speech has unlimited precisely two hundred and fifty-seven outcomes. No matter how much I refresh my results, the possibilities remain the same. I cannot accurately predict what will happen, although my gears are endlessly turning, trying to find the outcome I want. There are simply too many possibilities. My emotions are - [Fall 2022 Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/fall-2022-editors-note/) - Fall 2022 Editor’s Note Dear Readers, Each September as we begin the months-long process of printing this wonderful journal, I reflect on the meaning of the name Inscape. Ever the English major, my first inclination is to pick apart this word and its (mildly convoluted) definition that we include in each edition of the journal. In - [Watery Christmas Eve](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/04/01/watery-christmas-eve/) - Wade through the Wisconsin woods Green blades and moss cling to August Wet paper leaves cling to stone No sunlight can split the fog - [Interview with Yamile Saied Méndez](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/interview-with-yamile-saied-mendez/) - Yamile (sha-MEE-lay) Saied Méndez is a fútbol-obsessed Argentine-American who loves meteor showers, summer, astrology, and pizza. She lives in Utah with her Puerto Rican husband and their five kids, two adorable dogs, and one majestic cat. An inaugural Walter Dean Myers Grant recipient, she’s also a graduate of Voices of Our Nations (VONA) and the - [Interview with Kristen Chandler](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/interview-with-kristen-chandler/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Kristen Chandler is the author of Thief of Happy Endings, the award-winning Girls Don’t Fly, and Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me. She was nominated for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. She thrives on making readers laugh, cry, and worry about what will happen next, so she isn’t the nicest person in - [Fall 2020 Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/editors-note-9/) - Fall 2020 Editor’s Note Dear Readers, While preparing this edition of Inscape, I’ve found that there’s something sacred in reviewing another person’s art. Behind each anonymous submission there is a human with years of hopes, ambitions, and vulnerabilities. There were hours spent sketching and resketching, typing until laptops were the only light, or perhaps writing - [Interview With Derek Otsuji](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/interview-with-derek-otsuji/) - Born on Oahu, Derek N. Otsuji is the author of The Kitchen of Small Hours (SIU Press, 2021), which won the Crab Orchard Poetry Series Open Competition. He is a 2019 Tennessee Williams Scholar (Sewanee Writers’ Conference) and has received awards from Bread Loaf and the Kenyon Review. His poems are widely published in local - [Interview with Patrick Madden](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/interview-with-patrick-madden/) - Patrick Madden is the author of three essay collections, Disparates (2020), Sublime Physick (2016), and Quotidiana (2010), and co-editor of After Montaigne: Contemporary Essayists Cover the Essays (2015). He curates www.quotidiana.org, co-edits the journal Fourth Genre with Joey Franklin, and, with David Lazar, co-edits the 21st Century Essays series at the Ohio State University Press. He has taught English at BYU since 2004. Interviewed by Thomas Jenson - [Standing in Front of Van Gogh's Irises at the Getty Museum](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/standing-in-front-of-van-goghs-irises-at-the-getty-museum/) - By Cosenza Hendrickson Like ants piled on a sidewalk crack They clustered round it. iPhones shuddered softly Under gold-dim lighting. I slowed at the sight of curves, familiar As my wet hips glistening in the shower— The leaves of supple flowers. Eyes darting like bees, I took in the leaves, the stems, The purple, nodding - [Midnight Drive](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/midnight-drive/) - By Cosenza Hendrickson To think I spent nine waking years there— In a land driven mad by the Doppler effect, Where I thought so much about the power of Purell And the gloss of Jen’s pinky toenail, Where a girl could live on likes alone. I have done my squat pulses at 7 a.m. and - [Good Doctor](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/good-doctor/) - By Sarah Emmett God taps on the door and enters in a white lab coat. He has glasses and clean hands. He could smile but he doesn’t —he knows what he’s doing. He rolls up on a little stool, careful and sure. He asks me how I’m feeling and wants the truth too. He washes - [The Honeybee's Epic](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/the-honeybees-epic/) - By Penelope Richards Fat, striped honeybees bounce along through the garden in the summer light. One—bonk—flew into a stem Then—buzz—went flying again. Penelope Richards is a senior at Brigham Young University. She loves reading, writing, and painting. Originally from Houston, she has always loved a sunny day at the beach. But she is learning - [A Heart Removed](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/a-heart-removed/) - By Rachelle Larsen For my first love on our first Valentine’s Day, I crafted a card resembling a human heart. I labeled its different pieces—aorta, atrium, ventricle, valve—not only with their official names, but also with the ways he had taught my heart to flutter. I can’t remember what I wrote, but I remember the - [Akitsu Shima](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/akitsu-shima/) - By Brittany Casselman A disproportionate amount of a dragonfly’s life span takes place underwater. The female dragonfly lays her eggs in the water, and in the next seven days the larvae are born. These larvae spend the next three years in the water, eating insects and fish and occasionally each other, before emerging into the - [She's Becoming Self-Aware](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/shes-becoming-self-aware/) - By Elena Welch I would like to tell you about her. Cold watcher, cruel mirror, through whom I see the world seeing me seeing myself—she is something I would like to share. Her (2013) stars Scarlet Johansson as an AI who forms a romantic and sexual relationship with soft-spoken, self-insert Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin - [Quarter of an Inch](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/quarter-of-an-inch/) - By Angela Griffin Drill Sergeant Jones hesitates in the doorway, one foot poised over the threshold, boot hovering in the air. Eyes trained on the inhabitants of Second Platoon bay, she deliberately, ever so lightly, lets her boot tap the linoleum floor on our side of the doorway. “AT EASE!” twenty voices bellow as one, - [Inheritance](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/inheritance/) - By Abby Thatcher I can’t write about beauty. I’ve written four different opening lines, ones about beauty being a beast, or my hatred of photographs of myself, or the Maybelline counter in Macy’s in eighth grade where my mother took me to become beautiful. The sentences stumble over themselves. I have so much to - [Peace (Shanti)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/peace-shanti/) - By Jamie Marquis At the end of the hour, I lay in corpse pose, shavasana, on my bright-orange yoga mat. My thoughts swam around and around until they trickled out of my eyes and I realized that I was crying. A familiar pang of grief in my chest seems to accompany me everywhere I go: school, - [An Anchorite's Meditation on Water](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/an-anchorites-meditation-on-water/) - By Chanel Earl Here, water is delivered daily, though sometimes in a single day the sun sets and rises several times. I have learned to catch the rain as it drips through the ceiling, to begin rationing when my bowl is near empty, to clean myself with dust. To never complain. Through my window is - [Red Balloon](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/red-balloon/) - By Paris Nilson I am born in a grocery store for the purpose of something important. The moment of my birth is not a large one, and it is not thought of afterward. I live and die in one breath. Today, as with all coming days, is meant to see how long that initial intake - [Packages](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/packages/) - By Erin Goulding I got a package today. The eighth Amazon package this month. Or the thirtieth, since I tend to order a lot. My mom calls it an online shopping addiction; I call it a great reason to never leave my house. But the box I got today is the eighth one that I - [The Sin of Certainty](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/the-sin-of-certainty/) - By Tyler Slade I’ve always thought that cathedrals were far too ominous to be a place of worship. But maybe that was the whole point—to scare you into confession. Somehow, despite the seemingly endless expanse of stained glass dominating those cold stone walls, there’s a lack of natural light, creating a space permeated by shadows - [Affirmations](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/affirmations/) - By Chanel Earl SCENE: A young WOMAN is lying in bed in her sleepwear. WOMAN: The first thing I want every morning is a freshly laundered pair of socks. That’s why every night before I go to sleep, I take a pair out of my sock drawer and tuck it behind the leg of the - [Treading Water](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/03/24/treading-water/) - Treading Water by Janaya Tanner explores the complexities of relationships through youthful experiences. - [Interview with Hasanthika Sirisena](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/interview-with-hasanthika-sirisena/) - Hasanthika Sirisena’s work has been anthologized in This is the Place (Seal Press, 2017), in Every Day People: The Color of Life (Atria Books, 2018), and twice named a notable story by Best American Short Stories. She is currently faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and Susquehanna University. Her books include the short - [The Mathematician's Next Life](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/the-mathematicians-next-life/) - By Amit Majmudar i.m. Maryam Mirzakhani I wonder if she’ll string spidersilk with abacus dewdrops, subtracting drag from thrust. Swaddled in octopus chromatophores, she could toy with wavelengths while she dreamed— bleached-reef white, quantum mottle, ink and honey. The lawn’s scatterplotted dandelions match the doubling rate of stars, memories, exponents, cancer cells. There’s always another - [Reflections on a Metamorphosis](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/reflections-on-a-metamorphosis/) - By Cosenza Hendrickson Really it is not bad to be a cow. At dawn she watches the gods Spill their wine across the sky At dusk she hears the chiming of the stars. She drifts—a placid brown glacier— Demolishing grass, efficient as Achilles But without wrath, even for the gadfly That hovers and stings - [Movie Adaptations](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/03/25/movie-adaptations/) - What makes an adaptation good? In this article, Kayla Munger explores the various factors that cause adaptations to be received positively or negatively. - [Cut Pants](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/cut-pants/) - By Julia Chopelas I should have called her (she doesn’t pick up) but I should have tried I should have called her harder or louder and maybe she would have picked up her phone. My hands are shaking I’m not really here I’m kind of gone I’m kind of sitting on the dirty balcony - [Inscapehead Revisited](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/inscapehead-revisited/) - By Emily Murry The photograph used in the bottom right portion of this image is by Callie Garett and was published by Inscape in 2014. Emily Murry is a part-time writer and a full-time mom living in the Charlotte, NC area. She met and married her husband while at BYU and loves all the cliches Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Inscapehead Revisited By Emily Murry The photograph used in the bottom right portion of this image is by Callie Garett and was published by Inscape in 2014. Emily Murry is a part-time writer and a full-time mom living in the Charlotte, NC area. She met and married her husband while at BYU and loves all the cliches - [Striding Warrior](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/striding-warrior/) - By Gary Hall Gary Hall has two art degrees from BYU: a BFA with an emphasis in ceramics completed in 1995, as well as an MFA in ceramics completed in 2007. In the years between his degrees and up to the present time Gary has worked at bronze casting foundries in the Utah Valley area - [Mystic Guide](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/mystic-guide/) - By Gary Hall Gary Hall has two art degrees from BYU: a BFA with an emphasis in ceramics completed in 1995, as well as an MFA in ceramics completed in 2007. In the years between his degrees and up to the present time Gary has worked at bronze casting foundries in the Utah Valley area - [Angel of the East](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/angel-of-the-east/) - Art Angel of the East By Gary Hall Gary Hall has two art degrees from BYU: a BFA with an emphasis in ceramics completed in 1995, as well as an MFA in ceramics completed in 2007. In the years between his degrees and up to the present time Gary has worked at bronze casting foundries in the Utah Valley area Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Divine Presences](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/divine-presences/) - Art Divine Presences Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Gary Hall Gary Hall has two art degrees from BYU: a BFA with an emphasis in ceramics completed in 1995, as well as an MFA in ceramics completed in 2007. In the years between his degrees and up to the present time Gary has worked at bronze casting foundries in the Utah Valley area - [Gratitude for Goats](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/gratitude-for-goats/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Gratitude for Goats By Sage Gallagher Sage Gallagher loves to create as it helps her define, understand, and enjoy life. She began painting in oil during her time at BYU studying Humanities in the late 80’s (graduating in 1991 after her mission to Peru) and picked it up again more seriously when her children entered school full time - [Sketchbook Sesh](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/sketchbook-sesh/) - By Curtis Bay Portland-based artist Curtis Bay creates drawings, paintings, and collages in watercolor, oil, and mixed media. His work is expressive and personal, inspired by the tension between competing realities. His subjects are often from his own circle of friends and family and the natural world, but he freely jumps between figuration and abstraction. Art Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Sketchbook Sesh - [Nurtured](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/nurtured/) - By Rebecca Klundt Rebecca Klundt is a Salt Lake City native and graduate from Brigham Young University with a BFA in 2D studio art, an emphasis on painting and power tools. Her works are built from reclaimed wood which she “reorganizes” into beautiful mosaics. Her work is found in the collections of The Church of Art Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Nurtured - [This was my wife](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/this-was-my-wife/) - Art By Curtis Bay Portland-based artist Curtis Bay creates drawings, paintings, and collages in watercolor, oil, and mixed media. His work is expressive and personal, inspired by the tension between competing realities. His subjects are often from his own circle of friends and family and the natural world, but he freely jumps between figuration and abstraction. This was my wife Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [These were my glasses](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/these-were-my-glasses/) - By Curtis Bay Portland-based artist Curtis Bay creates drawings, paintings, and collages in watercolor, oil, and mixed media. His work is expressive and personal, inspired by the tension between competing realities. His subjects are often from his own circle of friends and family and the natural world, but he freely jumps between figuration and abstraction. Art These were my glasses Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [God is a Poet](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/god-is-a-poet/) - By Matthew Wickman Originally published as Chapter 4 from Life to the Whole Being: The Spiritual Memoir of a Literature Professor Why do we need literature? Certainly, there is much to admire in thoughtful, beautifully crafted narratives, poems, and plays, in gripping stories, layered characters, and poignant turns of phrase. But need is more intense - [Interview with Ally Condie](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/interview-with-ally-condie/) - Ally Braithwaite Condie is the author of the # 1 New York Times bestselling Matched series and the Edgar Award Finalist Summerlost, among other novels, and of several picture books, including Here. A former English teacher, Ally resides outside of Salt Lake City with her family, including her four children. She has an MFA from the Vermont College of - [An Eclipse in Eden](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/23/an-eclipse-in-eden/) - By Kassandra Schreiber Out of the dust, we appear in this four-letter place and station ourselves amidst jade lawns and swarms of birds of paradise. We sit back and see the moon slither in front of the sun, slowly turning two celestial bodies into one, but all we really feel is cold. A minute before - [Menu](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/menu/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Jim Richards He wonders if she wants himto order for her. She wondersif he has noticed her nails, andif so, why he has not said anything. If he doesn’t order for her,she might think he’s rude, butif he does, she might think he’scontrolling. He could ask ifshe did her nails herself or ifshe had Poetry Menu - [How to Keep House](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/how-to-keep-house/) - By Kate Davis Alternate your gaze between laptop, drywall, and churning clouds beyond the chipped French door. Wrap your body around your dog’s and imitate his strange stiff-armed relaxation. Ruminate over why you don’t maintain a regular yoga practice. Unearth your ingrown toenail. In doing so, create a hangnail. Pull the smoking nachos from the broiler and eat them. Draw - [Cancer Questions for My Father](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/cancer-questions-for-my-father/) - By Jennifer Halversen Should we move the area rugs, put in shower rails, get the panic button necklace as seen on TV? Should we build a ramp? Do we hire some smoky-smelling guy from the yellow pages? How many knitted hats should I make? Do you like soft yarn or the sturdy kind? If I - [Arrival](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/arrival/) - By Joani Elliot Words arrive at my doorstep. Raw. Awake. Alive. What can I offer to make them stay? A clean room, plush towels—a soft bed? No, they whisper. You are the room we want. Weave us into your soul. Let us become your breath, blood, bones. Conjured, infused, enmeshed. I close the door, unsure. - [What Hoping for a Sign Might Feel Like](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/what-hoping-for-a-sign-might-feel-like/) - By Isaac Richards Along a red brick path, along an artificial stream, (water turned off, mossy rocks vulnerable to icy air) somewhere along the month of February, I walk. Leafless trees preach the beauty of wearing clothes even as they stop me cold to stare and stare and stare. Ravens, capped chickadees, and students wander - [Newly Buried Grandmother Prepares to Enter the Spirit World](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/newly-buried-grandmother-prepares-to-enter-the-spirit-world/) - By J S Absher Heavier than she can ever remember, the rain is falling in spades. On her roof enormous hands pound boom-lay, boom-lay. This is her mother’s belly, an oven stoked with wet kindling, a sway in the rockabye of a tree. She rests - [Fallow](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/fallow/) - By Rachel Hunt The Mother said, Even the fields have years that they don’t produce. Lie still, uptake nutrients and sun, and rest. Are you more than the sugarcane and rice? Rachel Hunt is a proud BYU alumnus, with a BA in Philosophy in 2008. She also received an MLS in Library Science - [Portrait of a Lady without Hands: A Postmortem](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/portrait-of-a-lady-without-hands-a-postmortem/) - By Scott Hales Spanish Fork, 1899Lying there, she looks alive, caughtmid-blink, between breaths, as if allwe need to do is tug at her puffy sleeveand whisper her awake. She’s rehearsingfor the resurrection, this Lazarus woman, calling to our inner Christ with her lifelikelook of repose. Her raven hair is perfect—curled tight and parted down the Poetry Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Portrait of a Lady without Hands: A Postmortem - [Winter Beech](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/winter-beech/) - By Dalene Rowley soft white blanket falls in the crook of her arm puckering in layers at her curve, feather-light crystals reverse silhouette her bare branches whisper of leaves long fallen sacred hum of hope promising tender green come spring Dalene Rex Rowley graduated from BYU in 1987 with a B.A. in English - [Our Mother in the Movies](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/our-mother-in-the-movies/) - By Carol Lynn Pearson Surely you must have noticed in Disney movies, along with the catchy songs all the dead mothers. Mother of Ariel the Little Mermaid—killed by pirates Mother of Bambi—shot by hunter Mother of Belle in Beauty and the Beast—died from plague Mother of Nemo—eaten by barracuda Mother of Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Our Mother in the Movies By Carol Lynn Pearson Surely you must have noticed in Disney movies, along with the catchy songs all the dead mothers. Mother of Ariel the Little Mermaid—killed by pirates Mother of Bambi—shot by hunter Mother of Belle in Beauty and the Beast—died from plague Mother of Nemo—eaten by barracuda Mother of - [The Widow Interim](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/the-widow-interim/) - Poetry By Kath Richards A metronome outside his skin, like he wears on his person the grandfather clock from his grandfather’s home. Between his lungs, the dacron droning of muscle pumping the piece of poly-carbon which will play valve so long as his heart will have it. Tonight the snapping thrum lulls me to a sleep, Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art The Widow Interim By Kath Richards A metronome outside his skin, like he wears on his person the grandfather clock from his grandfather’s home. Between his lungs, the dacron droning of muscle pumping the piece of poly-carbon which will play valve so long as his heart will have it. Tonight the snapping thrum lulls me to a sleep, - [My Name is Quran](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/my-name-is-quran/) - By Lorelei Kay Water scented with chlorine swirl around arms, legs, and thighs in the Jacuzzi at 24-Hour Fitness, as we exchange names. I ask, “Just like the book?” His dark head of hair bobs up and down. Eager to know more, I tease, “Have you memorized the whole thing?” “No,” he grins, continues, - [On Confirming My Daughter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/on-confirming-my-daughter/) - By Christopher Bissett You receive the Holy Ghost so messy— like a catastrophic glitter bomb exploded in the chapel. If Spirit’s like a rushing wind then you’re tornadoed already. You were Pentecost on Sundays. You fell to the floor in convulsions. You spoke in tongues. You exorcized the teasing of your brothers. You were Shaker. - [Eve: A Self-Portrait](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/eve-a-self-portrait/) - By Meg McManama On my back,I wring my fingers upthrough the chicory,and pray the sun pirouettesa little longer on my skin. But I hear Adam crying.So here I go againwith my knife, halaling.Thank you, Lord, for the goatbeing so calm. And here’s someblood for Adam’shollows and cracks. I bathe off in the sea,pocket a pearl - [The Art of Marriage](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/the-art-of-marriage/) - By Meg McManama “A book [a museum] must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” Franz Kafka after the museum we fought.the Adam and Eve tumbleweedingto life didn’t please you,nor did the wall-size sketch of refugeeswith pearls on their neck, sailing into the stormbut look, I said, how those women being swallowedby the - [To the men who tailor their trousers, but especially to the ones who don't](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/to-the-men-who-tailor-their-trousers-but-especially-to-the-ones-who-dont/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Poetry To the men who tailor their trousers, but especially to the ones who don’t By Emily Murry I know I should be texting you right now I’m off from work and heading to the train I always text you right now To let you know that I missed you today Cause I did, I really did To tell you that I love you Cause I do, I really do - [The God of Whimsy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/the-god-of-whimsy/) - By Sharlee Mullins Glenn I praise the God of blobfish, narwhals, newts, of warty frogfish, goblin sharks, and yaks. I praise the God of sawfish, sea pigs, sloths, of panda ants, and dumbo octopi. I praise the God of poodle moths and moles, of bats, and bioluminescent eels. I praise the God of eerie glowworm - [Wrinkled Tablecloths](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/wrinkled-tablecloths/) - By Cheryl Seely Savage It was wrinkled The dining room tablecloth was wrinkled And my grandmother’s memory told me To iron it before I lost my respect And I didn’t I left it wrinkled for her For all women For every person who has felt the pull of Showing instead of being I left it - [And Also I Ran](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/and-also-i-ran/) - By Lance Larsen I wheedled a ten-minute visit from the night nurse. This was Friday, the evening after my best friend hurtled through a windshield at 70 mph, the day before I drove to a numbing family reunion for blue-hair aunts. He had a machine to track his breaths, a tube to collect pee, and a - [Quail Egg](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/quail-egg/) - By Lance Larsen While watering, I found it under the Ponderosa pine,a stray egg, already cold, dropped by a stray hen in a hurry for better cover. A thing like thatyou have to save, but my PJs had no pockets, so I polished it on my sleeve and popped itinto the wet pouch of my mouth - [’72 Datsun](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/72-datsun/) - By Elizabeth Garcia —for my mother In the blue cool of morning, before the redshad dressed themselves, we sipped our yoo-hoos, cocooned in blankets you’d tucked around us,blinked out the gas station glare and waited, half-hidden in the the back seat of that old gray carwhile you fetched your stack of papers. Later years, and Poetry Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art ’72 Datsun - [Eve at 87](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/eve-at-87/) - By Elizabeth Garcia —after Toni Morrison’s “Eve Remembering” I remember still the reedy achelike the saxophone’s needswelling the tiled undergroundinside me—Again! I’d sayif you asked. To swallow every seed,to know the juice of anything!That story? Like an old billboard, its wordsnow bleached to papery skin in need of sloughing—Oh, what I know of Poetry Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Eve at 87 - [Meltdown](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/meltdown/) - Poetry Meltdown By Jared Pearce I had to traipse around to the front door, and when I opened it she smiled, said, I’m making ganache, which is how I picture perfect death: I’m worn out after life, and I find my way in, and I’m not looking for anything, but there she is, cooking up chocolate, wanting Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Essay Questions](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/essay-questions/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Poetry Essay Questions By Trenton Hickman 1) Consider in one thousand words or less the way that life on the frontier changed the way you scan the horizon on breezeless mornings, how it has made you sure that sharp riders will someday angle across the hills like shadows, arc over the back fences with the grace of deer, - [Count Me In](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/count-me-in/) - By Darlene Young There are days when, visiting a depressed friend, I find her houseplants are dying in the background while she claims all is well but also days when the morning percolates in carnation pink glory behind and above the smog, dewbangling the cobwebs. Some days the smell of dirty snow, grim with - [My Mother's Scars](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/12/my-mothers-scar/) - By Alexandra Malouf I. My mother wakes to a flatness on her chest and thinks of her mother waking to that same absence forty years before. The history of a family written on the bodies of descendents. In stormy weather her nerves pulse sharply in that scar reopened over and over, where - [The Covenant Path](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/the-covenant-path/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By James Goldberg 1. And Jerusalem still dances in your dreams—rises like a wave, then leans, careens into captivity. You wake to hunger and thin Liahona-longing for a home. 2. Wind-driven, wave-tossed plunged dark into the deep this heart is a Jaredite barge as this body sails toward sleep. 3. No matter how beautiful Poetry The Covenant Path - [Humanities Girl](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/humanities-girl/) - By Cristie Charles I grew up as a daughter of the BYU College of Humanities. I attended its events; I was trained in its language; I even knew its geography. ENTER TO LEARN Before I was eight I knew how to enter the west side glass doors of the JKHB, walk up the white-with-gray-flecks pilgrimage - [Imperfect Instruments](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/imperfect-instruments/) - By E.B. Wheeler “This is going to be your only helicopter ride. Too bad you can’t look out the window.” I didn’t understand why the guy thought I’d never go on another helicopter. Of course, I also wasn’t sure why I was on this one. My head was strapped to a backboard, and I had - [Creeping Things](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/creeping-things/) - By Shamae Budd I lay in bed a few weeks ago, admiring the flatness of my stomach, grieving in advance the lack-of-flatness I can expect when my husband and I decide to start growing children of our own, and I found myself wondering, strangely, how snakes are born. Do they hatch from eggs, or are - [A Backpack in the River](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/a-backpack-in-the-river/) - By Shamae Budd That morning, we awoke to the silence of snow—the first snowfall that winter, like white gauze, an inch thick on the cars and lawn and pavement, exhilaratingly blank after the red and yellow color-chaos of autumn. I looked out the window and pulled my winter boots from the closet, tugging my husband - [Song of a Starving Mother](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/19/song-of-a-starving-mother/) - By Shayla Frandsen “Please eat,” my husband will beg me. “Can I make you a sandwich?” I wish it were as simple as a sandwich. Nobody wishes more than me. I look at him and say, “I can’t.” I say, “Not right now.” I say, “Please, don’t look at my body. You will - [Up](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/up/) - Art Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Emily Murry Emily Murry is a part-time writer and a full-time mom living in the Charlotte, NC area. She met and married her husband while at BYU and loves all the cliches to their relationship because their hers. She unabashedly likes Shakespeare, Nora Ephron rom-coms, and farming sims. Emily graduated from BYU in 2016 - [Joy of a Different Kind](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/joy-of-a-different-kind/) - By Edward Lee - [Snap](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/snap/) - By Gabriella Warnick - [Mountain Shelf](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/mountain-shelf/) - By Paul Larsen - [She Believed](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/06/she-believed/) - By Jenedy Paige - [I'm Going to Disneyland](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/im-going-to-disneyland/) - By Shane Allison - [Affiliation](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/affiliation/) - By Shane Allison - [Dreaming of Endless Summer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/dreaming-of-endless-summer/) - By Jim Ross - [In My Place](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/in-my-place/) - By Samantha Snyder - [A Plague of Small Doubts](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/04/a-plague-of-small-doubts/) - Art A Plague of Small Doubts Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Edward Supranowicz - [Gutter Crow](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/04/gutter-crow/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Art Gutter Crow By Philip Dunn - [Beyond the Box](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/04/beyond-the-box/) - By Jenedy Paige Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Art Beyond the Box - [The Wave](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/the-wave/) - By Robert Palmer - [Lenticular #8: The Memory of Rains](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/lenticular-8-the-memory-of-rains/) - By Emily Bell - [Forrest](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/forrest/) - By Robert Palmer - [The Girl Who Couldn’t Cook](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/06/the-girl-who-couldnt-cook/) - By Samantha Snyder - [Breathe](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/breathe/) - By Jenedy Paige - [The Basin](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/the-basin/) - By Paul Larsen - [Singing Together in the Garden](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/singing-together-in-the-garden/) - By Jim Ross - [Blood Chapel](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/blood-chapel/) - By James Reade Venable - [La Crucifixión by Antoni Clavé](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/la-crucifixion-by-antoni-clave/) - Inscape Staff From the Archives La Crucifixión by Antoni Clavé Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Connoisseur of Hearts](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/connoisseur-of-hearts/) - Inscape Staff From the Archives Connoisseur of Hearts Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Poem For My Wife, Christina, on Our 8th Wedding Anniversary](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/poem-for-my-wife-christina-on-our-8th-wedding-anniversary/) - Editors Inscape By Dante Di Stefano You’re awake in the kitchen and I’ve just gotten up in the bedroom. The children are sleeping still in their separate rooms. Soon, we’ll all start our day together. Our daughter will scribble fire on looseleaf as our son crawls across the floor, which our daughter will say is lava, From the Archives Poem For My Wife, Christina, on Our 8th Wedding Anniversary Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Even Jesus Asked Where God Was](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/21/even-jesus-asked-where-god-was/) - By Renee Emerson Each week the technician presses the wand across my womb. I know better than to ask for interpretations, the half-heart still flickering, a bird’s wing caught in a trap. Cells multiply slowly, turn aside docile as winter leaves. I throw away my harp, no longer interested in what God knows. If Editors Inscape From the Archives Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [To the Shopkeeper on the Corner in East Jerusalem](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/21/to-the-shopkeeper-on-the-corner-in-east-jerusalem/) - Editors Inscape By Sira Quintili From the first day I moved into the neighborhood until the day I left in a hurry, I went to your shop. Your brother was always the only one there, serving the neighborhood kids who would come with their mother’s money clutched tightly in one hand, reciting the list of things Creative Nonfiction Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Teeny Tiny](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/29/teeny-tiny/) - By Jessica Mohsen-Crellin I have teeny, tiny plants that sit on my crooked windowsill. Speckled in sunlight and basking in the dirt, these teeny, tiny plants never seem to grow. They never seem to stretch their neck or widen their reach. They just sit there, remaining teeny and tiny, and on my crooked windowsill. One Editors Inscape Creative Nonfiction Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [A Bleeding Body](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/29/nonficion-a-bleeding-body/) - By Natalie Serber oneThe ponytailed girl runs through a green park in white jeans. The camera focuses on her backside. She can wear white even that time of the month. She winks and turns a cartwheel. I don’t yet have that time of the month, but I ask my mother to buy me kotex to Editors Inscape Creative Nonfiction Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art # - [The Confessional Door](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/29/the-confessional-door/) - By Tighe Flatley Tommy knew that he would lie to the priest, even before he opened the confessional door. He was 10 years old to the day. Tommy’s birthday lined up his First Reconciliation, as if God Himself were ushering him through two gates at once. The fourth-grade class from Bishop Fitzpatrick Catholic was in Editors Inscape Fiction Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art # - [Bone Magic](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/20/bone-magic/) - Fiction Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Magic lived in my grandmother’s hip, but it didn't live in her only granddaughter at all. #Bone Magic - [Buck Fever](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/20/buck-fever/) - By William Musgrove Terry shook. In the distance, the imaginary image of his first buck grazed on the top of whiskey bottles. Beer foam covered his top lip like a milk mustache, making him look older. His trembling hands brought up an imaginary rifle, and he closed one eye. As I wished for my own Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Fiction Buck Fever - [Fishy Lips](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/18/fishy-lips/) - By Anna McIllece Of her work Fishy Lips, Anna McIllece shares, “An ode to my mother, and her spirit. She is pictured with a salmon she caught back home in Alaska.” - [Empty House (de Jong)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/empty-house-de-jong/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Art Empty House (de Jong) By Gabriella Warnick - [Sitting Small in a Big Room](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/sitting-small-in-a-big-room/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Art Sitting Small in a Big Room By Savannah Liddicoat - [Incompatibles](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/incompatibles/) - By Abbigael Luchs Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Art Incompatibles - [After Matisse](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/after-matisse/) - By Aleta Goodwin Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Art After Matisse - [Set Ablaze](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/set-ablaze/) - By Anna McIllece Anna McIllece says of her work Set Ablaze, “This piece is inspired by my home combined with my identity. Some parts of me are invigorated by my new college life, and some parts are embering out and letting out life. I’m in a middle ground stage in my life, a gray area, but - [Beautiful Death](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/beautiful-death/) - By Aleta Goodwin Aleta Goodwin was raised on Air Force bases all over the United States. She currently resides in Utah and is attending Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah and is a BA Studio Arts candidate. - [Observation One](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/observation-one/) - By Gabriella Warnick - [Gathering](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/gathering/) - By Berkeley Richard - [Into the Wilderness](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/into-the-wilderness/) - By Max Fisher Max Fisher is a visual artist currently residing and working between Victoria, British Colombia, and East Idaho where he currently attends school as a BFA student. Max attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver for a year before moving on to Brigham Young University in Utah and eventually - [Quechua People of the Andes Mountains in Peru, 2022, #4](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/quechua-people-of-the-andes-mountains-in-peru-2022-4/) - By Lisa Harbertson - [One Piglet's Dream](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/09/12/one-piglets-dream/) - By Keaton K. Yee The game is surprisingly red,like sunrise, fallen leaves, fire ants.Passes aren’t pigskins but comets or shootingstars. Every spiral not deflected is deemeda success. The players have obsessions:energy drinks, tape, getting a faster jumpon the snap. When tackling starts,sunlight glitters with the electricityof splashing water. Yes, peel me. Wrap my skininto an - [The Casino Life](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/the-casino-life/) - By S. T. Brant I have suffered all in thought, and set that sun of pain within the heart to flame and flame and flame and burn the happy expectancies of life that I may show the Sovereign Chance, the mean shadow of sweet Caprice, Demiurge and Diceman, the dealer in the desert that knows - [All of Them, Witches](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/all-of-them-witches/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art From the Archives All of Them, Witches By Erin Rhees Who cares if you float or sink in Lake Constance? Everyone knows you’re a witch. Conjure milk from the handle of an ax. Grow plots rich with slippery elm and nettle, charm the neighbor’s ox to speech. Listen, it was Mother who first clotted cream with a glance, who, in smothering dreams, - [On Eternity](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/08/on-eternity/) - By Cosenza Hendrickson Sundown swallows rise at the fresh of each morning. Where children dammed the stream, the cattle - [Your Existence Is Impolite](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/your-existence-is-impolite/) - By Clarissa Walker I have an extra tear duct. You can see the little hole in my face, like a pin prick, just below its working counterpart. Every time I show someone they ask if it works. I feel a little reluctant to tell them, “No. It doesn’t work.” I don’t know if it ever - [Intersections](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/05/intersections/) - By Bethany Jarmul A place within my memory, an intersection. A minivan full of dreams, desires. Frozen by red light. Knock, knock, knock-ity, knock. The sky cracked, hail shards cackling against metal and pavement. I’m a passenger, a child strapped in the back, ignorant of destination or direction. I wonder: where do birds go - [A Real Classic](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/08/a-real-classic/) - By Cosenza Hendrickson Something happened when he recommended Anna Karenina. They were sitting on her grandmother’s rickety porch swing one evening in May. Fields of corn and alfalfa stretched out before them in the gold light like a frayed heirloom quilt. She was leaning her head back, waaaay back craning it till it hurt—because she - [Slaughtered](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/slaughtered/) - By Lucas Zuehl It’s August, and I am thinking of old friends. I count the house numbers, my shoulders sweating under the guitar case strapped to my back. Even in this Minnesotan neighborhood, which tries very hard to be an antithesis of the South, the wet air steers my thoughts to Nashville. We shared two - [Burning Barns](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/05/burning-barns/) - By Steven Fromm Even before Hall settled into his chair he looked out his window and saw that Mary Tyler Moore’s office was dark. He called me in. I didn’t feel any honor in that. I was just about the only one left. “She’s not there,” he said. “Maybe she’s late.” “She’s never late,” Hall - [Sympathy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/sympathy/) - By Maddy Schow Anise’s favorite poisonous plants were delphinium, oleander, and lily of the valley. Especially lily of the valley, which she’d wanted in her wedding bouquet even before she knew the flowers could put a man into cardiac arrest. After she learned that tidbit, it had sounded even more appropriate for a wedding. A - [S L O B](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/s-l-o-b/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Fiction S L O B By Shayla Frandsen “Slob,” the cashier said. The harried woman looked up from where she was setting a bundle of bananas on the conveyor belt. “Excuse me?” The cashier smiled at her. He looked like he was eighteen years old, maybe not even that. Sixteen, probably working his first job. And looking like he knew - [Panda Paradise](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/30/panda-paradise/) - By Nidhi Agrawal - [Bond / In time](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/04/bond-in-time/) - By Larissa Hauck - [Cedar Curve](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/30/cedar-curve/) - By Torrin Omokoh - [Paper Hive](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/04/paper-hive/) - By Torrin Omokoh - [Ownership: Las Chorreras del Cabriel](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/04/ownership-las-chorreras-del-cabriel/) - By Amber Wilkin - [The Diligent Child](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/04/the-diligent-child/) - By Edward Supranowicz - [Portrait](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/22/portrait/) - By Hannah Wehrmeister - [Symbiosis](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/22/symbiosis/) - By Amber Wilkin - [Sunset Over the Bayou](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/sunset-over-the-bayou/) - By Noelyn Campbell - [Deep Lake Colors](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/30/deep-lake-colors/) - By Torrin Omokoh - [(untitled)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/30/untitled-12/) - By Cosenza Hendrickson Time is an untuned harmoniumthat Muzaks our nights and days. and we are foreverjostling each otherin and out of that God-rhythm they call love— last night,for instance,we were hurting each otherat the end of a perfect day,under the floodlights that loomed over us, their brightnesscold and hollow as an empty theater. Time - [Two Self-Portraits](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/22/two-self-portraits/) - By Amit Majmudar 1. Self-Portrait as Sanskrit Letter A crossbeam. From it, My body dangles, Limbs in a tangle. “Language of the Gods”— I’m sure having a devil Of a time learning it! The Gods point at me And read along With a cosmic guffaw: ह, ह, ह, Ha, ha, ha. - [Poem Meant to be Folded](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/22/poem-meant-to-be-folded/) - By Amit Majmudar Symmetrical, supple, creatively creased Half flesh held flush, the body’s embrace This lover alone hand that fits right, Paper plane creation commences and the self seeks The poet is a page in a stranger’s pocket along at least one warm from the walk or slipped in an envelope, Love relies on division. - [Self-Portrait of Southeast L.A.](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/22/self-portrait-of-southeast-l-a/) - By Jose Hernandez Diaz Riding the bus up Imperial Hwy, to the Weaver Library, I peer out of the graffiti-laced windows and see a piñata dangling from the tall branches of a willow tree at - [Awakening](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/10/24/awakening/) - By Jonathan Travelstead The little god sits up. Wet with moon, winds around their little finger a frothing of clouds. What I could do if only a little wind, if only a little water. Lonely with human story, they hear an alien voice, their own: Take a bit of cumulus & fashion earth. Of cirrus - [Dibéłchí’í (Brown)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/dibelchii-brown/) - By Leah Gaush My skin was white. It was always white. White when I sat in class. White when I played in the cul-de-sac after school. White when I stood to sing in church. White when we went on family vacations. I saw it as white, and I knew it as white. White until one - [Of Toros and Toreros](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/04/of-toros-and-toreros/) - By Sarah Safsten: A strident trumpet sings, and bullfighters enter the Plaza de Toros. “Please take your places for the paso doble!” - [Ten More Seconds](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/22/ten-more-seconds/) - By Samantha Sweetin The Goal Nothing mattered more to me than winning. Friday-night lights shone down on the pitch, fans littered the stands, and the score was still zero to zero. I looked down at my mud-clad jersey then back up at the scoreboard. Five minutes left! When the soccer ball was at - [Indigo Black](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/indigo-black/) - By Leah Gaush There wasn’t ever an announcement made by NASA that 15-year-old me didn’t know about. I believed in the ripples in the creek behind my house, and I believed in the magic that Hubble revealed. It was simple: I was sick of human complexity, so I turned to God’s. Indigo black and diamonds - [The Summer of the Sharks](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/01/the-summer-of-the-sharks/) - By Becky Tuch Fred’s phone was ringing. Her daughter. “It’s ready,” Lily told her. “You can come anytime now.” “What’s ready?” One of the few perks of being in your seventies, Fred felt, was that you could pretend, at certain opportune moments, to be losing your memory. “The room, Mom.” Fred didn’t say “what - [Heather Called](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/heather-called/) - By Kath Richards I was at home watching a K-Drama when Heather called. My phone screen was cracked so it looked like Holly might be calling, which was weird since we’d just talked ten minutes before, but I picked up anyway. “Yo,” I said, wedging the phone between my neck and shoulder. “Hey big boy, - [Elvis Lives](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/10/24/elvis-lives/) - By Gary Duehr DUBUQUE, Iowa — The Casino Elvises set to kick off the parade at noon were pushed to the rear because a late-summer thunderstorm in Chicago had stranded the Australian team. In the 87-degree heat of the SuperSavers parking lot, the spangled floats hauled by tractors made way for the Marching Nine-Foot Elvises - [Kissing in the Street](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/kissing-in-the-street/) - By Kalli Abbott There’s something about a dimly lit street in a college town at 10:14 p.m. Maybe it’s the haphazard placement of lights on the telephone poles—not enough to see faces from a distance, but just enough that my eyes quickly adjusted to his face. We’d been in the parking lot a few - [Genesis](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/genesis-2/) - By Mauri Pollard Johnson In the beginning God created . . . and the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. I have sat down an incalculable number of times, just as I am doing right now, to write the origin story of my eating disorder—if - [Nine Lessons and Carols](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/nine-lessons-and-carols/) - By Paul Brownsey As the years went by, I got really worried that Richard was turning religious. In the beginning, we wanted to spend Christmas alone together, a celebration of the miracle of finding each other. On Christmas Eve, as we made our excited preparations, the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, - [Death](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/death/) - By Chanel Earl They built a sign on the corner of Center and Main. It had little tracks to run the letters along, like movable type. But the letters fell off and the youth dance became the “YOU A CE,” or the “ O TH AN E”—I can’t remember which. Maybe it was the “ OU - [Isaac and the Lamb](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/isaac-and-the-lamb/) - By Toriann Molis Longinus spoke to him only once. He came across the prisoner slumped against the wall in meditative silence. Bruises blossomed over his dark face and seemed to shift and dance under the light of Longinus’s torch. His eyes were half shrouded by flickering shadow and blood-matted hair. It was late, and Longinus - [Based on a True Story](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/based-on-a-true-story/) - By Christi Leman Marta’s baby daughter loved The Magic Flute, especially Papageno’s duet. “Pa. Pa, pa,” Marta sang along to the recording every day, and her baby bounced in her jumper with each syllable. The baby’s wet mouth imitated Marta’s, making soft popping noises. “My little fish!” Marta cooed, and read the baby Kafka while - [Volcanic Cones (Boulder Nevada)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/03/18/volcanic-cones-boulder-nevada/) - By Shay Putnam Somehow I’ve wandered free from my wild lands. Towns where houses lean like drunkards, and broken wheels line the road, that homeless trudge lost as prayers— here it’s easy fighting for violence, and hard fighting for peace. A ragged place, with iron crosses nailed over rough wood doors. Where they teach - [Ode to Edges](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/25/ode-to-edges/) - By Karen George – Terse edge of celery you split with incisors. Crunch of crisp chicken skin, how the salt/fat taste releases. - [Kinesthetic](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/27/art-kinesthetic/) - By Michael Moreth Michael Moreth is a recovering Chicagoan living in the rural, micropolitan City of Sterling, the Paris of Northwest Illinois. - [We](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/we/) - By Anelise Leishman So, who’s older? People love to ask this question. The script is one we’ve memorized well: My sister was born first, but there’s just one minute between us, so it doesn’t count. It was a C-section, my mother explains, and they were side by side. Really, it just came down to whose - [Translation of Relics](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/13/translation-of-relics/) - By Elizabeth Tervo With apologies to Giorgi Lobjanidze and to Rumi “The Fall of the Albatross” by Sydnie Poulsen “Our knowledge is but borrowed. It is a problem for our souls,” wrote a poet in a faraway language translating an even farther away language which is the issue of fairytales: I will never - [Fragments from Ernesto and Leti](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/28/fragments-from-ernesto-and-leti/) - by Isaiah Rubio “caves” by Janessa Lewis He rode The Beast. She walked miles. On The Beast, he said, I saw a man fall off to the tracks. Just gone. She set off from a small village in Jalisco at 15, said, I was the only girl there. All the other people were men. - [The Moving Target: Writing Fiction about the Pandemic, a Craft Essay](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/06/the-moving-target-writing-fiction-about-the-pandemic-a-craft-essay/) - Sean Madden describes how to use the COVID-19 pandemic as inspiration in fiction writing. By Sean Madden, Inscape Staff In the early days of COVID-19, the spring of 2020, I distinctly remember driving around town with my young family, with no particular destination in mind; the mere act of leaving the house was daring - [Baptism at Eight and Eighteen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/03/10/baptism-at-eight-and-eighteen/) - Student Selections poem by Abigail Marchant – Waist-high, warm and wet, poured half an hour ago, like so much unchlorinated bathwater. - [Fall 2021 Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/fall-2021-editors-note/) - Dear Readers, Writing is a soul-baring endeavor, but nothing feels so vulnerable to me as sharing and submitting my work. By submitting, I choose to send a little piece of myself—my time, energy, efforts—to a friend or an abject stranger and say, “What do you think?” It’s horrifying, maybe, or it’s exciting, or both, and - [Interview with K.A. Hays](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/interview-with-k-a-hays/) - K.A. Hays’ most recent book is Anthropocene Lullaby (February 2022, Carnegie Mellon). She is the author of three prior books of poetry: Windthrow (2017), Early Creatures, Native Gods (2012) and Dear Apocalypse (2009). Her poems appear widely in journals and have been selected for two editions of Best American Poetry. Born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, she earned an MFA from Brown University. - [Interview with Amy Leach](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/interview-with-amy-leach/) - Amy Leach grew up in Texas and earned her MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science and Nature Writing, and numerous other publications, including Granta, A Public Space, Orion, Tin House, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is a recipient - [Vibrations Through Wire and Air](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/13/vibrations-through-wire-and-air/) - By Kirsten Burningham “Uprooted” by Samantha Snyder As a college freshman, I stretched my wings, and it was irritating to feel my mom’s desire to tether herself, ever so slightly, to me. I took pride in how little I needed—perhaps, even, how little I wanted from her. I can’t remember exactly what was bothering - [A Car Ride, Beastie Boys, and John Lennon's Ghost](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/a-car-ride-beastie-boys-and-john-lennons-ghost/) - “riot grrrl!” by Evie Darrington NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN! Count of 15 on the beat keeping time, head nodding and finger tapping— Your cup holders carry expired coupons, the dented tiara from when you were crowned prom princess (you swear you ran as a joke), and those tinted circle hippie glasses, the ones with - [One Clear Voice](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/one-clear-voice/) - By Celisa Fullmer We were lucky to even be there. Beating diligently overhead, the sun penetrated the plains with a dry heat, contending with gusts of Albertan wind in periodic spats. It whipped at our ponytails and howled in our eyes, yanking the moisture straight out of their blurred corners. It quarreled with the truck’s - [A Bullet for the Renafern Man](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/a-bullet-for-the-renafern-man/) - By Benjamin Vance When the lawn mower engine exploded and the barn caught fire, Mom got the boys together and told them that everything happens for a reason. They were young boys—all three of them between the ages of seven and twelve—and they had never seen such a fire before, nor had they seen a - [A Few Miles Off](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/a-few-miles-off/) - By Ella Jakobi “Unknown Body II” by Katelyn Garcia “How far are we?” she asked. “Only five hours from,” he replied. “Great.” “Great.” They had been married for about a year and would not be together for much longer—a fact they both knew but were hesitant to admit. No one wanted to be the one - [Interview with Darlene Young](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/interview-with-darlene-young-2/) - Born and raised in Utah, Darlene Young currently lives in South Jordan with her husband and sons. She received her BA from Brigham Young University (1994) and, after raising her family, returned there for her MFA (2014). She teaches Creative Writing and Literature of the LDS People at Brigham Young University and Brigham Young University-Salt - [Interview with Agata Szczeszak-Brewer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/interview-with-agata-izabela-brewer/) - Agata was born and raised in Poland. She came to the U.S. as an MFA student and graduated with a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina. Her publications include a forthcoming memoir, The Hunger Book, scholarly books on 20th-century literature, as well as essays and short stories in Guernica, Black Warrior Review, - [Interview with Alyson Hagy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/interview-with-alyson-hagy/) - Alyson Hagy grew up on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She is a graduate of Williams College (’82) where she twice won the Benjamin Wainwright Prize for her fiction and completed an Honors thesis under the direction of Richard Ford. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of - [Interview with Desirae Matherly](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/06/interview-with-desirae-matherly/) - Dr. Matherly’s doctoral area is creative nonfiction and she is a former Harper Fellow at The University of Chicago. Her recent writing appears in Hotel Amerika, Assay, and Fourth Genre. Matherly is the winner of the 2018 Curt Johnson Prose Award in Nonfiction sponsored by December Magazine and in 2019 her short fiction won the - [Interview with Rob Carney](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/01/interview-with-rob-carney/) - Rob Carney is the author of eight books of poems, including Call and Response (Black Lawrence Press, 2021) and The Book of Sharks (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), which was named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Additionally, he is the author of Accidental Gardens (Stormbird Press, 2021), a collection of 42 flash essays - [Interview with Emily Inouye Huey](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/interview-with-emily-inouye-huey/) - Emily writes historical fiction for children and teens. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and is a former teacher. Interviewed by Madison Maloney Inscape Journal: Tell us a little about you. Where are you from and what do you like to do? Emily Inouye Huey: I’m from Provo, Utah. I went - [Interview with Matthew Wickman](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/interview-with-matthew-wickman/) - Matthew Wickman is a literary scholar and professor of English at BYU. He specializes in Enlightenment and Scottish literary and intellectual history, as well as postsecular theory and criticism, and has published over forty articles and book chapters, two monographs, and a memoir. Interviewed by Jennifer Chriss Inscape Journal: Were there any books that inspired - [Interview with Rio Cortez](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/interview-with-rio-cortez/) - Originally from Salt Lake City, New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez currently resides in Harlem, where she writes poetry and picture books. Interviewed by Ellie Smith Inscape Journal: Who are some of your favorite authors or the authors who’ve inspired your work? Rio Cortez: One of my favorite contemporary writers is a poet called - [Interview with Melanie Rae Thon](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/02/interview-with-melanie-rae-thon/) - A native of Montana, Melanie Rae Thon is an award-winning short story and novel author who lives in Salt Lake City and teaches at the University of Utah. Interviewed by Whitnee Forest Inscape Journal: I love your view, expressed in “The Gospel of Grief & Grace & Gratitude,” of writing as a practice of recognizing - [Interview with Jill Christman](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/interview-with-jill-christman/) - Writer, editor, and activist Jill Christman is the author of If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays, and two memoirs. She currently resides in Muncie, Indiana, where she teaches creative nonfiction writing and literary editing and Ball State University. Interviewed by Tricia Cope Inscape Journal: Can you tell us about the title of - [Interview with Eric Freeze](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/08/interview-with-eric-freeze/) - Eric Freeze grew up in southern Alberta, Canada in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies. He studied creative writing and African-American literature in the US, getting a PhD at Ohio University and eventually teaching at Wabash College in Indiana where he is a tenured professor. He writes both fiction and creative nonfiction, and teaches in - [Interview with Aimee Bender](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/08/interview-with-aimee-bender/) - Aimee Bender is the author of six books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the - [Love Poem to a Heartbroken Zombie](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/27/love-poem-to-a-heartbroken-zombie/) - By Hollie Dugas – Let’s get you some paper, you can paint me organless if that’s what turns you on. - [Ode to My Pulmonary Emboli](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/26/ode-to-my-pulmonary-emboli/) - Ode to My Pulmonary Emboli by Jennifer Saunders is an honorable mention from Inscape's Valentine's Poetry Contest. - [Handlebars](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/27/handlebars/) - Creative Nonfiction by Brigham Child – I biked home from campus without touching the handlebars. It really wasn’t that impressive—only .7 miles, all downhill. - [Faeries](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/03/03/faeries/) - Faeries by Ilse Eskelsen depicts a sister relationship through an exploration of faeries and nature. - [The Media Menu: Making Pop Culture Foods](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/27/the-media-menu-making-pop-culture-foods/) - Which movie quote lives in your head rent-free? There are iconic quotes and scenes, but what about iconic food? Butterbeer, beignets, and more! - [Ode to Showers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/26/ode-to-showers/) - Ode to Shower by Molly Smith is an honorable mention from Inscape's Valentine's Poetry Contest. - [Ode to an Electric Guitar](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/25/ode-to-an-electric-guitar/) - By Neah DePoe – If God's angels have any sense, they'll trade in the harps for electric guitars. - [Anatomy Study II](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/anatomy-study-ii/) - By Malachi Wilson Malachi Wilson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Provo, Utah. His practice approaches art-making and art consumption in a holistic way, sourcing inspiration and materials not just from different artistic mediums, but also from different fields of study altogether including chemistry, anthropology, and philosophy. - [Opal Aquarium 2](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/22/opal-aquarium-2/) - By Sarah Stoddard Sarah Stoddard is a senior in the BFA studio arts program currently living in Meridian, Idaho. She loves music, reading, animated movies, and documentaries about animals. In her collages she mixes images she associates with memory and imagination to create 2D daydreams—nonsensical scenes, odd pairings, curious encounters, personal sanctuaries. She finds inspiration - [Zoological Garden](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/zoological-garden-opal-aquarium-2/) - By Sarah Stoddard Sarah Stoddard is a senior in the BFA studio arts program currently living in Meridian, Idaho. She loves music, reading, animated movies, and documentaries about animals. In her collages she mixes images she associates with memory and imagination to create 2D daydreams—nonsensical scenes, odd pairings, curious encounters, personal sanctuaries. She finds inspiration - [Architect](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/architect/) - By Conner Cushman Conner Cushman, raised in the stark and sheer landscapes of New Mexico, developed an inclination for the unflinching and unorthodox. He carries this aptitude into his endeavors as a musician and visual artist, and is devoted to sharing impactful experiences via charged composition and imagery. Fascinated with the body as an emotional - [Bee Wings](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/bee-wings/) - By Courtney Lehikainen Courtney Lehikainen is a senior in the photography program at BYU. She specializes in fine art and darkroom processes. Courtney was born and raised in Modesto, California, though she now resides in Utah Valley. - [No Mixing](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/no-mixing/) - By Aïsha Lehmann Aïsha Lehmann is an artist based in Provo, Utah. She is currently in Brigham Young University’s Studio Art BFA program, with minors in sociology and Africana studies. She is an artist and researcher, grappling with the complexities of identity in race, ethnicity, gender, and spirituality. As she researches, she examines academic studies - [Remnants Reimagined](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/remnants-reimagined/) - By Daniel A. Johnson Daniel A. Johnson was born in 1993 and currently lives and practices art in the state of Utah. During his senior year of high school, he was introduced to art through photography and AP painting class. After entering Brigham Young University, he was accepted into the Bachelors of Art program in - [Would You Swim in an Integrated Pool?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/would-you-swim-in-an-integrated-pool-2/) - By Aïsha Lehmann Aïsha Lehmann is an artist based in Provo, Utah. She is currently in Brigham Young University’s Studio Art BFA program, with minors in sociology and Africana studies. She is an artist and researcher, grappling with the complexities of identity in race, ethnicity, gender, and spirituality. As she researches, she examines academic studies - [Hiraeth](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/hiraeth/) - By Malachi Wilson Malachi Wilson is an artist, writer, director, and musician whose compulsion to create drives him further and further into his interdisciplinary practice. His humorous and personal inquisitions explore culture, mankind's relationship to destruction, theology, and the human condition. - [Piety](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/piety/) - By Malachi Wilson Malachi Wilson is an artist, writer, director, and musician whose compulsion to create drives him further and further into his interdisciplinary practice. His humorous and personal inquisitions explore culture, mankind's relationship to destruction, theology, and the human condition. - [It's Not Up To Me](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/its-not-up-to-me/) - By Maddie Lytle Maddie Lytle is an art student who specializes in portraiture. She is getting her BFA in studio art from Brigham Young University. As an artist, she considers herself a storyteller. Her paintings are stories, either ones she has heard or ones she has lived. Her philosophy is, in the words of Maya Angelou, - [Last Column of a Collapsed Temple](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/last-column-of-a-collapsed-temple/) - By Tyler Slade Tyler Slade is currently a student at Brigham Young University majoring in philosophy and minoring in both global women’s studies and creative writing. She is originally from San Luis Obispo, California but currently resides in Provo, Utah. When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her climbing, printmaking, or shooting film photography. - [The Buffet Menu](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/the-buffet-menu/) - By Caley Abliez Caley Abliez is a senior majoring in art education and minoring in contemporary dance at Brigham Young University. - [I Finished All My Shows](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/i-finished-all-my-shows/) - By Caley Abliez Caley Abliez is a senior majoring in art education and minoring in contemporary dance at Brigham Young University. - [FM 1489](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/fm-1489/) - By Madyson Ysasaga Madyson Ysasaga is a BFA candidate at Brigham Young University in studio art. She works across a wide variety of media including photography, sculpture, installation, and performance. Her work is primarily influenced by her personal biography. At the age of eight, Madyson was diagnosed with a critical life-threatening genetic disease called Cystic - [The Annunciation](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/the-annunciation/) - By Thomas De Groff Thomas De Groff is a cartoonist and a third-year English major from rural Utah who dabbles in poetry, fiction, and religious art. - [Heed the Warnings](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/heed-the-warnings/) - By Brianne Anderson Brianne Anderson is a figure painter from Southwest Florida. She is a senior in Brigham Young University’s BFA Studio Art program. Her work and art practice is focused on human relationships, narrative, fiction, curiosity, and the absurd. - [Could This be Eden?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/could-this-be-eden/) - By Erica Nelson Erica Nelson is a Utah-based artist whose work spans a variety of mediums including ceramics, drawing, digital media, and painting. Her current body of work explores concepts pertaining to Eve and Eden in a modern-day context. Erica is currently working towards a BFA and an Art Education Teaching License at Brigham Young - [Sorting and Ordering (Bags)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/08/sorting-and-ordering-bags/) - By Megan Arné - [The Lookout](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/the-lookout/) - By Amelia O’Neill - [la jefa](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/la-jefa/) - By Mario Alcauter - [Calm My Worried Mind, Dear Lord](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/calm-my-worried-mind-dear-lord/) - By Jenna Conlin - [Advice Cloud](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/advice-cloud/) - By Myleka Bevans - [Good Morning](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/good-morning/) - By Madison Banfield - [Next Door](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/next-door/) - By Samira Herber - [Census](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/census/) - By Aïsha Lehmann Tanner - [Tied](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/tied/) - By Sara Lindsay - [Sisters](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/sisters/) - By Katelynn McKinnon - [Mossy II](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/mossy-ii/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Carrie Jube Everett Art Mossy II - [this preceded you! 2](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/this-preceded-you-2/) - By Samantha Atzbach Art Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art this preceded you! 2 - [this preceded you! 1](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/this-preceded-you-1/) - By Samantha Atzbach Art Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art this preceded you! 1 - [My Hypothetical Contribution to the Bible](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/my-hypothetical-contribution-to-the-bible/) - By Eleanor Larson Art My Hypothetical Contribution to the Bible Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Many Hands Make Light Work](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/many-hands-make-light-work/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Caley Abliez Art Many Hands Make Light Work - [What am I really?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/what-am-i-really/) - By Aïsha Lehmann Tanner Art Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art What am I really? - [Touching the Color Line](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/06/touching-the-color-line/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Aïsha Lehmann Tanner Art Touching the Color Line Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art By Aïsha Lehmann Tanner Art Touching the Color Line - [In the Loveland Aquarium](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/in-the-loveland-aquarium/) - By Sam Niven School children shrill the air. Muddy sneakers trample clerical carpet, confronting sleek nature with graveled world. But the two-toed sloth, algae browning like mistletoe on her upside-down back, confronts nothing. She nods through the leaves. Her branches tilt into waltz, bend as she clings, as she climbs, each movement reaching between height - [Talking Before Dawn](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/talking-before-dawn/) - By Rebecca Billings Before you go, you should know that they won’t understand—except the smallest hayseed. You will lay your head on the cold lap of a rock in wrinkled trees and bleed out while your white knights sleep on in each other’s arms. You will go, and you will tread the winepress alone. Your - [Ombra della Sera](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/ombra-della-sera/) - By Sam Niven By mid-June the rain had stopped. I met him in Volterra, after sifting through uneven coins in Etruscan urns. He waited an hour. Naked, his smaller-than-life body like rusted blackcurrant, his sagging gut wide as my thumb. Twenty-three hundred years of boyhood preserved in that sleek box. The murmur of a smirk - [Great Lake Prayer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/great-lake-prayer/) - By Danny Daw Our pickup whinnies to a halt On the anemic shore. My boots Slink into cold sand, coal-black, Flecked with sterile clumps of grey. Surging the curling brush, A muddy fog of mosquitoes Swells in tandem With the stained-glass Surface of Lake Erie. The briny air is tinged with the stink Of dead - [Overindulgence](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/overindulgence/) - By Madison Banfield I'm hell-bent on transformation. I'll become the Thanksgiving Turkey if it kills me. I'll gorge On everything I see until they Have to get a dolly to roll me To class. Bring out the miniscule Platefuls, bring out those tiny Portions. Dish me dishes one After another and I'll eat until Two - [On Melancholia](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/on-melancholia/) - By Sarah Safsten Content Warning: This essay contains a frank discussion of suicide that might be difficult for some to read John Keats once wrote that melancholy and beauty dwell together. He certainly seems qualified to make that assertion—he suffered the deaths of his close family members, desperate financial straits, career difficulty, bouts of depression, - [The Garden](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/the-garden/) - By Zach Murphy The wildflowers wilt over their own feet as I trudge through the dusty, jaded soil. One of my legs is broken. My mouth is parched. And my stripes burn. I wonder if the workers before me dealt with this kind of heat. I wonder if the workers after me will suffer even - [Antibiotics](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/antibiotics/) - By Micah Clemence Fallout from Nukes five years ago. Stop of Government four years ago. Decay forces you and Johnny away from the city two years ago. Failure of Johnny’s immune system against infection four nights ago. No antibiotics except at St. Mary’s. No entry allowed past armed guards, perimeter patrol, watchtower, twenty-four hours a - [BFGF](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/18/bfgf/) - By Eleanor Larson Eleanor is a BYU student and artist. She makes art inspired by her domestic and spiritual life. - [Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/18/holy-the-firm-by-annie-dillard/) - Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard is an extended prose poem grappling with the horrors of the world while maintaining an essence of hope and beauty. - [Lovey](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/11/lovey/) - Lovey by Ilse Eskelsen – Student Selection piece exploring the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship. - [This Might Get Awkward by Kara McDowell](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/10/this-might-get-awkward-by-kara-mcdowell/) - This Might Get Awkward by Kara McDowell is a wonderful rom-com with a healthy dose of sunshine, social anxiety representation, and swoony mystery boys who play guitar and occasionally quote Taylor Swift. - [The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/01/29/the-goblin-emperor-by-katherine-addison/) - The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is a political fantasy that shucks away that limitation, and manages to be hopeful, intricate, melancholic, and nuanced all at once. - [Familiar](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/05/familiar/) - By Brooke Ochs - [Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir ](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/02/04/project-hail-mary-by-andy-weir/) - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a science fiction novel following Ryland Grace, a junior high science teacher, and his quest to save the earth from calamity. - [The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/10/the-lost-apothecary-by-sarah-penner/) - The Lost Apothecary, a novel by Sarah Penner, is a celebration of the special relationships that have bonded women together through the centuries. - [The Hollow](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/29/the-hollow/) - By Mikayla Johnson – Midday. Dog bark, tree bark. We ditch Grandma’s party, we three, darting through the Hollow, leaves glowing jade and saffron around us... - [Skin](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/01/28/skin/) - Creative Non-Fiction Essay by Megan McOmber – The outer layer of the skin is replaced thousands of times over the course of a human life. - [The Secret History by Donna Tartt](https://inscape.byu.edu/2025/01/20/the-secret-history-by-donna-tartt/) - In her debut novel, The Secret History, Donna Tartt lets the reader into an elitist Greek program of a tight-knit group of students that seem relatively normal at first glance, but something sinister lurks beneath the surface. - [Not Yet Blue](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/29/not-yet-blue/) - By Britney Wells – Like snow driven over wide lakes, your children turn to leave, one by one, chins high, tall strangers under awkward flickering... - [Sapphire](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/12/07/sapphire/) - Short Story by Madison Banfield - I was a fire; I was blue flame consuming everyone who loved me, raging against the world, impassioned and lustful... - [When Elements Collide](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/13/when-elements-collide-organic-bananas/) - By Alexandra Mazzola Alexandra Mazzola is a chronically disabled creative artist who enjoys painting, drawing, and writing. She wishes to become an art therapist someday, working with the youth and adults with disabilities, to help them overcome their struggles and feel hope and strength. Her passion and purpose in life is to make everyone - [Two](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/two/) - By Chloe Allen “Forever” by Phyllis Green I don’t remember you. I should, shouldn’t I? I should see you in my own reflection—in my eyes, my nose, my smile. Does it make me a bad sister, a bad twin, do you think? For not remembering those moments when it was just us two, when - [Self-Portrait as Flying Turtle](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/self-portrait-as-flying-turtle/) - by Carol Berg “Florida Woman Survives Being Hit By Flying Turtle”—Huffpost headline I am old-born and come haunting you through sky-encounter. You misunderstand the messages I bring of knees and breasts. The knots of the air are uninvolved in this four-cornered world of windshield. My leather - [Sunday at the Farm](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/sunday-at-the-farm/) - By Craig Evenson Content Warning: This poem contains contemplations of suicide that may be difficult for some to read. I forget how old I was when I saw my grandpa’s rifle leaning in a corner of the entryway, sat down on a stool, set my head on the end. But I remember well the - [Deserted Highway](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/29/deserted-highway/) - By Alexander Dunn – This happened over twenty-five years ago, when being stranded on the I-25 stretch between Sheridan and Jamison... - [It's Not About the Gloves](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/its-not-about-the-gloves/) - By Miriam Arce When I tell you the story about how I lost my old pair of leather gloves, I hope you understand that it is not about the gloves. When I tell you how angry I got, how I looked for them everywhere, and how I spent an entire night crying, please understand - [Leave the Lights On](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/29/leave-the-lights-on/) - By Atticus Pixton – At St. Fillan’s Mental Institution, there is one room in the West Wing, whose light is always on... - [Interview with Joani Elliott](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/27/interview-interview-with-joani-elliott/) - Joani Elliott has taught middle-school English as well as writing at Brigham Young University and the University of Maryland. She is the author of one novel, The Audacity of Sara Grayson, and lives in the Salt Lake City area with her husband, with whom she has two daughters. For book club resources, virtual author chats, and Staff Interview with Joani Elliott Inscape Staff # - [How to Survive a Horror Movie](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/29/how-to-survive-a-horror-movie/) - By Richard Scott – There was a blazing fire out past the cornfield. Jamie was squinting as she drove past, trying to make out what it was . . . - [Cinders](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/29/cinders/) - By Ariel Hemloch – Ding, Dong. . .The church bell sang the midnight chorus - [Hypothesis on the Human Brain](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/28/hypothesis-on-the-human-brain/) - By Jacob Nef – Lightning strikes, painting Sam’s silhouette against rows of books. Like a dark synapse between neurons . . . - [Dressing for Mass](https://inscape.byu.edu/2016/09/30/dressing-for-mass-2/) - by Brian Doyle It is not now the fashion to dress meticulously for Mass, and I cannot say that I completely mourn the old custom, for it is inarguably more comfortable to wear khaki pants and my Boring 1950s Dad Sitcom Jacket than a suit; but on days when I see young men wearing surfing – Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Interview With Kimberly Garza](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/10/18/interview-with-kimberly-garza/) - A native Texan—born in Galveston, raised in Uvalde—Kimberly Garza is an assistant professor of creative writing and literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The Last Karankawas is her first novel. Interviewed by Kate Romney Inscape Journal: To start off our conversation, I read in a previous interview that you said, “I’ll always - [Halloween Short Story Contest](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/09/27/halloween-short-story-contest/) - Submit to our Halloween Short Story Contest | First place: $50 - [Winter 2024 Alumni Issue Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/winter-2024-alumni-issue-editors-note/) - Dear Readers, When hired as editor-in-chief at Incape Journal in December 2022, I felt inadequate, to say the least. Though I’d had a life-long love affair with literature and the opportunity to lead the journal thrilled me, I struggled to look past my hodgepodge resume. With an undergraduate degree in elementary education, a six-year gap - [Winter 2024 Acknowledgements](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/20/winter-2024-acknowledgements/) - Publication First thanks goes to Brigham Young University, the College of Humanities, the Department of English, and every creative who has studied at BYU for any length of time. Thank you for your work. Thank you for the longevity of your support. A special thanks is due to every BYU alum who submitted to this issue Winter 2024 Acknowledgements Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art - [Winter 2023 Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/16/winter-2023-editors-note/) - Editor's Note Winter 2023 Editor’s Note Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Dear Readers, It took many sailors to man a pirate ship. In the Golden Age of Pirates (approximately 1650–1726 AD), a pirate crew consisted principally of a captain, his first mate, and a quartermaster. The captain was the director of all affairs, his first mate the second in command. The quartermaster worked as liaison between - [Fall 2023 Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/20/fall-2023-editors-note/) - “All things are possible to him that believeth.” —Mark 9:23 “The questions of the meaning of living and the cosmos are just that, true questions, posed by . . . the linguistic, ‘moral, believing animal,’ who consciously and in reality encounters and raises them. These true questions inescapably entail dialogue with others and creative engagement Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Editor's Note Fall 2023 Editor’s Note - [Agitation, with Commas](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/agitation-with-commas/) - Agitation, with CommasDownload - [Lenticular #30: From the Uncreated](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/lenticular-30-from-the-uncreated/) - by Emily Bell - [Lenticular #25: In the Silence](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/02/lenticular-25-in-the-silence/) - by Emily Bell - [On Eternity](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/04/05/on-eternity-2/) - By Cosensza Hendrickson Sundown swallows rise at the fresh of each morning.Where children dammed the stream, the cattle egrets poseand the water spills - [Would You Swim in an Integrated Pool?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/01/21/would-you-swim-in-an-integrated-pool/) - By Aïsha Lehmann Aïsha Lehmann is an artist based in Provo, Utah. She is currently in Brigham Young University’s Studio Art BFA program, with minors in Sociology and Africana Studies. She is an artist and researcher, grappling with the complexities of identity in race, ethnicity, gender, and spirituality. As she researches, she examines academic studies - [Angus Stowe Discusses Scotch](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/03/angus-stowe-discusses-scotch/) - By Joshua Gage ---after Tony Hoagland The larva giggles when it’s drowned in tequila. The apple weeps in the - [Interview with Michael Lavers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2017/01/27/interview-with-michael-lavers/) - Michael Lavers has poems that have recently appeared in Best New Poets 2015, The Hudson Review, Arts & Letters, 32 Poems, Hayden's Ferry Review, and elsewhere. He teaches poetry at Brigham Young University. Inscape: I want to ask first about the poem you read at the beginning of your reading on Friday—“Just Walking Around,” - [Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/editors-note-8/) - I love Inscape so much. I’ve worked as part of the journal for three years, and every week Inscape has been one of life’s good lights. I have made so many friends, learned so many things, and passed so many storms in Inscape. Every Thursday at 5:30, I have had a place to retreat, to - [Relapse](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/13/relapse/) - by Isaiah Rubio With this handgun - [Fallen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/09/art-fallen/) - By Nicholas Rex - [Greenhouse Vending Machine](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/09/art-greenhouse-vending-machine-2/) - By Madeline Rupard - [The Fall of the Albatross](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/09/art-the-fall-of-the-albatross/) - By Sydnie Poulson - [riot grrrl!](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/09/riot-grrrl/) - By Evie Darrington - [Unknown Body II](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/08/art-unknown-body-ii/) - By Katelyn Garcia - [Organic Bananas](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/03/01/organic-bananas/) - By Marissa Albrecht Marissa is a visual artist that finds excitement in everyday environments and material. Her artwork elevates the ordinary and allows items to be seen for something other than their original function. Marissa graduated with her MFA from Brigham Young University and now shares her love of art with her own students. - [Digging in the Iris](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/10/21/digging-in-the-iris/) - by Caroline P.M. West “Opal Aquarium 2” by Sarah Stoddard Wooded fibers fine as cornsilk Weave through these iris husks I’m handling. None passed away—they died here in the sun-warmed earth I dig in. Transplanted crowded colors that my neighbor tried to trash for clashing rowdy with her roses: I, fierce salvager, knew a - [Wild Geese](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/wild-geese/) - “Fallen” by Nicholas Rex By Abby Knudsen Within an hour after slipping off the little cliffside, she accepted that she would die there, among the juniper trees and sagebrush and sand. While she lay there on the rocks at the bottom, unable to stand, she grazed her fingertips over the familiar place where her left - [Heliocentric](https://inscape.byu.edu/2017/04/12/heliocentric/) - by Hayley Rawle The sun arrived on a chariot and cruised past the remnants of Saturday which had fallen in piles on the lawn in the nighttime and heaped like clothes next to the unmade bed of Nicolaus Copernicus, who woke up late to the gilded light of mid-morning thickening in his bedroom, his - [Red in the Sun](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/11/04/red-in-the-sun/) - by David Veloz “Searching for light” by Max Fisher Bring home to me my tools, my ladder, and let me build a kitchen or a patio. Let my bald head turn red in the sun. I sleep outside by the elm now, I read at night. Your carburetor is shot, cranked tight in the vice. - [Like You and My Knees](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/11/04/like-you-and-my-knees/) - by David Veloz “Ashley” by Aïsha Lehmann I’m eating all the time, but I need more. My shirt fits like a wolf or like a wolf suit on a woman who starves herself for love. My ribs rattle when I sleep, my knuckles puff when I crack them. If I ask you to fish me - [Speak: Book Review](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/12/18/speak-book-review/) - Speak is a compelling and emotional novel that deals with topics relevant to teens and adults, making it an important addition to the world of literature. - [Beneath the Wide Silk Sky: Book Review](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/05/23/beneath-the-wide-silk-sky/) - Emily Inouye Huey's novel exposed me to American internment camps and the devastation preceding them. - [The Goblin Emperor: Book Review](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/10/06/the-goblin-emperor-a-book-review/) - Hopeful and intricate, melancholic and nuanced, this is exemplary political fantasy. - [The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: Book Review](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/04/25/the-graveyard-book-by-neil-gaiman/) - Reading a story by Neil Gaiman is like reading gravestones in the fog. - [Lovely War: Book Review](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/12/18/lovely-war-book-review/) - Lovely War’s prose is consistently breathtaking. No wonder its narrators are divine. - [Spinning Silver: Book Review](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/12/18/spinning-silver-book-review/) - Spinning Silver stands as a beautiful and unique fairytale retelling that, even with its basis in the familiar Rumpelstiltskin narrative, is still full of twists, mysteries, and unknowns. - [University Place](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/13/university-place/) - By Marissa Albrecht Marissa is a visual artist that finds excitement in everyday environments and material. Her artwork elevates the ordinary and allows items to be seen for something other than their original function. Marissa graduated with her MFA from Brigham Young University and now shares her love of art with her own students. - [Caves](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024/02/29/caves/) - by Janessa Lewis Janessa Lewis was born in 1998 and is from Springville, Utah. While receiving her BFA from Brigham Young University, Lewis has been in several group exhibitions. She makes work that revolves around the human experience with land and how the earth is transforming. The earth is the common thread that weaves - [Greenhouse Vending Machine & Clubhouse At Night](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/13/greenhouse-vending-machine/) - by Madeline Rupard Madeline Rupard is an artist and educator. Born in Utah and raised on the East Coast, she grew up moving frequently around different parts of the U.S. and traveling across long distances. She paints pictures to describe the overwhelming sensory effect of the modern American landscape and the experience of moving through - [Thetis](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/12/thetis/) - By Courtney Lehikainen Her name was Thetis, and she was from the sea. And like the sea, she could not die. She ebbed and flowed, her mood changing with the centuries. At times she beat the rocky cliffs into sand relentlessly, drowning sailors and sending ships to the bottom of the sea that was also - [Winter 2022 Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/04/14/editors-note-12/) - Everything is an attempt. My friend taught this concept to me last year, pointing to my favorite novel (the one I cherish above all others, the Holy Grail of books as far as I am concerned) and said simply, “That was just an attempt by the author. It’s all attempts.” I’d never thought of it - [The Catalyst](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/the-catalyst/) - By Steve Mahlum I didn't want to go home, but the nagging beeps sounding from my wristwatch reminded me I could delay it no longer. Flicking the switch on the terminal I had stared at all afternoon, I reluctantly broke away from my research. A part of my mind seemed connected to the computer, for - [Hawk of the Hieroglyphics](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/12/hawk-of-the-hieroglyphics/) - By Teresa Keenan His deep-seated anger reflects in his silence. One eye perched against a color. Black invisible thoughts/ decoding the sky. Once I saw him diving towards me, craving more air under his wings, but I moved out of the squirrel body. I felt no pain when claws landed. Just a gush of air. - [Angelica](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/12/angelica/) - By Lisa Madsen sixteen, sits straight in purple print grapes skewed sideways at buttons and talks of decisions. - [Trout Fishing](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/05/trout-fishing/) - By Carrie Sandholtz Fishing, we whiskey-rhythmed, river-sieved, waiting on pepper-tongued trout and whispering. Autumn's eve: twilight quickens the white of his sleeve, lisps in the eucalyptus silvering, sings in the plink of the shot; he lets it sink, stiffen the line, sees the moonshine nip at the hook , deep in the eddy's silt. At - [The Cord](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/05/the-cord/) - By Mark Crimmins I walk a cracked path Strewn with the big confetti Of autumn. Maples, their limbs coarse with age, Scatter crisp paper shapes About me, on me, Making air a winding stair. Across the stream, Frayed roots clutch for water, And saplings, their extremities Dissipated to hair, Lean west, Shadows pulsing in their - [Sara](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/12/sara/) - By Lisa Madsen past childbearing, swells some strange fruit above her hips, her own guts needing more space to hurt. - [Warming House](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/13/warming-house/) - By Randy Hawkinson It was early morning. When I answered the phone two people began talking on the other end. One said Ben had locked himself in the bedroom with her, and the other said to hurry. One thanked me and then they both hung up. My mom and dad walked into the kitchen. I - [3 Writing Prompt Ideas That Keep On Giving](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/04/11/3-writing-prompt-ideas-that-keep-on-giving/) - With their open-natured, recyclable uses, these writing prompts can spark unique ideas. - [3 Tips for How to Make Your Writing More Engaging](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/11/18/how-to-make-writing-engaging/) - Apply these advanced, yet uncomplicated writing tips to engage your readers. - [6 Tips from the Daily Writing Routines of Famous Authors](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/03/21/daily-writing-routines-of-famous-authors/) - By looking at successful writers, we can gain inspiration and learn what motivated them to write. - [Proceedings of the November meeting of the Society for Mythopoeic Psychoanalysis and Monday Night Football](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/proceedings-of-the-november-meeting-of-the-society-for-mythopoeic-psychoanalysis-and-monday-night-football/) - by Nancy Bernbrock Ladies and Gentlemen, we have for you today two erudite papers related to Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Our first speaker, the noted Jungian analyst, Dr. Dan Brainbank, has a case history of interest, and our leading anthropological researcher, Dr. Maude H. Mead, has what she calls a “note” on a new discovery that - [How to Become a Successful Writer in 5 Steps](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/03/31/become-successful-writer/) - Some tips to help you become a successful writer, no matter where you're starting. - [How to Be Original as a Writer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2023/03/14/https-inscape-byu-edu-how-to-be-original-as-a-writer/) - You can be original while also using one of the ideas you love so much. - [First Night Home](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/09/23/first-night-home/) - by Barry McKendry With little Nathan at her breast, my wife she rocks a lullaby of maidens fair and unicorns that fly in starlit night-time. I cat-walk to their side and softly lift my hand to feel the shudder of her ember flesh and gasp at his tiny snowflake hands. Barry McKendry is - [Hotspell](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/10/21/hotspell/) - [Fair Moon, Clear Sun](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/11/04/fair-moon-clear-sun/) - by Aaron Edwards I. When You Are A River, Sometimes “Daddy, who wrote this?” These days I cry the mountain rain so oft And all the world’s a windowpane Protecting me from all the soft Joy contained within, so when The poem at this point - [](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/11/18/10641/) - [Mensonge](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/11/18/mensonge/) - by Brent Pace I don't wish for an end to The storm under the orchestrated Sighing of this spruce The needles have lost their sharpness Under me. I have forgotten bitter Sap, and I have forgotten the Wind that used to hollow me After our meetings. Your skin is dry after a second Bathing. You've been - [House in the Marsh](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/25/house-in-the-marsh/) - by Eric Whiteside Fisherman don't have to live in it.Just long enough to getout of the rain.No matter how broken down,a house is better than the marsh.The sun might set from left to right several timesbefore they reach the living room, butthere's a roof. It leaks a little,but it's mostly dry inside.There's a deck of cards - [House of Milk and Honey](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/25/house-of-milk-and-honey/) - by Daniel Harper While I took a showeryou snuck through my doorplaced on my kitchen tablea one pint bottlefrom the "House of Milkand Honey" that heldthree daffodils, dressedin the richest yellowthat filled my apartmentwith a gentle perfume.Wealthier than old Solomonwith all of his gardensI forgot my worriesof overdue booksand made an omelettewith green peppersand sharp cheddar - [Winter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/25/winter/) - by Cody Winchester One December, a horsefell through ice andcouldn't reach bottom indark winter water.After that, we didn't glideon slippery paths anymore.When ice turned to slush,we stood silent andwatched chains aroundthe bloodstained skullgrow taut and black tires dig.The dogs and birds ate awayany flesh above the iceand after the first thaw,a tractor pulled out the rest.Around - [For Flannery O'Connor](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/for-flannery-oconnor/) - by Jill Hemming My grandma always saidher favorite glasseswere thick cat-eye shapeswith fake cut diamonds.The kind you wear in the portrait ·at the back of your book.Your buck teeth wagglelike they'll poke to 3-Das I shut this coveron your crazy hair that puffstoo silly. You don't looklike you ever went to a formaland I bet the - [Confirmation](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/confirmation/) - by Marni Asplund Campbell Some timeI'll show you a pictureof your concrete arrivalin a small glass tube,authoritative, lab-like,filled and mixedwith litmus blue, oracid pink-some chemical codethat I must crack to seeif you exist.I turn to set the dock,wait for your message,and you reply too quickly:I am here,in cloudy color.I falter, and slowly siton our cold floor,call - [A Letter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/a-letter/) - by Paul Rawlins I've eaten fresh brown bread and yellow cheeseFor a late supper, sipped peppermint teaWhile I studied frost etchings scratched againstThe kitchen window, and toyed with writing youA letter. Sue, I'm doing better nowWith winter. I sleep late, and I've burnedHalf a ton of coal to ash for warmth, whileKeeping watch on half-a-dozen scrub - [Porcupine Days and Nights](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/porcupine-days-and-nights/) - by David D. Jensen Porcupines sit in the high meadowspulling down alfalfa blossoms,turning into patches of darkbrush as the sun dies.In starlight they climbto the tallest topsof trees and sleep late.They dream nice dreams,salty shovel-handle dreams.They remember thingsin a melting collageof ice cream carton memories.In the afternoon they stretchand point their spines sunward.They wash their facesand - [For Joe Urzza](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/for-joe-urzza/) - by Cody Winchester Last spring the kid up the roaddied in his closet.We rode the same yellow bus.Once I told him to turn downhis cheap black boombox.Balanced on his shoulder, heplayed it heavy and loud.Even before the rope methis fine Basque neck,I could have told you his story.I never saw it myself, butwe went to the - [At Geology Lab in Idaho (With My Lab Partner Kerry)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/at-geology-lab-in-idaho-with-my-lab-partner-kerry/) - by Jill Hemming We hover over numbered rocks,seeking cleavageto match diagramsin the textbook. "These are the bosomof the earth"our professor cries,like a faroff bird. We strain for textures,hold them to our eyes;I line them up again and againlike convictswith digits on their chests. But Kerry handles themlike Easter sugar eggs.She understands the equilibriumof a rock, how - [Descending a Ten-percent Grade on a Bicycle at Midnight: Sundance, Utah](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/descending-a-ten-percent-grade-on-a-bicycle-at-midnight-sundance-utah/) - by Scott Elgin Calhoun it is better than any lipstickyou have ever taken off the hotmouth of a woman, even betterthan the best wooden roller coastersin the moonlight without a helmetI follow the yellow linemy only guidethe windslicking my hair backlike a mannequindropped from a biplanethe engines of loverswhir inside parked and heated carsat the edge - [Uncle Al](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/24/uncle-al/) - by Eric Whiteside Uncle Al's blue healer had a litter of puppies,and only one survived.That's the way it was with dogs.People woke up and found them bleeding from the mouthfull of shot for chasing chickens,stiff on the doorstep.One pup was carried away by an owl,and Al ran outside with a shotgun,his boots unlaced, but all he - [Falling into the sea in bits and pieces: San Diego 1989 (for Millie)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/11/falling-into-the-sea-in-bits-and-pieces-san-diego-1989-for-millie/) - by Scott Elgin Calhoun On the board walk in Mission Beacha drug deal goes downbetween the palmsof two surferswhile I sit on the balcony with my Grandmathe wooden roller coaster at Belmont Park is fallinginto the sea in bits and piecesGrandma is eating bagels and strawberriesand dying. When I was twelve she wouldswim out into the - [Between Here and Verdi, Nevada](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/11/between-here-and-verdi-nevada/) - by Jill Hemming We would have stolenthe motel ashtrayand crossed the border,but the car broke down,slid into a ditchand imbedded itselfin dirt and glass,and stumbling we followedthe edge of highwayto the next dried-out town,sprung like a weedscattering worn-out bedsat ten bucks a night.Inside, the vanitylit like a circusrow of orange bulbs;we stood ourselvesin the glassand sucked - [Zambia](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/11/zambia/) - by Paul Rawlins When Mason was a boy, he says,A boy and an old black manCould walk savannah pasturesWith the wildebeest and zebraDays and days on end.They walked without a pace,Ate to fill their bellies,Slept when they grew tired,Nights in long-stemmed yellow grass,Or under baobab shade in afternoons;Closed their eyesWithout the need to dreamIn Zambia. God - [Angel Hair Streams Down (For Deirdre)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/11/angel-hair-streams-down-for-deirdre/) - by Scott Elgin Calhoun It is Februarywe have been married six monthsand all our appliances still work perfectly.We have 100 watt light bulbs burningall over the house, plastic over all the windowsa small fire.There is a gap where the cold windblows under the door.It is true that our house is not well insulated. But today is - [Catfish](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/11/catfish/) - by Alex Faletti We stop at the 32nd Street Market, "Third World Market." It'safter midnight, and I look over my shoulder as I leave the car.Sue wants to read, so she stays behind."I'll be right out," I say, and I lock the door.I dodge a half dozen kids carrying groceries for a buck, wonderwhy they're out - [Cemetery Day](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/11/cemetery-day/) - by Paul Rawlins We're late getting up to the cemetery this year. Usually we're upearly in the morning, Grandma and my aunts bustling aroundthe kitchen between arranging flowers and getting dressed whilethe rest of us finish breakfast. This year it's two o'clock before weeven start up town where my Grandpa Rawlins is buried in theLewiston City - [Protection](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/protection/) - by Nyle Smith "Please don't protect me," crosses my mind as I watch myfather-in-law brush the leaves from the tiny grave. He and I havenever been particularly close, although we have reached that comfortable equilibrium where we recognize that even though hisdaughter is my wife, she's still his daughter, and even thoughshe's his daughter, she's my - [Rhythms](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/rhythms/) - by Marni Asplund Campbell My father's heart is strong and scarred, bound in spots bythread, a delicate patchwork of veiny fabrics. I imagine, whenI talk to him on the telephone, his physical presence. I can hearhis breathing in the brief pauses before he answers a question-a necessary affectation, no doubt, after years of playing thelaw professor, - [Babyloo Across My Twinkling Floor](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/babyloo-across-my-twinkling-floor/) - by Stephenie Swindle Clark Redbank's porch faces my porch, and I have seen him tumble-rumble the twenty-two steps that lead off of it. It was the summerI learned to drive and I was like I always was, sitting in the yellowchair with a hat and some water. It was sunshine and a radio onupper dial stations. - [Woodshedding](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/woodshedding/) - by Paul Rawlins I first learned about woodshedding in Vancouver.I tell people sometimes that I did studio work while I was inB.C. What I did was rough framing: tacking together two-by-fourskeletons, screwing heavy sheets of gypsum board to naked framesand standing them as walls. But I did this in a studio.The studio was in Raphael's backyard. - [Pablo Campues, Saint](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/pablo-campues-saint/) - by Henry Miles In Quito, Pablo worked in a match factory, made seventy-five centavos a day, lived in a cave house his own hands had hollowed in the mountain. In his thirties, he learned that the stone of Daniel 2:44 cut from the mountain without hands, had begun to roll, would grow like a snowball, - [Missouri](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/missouri/) - by Stephenie Swindle Clark The neighbors-two boys, dark-haired-are hitting the snow witha stick. Mother in a coat that rises and falls with the noon windis no one that they see. Her coat has a red leather collar and cuffs.Her head is naked. Her gloves are tight. Her high heels matchthe coat collar and cuffs- red. She - [Half Full](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/half-full/) - by Sam Andrus The moon strikes half full as I return, me and the moon. We talk, just me and him. We know the other half is there: dark, away, gone maybe. Me and him know it is not really gone: it goes but not really. Patience, we will on this night me and him - [Irish Identity in Seamus Deane's "Reading in the Dark"](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/03/04/irish-identity-in-seamus-deanes-reading-in-the-dark/) - by Peter Jasinski In Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark, Deane presents us with the childhood of an unnamed narrator who tells the story of his troubled family in postwar Northern Ireland. As the boy stumbles through the complexities and ironies of the adult world, he slowly increases in social and political awareness. The novel takes - [Another Spring](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/25/another-spring/) - by Amy Harris Something is wrong. It is blue—somewhere between navy and royal. A couple of teeth are missing, but it still works well. I have never paid so much attention to my comb before, but this morning it suddenly seems immensely important. Important because I can hear people in the kitchen talking, an - [Chivalry, Love Physiology and a Reevaluation of Sir Gawain's Sin](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/25/chivalry-love-physiology-and-a-reevaluation-of-sir-gawains-sin/) - by Daniel Brough For most people, Arthurian legends make wonderful bedtime stories: they are full of heroism, courage, romance, and triumph. To me, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight seems to be a different kind of Arthurian legend; in this case, the hero is fearful, conscience-stricken, and persistently seduced by another man's wife--and chis, in - [Raconteur](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/raconteur/) - by Shauna Lee Eddy Raconteur, he says. Because I like words, he says raconteur expecting me to know. I don't, and this amuses him. He laughs as he eats the black beans and rice on his plate. Next to the salad, I like the beans and rice best. The Torch's Bar-B-Q chicken isn't all - [Riding the Bus](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/riding-the-bus/) - by Davey Erekson Day 1 The bus was silent. I leaned back in the uncomfortably small seats and breathed deeply. Long day. The hour commute from school to home seemed painfully long as the bus stopped and flipped its doors open every two minutes. I thought of all the homework that needed to be done and let my backpack sit on the - [Preserving the Rhetorical Nature of Writing Centers When Going Online](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/11/preserving-the-rhetorical-nature-of-writing-centers-when-going-online/) - by Lisa Eastmond Peabody As of mid-September, 1999, there were 278 online writing centers linked to the National Writing Centers Association Website," and the number is growing (Leander 3). With such swift advances in the world of technology, American universities feel the pressure to be on the cutting edge, which often means giving in to - [Annunciation](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/02/04/annunciation/) - by Maryjan Gay Munger Donna Yeates, my mother's friend, was once Mary in the ward Christmas program. As herself, she had no children, couldn't even gain weight, which seemed to me part of the problem. She sighed to my mother that though she drank straight cream, her face never softened, her arms bony as bird - [Out](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/01/28/out/) - by MaryJan Gay Munger Some angry day in March I plan to leave you, my devourers, my loves. On the way out I'll overturn the kitchen table, send books and papers crashing onto the blue ceramic tile. Grinning, I'll swing myself out the door, leaving dirty dishes in the sink and all the lights in the - [Linda](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/01/28/linda/) - by Pilar Stewart Texas is hot red dirt plastered hard and dry heat rattling. Linda remembers seeing rattlesnakes—ripe poison huddled with her in the storm cellar; it was a choice between the snake and the storm. She talks of Baptist ministers, sweat stained collars, heavy hand on the Bible, speaking of damnation. In Texas hell - [Blues at the Vacaville Fair](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/01/28/blues-at-the-vacaville-fair/) - by Jill Hemming to be the only girl at the 4-H sew-off to not get a ribbonsince the lady in green gingham didn't think a wrap-around floral print flattered eight-year-old curves that you'd stood wooden-stiff with as all-wise eyes of seamstress judges frayed the edges you'd tongue-bitingly joined and piecedfor that moment snatched blue-satin glory on - [I Know Now What I Love You For](https://inscape.byu.edu/2022/01/21/i-know-now-what-i-love-you-for/) - by Maryjan Gay Munger It's that curve of skin between your neck and shoulder that somehow makes me think of lightly floured bread dough in a sunny kitchen. I'm glad to know it's this that binds me to you—especially when I thought it must be something more elusive, something like the smooth-grained timbre of your - [Chappaqua](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/13/chappaqua/) - By Jonathan Webber I ordered a cheap chicken dish; my date from Burley, Idaho, had a bowl of creamed celery soup. We asked for caviar just for fun and the waiter said, ''You have to order a meal.'' The bill was already thirty-five dollars we should have expected that in the Eduardian Room of the - [Sea Gull](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/13/sea-gull/) - By Lance Larsen I finish with the lawn when the mail truck pulls up. It's Saturday. The afternoon breeze has gotten hung up in the canyon, and the leaves of the transplanted aspens refuse to quiver. Above the street, a sea gull glides a vigilant circle, surveying by turn each house on the cul-de-sac. His - [The Turtle](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/13/the-turtle/) - By Melissa Knudsen The week before Thanksgiving when I was seven, I learned that turtles are indestructible. That day at school we had taped on the wall a six-foot tall paper turkey with twenty-five feathers-one for each of us to write our name on and color. I crayoned my feather purple and green and wrote - [Corned Beef For Dinner](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/13/corned-beef-for-dinner/) - By Cherry Douch Ted would leave, once more, today. He stood, holding his cordless pyjamas up, looking out the bedroom window. The hills behind his wife's house folded toward each other like a bunched quilt; humps of her violets grew on the edge of the orchard. She was not in their bed. Huia's hand was - [The Smiling Man](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/13/the-smiling-man/) - By John David Wolverton You could no longer distinguish single words or even voices. Out in the dining hall the inmates' shouting broke in waves against the wall, reverberating from the farther wall. The floor thrummed like a guitar string. Most of the cooks were backing away from the service doors. They would take a - [The Phone Call](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/13/the-phone-call/) - By Tim Hansen I was told at the time I was old enough to understand that I was the exact reincarnation of John Wilkes Booth, and that when I finally became a man, I would, discriminately of course, kill the President of the United States in the coldest blood imaginable. Having such an honorable duty - [Sleeping Out](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/sleeping-out/) - By Lance Larsen Frank got the idea driving home from work. He crossed the ravine and was turning into Applewood Estates when he saw it-an orange pup tent set up under a willow. The ropes that kept the sides from sagging were pulled taut, and the flaps were open. Two rolled-up sleeping bags lay inside. - [I Keep at Home Under Key](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/i-keep-at-home-under-key/) - By Gonzalo Rojas I keep at home under key two serpents of the dynasties closeted apart: Prorsa (so Stendahl called her) is longer and moves stealthily, Versa, the undulant one; the two of them fly like swans through the air of the night when I bid that they make their ballet; daytimes instead they sleep - [Poem of the Peach Spring](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/poem-of-the-peach-spring/) - By Tau Yuan Ming Tau Yuan-ming (365-427 A.D.) became a Chinese bureaucrat after a life of poverty, but he lasted only eighty-one days before tiring of his duties. He returned home to farm, tend chrysanthemums, drink, and write poetry. He wrote a story of a utopian society that lived beyond a spring in a peach - [Spring Night](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/spring-night/) - By Li Po Li Po (AD. 705-762) lived during the golden age of Chinese poetry, the T'ang Dynasty, and perfected the shon poem known as the Chyue-chiu. "Spring Night" is an example of this form. A chyue-chiu consists of four lines, seven characters to a line. Each character in the first and second lines corresponds - [The Whiteness of the Whale](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/the-whiteness-of-the-whale/) - By Dan Muhlestein False hue, Pernicious White Which, seeming To reveal the best, The bright, the spotless bride, The rest in Jesus--Believers' right-- The newborn babe upon whom light from Heaven's star Did fall when pressed the Magi first his lips upon the breast Of him whom nations would call Blessed , Doth really but - [Wizards and Elves](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/wizards-and-elves/) - By Cara Bullinger I have gathered strength in solitude, Like a spider tatting its web of soundless silver. There are no longer elves in these woods: The last wizard took them away With the whispered incantations of the trees. The stones speak no more of what They saw before I came to this grove, Because - [The Chalice](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/the-chalice/) - By Cara Bullinger One lunar dance before the spring equinox, She was an empty chalice on a stone altar, Draped with mold and rotted cloth, Crumbling under a sky of cindered stars. The dead, charred moon was the fruit After the sin, flung from the ivory hand Into the grass, shriveled, dark blood-red, Like wine - [From the Next Weird Sister](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/from-the-next-weird-sister/) - By Laura Hamblin It matters not that my ankles are shapely and graceful, Or that once, and I remember it well, They said I had a splendid head of hair- Perhaps the loveliest in all of Scotland. One need not be a beldam to be a witch. It takes only a desperate malignant need To - [The Pig War](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/the-pig-war/) - By Matt Mosman Friday Harbor, Washington ''The Britishers used to come down this trail To their camp, and their ships was out in that bay A-waitin for the battle. A red-coated guard would hail You as you come up, and he'd yell, 'Who goes there?' " I say But John, he just says, "What was - [This, The Summer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/this-the-summer/) - By L. Danielle Beazer Of women single Who walk th'eased step Of women alone Who stay indoors During summer storms Watch the streams Slip down the pane Against the mesh of screen. L. Danielle Beazer - [Feed Mill Faces](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/feed-mill-faces/) - By James Papworth Each morning sparrows come shrugging off the brownness of the only life they know. Cuddled in cracks they beak for lice. Streaked brick tells the story of their yesterdays. Chunks of dung litter rat-goings; they stare hard in search of hunger. Listen: they hum as they shell red wheat. Outside the feed - [Bharat](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/bharat/) - By Michelle Douglas to Kitaro ancient magic sings in the fertile wind and weaves the waving boughs into silence-the bovine tread quietly along the sacred roads, past marble temples graced with vine and faded gold-the buddah quietly smile in their humble shadows: all wise, gentle, round-bellied , and tall- the boy plays his stringed sarinda - [Ellen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/ellen/) - By Michelle Douglas The house is no longer her home: the gardens no longer filled with brilliant flowers her gnarled hands transformed into dancing ballerinas or sweet-scented bouquets in cut-glass vases. The stairs miss her footfalls, her thin, reedy voice singing of spinning wheels and parlors as she places jars of fruit on dust-free shelves. - [Florida Beach](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/florida-beach/) - By Rex Mohlman The old people come out early in the morning, Ambling, shell-hunting on the beach; Poking at blue translucent balloons Among the seaweed's tidal reach, Dead Portuguese men-of-war, a high moment When nothing is expected. Women wear sleeveless shirts, flabby arms, Kerchiefs over their hair, They are the leaders at this time of - [Moon](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/moon/) - By Lance Larsen It is almost too much-the fingers of sky, the hill like a great breast. I want subtlety, the wonder of a moon looking only like a moon, of things unfolding slowly and meaning nothing. I want to walk bare streets and pause beneath an upstairs window of an old house and say, - [A White-Haired Man](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/a-white-haired-man/) - By Gayanne Ramsden The air smells like onion, And autumn grapes, And leaves rolled up and crushed in your mind. Pumpkins and marigolds flame Color-bright upon eyes That see flowers bloom in the season's slow-brilliant death Under a warm grey Hallow' s Eve sky. Leftover summer roses and summer children's voices Linger into fall. A - [The Molting Season](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/the-molting-season/) - By Laura Hamblin I take my lizard skin in mouth, that which was moist, now transparent and dry. It once enclosed my being held me together. But it does no longer. I do not shed it to discard it. Rather, I retire to a solitude. Here, under stone, I eat my veins and scales, making - [Sheep Lake](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/sheep-lake/) - By James Papworth At dawn sucked into the basin of Sheep Lake frost releases its hazy hold. Naked grass bends. A crow barks its one command. Goat tracks spray the dirt with their nonsense, amble off in pairs through worn mud . Nightsounds disappear over the ridge fingering poke grass and rock. Halfway across the - [The Half-Life](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/the-half-life/) - By Cara Bullinger Here there is no death, no birth, Nothing but warm sand, still pools Of silence and water. She has stayed here with him, For how long she does not know, Smiling to see him laugh At the sun-speckled fish, the bickering gulls, And watching him write unfinished poems in the sand. Beyond - [Exodus](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/exodus/) - By Mark Crimmins A playful breeze precipitated The inevitable exodus. Clinging to parental limbs, In nervous throngs, The leaves conversed, Then trembled At the mandate Of wind, Sinking in air Onto a liquid path. Buoyant foliage In calm procession Populated the stream, Borne towards Jordan. Mark Crimmins - [Moons](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/moons/) - By C. Wade Bentley In the way the half-moon hangs like a lobe is the sense of someone listening, eavesdropping through blue-black chiffon without a rustle. In the light let through is all the gravity of confessional, the settling of dust on wide shoulders like starlit lint. And by quarters like grimaces the moon rounds - [Man of Corn](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/man-of-corn/) - By John David Wolverton I am but fruit to the Crows of Misfortune that hunt on jeering wing. My prayers cannot fell them, nor drive them afar, their dark forms swarm above me with reaping hook frowns purple tongues writhing with caustic derision. Yet I am beyond them when I shelter within, nurturing, as a - [Sailing Through Chicago](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/sailing-through-chicago/) - By Matt Mosman Here in August The air just sort of lies on you Like steaming barber's towels And you're sweating bullets From the minute you step outside To mingle your sweat With the hot stink of Vienna hot dogs And Polish sausage and exhaust fumes And to mix your wordless noise With the snap - [Palenqueo](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/palenqueo/) - By Laura Hamblin Oxygen gives no breath In the air Of overripe bananas And a temple concealed With sprawling vines. It makes the message Of a descendantless culture Difficult to interpret. You will not learn it From the one-time valley child Now suckling tequila, Nor from those With proper degrees Picking endlessly At the records. - [Christina's World](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/christinas-world/) - By D. Kendric Blake In Topeka I stopped To consider Christina's World, Flat and barren, Fecundity gone, And she, Christina, Impaled upon wheat On a forsaken burnt-brown hill Near her seasoned-grey house, Its shingles peeling in pieces Like boiled eggshells, While in pale-pink she winces To reason why a dead dusk sky Contains her world - [Don't Come Back for Jane](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/dont-come-back-for-jane/) - by Danielle Beazer This cold morning I let the dog out and walk barefoot with her. She is getting old, though she runs ahead, her half-wolf coat rippling over muscles. I follow her to a place beneath our hill where a river runs between two banks of brambles. She stops and lays her body in - [Melton Street](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/melton-street/) - by Mark Crimmins The first thing I learned when I got to Melton Street was that my mother's definition of a cottage and mine were different. I suppose all those illustrated editions of fairy tales I'd read had given me the impression, a cottage was a quaint little white house, nestled in a cradle of - [In the Hands of an Angry God](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/in-the-hands-of-an-angry-god/) - by Wayne T. Taylor A Poetry Drama in Three Acts CHARACTERS Thomas Metheus, 40, hom'bly scarred by smallpox. Helen Metheus, 30, his wife. Advocates the "Awakening." Isabel Metheus, 13, their daughter. Francis, 24, an itinerate peddler. Disciple of Enlightenment. Minister, 50, a friend of Thomas 's. Josiah Momson, 50, a dairy farmer. Mrs. Momson, 45, - [No Bird](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/no-bird/) - by Dave Wolverton The pickup on the mud road behind us pings as it cools. "Do you want to shoot one, Stevey?" Dad says. "You can if you want to." Steam comes out of his mouth when he speaks, and he sniffs loudly. "No," I say, standing close to him so that I can bury - [Noman Pastorro](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/11/noman-pastorro/) - by Warren Scott In June, when the thunderstorms came on the horizon at dusk to bring winter, my sister, Ele, wished from the roof of our home that lightning would stay longer on the sky. I would sit beside her, and once I said,'' If it did then who would care?" It was like telling - [The Sleek Silver Man](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-sleek-silver-man/) - by John David Wolverton I am the sleek silver man who runs alone in the moonlight. Katydids sing of decay, but the earth is my drum, my feet beat the pum-a-la, pum-a-la, pulses of life. I am the quicksilver man who moves on a meadow at midnight. Pocketmice jump for their burrows, a fox barks - [Gun Shy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/gun-shy/) - by Kate Jones First Place Personal Essay I remember when they got the pheasant stuffed. I didn't think it was ugly or scary or anything, just a beautiful shiny-green, shiny-red bird with very soft feathers. After Dad hung the mounting on Dan’s wall, I used to go into his room and stroke the bird and - [Arapaho Surrender](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/arapaho-surrender/) - by Pandora Dixon The circle drawn in a darkened cell. You stare through shaman nowhere: eyes flat black like scorched ground. No more magic on the plains, The grass has dried and withered to pavement. You ride the last horse standing on a cheap, splintered chair. Perched, arms out, you wobble like a flightless bird; - [The Dove](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-dove/) - by Lance Larsen Drops skitter across glass and bead like dew on a morning web. I connect the points with lines of air and watch vapor rise from furrows where just a month ago We knelt to plant. Already tulip shoots push through loam. The house is still except for the kitchen clock the shivering - [Personals:](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/personals/) - by Benjamin Wood Where rain and dirt mix thick as blood, green brothers hold reunions, and tulips fire before the wailing wall. Anyone please call. - [try piper](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/try-piper/) - by Philip White a sack of loose bones burden of a body made unfamiliar who can pipe this sagging flesh into song who can stir old swollen ankles into dance I say try piper wheeze old wind I am taken by strange pains but I will answer with my cry - [Women Friends](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/women-friends/) - by Danielle Beazer Is it the Rickie Lee in You and Me that tells us where the Wild Ones are and lets us rise like Robin's phoenix above our ashes? We did not collide with teenage suicide but left the door open for times when hoping seemed too unkind for us to stand strong and - [The Crazy Lady of Ching Shwei](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-crazy-lady-of-ching-shwei/) - by Carl Robertson Voice wrenched shrill like shattered china You sang in wind that whispered on wet rice blades Once the town's flowered bride, full-bloomed. He left In the green night when rice is high and jasmine smell pulls the belly You sing T'ang love songs by white boys' home and say his name. - [Summer Solstice](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/summer-solstice/) - by Carrie Sandholz Days age and fade like cheap cardboard. Another whey-faced noon rasps over the hardtack grass. We barely remember the ginger water chortle, the silver in the aspens. The rubber hose is hot, the water flat. When will autumn hover, break our brittle hearts, and bleed up the mountains. - [Iwalco](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/iwalco/) - by Ryan Cannon “Harry's Bait Shop. What a name. Don't these small towners have any originality?” Johnny opened the door and stepped out onto the gravel street shoulder. He shut the door and checked his hair in the tinted window. Mike walked around the front of the truck. “We order the herring here, and - [On Visiting Ezra Pound's Birthplace: Hailey, Idaho](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/on-visiting-ezra-pounds-birthplace-hailey-idaho/) - by M. Shayne Bell Pilgrims for a poet's words Go forthright singing-Anhes, Cembelins We rode three hours west Born of a ]ongleur's tongue, freely to pass Expecting signs and monuments, In scaled invention or true artistry But finding only photographs and clippings I have seen what I have seen Of mental wards and fascist broadcasts. - [Hero Sings the Blues: Music and Transformation in Black American Literature](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/hero-sings-the-blues-music-and-transformation-in-black-american-literature/) - by Mike Austin The blues isn't about feeling better. It's about feeling worse. And makin' a few bucks while you're at it. —Bleeding Gums, The Simpsons The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching con­sciousness to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend - [The Family Stones](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-family-stones/) - For Fred G and Grant Watson White by Philip White I Hours in bed devising a walking machine. One hand curled, enervate, like a heavy claw. Toes on one foot more twisted every day. One good foot still measures time beneath the sheets. II Already for weeks of unmitigated cold you talked of putting the - [The Next Day](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-next-day/) - by Danielle Beazer Of all the days, his was the quietest. No morning ever rose with such slow colors- The saffron hues fanning open the sky, Lengthening over the Blue Ridge With before-dawn sleepiness, Resting on the frosted barbed wire , The paling, splintered wood posts, The diadems in the dying grass, Filling frozen hoofprints - [Only](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/only/) - by Laurel Shelley You offer me a ride in your blue Subaru, And we stop at a Chinese cafe Filled with smoke . We sit and talk until the waitress stands With her pad and pencil waiting for our order; Then , we search the menu . We hardly notice the food when it comes, But - [Persephone In Hell](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/persephone-in-hell/) - by M. Shayne Bell Bah! Your lips taste of earth, woman. Wine-fill My cup. Good Hell's wine . No taste of earth In that. Pomegranates, was it? You ate Pomegranates as you walked down to me? Yes, and I saw the dead press in on you Trying to smell the leaves, the dung, the sweat - [Yeats as a Book of Mormon Prophet](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/yeats-as-a-book-of-mormon-prophet/) - by Shannon Foster Whiteside William Butler Yeats, the great Victorian poet, was also responsible for the creation of a unique critical theory known as the "gyre theory." According to the Norton Anthology, history is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground we have covered before, only higher up; - [Telex from Clytie: May 19, 1985](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/telex-from-clytie-may-19-1985/) - by Dianna Black It's not that I can't get by without you it's just that I wasn't lonesome before I met you. MY BACON SANDWICH WENT RANCID AND STAINED MY POCKET. STOP. SHELLEY GAVE THE FLOWERS TO SOMEONE ELSE. STOP. THE SUN DIDN'T RISE IN CRUEL APRIL. STOP. WHERE DO I TURN MY FACE? - [Do You Remember Night in Vila Sonia?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/do-you-remember-night-in-vila-sonia/) - by M. Shayne Bell Do you remember night in Vila Sonia? The scent of orchids blown from Morumbi? I'd little time for beauty, then, Maria. I faintly see the lights of deep Ferreira, Though dimmed by time, they whisper, soft, aqui. Do you remember night in Vila Sonia? I rode squat busses to Aracatuba And - [Inclination](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/inclination/) - by Stanley Thayne a mother and a daughter stand on a lawn looking down at a duck standing on a sidewalk looking down at a denim jacket that is draped over the curb. three ducklings scramble up the inclination. - [Because Laws Were Made to Be Broken](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/because-laws-were-made-to-be-broken/) - by Christine Spencer When the highway patrolman got off duty, he ate pasta in a booth, told the checkout lady a joke, and I was sitting in his car, laughing, wishing he'd pull me over, turn on his siren, teach me a little bit about the discipline of careful driving-you know, love me the way - [A Death in the Family](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/a-death-in-the-family/) - by Sterling Larsen I fell from the swings once, real high up. I pumped and pumped 'til my big toe blotted out the sun. The sky flipped upside down and I slipped. She loved him like sick-sweet candy and fast cars, but threw up on her wedding day, holding back peroxide hair and the veil - [Drinking in Scotland](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/drinking-in-scotland/) - by Sara Blaisdell It seems the obvious thing to do. In that way there is so much home here. The rain is a faithful machine designed to drown out wickedness, but for some reason the natives keep going. They're the only survivors. It has something to do with their huge black umbrellas. The strange man - [The Men Who Write the Dictionary](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-men-who-write-the-dictionary/) - by Karen McKnight Mozart plays softly on a phonograph as a dark circle of old, old men in Victorian burgundy leather chairs hunch over their literature and smoke pipes around a tall, tall fireplace. Knobby, wrinkled, itching fingers scan the pages of scientific journals and teen magazines as the men inhale the curly smoke in - [And This, Class, Is What Is Known as Refraction of Light](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/and-this-class-is-what-is-known-as-refraction-of-light/) - by Audrianne Porter My science teacher looks a lot like a trout in a suit the way his bottom lip protrudes from a spotted, leathered face his lake-bottom eyes, pebbles pushing out two rings of soft skin ripples pulsing from watery glasses reflecting the overhead light. He reaches to us with hands quivering like two - [Gluttony](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/gluttony/) - by Brenda McIfenna You won't like the black goose eggs, my best friend Rosemary said as she perfumed her hair with oriental spices and the steam of sticky white kernels. I'd eaten rice paper and seaweed that night, our first sleepover, but I believed she could scan my tongue as she still reads my mind. - [Birthday Letter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/birthday-letter/) - by Sara Blaisdell It's like this. I drove, no one knew. I drove around the beach, thought of our binoculars and plans, the stupid plans, to float away ­- careless fisherpeople, we said - never to return. I've gained five pounds since. I'd like to slice off pieces of myself. I'm not talking about metaphors. - [Stretna Nova Godina](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/stretna-nova-godina/) - by A. E. Marlowe “I need a woman to truly party beautiful,” he declared over uneasy eggnog through brown lashes and gray spectacle frames— how beautiful his subtleties! Tonight, tonight he can't walk when all day them kids walk where they want “take a walk, take a bus, take a break altogether!” the fresh stars - [Graffito](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/graffito/) - by Glen Fewkes Second Place Poetry Every word that drips out is just a Krylon commentary. Hop the fence and get into that mental railroad cemetery. I sketch a master plan. Angles. Each verb dropped is a blast of purple. I move the can like shaken-baby syndrome. Every ounce finds a home on the steel. - [Udine](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/udine/) - by Loren Higbee The night that Margaret got sick, we made the hasty decision to go and help (she was afraid of hospitals and wouldn't call an ambulance). The buses had long since stopped running, so we put on jeans and t-shirts and ran ourselves, even though their apartment was on the other side of - [Annie](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/annie/) - by Lance Larsen He drove a battered Desoto and apologized for nothing. He was married, no children, though his wife was hopeful. - [Upon Seeing the Mona Lisa](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/upon-seeing-the-mona-lisa/) - by Sally Taylor Steaming crowds kept us from her famous smile- And glass barriers, and uniformed guards who stood Bored, yet cautious. But we saw her lidded eyes Softly - [Copper Basin](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/copper-basin/) - by Jim Papworth The Muldoon Creek Road bounces us across its knuckles as we intrude; it wants to jar our memories. Clouds like dingy sheep drizzle their holdings into August, spraying the land with contempt. A herd of mosquitoes chokes the air, ricochets its whine off quaking asp, searches the poke of skin. The copper - [Washed and Flushed](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/washed-and-flushed/) - by David Veloz Sour but generous, our father drank water like wine, sipping, sniffing, and swallowing what seemed barely enough to wet the pipes; but at night he'd splash our turned-up faces, smiling pink from playing into the dusk, until there was water on our collars and on the floor. I had no idea that - [John Bastien-Lepage: The Potato Gatherers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/john-bastien-lepage-the-potato-gatherers/) - by David Veloz The horizon is women: potatoes like stones surround their fourskirts, folded as though they're shrouds and pillared about their legs-a canvas bone to gather on . Root rocks fill their bags the way clouds fill the horizon, clouds they claw for and pick like daisies in an Easter time . The earth - [Howard](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/howard/) - by John Davies In town a long sad face shunting a rumble turned into Howard Williams from Philadelphia tracking his roots. I owe America: tour buses roared sawing Wales in half as we talked and later I showed him our pet castle. Ghost yawns closing one eye then his other suggested that belonging might prove - [Black Bean Stew](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/black-bean-stew/) - by David Veloz Razorback Sam died in his suspenders, in the kitchen , over a pot of black bean stew. His daughters came in from the rain and played hearts by the radio, and when they got hungry, they found him in the stew. Two coronets and a tuba played at the funeral, and Sam's - [Making Fruit Salad](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/making-fruit-salad/) - by Lance Larsen Start with the rawest of fruits: - [Birds](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/birds/) - by Lance Larsen Sometimes it happens this way. You get a call, or the weather turns, and suddenly you' re left feeling the edges of an afternoon . You wonder what you believe . A man passes your window, a woman , but they' re like ghosts, . . negatives movmg across cement. The light - [On the Road](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/on-the-road/) - by David Veloz I drive my car to you. I drive my car until the tires get soft and my ears get sick of the radio. - [Elegy for Richards Coones](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/elegy-for-richards-coones/) - by Lance Larsen He'd prefer a preacher with a gap-toothed smile and enough moves to dribble his way through Purgatory. I sit in the last row, - [The House on Apulia Road](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-house-on-apulia-road/) - by Jacqui Biggs Larsen Grammy wants to sell the house. She's been living there since Grandpa built it in 1939. But since he died last Thursday, she wants to move. To explain, she tells us she never wanted to live so far from the city. She would have preferred a lot on the East side, - [The Patterns of Grief](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-patterns-of-grief/) - by Colin Bay My sister Pamela used to have a Partridge Family album with absurdly sappy lyrics and titles like "I Think I Love You" and "Stop and Turn Around, Somebody Wants to Love You ." Some afternoons when my mom was gone, Pam would put the record on, stand in front of the living - [Swede](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/swede/) - by Lance Larsen The last time I tried to write about Grandpa Larsen was over Christmas break. The fruit room door was open and the light was on over Dad's fly-tying desk, where a peacock feather lay among some half-tied nymphs. The basement was cold and quiet, except for the pipes humming with water. When - [Objet d'Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/objet-dart/) - by Zina Petersen It's simple. I am going to take off my clothes and my watch and my glasses (so that even if I could see what time it is, I couldn't see what time it is), and go into a studio that is seven degrees, and hold absolutely still for a million years. And - [Topman](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/topman/) - by William Powley Stop it, Topman says. Topman tells Kola, his wife, that on the roof he laughs, coughs, and dances, but now he is crying. Water from the previous rainfall runs down the gutter and cars zip by on the wet street. It is noon, light outside . But on the inside, where Topman - [Vivo Orfeo](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/vivo-orfeo/) - by David Veloz Jerry pulled his knife out of Orfeo's back. He stuck it in the sand and pulled it out again clean. Orfeo moaned and turned over. He had passed out on the sandbar after Jerry threw a warm beer at his head to get him to stop singing. Orfeo sang a high note - [Trusting Mother](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/trusting-mother/) - by Henry Woodbury Mother has been in Buffalo since she got out of the asylum, and now Alfie and his wife, Julianne, are bringing her home. Catherine and I talk about this on the way to the Greyhound station. I say, "Alfie says we can trust Mother." Catherine says, "Maybe he can, but what about - [To Resurrect](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/to-resurrect/) - by Derek Gullino Jewel said, "I ain't having no more dead people in this house,'' when the whole town saw Carrie lean over the side of the coffin and open Manny's mouth. Carrie was barely ten, and her voice, like all the girls her age, was louder and carried farther than the horn in my - [Dream Island](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/dream-island/) - by Lance Larsen I park under the cottonwood in the back, so that no one will nose around in my trailer. Two slots away is a Willys jeep, rusted, its axles sitting on blocks. I'm not worried about being robbed. I just don't like hauling around a burned trailer, knowing everyone is asking the one - [Advice to Writers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/advice-to-writers/) - INSCAPE What advice would you give to a poet just starting out? AGI MISHOL 1 think first of all, if you are a young poet, you should read a lot—see how masters did it and learn. Writing goes together with reading. Don't hurry to workshops, but find a poetry friend whom you trust, someone who - [Poets on Poetry](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/poets-on-poetry/) - INSCAPE What do you think is wrong with contemporary poetry? JOHN TALBOT Well, most of it is bad just because 1 think very few good poems get written in any period of time. That is to say, what's wrong with contemporary poetry is probably not specific to this period. It may be that we have - [The Creative Process](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-creative-process/) - INSCAPE Could you walk us through your writing process and tell us what it's like when you're sitting down to write a poem? JAY HOPLER When poems come to me, usually a line will just happen to come into my head. Then I probably have no idea what it means. And so I'll write that - [Adopted or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tears](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/adopted-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-tears/) - Scene 1: Take 1 It was September and it was hot. The sun melted the sky into waxy rounds. He looked up and thought he could peel it back to reveal black space freckled with Formica stars. instead, he let his limbs hang in the viscous water. She paddled around him; he watched droplets flick - [Textbooks and Breakfast](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/textbooks-and-breakfast/) - Lisa Fraser i. Apartheid is the vague sting of salivary activation when I am told "they suffered." ii. A great river. All sad black faces watch it heave slowly by. iii. Blue music rose out of some field and landed, electrified, in the round brass beak of a pressure valve, trembling. iv. In chapter seven - [Football Poem](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/football-poem/) - Henry Pye A wave of arms sloshes inside the stadium as the home team scores another touchdown and the cheerleaders' legs rise like flags, shine like rotisserie chicken in the stadium lights. T.S. Eliot sits to my left, gnawing peanuts with his yellow front teeth, booing at the ref intermittently. "He's blinder than :Milton!" and, - [Contributors (Spring 1995)](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/contributors-spring-1995/) - FRANK CHRISTIANSON is a first-year Master's student at Brigham Young University. His current emphasis is creative writing, but he is also interested in contemporary theory and literature. As an undergraduate, Christianson studied English and played on the BYU football team. MICHAEL MITTON, a Salem, Oregon, native, studies economics and philosophy at BYU. He plans on - [The Absent One](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/10/the-absent-one/) - by Adam Blackwell ACT ONE Lights on Bryan. He addresses the audience directly. BRYAN: I got this letter, this very strange, personal letter a few days ago. And I decided to do some detective work. I phoned the post office Public Relations Department and talked to a woman named Tracy who told me that people - [Bible and Torah](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/bible-and-torah/) - by Michael Mitton The first trip chat I took with my grandfather was to Auschwitz. He served in World War II and that was, as he says, the single most important thing he has ever done. Grandfather was one of the first people at the concentration camp in Auschwitz, an event from which he never - [Luci and Lujean's](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/luci-and-lujeans/) - by Michael Smith LuJean is at her station preparing for a shave. "Preston" is the name that has come off the computer, a new patron, a walk-in, got in just before closing, and he's reclining in her chair. The computer says he's a radiologist. A shave usually doesn't come for months, and this guy, Preston, - [Night or Day](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/night-or-day/) - by Frank Christianson Maggie wakes to find she is too exhausted to move. She puzzles. It is mid afternoon. The television set on the dresser is at full volume. Most of the day-time talk is over and she has forgotten to set the recorder. "On the Phone. Judy. Hates sex." Host, guests and audience wait sympathetically - [Nothing Like the Sun](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/nothing-like-the-sun/) - by David Pace Kathy turned her head to the right, where the sun dripped red across the harbor. Seagulls floated across its face, pocking the sun with blemishes. Kathy said, "I need more sun." She crossed her palm with her forearm, comparing the whiteness. "You really look fine ," Simon said. "I want to be - [Salvation](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/salvation/) - by Traci Oberg It had been an even July. Thistle mornings, afternoons of bloated cows, litanies of squash- colored skies. Men shuffled and grew fat as dogs. Women rocked and sang to rolling, twitching, spitting-up babies. Children played tag in the furrowed fields-kicking up clouds of paprika dust. The preacher came to town early one - [Stafford Road](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/stafford-road/) - by Elissa Minor The world chat lost you never had a name; you fluttered your soft cadences, built a cocoon, and were gone. In the end it was the words chat remembered you (the permanent dent in the sofa, the morning jog past unlighted windows, the seeds your detail planted, only lent a hand). When this - [Bathsheba, Cold at Night](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/bathsheba-cold-at-night/) - by Casualene Meyer When I asked you why David couldn't warm himself with a woman already his concubine or wife, why they appointed Abishag, a virgin water bottle, to comfort the doddering king, you said perhaps the concubines and wives lost their heat, too. This makes me think of Bathsheba, the once desirable, in bed alone - [Children in Winter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/children-in-winter/) - by Kristen Tracy There are women living a much longer life in this winter. I stand it with its cold side almost breaking into me. I lie here in night and let myself think of them— some of them make it back to me. They hold my shoulders press near my neck and with their almost - [Going](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/going/) - by Kristen Tracy And there she is bringing on evening while she hangs on the family that screams through her hands. She has never found what she began as in the division of these days, but she rides into her father who is beginning again to forgive the used places of women. He centers himself over - [Honeymoon at Arches](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/honeymoon-at-arches/) - by Casualene Meyer Like wedding rice trickling down my stomach when you loosen my bra, our words fall— quiet, scattered words about women in Mexico City who write a tourist's name on a grain of rice, about writing our names on numberless grains beginning now as we rest on warm sandstone, its particles become stars - [Making the World Easy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/making-the-world-easy/) - by Elissa Minor Sometimes Shakespeare is wrong, you know, and it's not a question of to be or not but how to know the wind and when to get up in the morning. It happens this way: you turn a corner and find yourself inside the air. A hawk searches you and lectures your form. - [Mango Peeling](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/mango-peeling/) - by Derek Otsuji Take a sharpened blade. Notch clean beneath the stem then twist. Keep the mango turning against the blade, the pressure even. But the knife slips, slices through the unspiralling peel. For an instant—no blood, just a line drawn quick across my thumb. I curse— a thin gully parts, flushes red. How memory sometimes - [Prayers Toward the Temple Mount](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/prayers-toward-the-temple-mount/) - by Casualene Meyer At the Western Wall Emah scrawls my name on parchments in a hand only the Divine can read— forces them between the Herodian stones as Abbah knocks at the wall with rhythmic swaying of orthodox prayer, wafts currents of words against the stones, hopes a door will open to his faint and - [The Archetypal Feminine in Heinrich Von Ofterdingen](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/the-archetypal-feminine-in-heinrich-von-ofterdingen/) - by Carol Ann Hawkes According to the psychological theories of C. G. Jung, psychic health is based upon the principle of balance: balance of opposites. Asserting that there can be no reality without polarity, he characterizes the self as a "complexio oppositorum," within which, for proper individuation and orientation within the conscious world, must be maintained - [The Grace of the Court](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/09/the-grace-of-the-court/) - by Dian Saderup The night before, I had felt a sudden need to read the scriptures, something I hadn't done in nearly three months. I stayed up until 2:30. I was asleep when late the next morning Lynn called from Oakland to tell me that her sister Carol was depressed: a Church court was being held - [Pictures](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/pictures/) - by Curtis Wade Bentley Because we once had children around , we mostly called him Grandpa. Grandpa Leavitt. But he was really my dad, of course . He had a glass eye that could only stare straight ahead. It was sometimes difficult to tell when he was talking to you, until you got comfortable with - [Solicitous Sights](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/solicitous-sights/) - by Martha Dee Chappell Sometimes searing scenes invade my consciousness, my surrogate sight, splintering my spine with a sinister spirit. Visions screaming and seething in forced speculation; such squalor confiscates and slows the senses, seducing the soul to sensual suspicion of self. And it scares me. - [Before Spring](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/before-spring/) - by Roger Terry Night. The mountains stab cold shadows White and dark against the stars. I turn, survey my wandering footprints-- Blind and broken stitches In the melting snow. Below them streetlights, Much like stars, shine blurred and warm Through this winter breeze And all around the headless stalks of last year's wild grain shiver, - [Father and the Sea](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/father-and-the-sea/) - by Jill Christensen The sea whispers on travailing winds-- Come. When life claps down like the roar of thunder, when it settles in like a gray rain mist, Come. And I do, and beckon to his call, and listen for his stories in seashells brought to ear. For here at the ocean I am overwhelmed - [Queen Anne's Maiden](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/queen-annes-maiden/) - by Jill Christensen Call gently when you come, for the maiden there lives deeply in forest wooded to keep the mountain laurel. Call, for they have longed to whisp of the place where she really goes, to the meadow to gather you flower, to the meadow to gather you lace. Call gently, and she'll follow. - [Opulent White](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/opulent-white/) - by Jill Christensen Amidst the ruins of ancient Greece there are women cut in stone: Persephone, Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis, what is it I draw from your maker's pagan belief? That all men have searched for the classical? That all men have sought to embody perfect love? That you though mystic and I so mortal - [Absurdities of Prayer to the Metaphysical Absolute](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/absurdities-of-prayer-to-the-metaphysical-absolute/) - by Blake Ostler The conflict between Greek absolutism and Hebrew personalism has plagued Judaeo- Christian theology since the conflagration of the two diametrically opposed traditions in the first centuries of the Christian era. On the one hand, theologians have claimed that God must be absolute in order to be the adequate object of faith . 1 - [Editor's Note](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/08/editors-note-11/) - The essayist Brian Doyle says that “we all churn inside.” You could say art is a history, a validation, and an expression of this churning. The churning is, of course, what it means to be a human being in a crazy inexplicable, appalling, beautiful world. Art proves that our own churning is not something to - [My Ivy League Education, An Autobiography: 1967-71](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/05/my-ivy-league-education-an-autobiography-1967-71/) - by Wayne Taylor I was seven years old, leaving what I thought was Eden for the north-eastern United States. The jungle , our backyard, a tangled and mysterious playground filled with loud birds, lizards, and an occasional snake, fell away in the noise and rush of Managua and the scream of propellers. Nicaragua slipped into - [The Curve of the River](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/05/the-curve-of-the-river/) - by Pauline Mortensen My father stored his dynamite here in this barn-dynamite he used to change the course of the river. A decade after he died, my brothers Ed and Jerry got rid of the dynamite. I can imagine how they got rid of it. I can see them throwing a stick at a time - [Where the Mormons Go](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/05/where-the-mormons-go/) - by Curtis Wade Bentley Something of St. George was definitely rotting. Well, the whole afternoon had left me in a foul mood. The fat, German lady had ended her follow-through in the net and sat there with her wide, white bloomers glaring in the sun and then blubbered for help in extricating herself. Her husband, - [You Want to Know about This One Here?](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/05/you-want-to-know-about-this-one-here/) - by Curtis Wade Bentley The mortuary seemed to keep the town alive. Always stately and freshly painted. It looked like one of those plantation houses from Gone with the Wind. Like a place where lots of well-off men come on a Saturday afternoon to hold tall, cold glasses and toast tall, cold women in white. - [Author Biographies](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/04/author-biographies/) - Benjamin Christensen doesn’t speak Pidgin, but he did grow up in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ben will graduate in English in April 2003 and then pursue a Master's in creative writing. Then he hopes to be a penniless writer (or maybe a sitar player). He and his wife, Jessie, got married in November 2001 and lived happily - [Genealogy](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/genealogy/) - by Trenten Johnson Body from Body like amoebas, there is only one wise asexual parent who's regeneration preserved self becoming first to rise after that early false night turned dawn. Body from body one substance sole, dirt and breath bound into naked slime. Every life ripped off from the side, incubating under an arm budding - [Three Poems](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/three-poems/) - by Trenten Johnson 1. Buddhism there is something exquisitely unspeakable about the first day of fall whose leaves billow a swarm of butterflies and land perfectly no matter when or where. 2. Rains Come Before the week of rain stewed the delicate dusting of fallen leaves each one a crumbling husk into the shell of - [Eating My Lunch in Trafalgar Square, I Get My Picture Taken](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/eating-my-lunch-in-trafalgar-square-i-get-my-picture-taken/) - by Deja Earley If your Texan grandma begged the fountain ducks to hold still or if your German nephew scattered pigeons on a May afternoon if your Pakistani boyfriend posed like Admiral Nelson or if the American teenagers reclining on the lion's back draping their arms around his neck sitting on his paws picking his - [Sleeping after Ten Hours at the Fabric Store](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/sleeping-after-ten-hours-at-the-fabric-store/) - by Deja Earley I dream the screaming ladies follow me home, pushing their carts still packed with Christmas-in-July bargains. They line up at the foot of my bed, demanding two yards, sixty-three yards, forty-two centimeters, an acre of slipping satin, and sixteen inches of leopard print fleece. I plead my shift is over. I can't - [Hunger Song](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/hunger-song/) - by Aaron R. Allen It has rained constant and soft for three days now. The ground has filled with water, the roads are wet and my good leather shoes slush and squish with mud as I walk slowly home. On the concrete there are worms. They move, scattered and slow, some diagonal, others without any - [Flowers for Gabriella](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/flowers-for-gabriella/) - by Aaron R. Allen I forget if it was tulips or roses we threw on Victor's sinking coffin. I like to remember it as spring: great handfuls of pastel tulips. I remember a plane ride, corning home alone, thinking all the time of our tenements, stacked side to side, high and human. Deep green and - [the dishwasher](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/the-dishwasher/) - by James Dewey kids out, dishes in she slumps at the table smearing a dollop of peanut butter as far as it will smear and listening to the dishwasher clean dishes dirty dirty dishes clean clean dishes dirty dirty dishes clean and she's somewhere in between suddenly standing suspecting something in the cycles in the - [Pink Ribbons](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/pink-ribbons/) - by William Bishop Lying awake at night I decided her long teeth look like John Elway's— the grinning quarterback-thoroughbred, triumphant in the Kentucky Derby or Super Bowl. But lately, when she smiles, I no longer think of football lying awake at night. I think of two yellow braids, a red, fleshy laugh and lips to - [L'amitié](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/lamitie/) - by Chloë James This is just to say, that I'd like to take the box from your freezer, and sit indian-style with my back to your fridge, across from you, your knees making a valley for pitted fruit: one for me, one for you, until our fingers and mouths and the linoleum are sticky; until - [will it be in black and white](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/will-it-be-in-black-and-white/) - by Chloë James in this picture kurt cobain is wearing more eyeliner than I did yesterday when I abandoned my tea for an introspective look into the weathered eyes. I am stolen again, for a moment by age, depressions and pale gray variations in skin. how does each framed eye, the colorless, become water and - [Conceptualize.Collate.Enigma](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/conceptualize-collate-enigma/) - by S. Nash Woodward Conceptualize.Collate.Enigma Isn't she awake, there on the other side of the world? I can't sleep, listening to records skipping from too many plays, needle smoothed the grooves out. Can't sleep, searching the ether for desert signs, trailer trash, obscure musicians. I close my eyes and reach out over the pacific. They - [My Blessing Day](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/my-blessing-day/) - by Becky Andersen In our family album is a picture of my father sitting between my grandfather and great grandfather. Dad is holding me—it is my blessing day. I was shocked when I found out it is him who is holding me—he looks about fourteen years old. Dad wasn't fourteen though, he was nineteen, the same - [The Female Novelist Talks of Thomas Pynchon](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/the-female-novelist-talks-of-thomas-pynchon/) - by a.e. marlowe I think one reason why Thomas Pynchon drives me batty is that I want to be him— paper sack special guest on Simpsons, those two or three facts in the biography before the introduction in the anthology. I envied, long and coldly, that perfected anonymity. When I go out for sport, with - [Soul's Harvest Church, Newburgh, Southern Indiana](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/souls-harvest-church-newburgh-southern-indiana/) - by Emily Stanfill Sunday Morning 8:06 AM Preacher man pulls on his galoshes and prays to the Almighty for divine assistance in reaping all 327 lbs of Mrs. Wilson's heavenly vessel. Walking by your tin-slat church, I wonder how you'll harvest mine. Perhaps Ghost-buster style, A man in the frock with lasers, electron hyper-rays, and - [Windshield](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/windshield/) - by Emily Stanfill It's almost too much— The hue of bug guilt. Every splat adds a soul's Rorschach on the glass. Since Nebraska we've picked up enough for modern art— a Pollack in green and grey— "Rocky Mountain Souvenirs no 3." I wonder if my soul will one day splatter on God's golden pane— a - [Giving Blood](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/giving-blood/) - by Julie Curtis I gave blood today. I followed the signs and found the tall black lounge chairs and plastic cords and blood bags. I came because I read in the paper that there is a summer shortage of blood. My blood's good and strong; I'm the universal donor, they tell me. I sit next to - [Dust of the Earth](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/dust-of-the-earth/) - by Brenda McKenna I waited for my husband in the fading light outside of my work. I have some bad news, he said over the phone. But he wanted to tell me in person. The blood oozed around the crook of my left elbow, purple and green shadows forming beneath my flesh as I heard - [Please Repeat the Renaissance](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/please-repeat-the-renaissance/) - by Saundra Cindrich It seems to me, Michelangelo, that you could have waited to paint your great Sistine Chapel until now. On good days naked I can see myself touching God's finger on a ceiling of dimpled thighs and ample bellies. On good days naked I can hear the murmur of plump defiance as - [The Day He Reigned](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/the-day-he-reigned/) - by Jenny Hale Pulsipher The day he rained Was one 'a them fed-up days. The sky'd been growlin', Makin' a fuss, and not Makin' a thing else. No rain. Nothin'. Like to 'a kilt the beans, Squash too, right near. And the dirt got so's it'd Stick in yer skin Like some thirsty tic, even - [Halloran Pass](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/halloran-pass/) - by Joanna Brooks Eight p.m. in a high desert diner, smacked up waitresses triple jump to the call of coffee cups. Now, for the hunger that a couple cups of mud couldn't cure. We eat. You---grits and biscuits, redmeat. Me---nothing, I'm fine ma'am, Just watching this quiet, kind-eyed man. Him? He's good to still - [A Boy's Dream](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/a-boys-dream/) - by Dan Dunn I began praying for the interpretation of dreams when I was nineteen. In earlier years, bedtime meant that point at which squirming and flying and fear commenced until the switch was flipped in the morning and my "other" life would start over. There were musical climaxes, checker-faced men, leprechauns with violins, things - [Alive and Single in a Decade of Self](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/alive-and-single-in-a-decade-of-self/) - by Dan Harper An old fisherman heard all of this and shook his head. “This is what happens to those who don't get married,” he said. “All they want to do is save the world, by hook or crook. The sperm rises to their heads and attacks their brains. For God's sake, all of you: get - [The Natural: A Story in Three Scenes](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/the-natural-a-story-in-three-scenes/) - by a.e. marlowe The prodigy of the class arrived only five minutes late. She couldn't be barred from the studio for lateness. Besides there was the excuse that after less than a year she was still rough on the protocol of the dance studio. Miss Breaker Marley was allowed in the room with merely a - [The Overweight Poet Poems](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/the-overweight-poet-poems/) - by Wayne Taylor At a Matinee Performance Of I Henry IV, the Overweight Poet Contemplates Falstaff What a noble piece of work thou art, Sir John Falstaff: How like an angel; In aspect-ratio how like a god; The 25-carat jewel of Shakespeare, A 25-stone sculpture of Michelangelo's Made flesh. This play is your rightful title, - [Dad's Stride](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/dads-stride/) - by Sterling Augustine Dad quietly turns the light in the living room on to its lowest setting. I'm sure he hopes that no one knows he's awake; he hates disturbing us. There's no big problem that keeps Dad up tonight; he just doesn't need the sleep. So he sits in his easy chair and reads. - [Daughters, hear the music](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/daughters-hear-the-music/) - by Erin Gong THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reek his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, - [Two Holidays](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/two-holidays/) - by Mary Lynn Bahr For Brigham You spent an hour thinning cotton through the branches for Kleenex ghosts with blotted eyes and the yarn and paper witches who perch like blossoms on the knuckles of your tree. You filled the kitchen windows with cardboard cats and pumpkins and asked me should you tape the - [Contributors](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/contributors-2/) - Liesl M . Buskirk was born and raised in Laie, Hawaii, over the wall from BYU-Hawaii, where her parents are both professors. She is a senior majoring in English with a German minor and loves hiking, swimming, and wilderness. She and her husband, Allen, plan to attend graduate school on the East Coast next fall. - [On Her Birthday](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/on-her-birthday/) - by Julie K. Curtis Yesterday was my mother's birthday. I thought of it fleetingly all day long---in the quiet moments between worrying about my math assignment and the midterm paper in my modern lit class. I meant all along to get a card, write it, and send it. That's what I've done every year - [At Nepaug Reservoir](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/at-nepaug-reservoir/) - by Matt Mosman There's a whole town at the bottom of Nepaug Reservoir, Entombed in gold-and-green glass Without the decency of a shroud. The prayerful steeple that threads its way toward the surface Reminds me that under the gold-in-June water Was once a town intensely human; Bell and barroom, courthouse and cathouse, living as I - [Game of Chess](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/game-of-chess/) - by Ciara Thompson Eugene Frogner liked to collect chess books. Titles like How to Play Chess, You and Your Opponent, and Getting to Know Your Chessboard were a part of his collection. He owned 4,781 chess books varying in size, color, and condition. On his polished mahogany coffee table lay a blue book about an - [Of Quiet](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/of-quiet/) - by Cory Fehlberg Like a long-legged fly upon the stream Her mind moves upon silence. ---William Butler Yeats I live in a house where the walls are thin and the floors are thin and I wait for quiet. I wish to fall asleep in the expectation of stillness; to lie for an hour in silence that - [The Fifth Year](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/12/03/the-fifth-year/) - by Anthony Morrison As the warm, orange sun was pulled to the horizon, Rich stared at the wispy clouds high above. The smell of rotten leftovers from the neighboring dumpster wafted into his cardboard box, making his eyes water slightly. After a moment his shaky hand crept toward the flap to shut out the deceiving - [Because He Never Stopped](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/because-he-never-stopped/) - by Susan Krueger She ate his hands. First she boiled them, and boiled they grew, soaking up water like bread. A recipe for her resentment and his indifference, she took his hands, placed them carefully on the kitchen table, and with her iron she worked them flat. They were her babies. She held chem limp - [Eldon Franklin, Who Played Gloucester](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/eldon-franklin-who-played-gloucester/) - by John Cutler You think I'm here by choice? As if standing in the middle of Times Square in August sweating and smelling sweat-even the dogs sweat-is a career children choose in kindergarten are you gonna buy a hot dog? Oh. Good. Then I'll tell you what I told the teacher when I was a - [Poet Jim’s Metapoetica](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/8504/) - by Brian Roberts Coughing, poet Jim admits sucking cigarettes and cups of coffee are off limits in poetry: - [From the Girls’ Dorm Window in the Kaibab Forest, Elevation 7,925 Feet](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/from-the-girls-dorm-window-in-the-kaibab-forest-elevation-7925-feet/) - by Rebecca Fisher I dubbed it my favorite spot. You said write letters from here. I often would, first shoving aside ten curling irons and throwing a lump of laundry to the floor. Both windowpanes swung outward, one left, one right, cardboard mending broken glass. The window was naked, not earning curtains until mid-July but - [A Love Poem](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/a-love-poem/) - by Karl Thomas Rees I What's in your head, she said, in your head Zombie. Zombie. Zombie. When the music stops, I will send a rose, a photograph, and this poem to the woman I love. But now, the chorus buries me. I am thinking of Ireland when I should be dreaming of her. It - [Wedding Dinner, November 17](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/wedding-dinner-november-17/) - by Laura Stott The question is, are they the messy-cake-in-your-face type? Why else do we have traditions? ... food fights. This is a tradition. She says, Fun. He is green-eyed, cute smile ... No blue eyes, and as they are often of us oblivious, Great kissing lips. He says, She is fun, cute. Not just - [Coming to the Name](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/8487/) - by Laura Stott It is in the rain. In the fields we claim to - [In Autumn](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/in-autumn/) - by Scott Cameron Frankie Robbins had a thing for autumn. When September 23 rolled around, he left for school an extra thirty-seven minutes early. This was ritual. It would happen every day just like story problems and story time until the snow had taken over the ground. Then Frankie would revert back to nonautumnal - [A Conversation with Tess](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/a-conversation-with-tess/) - by Summer Davis Maggie sat, slowly rocking. Her armchair creaked in the silence as the sunlight streamed into the living room, but she just stared through the curtains out the window. Her hands, clasped together, slid back and forth against her dress, while her heavy-soled shoes pumped against the shag carpet. Her brow raised slightly - [An Order of Fries](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/an-order-of-fries/) - by Luis B. Pagan Wally put five bucks into his fanny belt and strapped it on. He slipped two more dollars into his pants' pocket, buttoned his plaid red, white and green shirt his father had given him, then tucked it into his black slacks. One, two, three tucks. Before putting on his Pic-n-Pay green-and-brown - [People Gotta Eat](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/people-gotta-eat/) - by Sam Brunson The way KT tells it, I wanted her before we'd ever said two words. She says she wanted me too, so that was fine with her. She knew right then that I was her one. All I knew was she was giving the checker a hard time, so it was my job - [Poetry in the Dark](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/poetry-in-the-dark/) - by Josi Brewer ALL the books I read are full of dazzling heroes, always sure of themselves. I die with envy of them. So wrote Pablo Neruda in 1958. I thought of these lines as I drove myself to Blanding the day I started my first real teaching job. I was to teach a summer - [A Mixture of Cathedrals](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/a-mixture-of-cathedrals/) - by Scott Cameron Gothic was a matter of vocabulary and style until I climbed halfway up the tallest church tower in the world. Somewhere along the way, twisting up the tight, curling stairs I realized that pointed arches and vaulted ceilings aren't just architecture; they are a way of life. In my humanities 101 - [Twelve-inch Zippers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/twelve-inch-zippers/) - by Jessica Buck There's nothing here," Mom called from my closet, waking me. What was she rummaging for?! turned my face, hiding one ear in the pillow. "There's nothing here," she repeated, her voiced muffled in racks of clothes. I watched through my eyelashes as she burrowed out of the closet and stood before my - [Over the Other Side of the Country](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/over-the-other-side-of-the-country/) - By L. Danielle Beazer I November, walking home he recalls a lover from college days; the leaves, curled and wet, remind him. He breathes in quick , surprised at the memory. It has been years; no name comes to mind . On his doorstep a cat bats her tail, annoyed at his absence. He - [Melodious Sonnet](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/melodious-sonnet/) - by Cynthia Hallen Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above.* While waters sleep and thirst in cold mirage After the months of cricket-summer streams, The northern tribes return in calumet To flicker snow in vertigo designs. Deliberately refining paths, the flakes Forgive bold footprints, line the evergreens, And risk awakening the fasting - [Interview with Elena Passarello](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/interview-with-elena-passarello/) - Elena Passarello is a writer and actor, and the author of Let Me Clear My Throat, a collection of essays on the human voice in popular culture. She is originally from Charleston, South Carolina. She studied nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Iowa. Her essays have been published in Oxford American, - [Contributor Bios](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/contributor-bios/) - CONTRIBUTORS bios ERIN BARKER is a senior at BYU majoring in English teaching with a minor in Spanish teaching. She is a big fan of inscape. D .C. NELSON was born more than a quarter-century ago in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Unaware chat Victorianism was long ago dead, D.C. spent most of his youth writing - [Summer](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/summer/) - by Kevin Hart August: fat summer lounges eve1ywhere, Enjoying all the grasses' loopy green And that young sky whose blue has grown so rich. The birds drink deep before they take the air. I walk around, and reach inside the flesh Of white oaks, yellow warblers, squirrels, pine, And feel their puzzled gazes settle down - [My First Tie](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/my-first-tie/) - by Kevin Hart My father gave me my first tie When I was all too young. 0 long and thin and black it was And I climbed up a rung. "I'll wear it at your funeral, Dad, " I said, absorbed with black, My father grew a foot too tall: "Maybe I'll take it back." - [Tomorrow](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/tomorrow/) - by Kevin Hart / A breeze silks through my room and smells of oak As evening gathers round the house: The firefly neighborhoods Press close these days And I walk out, as thin as summer rain, And see the houses holding still And hear the cinnamon speech Of lightning life. A letter brought its silence - [Revisionist History](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/revisionist-history/) - by Amy Scott Entenderse When the Spanish conquistadores arrived at a then-unnamed peninsula, they were feeling confident. They had already "found" Asia, established forts and slavery on various islands, and managed to slap together a couple of monasteries in their spare time. As human resources was important in their line of work, they had also - [The Company of Lovers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/the-company-of-lovers/) - by Lorraine Paterson When Lucy Shipley was nine years old, she once followed a woman for four long blocks because the woman had seemed so incredibly lucky. The lucky woman had short bobbed blonde hair and she was wearing a long light green raincoat, and as she walked along the sidewalk Lucy followed. For Lucy, - [The Presence of Fact](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/the-presence-of-fact/) - by Alex Faletti John's up to his shoulders in the fireplace. He drops ashes on the floor. They hit in a rush and puff out. "This will do," he says. "Keeping it in the house?" Hatly says. "No. Shoveling it out," he says, "keeping the flue clean." John rests the shovel against the mantle. He - [The Dead](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/the-dead/) - by Kevin Hart Ah now the dead are coming, clocks in hand, They're rootless from those parties at the park All weeds and daisies now; they're calling late, Late August streaming down , they ride it hard, All loose and ma1velous on gold long beams, They're rushing in the pleasure of fat peach, And in - [Wild Horses](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/19/wild-horses/) - by Paul Rawlins I learned how to fight from a book. That's what I'm thinking after the truck bounces me awake, after I see it's another hour to Shelby, and Lee's locked on autopilot behind the wheel. I learned from lots of books. I was in second grade maybe when the teacher read to us - [Portraits](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/16/portraits/) - by Erin Margaret Barker As I opened the door, the smell of turpentine coated my nostrils. Turpentine always reminded me of my mother. Oil paint and turpentine, and sometimes her perfume that she tried to mask the smells with. I'd spent more of my childhood in her studio than in our own house. I had - [In Pace Requiescat](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/16/in-pace-requiescat/) - by Nathan Robison The Vi11age woke one morning to an empty cemetery and the streets full of the dead still dressed in their finest. They appeared to me as the mummies in the monastery, very stiff, and upright, clothes faded, the skin around the face desiccated and pulled taut; yet I could still recognize them, - [Still Life: Flowers in Vase](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/16/still-life-flowers-in-vase/) - by Katy Street Larson I Heidi blamed moving on the mold and blamed finding the Picasso on her mother. Before the mold ever grew, and before she ever found the Picasso, H Heidi had lived for the last thirty years in a lovely apartment in Vienna's Ist district. There were shelves built into the wall - [Rose-Colored Glasses](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/15/rose-colored-glasses/) - by Sean Bailey In 1668 Francesco Redi first disproved the theory of spontaneous generation. He screened off a jar of rotting meat and proved that maggots were Oy larvae; they didn't just magically appear in rank pork chops. If he had been given enough time to contemplate the implications of his study, I would hope - [In Winter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/15/in-winter/) - by Sanna Henke when life from frozen soil had gathered to pulsate in bones of the earth I sucked in deep white afternoons to enter the mass of silence. Sanna Henke studied poetry at BYU under Lance Larsen, Kirn Johnson, and Susan Howe. This is her first appearance in Inscape. - [Eve](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/15/eve/) - by Chloe James When I was eight they stretched the serotonin in my brain like canvas in preparation to be painted with hot, red Adam so I quartered and juiced my two arms two legs then watered down the familiar soup at twelve years old I handed him four aluminum tubes, silver ventricles labeled with - [Manyatta](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/11/15/manyatta/) - by S. Nash Woodward Smoky darkness Sleeping on cow hides slick with sweat Mud stick hut built in three days by mother Because house building is women's work Outside, the young men spring like grasshoppers Thrumming in their throats the anticipation Not for entering moran, for becoming a man But for money from deep tourist - [Digger: Scene Seven](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/29/digger-scene-seven/) - by Robert Lauer D I G G E R, a play in seven scenes, deals with the lives of Joseph Smith and Emma Hale from their first meeting in October of 1825 until their elopement. The play explores the little-known events surrounding Joseph Smith's youthful involvement in money-digging and the circumstances which led to the - [World War I: Past Poets](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/29/world-war-i-past-poets/) - by Michael Rutter Seventy years now past (It doesn 't seem that long ago to me) Since armies of the world gathered For the first time on the fields of France to see The world at war: the sallow land, Machine gun casings scattered in the sand, Marked graves of soldiers who died young, And - [Starless Night](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/29/starless-night/) - by Ann Best Space clarifies my childlike fear of darkness, Locked in Mother's closet, breathing mothballs That preserved the coats and red-wool dresses, Phantoms touching eerily my flesh For fear of dying in a narrow place. I dreamed of death when vicious winters later Flung their ice and snow against the glass- Mutely crawling back - [Pounder's Beach](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/29/pounders-beach/) - by Diana Moore Palm fronds crash—in a gust above— As sharp as the surf, though not so free. This is no sheltered quiet cove; The beach is bare to the force of the sea. But there is peace in the soft beach sand And the grass on the shore is warm. The sand was formed - [Chickens at the Fair](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/29/chickens-at-the-fair/) - by Michael Mack Del, Dave and me Surrounded by State Fair— Was I eight or nine? In the farm exposition, Cows, sheep, and hogs were all in white pens, And chickens in booths like popcorn machines. For a dime, a light would come on and a hen Would peck a tune on a toy piano. - [Other Things](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/29/other-things/) - by Wade Bentley A piece of pin-stripe jostled to the front Of coffee drunken crowd and checked his watch And checked the street and thought about the Deal He'd surely make today-and other things. Some things like flaxen women easing past With cotton-candy hips and endless legs, And some about his wife, who mostly asked - [In a Strange Light](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/21/in-a-strange-light/) - by Tryn Elva Paxton So I think I've figure out the trouble: I'm a magpie married to a mole. I've been reading this marriage book during my lunch hour and one day last week---Tuesday, I think---while I was eating leftover beef stroganoff over noodles I got to chapter six, the part where Dr. Broderick says - [Attic Lights](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/13/attic-lights/) - by Wade Bentley On dog day Saturdays, when Paul and Ann Sit still beside their cardboard sign and wait For thirsty crowds to stop and drink their wares Of tepid yellow, and when hours of prate About the general going to hell of things Has settled on my parlored mind like waves Of musty, sunlit - [Firestorms](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/13/firestorms/) - by Wade Bentley The fire storms came on Sewing Day, with all The mumbling women scratching at their quilts Or chasing children, caught between the frames. The heavy-hatted, steel-toed men on stilts Of stone above pubescent towns, had laughed Their usual curses to the godless skies And ate a wilting sandwich in the sun. The - [Bologna](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/10/13/bologna/) - by Loren Higbee Ghetto is an Italian word. In Bologna, our apartment was a twenty-­ minute bus ride from the train station. We spoke the best Italian in the building, though Maria, the Puerto Rican lady upstairs, knew enough English to call us "elders," the five Croatians down the hall to mutter "richamericans" under their - [Poems](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/04/poems/) - by Estée Arts These things don't happen in daylight Or when you're watching They're shy Or perhaps too respectable They lurk, prowl and sigh Playing with children Then drinking bourbon. - [Winter 2000: Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/04/winter-2000-art/) - [Winter 2004: Art](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/03/winter-2004-art/) - [Maths](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/maths/) - by Chloë James I pad through bars of yellow light and dark, softly up and up the iron escape, four floors to a lead- lined window in heavy door where I count three brass numbers that equal your space, a spatial equation without variables over the finger-smudged knob. A slide of light clicks under the - [Spam Haiku](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/spam-haiku/) - by Megan Graves You wink one eye at me and Spam falls from my spoon, splatting on my plate. Megan Graves is an English major at BYU who enjoys long walks on the beach and potted meat products. - [Cool Drink in a Hot Tub](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/cool-drink-in-a-hot-tub/) - by Aaron Robert Allen Jazz-man with the Crazy hands, Play that trumpet loud. Jazz-man with the Crazy hands, Bigtwentiessmile Grinnin'allthewhile, Play that trumpet loud. Jazz-man with the Crazy hands Play that trumpet loud! So loud, Aintnochoicebut Beingglad. Piano-man with the Slender hands, Stroke that baby smooth. Piano-man with the Slender hands, Fingerslikefleas Jumpin'ivorykeys, Stroke that - [Eleven Years Ago September](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/eleven-years-ago-september/) - by Ashley Christensen Age ten, in our front yard after the storm, tree roots grasped the cotton sky. Brother stood at the edge of the swollen hole, 213 trees fell in our city that day, we touched the defeated friend lying useless in wet grass. Small sister watched through the screen door. Mother was working, - [Tell Me about India](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/tell-me-about-india/) - by Annette C. Boehm fair and dirty as birds poured out by their monsoon & out of the stairs came a man with four legs: half a man short of two or now less than a man as he stumbled toward to make us rent a room we tiptoedly fled the street of sleep -ing - [Letter of Apology](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/letter-of-apology/) - by Aaron Robert Allen Forgive me. All these white crosses, Over a hundred now since I left Montana. Each one of them standing in whitewash, A mark of the end of a life. Over a hundred now on the roadside since Montana, White crosses, white carnations, Sometimes roses, Sometimes two or three in a line. - [My Father-In-Law from the Shores of Lake Powell](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/my-father-in-law-from-the-shores-of-lake-powell/) - by Nathan Robison I see my father-in-law, that old atheist, by the top of his head— the tip of the iceberg. that old atheist— on his sunrise swim among the tip of icebergs masquerading as Lake Powell rocks. On his sunrise swim. Among the dangers of the reservoir masquerading as Lake Powell rocks: eight-foot suckers - [Maybe](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/06/02/maybe/) - by S. Elizabeth Thompson this will be the last time I see you—here with the long strands of grass twisting around my ankles a quieter kind of love song— the run of a spider up and down the length of my arm my fingers hovering to catch it and crush it in one careful move. - [Q/A with Paul Harding](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/04/14/q-a-with-paul-harding/) - [The Carriage House](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/the-carriage-house/) - by Pauline Mortensen When Martin Blumenthal awoke that morning, he rolled over on his back and discovered that he had a stiff neck which seemed to cap the chill along his spine. He lay there looking at the picture above the foot of his bed. In it was a lamb shivering in the snow and - [En Route to Marquesado](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/02/05/en-route-to-marquesado/) - by Karl Chandler Hot outside. Hot and dry. Elder Greenwood and I walked along the Avenida Benevides between Barrio los Pinos and los Alerces. The San Juaninos drive crazy along the Benevides. We walked quickly, cursing the sun. He was always walking as close to the wall as he could, sometimes even mashing his white shirt up against the adobe - [Burials](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/01/22/burials/) - by Neil Aitken Pulling through Montana in the snow we cling to the tail lights of the last car blurring back into the darkness. "Like the inside of a coffin," my father says as if knowing the exact shade the dead see lying stiff, frozen eyes peering up through closed lids he shifts in his - [Qua Têt](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/01/22/qua-tet/) - (Beyond the New Year) by Karl Thomas Rees Does it change, now that she is dead— the silent intrigue, the sudden shower over the Vietnamese fish markets, refreshing the tiled, open streets, where once the red cannons burst as the Dragon danced and ate the lettuce? - [A Letter to the Person Who Will Go through My Pockets When I'm Dead](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/01/22/a-letter-to-the-person-who-will-go-through-my-pockets-when-im-dead/) - by Jerem Pickett Dear Posthumous Pocket Investigator: Please forgive me for dying this way—I can only guess how it happened. Perhaps, as my Buick settled near the eight-foot line, pool bottom, I sat there wishing I had worn my other brown tie; or maybe, as I stood choking on a Golden Delicious, I felt - [Running Circles](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/01/22/running-circles/) - by N. Andrew Spackman It's a sodden, autumn morning and those idiot dogs are running circles again. They bound through the muck on stubby legs, down and up and down like teeter-tottering sausages. Their tongues flop to the rhythm, and their panting forms frozen puffs that dissipate under barren trees and a dim, white sky. - [Grandmother Naming](https://inscape.byu.edu/2021/01/22/grandmother-naming/) - by Shannon Castleton In the passenger seat she rubs her belly like a good idea, and reads billboards out loud. She is looking to name the baby. Dick's Café. St. George Inn. She thinks it's a boy she's naming, having read the paper clip dangling from a kite string over her wrist: left to right, - [Companionship](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/companionship/) - by Valerie Holladay In some indefinable but definite way I had known when I was sixteen that I would serve a mission. At twenty I asked Bishop Veach to take my mission papers early; he just laughed and told me to come back when I was 21. He did let me put in my papers - [Art Can Be Naked](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/art-can-be-naked/) - by E. Brian Gentry Dad’s ugly Filipino carving rocks when you walk too fast by the piano. I suppose remembering old voodoo dances. Scarred from moves and tumbles, it still demands respect as the non-speaking member of our family. Uncle Dale respected it once until his fingers noticed the nipple and his mouth fell at - [Wonder and Wondering: Five Meditations](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/wonder-and-wondering-five-meditations/) - by Alison Craig I I thought again today of how I used to sit where I could watch the singer for the deaf club at forums and devotionals. I knew the manual alphabet and recognized a sign or two, but mostly I watched without understanding, the signer’s hands eloquent and expressive, echoing the words of - [Ode to a Storm](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/ode-to-a-storm/) - by Pilar Stewart Sometimes the deepness of quiet loses me. I do not understand when trees stop the rustle; birds refuse the song; my heart’s beat is muffled. I retreat from this silence, hobble as if sick and pray for the storm: the split sky, rent like a carnival: bright lights, spinning air, joyous noise. - [Not All Giving is Charity](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/not-all-giving-is-charity/) - by William Powley When I offer you a white ring in evening fog, your face says not all giving is charity. Your cheeks are wet. I wish I could kiss or touch you. Charity is not all giving. - [Pardon the Blues Here](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/pardon-the-blues-here/) - by Joanna Brooks “Human lives are composed like music. Guided by his sense of beauty, an individual transforms a fortuitous occurrence into a motif, which then assumes a permanent place in the composition of the individual’s life. . . . Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even - [If You Were a Plum](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/if-you-were-a-plum/) - by Jill Hemming If you were a plum I’d take you in my pocket to the orchard and rub you on my jeans, explore your creases with my thumbs, find your deepest colors in the light, turn your taut skin between my bright teeth and settling against a trunk, I’d swallow you whole. - [Treasure in Black](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/treasure-in-black/) - by John L. Adams So here we are, me and my brother Ez goin’ home from school and kind of draggin’ our feet ‘cause we don’t want to get home too fast. The minit we’re home it’s chores, chores, chores and then off to bed. It’s better’n school, but this is the most relaxing time - [Unknown Pain](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/unknown-pain/) - by Michael Hassett Every inch of your skin, your cloud-soft, dry-ice skin, is covered by razor-thin magnifying-glass-visible hairs, that somehow I manage to pull every time we make love. And I stare, as you cry out in pain, and I wonder how I hurt you. - [When I Have Thumbs](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/when-i-have-thumbs/) - by Sean T. Ziebarth When I have thumbs I will hitchhike everywhere, I will suck my thumbs, Sit in the corner and stick my thumb in a plum pie, And paint a face on my thumb and forefinger, like a puppet, and make it talk. When I have thumbs I will learn sign language, I - [Ring Seller](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/ring-seller/) - by William Powley When we stop at Navajo Junction, we see a girl’s braid drop down the center of her bare back. We ignore her as she sells with her brown fingers blue-green turquoise rings cheaply laid out at fifteen dollars each. She licks her brown lips, smiles when she sees my bare ring finger. - [The Web](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/the-web/) - by James Stanger Sarah stood in front of Jason and held his hands before both of them. “See, I take the string, run it in and out of your fingers like this, and . . .” “And then I have a cat’s cradle, right?” Jason interrupted. Sarah smiled. “That’s right. And then we can make - [Autumn Hands](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/autumn-hands/) - by Laura Moulton I am Autumn for Halloween and in the Light, we paste leaves until the trashbag Is covered. When the light is gone, we climb into Your car and you ask me if I ever Wonder what’s inside you. I think of what it is to gut a pumpkin, Handfulls of wet orange - [Say "Thank You, Jesus!"](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/15/say-thank-you-jesus/) - by David Pulsipher “You have to get a Polish dog from Max’s,” Shawn told me before I left his apartment this morning. “Max has the best hot dogs in town.” It is a stroke of good fortune that I found it so soon. Chicago is a big city, and I’m going on sheer luck, wandering - [Spaces Between Us: The Dialogues of Il and Elle](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/12/spaces-between-us-the-dialogues-of-il-and-elle/) - by Nicole M. Christensen Act I, Scene I: Stage is black except for two spotlights that suddenly illuminate Il and Elle standing on opposite sides of the stage. Il: Two roads converged in a yellowed wood . . . Elle: And being two travelers . . . [Stage to black, then a spotlight on Il - [A Glimpse from Bald Peak](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/12/a-glimpse-from-bald-peak/) - by Jim Richards On a summer morning at Hebgen Lake, Montana, water-skiing came first-always. We got to the lake every morning at eight-thirty, just in time to feel the cold morning breeze surrender to the sun and see the ripples vanish from the lake, leaving it a smooth, blue-green glass. Only this morning the ripples - [On Grandmother's Couch](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/on-grandmothers-couch/) - by Q. Woodward The only doctor in Franklin, Idaho, was drunk that night, so a midwife caught my grandmother before she fell onto the rough kitchen table. Eighty-six years later, we sit on her plastic-covered couch, her scarecrow body slumping into mine, her hands like orange peels, curled across my forearm, grabbing at almost anything - [Breakfast Catechism](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/breakfast-catechism/) - by Jared Pearce Christianity has chosen symbols well―purifying water, the voice of thunders and rushing air―for the superstitious language that hold God. But if He speaks in thunder, who hears at 5:19 in the morning? Rain patters on the tin awnings over the windows; good, I think, that the water comes and cleanses after the - [Chastity](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/chastity/) - by Jared Pearce The scrub juniper exploding dark green life and shadow around us, over us; the night hours when even crickets have stopped dancing. Curiosity, the eternal in another's body―sacred individuality beyond touch―like the narrow between clavicles. We treated each other like temples, proselytes approaching the holy. My nervousness in sustaining distance and desire - [Man Silently to His Wife at the Meat Counter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/man-silently-to-his-wife-at-the-meat-counter/) - by Alma Christl Call My objection, chopped like these two thick steakes that I don't want but you must have. Congratulations, on such a good cut not bleeding, cauterized quickly with this carved smile, for the butcher. You must win, must say so aloud. But, this is not a new pain, this emptiness somewhere between - [Wednesday Tennis](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/wednesday-tennis/) - by Christine Guerra The courts were reserved—Tuesday nights for the men’s tennis team and Wednesday mornings for the women’s team. After the children had gone to school and the husbands to work, the women would put on short white skirts and gold bracelets. They each drove, one lone head in the minivan, and waited together - [Purple Armchairs](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/purple-armchairs/) - by Amy Baker My brother said he saw a band of dogs once that were really skinny and had no hair. They were about a foot tall and had big eyes. He said they were sniffing cars’ tires but quickly trotted away when they saw him. I laughed when he told me, picturing a bunch - [Our First Christmas Eve](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/our-first-christmas-eve/) - by N. Andrew Spackman The air above my parents' roof is cold. It pushes smoke back down the chimney. I turn off the fire alarm and open both windows, but my wife and I still can’t breathe, so I hang a wet towel from the mantel, next to the Christmas stockings my mom made for - [Old Mc Donald [Had a Farm]](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/old-mc-donald-had-a-farm/) - by Joseph Anthony Hunt When I worked for the Nobel Prize committee, they gave me a Visa card, a rain slicker, and fifteen weeks to find the man who wrote “Old McDonald [Had a Farm].” “We want to give him the Nobel Prize.” “For literature?” “For literature, chemistry, peace, it doesn’t matter.” “Ee,” he said. - [Thin Daughter](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/thin-daughter/) - by Alma Christl Call My hands smell like onions. The chicken breasts between us. Well, eat up! I say. She stares at her hand I have molded around a fork until it shakes open. The fork leaves dents in her fingers. You have to eat. Her head jerks up. It is the cumin sharp in - [The Fruitcake I Bury in My Backyard Each January](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/the-fruitcake-i-bury-in-my-backyard-each-january/) - by Q. Woodward I can’t tell her no, so she brings the same thing every year “Oh, Grandma,” I say, “you shouldn’t have.” It is the only truth I speak all week. She settles into my rocking chair, and I set the heavy block beside the microwave to sit in its plastic shroud for seven - [Congratulations on Mandela](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/11/congratulations-on-mandela/) - by Patrick Madden Grandma Garcia hated the Negroes. For most bigots I know, racism is a matter of dissociation. They have black friends who, they say, aren’t like other black people, and they keep their attitudes under wraps whenever any real live blacks are present. But not Grandma Garcia; she declared her disdain outright - [Contributors](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/10/contributors/) - Andrew David Rufus Ballstaedt is doing a BFA in painting and also a BA in art education. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and commutes to BYU. He hopes to go to grad school in painting. Sara Blaisdell is a sophomore from Portland, Oregon, majoring in English. Two of her poems appeared in the - [Lonesome](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/10/lonesome/) - By Missy Ward as a long pale bed glowing like moonlight under a window that is being pelted and smeared silver by forlorn angry raindrops. And the wind is heaving the trembling trees while a tiny frightened star peeks out of the cloud-ridden purple Bangkok sky and cries But child, you've never been to Bangkok - [Between Us](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/10/between-us/) - By Missy Ward Between us was a frozen street, shining in the dawnlight like a dark solemn river. From across the span of eternity, I watched the bent limping man scatter seventeen scavenging crows and dip his battered bucket deep into the belly of a dumpster. I saw it come up empty. I saw him - [Under the Covers](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/10/under-the-covers/) - By A. E. Marlowe I close my eyes under the covers and see this: Two million seraphim in Speedos, on God-errand Freestyling through the ether. Their jaws Slice further with every stroke, them Gasping for divinity on alternate hands. Some three million-odd others are butterflying —Because they can—to unurgent callings. I wonder if also God - [Prayer at Church](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/10/prayer-at-church/) - By David C. Nielsen Close your eyes and don't peek-but I peeked. I expected angels, smiling down, slapping high fives, reeling in the words like rainbow trout. Instead, it was like swimming underwater: I could stare where I wanted, make faces, wiggle my tongue. The woman next to me whispered amens. I thought about kissing - [On Tenille and Nat as I Watched from the Bathroom Mirror](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/10/on-tenille-and-nat-as-i-watched-from-the-bathroom-mirror/) - By Jenny Rebecca Griffin They laugh together, just two of them—they laugh like they are mad-crazy at something I know if I asked, it wouldn't be funny because it is between him and her. In the mirror my stomach bulges pregnantly as I watch; it increases in size and in resemblance to all the cakes - [An Incident of Blindness](https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/12/10/an-incident-of-blindness/) - By Joshua Weed My talisman eyeball nests in Its grainy socket. It's my rotten jewel. Light pervades with such fluidity And soggy flesh shrouds it Like baby kangaroo in maternal pouch. Why, it represents so much of me! Grass-green iris lacerated so to pluck Out the nepheloid innards with more ease; Dear, poisoned grape, slowly ## Pages - [Home](https://inscape.byu.edu/) - Poetry | Fiction | Nonfiction | Art Home of the bizarre, believing, and beautiful READ OUR RECENT PUBLICATIONS Winter 2026Student Selections FilterEditor's Choice Don’t Cry for All the Loves You’ve Lost Editor’s Choice FilterContest Winner La Muerte Blanca Contest Winner FilterStudent Selections A Cover Letter & Resume Student Selections FilterBlog Genre Highlight: Creative Nonfiction Recent Blog Inscape has curated pieces since 1982 - [Store](https://inscape.byu.edu/store/) - Shop Our Print Editions $7.00 each while supplies last - [Events](https://inscape.byu.edu/events-2/) - [Print](https://inscape.byu.edu/archive-2005-2010/) - Inscape 2010 Download PDF Inscape 2009 Download PDF Inscape 2008 Download PDF Inscape 2007 Download PDF Inscape 2006 Download PDF Inscape 2005 Download PDF - [Submit](https://inscape.byu.edu/submit/) - MenuSubmitFormatting Requirements & Submission GuidelinesReading PeriodContest Submissions Submit Inscape is Brigham Young University’s literary magazine. We publish original poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art from both emerging and established creators. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting. Work that does not follow the guidelines may not be considered. Inscape curates fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual - [Archive](https://inscape.byu.edu/archive/) - Archive Inscape Journal was started in 1982, with at least one issue published each year since. This archive has been built to showcase each of our past issues, and we are currently working our way back to publish each physical issue here on our website. FilterAllIssue Fall 2025 Winter 2025 Fall 2024 Winter 2024 Alumni - [Winter 2026](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2026/) - Cover Image by Pablo Ayala, Conquest of Teotihuacan Editor’s Note by Paige Winegar Fetzer Poetry IRISES, JUNE 22 by Len Krisak “Mail within two weeks after the death of deceased.” by Winifred Nimrod At the Market in Istanbul by Kate Romney Johnson Until We Said Okay by Mitchell Nobis STARLINGS by Eloise Schultz Justice and Mercy - [Inscape Contests](https://inscape.byu.edu/inscape-contests/) - Contests Welcome to Inscape’s contests! Starting in 2024, Inscape began organizing contests designed to recognize authors and artists with outstanding works. Each contest is centered around a specific genre and theme curated by Inscape’s Contest team. In 2026, we started our Collaborative Contests, where Inscape runs a joint contest with another BYU student journal. Read All Contest Winners Submit to - [Contest Submissions](https://inscape.byu.edu/contest-submissions/) - MenuInscape Contest: Exhilaration is the Breeze|Editor's Weekly Contest Submissions Submissions for contests require a small submission fee ($5), and each contest will have a paid winner and runner-up, unless otherwise specified. All general guidelines for submissions apply to contest submissions. Guidelines specific to each contest will be explained on this page. To read the work - [Winter 1986](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1986/) - Poetry The Athenan by Scott Hatch Do You Remember Night in Vila Sonia? by M. Shayne Bell Telex for Clytie: May 19, 1985 by Dianna Black Persephone in Hell by M. Shayne Bell Only by Laurel Shelley The Next Day by Danielle Beazer The Family Stones by Philip White One Visiting Ezra Pounds Birthplace: Hailey Idaho by M. Shayne Bell Summer Solstice by Carie - [Summer 1982](https://inscape.byu.edu/summer-1982/) - Table of Contents Poetry Firestorms by Wade Bentley Attic Lights by Wade Bentley Other Things by Wade Bentley Chickens at the Fair by Michael Mack Pounder’s Beach by Diane Moore Starless Night by Ann Best World War I: Past Poets by Michael Rutter Fiction & Plays Digger: Scene Seven by Robert Lauer Playing the Game: Scene Five by Eric Samuelsen Cathedral in the - [1983](https://inscape.byu.edu/1983-2/) - Nonfiction Absurdities of Prayer to the Metaphysical Absolute by Blake Ostler The Grace of the Court by Dian Saderup The Archetypal Feminine in Heinrich Von Ofterdingen by Carol Ann Hawkes Fiction The Carriage House by Pauline Mortensen Pictures by Curtis Wade Bentley Proceedings of the November meeting of the Society for Mythopoeic Psychoanalysis and Monday Night Football by Nancy Bernbrock Poems - [Summer 1984](https://inscape.byu.edu/summer-1984/) - Nonfiction Virtuous Visions by Joseph K. Nicholes Fiction Coyote Canyon by Marianne Sorensen Against the Dying of the Light by Harlow Clark East of the Reptile House by Susan Lewis Norton’s Boots by David Brake So I’m Going to Do You a Favor by Andrew Olsen Poems A Schoolboy Contemplates Infinity by Joseph K. Nicholes - [Fall 1984](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1984/) - Personal Essay A Nurtured Season by Maryan Myres Hopping a Train by John Snyder Fiction The Catalyst by Steve Mahlum Wind Ensemble by Craig Witham The Auction by Darrin Cozzens Hotspell by Carla Thomas Confession in a Light-wrapped Room by Carla Thomas Drama Pals by Julie Boxx Poetry First Night Home by Barry McKendry The - [Winter 1985](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1985/) - Staff Essays An Archetypal Analysis of Sorensen’s On This Star and Hémon’s Maria Chapdelaine by Joseph C. Murphy The Galleon by Lance Larsen Fiction Charley in the Wind by David Wolverton The Baby Catcher by Caroline P. M. West Home for Xmas (with apologies to T. S. Eliot) by Margaret Blair Young Drama The Second - [Fall 1985](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1985/) - Poems At Nepaug Reservoir by Matt Mosman The Overweight Poet Poems by Wayne Taylor The Day He Reigned by Jenny Hale Pulsipher Fiction You Want to Know about This One Here? by Curtis Wade Bentley Where the Mormons Go by Curtis Wade Bentley Non-Fiction The Curve of the River by Pauline Mortensen My Ivy League Education, An Autobiography: 1967-71 by Wayne Taylor - [Fall 1986](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1986/) - Poems Hawk of the Hieroglyphics by Teresa Keenan Trout Fishing by Carri Sandholtz The Cord by Mark Grimmins Angelica by by Lisa Madsen Sara by Lisa Madsen Cockfight by James Papworth Littoral by Carrie Sandholtz Each Day by James Papworth Short Stops by Gary Frazier Like Him by Eugene Woodbury That Light by Philip White - [Fall 1987](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1987/) - Short Stories Dream Island by Lance Larsen To Resurrect by Derek Gullino Trusting Mother by Henry Woodbury Vivo Orfeo by David Veloz Topman by William Powley Objet d’Art by Zina Petersen Poetry Elegy for Richards Coones by Lance Larsen On the Road by David Veloz Birds by Lance Larsen Making Fruit Salad by Lance Larsen - [Spring/Summer 1988](https://inscape.byu.edu/spring-summer-1988/) - Poetry Red in the Sun by David Veloz Like You and My Knees by David Veloz Mensonge by Brent Pace Winter Cleaning by Brent Pace Generations by Bruce Pritchett Skimming Currents by Bruce Pritchett Death Calls by Timothy Liu Fisherman’s Wharf by Timothy Liu This House by Teresa Keenan Hurricane Betsy by Teresa Keenan The - [Fall 1988](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1988/) - Table of Contents Wings – Laura Rhoton A Mormon Poem: The Beach – Jesus Rodriguez Evening in Biloxi – Colin Bay Sons and Screenplays – Gary Burgess The Heat – Timothy Liu Where Things Were Quiet – Laura Hamblin Home – Jesus Rodriguez Revelation – Janette Devine Slag – Jesus Rodriguez The World’s a Mess, - [Winter 1991](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1991/) - Fiction Missouri by Stephenie Swindle Clark Woodshedding by Paul Rawlins Babyloo Across My Twinkling Floor by Stephenie Swindle Clark Essays Rhythms by Marni Asplund Campbell Protection by Nyle Smith Cemetery Day by Paul Rawlins Catfish by Alex Faletti Poetry Angel Hair Streams Down (for Deidre) by Scott Elgin Calhoun Zambia by Paul Rawlins Between Here - [Fall 1991](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1991/) - Poetry Out by MaryJan Gay Munger I Know Now What I Love You For by MaryJan Gay Munger Linda by Pilar Stewart Annunciation by MaryJan Gay Munger Half Full by Sam Andrus Pablo Campues, Saint by Henry Miles Blues at the Vacaville Fair by Jill Hemming Fiction In a Strange Light by Tryn Elva Paxton Wild Horses by Paul Rawlins The Presence of Fact by Alex Faletti The Company of Lovers by Lorraine Paterson Nonfiction Of Quiet by Cory - [1992](https://inscape.byu.edu/1992-2/) - This issue of Inscape was illustrated by Quentin Lee Webb. Quentin is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and graduated from BYU in August with a B.F.A. in illustration. He is now pursuing a free-lance career in his field. Poetry Art Can Be Naked by E. Brian Gentry Autumn Hands by Laura Moulton Dad in the Kitchen by BJ Fogg If You Were - [Winter 1993](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1993/) - Fiction Ciao by Joanna Brooks Roasted Almonds by William Powley The Matter of These Hours by Paul Rawlins Words for Kallie by Mary Lynn Bahr Nonfiction Another Spring by Amy Harris Dad’s Stride by Sterling Augustine On Her Birthday by Julie K. Curtis Raconteur by Shauna Lee Eddy Poetry Bartered by Nancy McBride Early Pregnancy - [Fall 1993](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1993/) - Creative Writing Redemption by Ken Nishimoto Prenuptial Counseling by Mary Lynn Bahr Gathering by Mary Lynn Bahr New Moon, November by Joanna Brooks During August, We Play Married by Joanna Brooks Overhearing Eyebrow Conversation by Gina Clark Jack, He Says . . . by Casualene Meyer A Story (which Zanny keeps interrupting) about the Potters - [Spring 1995](https://inscape.byu.edu/spring-1995/) - Creative Writing Prayers Toward the Temple Mount by Casualene Meyer Going by Kristen Tracy Bible and Torah by Michael Mitton Making the World Easy by Elissa Minor Nothing Like the Sun by David Pace Children in Winter by Kristen Tracy Honeymoon at Arches by Casualene Meyer Night or Day by Frank Christianson Mango Peeling by - [Summer 1996](https://inscape.byu.edu/summer-1996/) - Staff Poetry Upon Going Through Grandmother’s Things: Summer 1993 by Derek Otsuji Stone by Derek Otsuji Poem to a New Wife by David Passey Upon the First Birth by David Passey fountain in city square by Mike Farr Lens by Jane Brady Fishing for Salamanders by Michael Stevens Tijuana Poncho by Michael Stevens P.S. to the Stars by Kael Moffat Con los muertos: El - [Winter 1997](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1997/) - Short Story Sharlimar by Aaron Eastley Tystnad by Gabrielle Bomgren Shrink by Kjell Rosenberg Eating the Old Thoughts by Terrie Petree Lao-Tzu’s Black Ox by Matthew H. Kennington Poetry Sounds of a House by Nathan Furr Prophecy by Shannon Castleton Farmer’s Wife to Farmer by Shannon Castleton Ross by Brooks Briggs The Knoll by Brooks - [Fall 1997](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1997/) - Poetry Bonnie, the Foreman, Says What She’s Been Thinking by Gina Clark Flying by Map by Shannon Castleton Not Sinning as Much as People Needed Me to by Eric Freeze Bathsheba’s Lament by Stephan Craig Landscaping by Eric Freeze The Lighthouse off Tillamook Head by Nathan Furr Pt. Barrow, Alaska by Krista Halverson Taking Grandmother - [Winter 1998](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1998/) - Fiction Red Shoes by Kristine Fielding Fruit Leather Suit by Jim Richards Birth of a Daughter by Angela Colvin The Man who Murdered Himself by Nancy Owens Nonfiction Wrestling Esau by Jonathon Penny Dear Oscar, There Are No Free Helicopter Rides by Ohio Faulkner East of the River Birds by Patrick Madden Soupe de Poisson - [Fall 1998](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1998/) - Prose The Name Game By Whitney Fox Grounded by Christl Call-Cook Art by Scott Hanson Anahola by Ed Whitley Peace Purchased of Separation by Liesl M. Burkirk Photography Chris Carlson Christina Dominguez Poetry Autumn Mourning by Linda VanOrden A Sense of Belonging by Arthur Westover Hot Night with Aunt Coy by Krista Halverson Fidalgo Island - [Winter 1999](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1999/) - Letter from the Editor by Quinn Warnick Prose My Life as a Salmon by Tom Johnson Principles of Tree House Construction by Laura Owen En Route to Marquesado by Karl Chandler Riding the Bus by Davey Erekson Drama Great Gardens! by Joshua Brady Poetry Orchard by Sarah J. Carter Happiness by James Richards Miracles by - [Fall 1999](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-1999/) - Prose What’s Funny and What’s True by Krista Halverson The Grasshopper Holocaust of Summer Suburbia by Brian Jackson Riding the Water by Shannon Murdock The Dryer by Stephen Craig Congratulations on Mandela by Patrick Madden Wednesday Tennis by Christine Guerra Purple Armchairs by Amy Baker A Glimpse from Bald Peak by James Richards Poetry A - [Winter 2000](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2000/) - Poetry Space by William DeFord Navy Seals by Eric Freeze Farmer’s Burial Ground by E. L. Miller (poh-i-tree) n. by Scott Hansen Chalk Circle by Kimberly Patterson Noonday Elegy by Walter Rhead Walking Russia by Walter Rhead There Is Little Stillness in Devotion by Scott Cameron Venice, Our First Time by Sally Stratford Mother with - [Winter 2001](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2001/) - Fiction People Gotta Eat by Sam Brunson In Autumn by Scott Cameron A Conversation with Tess by Summer Davis An Order of Fries by Luis B. Pagan Nonfiction A Mixture of Cathedrals by Scott Cameron Twelve-inch Zippers by Jessica Buck Poetry in the Dark by Josi Brewer Poetry Coming to the Name by Laura Stott Wedding Dinner, November 17 by - [Conference 2001](https://inscape.byu.edu/conference-2001/) - Letter from the Editor by Amy E. Jensen Academic Papers Preserving the Rhetorical Nature of Writing Centers When Going Online by Lisa Eastmond Peabody Chivalry, Love Physiology, and a Reevaluation of Sir. Gawain’s Sin by Daniel Brough Irish Identity in Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark by Peter Jasinski T. S. Eliot and the American Tradition by Karl Thomas Rees When Freshmen - [Fall 2002](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2002/) - Poetry My Flat Tire at the Flying J on Sunday Night in Blackfoot, Idaho by Brian Roberts Old Woman to Her Lilac by Sara Blaisdell Pastoral Ghazals by Christine Bird The Mongolian New Year by Erin Thomas I Keep Two Photos Next to My Bed by Brian Roberts Cada Regalo Perfecto by Deja Earley Flying - [Winter 2002](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2002/) - Poetry During the Second Wet Season that I lived in Jakarta by Brian Roberts Stripping the Kitchen Floor by William DeFord El principio (The Beginning) by John Alba Cutler After Eden by Marilyn Nielson Marie Curie, Dying by Marilyn Nielson Penn Station Subway by Marilyn Nielson Allergic Reaction by Ann Darrington Untitled by Missy Ward - [Winter 2003](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2003/) - Short Story and Personal Essay Four-Thirty by Elizabeth Luker Hot Box by Aaron Welling Understanding India by Audrianne Porter Across the Catwalk by Lindsay Larson Sixty-Four Years by Jessica Scoville The Philosopher’s Wife by Janelle Kemsley The Art of the Neurotic Love Letter by Jason Ludlow Haggling in Addis by Margaret H. Manchak Poetry Three - [Fall 2003](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2003/) - Poetry Bologna by Loren Higbee Udine by Loren Higbee Graffito by Glen Fewkes Stretna Nova Godina by A. E. Marlowe Birthday Letter by Sara Blaisdell Gluttony by Brenda McKenna And This, Class, Is What Is Known as Refraction of Light by Audrianne Porter The Men Who Write the Dictionary by Karen McKnight Drinking in Scotland - [Symposium 2003](https://inscape.byu.edu/symposium-2003/) - Creative Writing The Taste for Art by Amy E. Jensen writing on my birthday by Amy E. Jensen Early British Literature Forming the “Chain of Chains”: Rosalind and the Magic of Love in As You Like It by Elisa Clements Hamlet, Fool of the Danish Court: A New Reading of the Prince’s Role at Elsinore - [Winter 2004](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2004/) - Cover art by Shannon Christensen Poetry War of the Worlds by Sara Blaisdell On the Drowning of Jeff Buckley by Travis Butterfield Transitions by Theodore Martin Cross Community of a Line by Jenny Iverson Lilywhite by Kirk L. Shaw Variation on Vardaman by Travis Butterfield Gender in Classical Mythology by S. Elizabeth Thompson You Deserve - [Fall 2004](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2004/) - Poetry Maybe by S. Elizabeth Thompson My Father-In-Law from the Shores of Lake Powell by Nathan Robison Emergence by S. Nash Woodward Sum(marry) by S. Elizabeth Thompson Letter of Apology by Aaron Robert Allen Tell Me About India by Annette C. Boehm Eleven Years Ago September by Ashley Christensen Cool Drink in a Hot Tub by Aaron Robert Allen Spam Haiku by Megan Graves - [Fall 2005](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2005/) - Fiction The Fifth Year by Anthony Morrison Game of Chess by Ciara Thompson Daughters, hear the music by Erin Gong The Natural: A Story in Three Scenes by a.e. marlowe Nonfiction A Boy’s Dream by Dan Dunn Dust of the Earth by Brenda McKenna Poetry Windshield by Emily Stanfill Soul’s Harvest Church, Newburg, Southern Indiana by Emily Stanfill The Female Novelist Talks of - [Winter 2006](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2006/) - Fiction An American in Starbucks by Erin Barker The Art of Living by D.C. Nelson Duck by A.E. Marlowe Running by Piper Rae Armstrong Nonfiction Two Glass Pitchers by Holly Rose Hansen Satan’s Literature by Christopher Sorensen Abandoned by Emily McArthur Posturing by Ryan McIlvain Poetry Polaroid Transfer by Chantelle Daines Prayer Cap by Jon Ogden Then I Became Eve by Emily Stanfill Prodigal by Aaron Robert - [Fall 2006](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2006/) - Tribute to Leslie Norris Walking in the White Fields by Lance Larsen Driving Home by Leslie Norris Nonfiction: Revisionist History by Amy Scott Name by Stephen David Grover Partir c’est mourir un peu by Olivia Lewis Wanderings by Alison Faulkner Adopted or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tears by Amy Scott Margarita Didn’t Mind by Lina Ferreira Poetry Creationism: - [Fall 2007](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2007/) - The Aims of Inscape We are privileged to be students of a school that is guided by the principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church is, inevitably, a key component of everything we study and a key component of who we are as a people and as individuals. It would be almost - [Fall 2008](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2008/) - Acknowledgements On a recent jaunt through our archives, I learned that without our noticing Inscape recently passed its 25th anniversary. Some very talented writers have been published in the past two-and-a-half decades, including a few writers who have returned to BYU to teach. Inscape is proud of remaining a quality a quality venue for student-produced writing and hope that this tradition - [Fall 2009](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2009/) - Editor’s Note by Brent Rowland Fiction Reserves by Jason Torfin The Test by Jordan Meier Shrestha Mitra by Shertok Samyak A Swimmer by Zac Cianflone Poetry Paddington’s Restless Night by Jakob Chapman Creation: Angelic Perspective by Cassie Keller Cole Love Song by Cassie Keller Cole Twenty-eight Elk Drown After Falling Through Ice by Calvin Olsen Grand Parents by Miki Smith Human Circus by Tyler Singleton It - [Fall 2010](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2010/) - Editor’s Note John Steinbeck signed his books with a drawing of a plump pig with tiny wings. Below the drawing he would write the word Pigasus, accompanied by the Latin motto ad astra per alia porci—“to the stars on the wings of a pig.” In Steinbeck’s own words, the Pigasus symbolized the writer as “a - [Fall 2011](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2011/) - Editor’s Note “How can I know what I think till I see what I say?” —E. M. Forster Sub Rosa, meaning under the rose, was a term used in ancient Rome to mean something happening or done in secret. I learned this phrase my junior year of high school in Mrs. Bean’s creative writing class - [Winter 2012](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2012/) - Poetry Drive by Parker Smith Tickle Me by Parker Smith Deaf by Lindsey Webb The Weight Sings by Andy Andersen Born in the Dirt by Kelsey Allan Autobiography by Tara Boycer Arguments for Eye Contact by Paul Bills Steel Expecting Sand Crabs by Summer Ellison Fiction Giving Life by Rebekah Elliott Poor Ways to End a Love Story by Tyler Corbridge Nonfiction Paper Games by Melanie - [Fall 2017](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2017/) - Editor’s Note by Meg McManama Fiction After the Accident by Leah Fretwell Kill Your Darlings by Natalie Kinkade Cleaning Della Mueller by Mari Molen On a Stick by Kevin Zalewski Nonfiction The Monument by Dillon Flake A Night with the Investment Bankers by Maren Loveland On Selling Out by Kessia Robinson Quake Lake by Dominic Shaw Poetry Captains of Champaign by Carl Boon They - [Fall 2018](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2018/) - Editor's Note by Drew Rupard Fiction A Long Way Down by Karina AndrewHoney Candy by Elmo IshiiThe Live-In by Christi LemanDon't Ask Me Why Laura KocherhansThe Infomercial Story by Abigail Stewart-WebbRepentance by Heather Talbot Nonfiction Bad Hair by Cicily BennionOn Spokesmen by Kelly BurdickJapanese Hairs by Moe GravietJuly Overture by Amanda HallDream Variation in the - [About Inscape](https://inscape.byu.edu/about-inscape/) - Inscape is the inward quality of objects and events as they are perceived by the joined observation and introspection of a poet, who in turn embodies them in unique poetic forms. Gerard Manley Hopkins Who We Are Inscape Journal is published online twice a year as a cooperative effort of the Brigham Young University (BYU) - [Editor's Weekly](https://inscape.byu.edu/editors-weekly/) - Hosted by Inscape's Editor-in-Chief, Paige Winegar Fetzer, the Editor’s Weekly contest is a free, ongoing poetry contest for Inscape Literary Magazine. - [Student Selections](https://inscape.byu.edu/student-selections/) - Student Selections Literature and Art by BYU Students Creative NonfictionStudent Selections A Cover Letter & Resume ArtFeaturedStudent Selections The Fall of Cupid ArtStudent Selections Angel Paradise; The Weight of a City PoetryStudent Selections Swallow Sonnet PoetryStudent Selections Memorial Nine Eleven PoetryStudent Selections De Sterrennacht PoetryStudent Selections Lineage in an Orange Creative NonfictionStudent Selections To Die - [Staff](https://inscape.byu.edu/staff/) - Staff Masthead Editor-in-Chief Paige Winegar Fetzer Senior Assistant Editor-in-Chief Makayla Wach Junior Assistant Editor-in-Chief Sophie Jaglowski Runyan Faculty Advisor Cheri Earl University Advisory Board Lance Larsen Steve Tuttle Kim Johnson Michael Lavers John Talbot Spencer Hyde Ann Dee Ellis Joey Franklin Pat Madden Madeline Rupard Editorial Staff Fiction Editor Allison Hart Assistant Fiction - [Blog](https://inscape.byu.edu/blog/) - BlogFeatured Genre Highlight: Creative Nonfiction Blog Balancing the Literary Scales: Does Highlighting Women Mean Diminishing Men in YA Literature? Blog The Sacred Ritual of Reading Check out our new Podcast! BlogFeatured Genre Highlight: Creative Nonfiction Ah, yes, the unsung hero of literary creativity. If you mention creative nonfiction in a…Katelyn UibelApril 20, 2026 Blog Balancing - [The Author's Inscape Podcast](https://inscape.byu.edu/the-authors-inscape-podcast/) - Inscape's new podcast, The Author's Inscape, explores the inscape behind authors, poets, and artists through creative conversation, dramatic readings, and more. - [Writing Contests](https://inscape.byu.edu/writing-contests/) - Welcome to Inscape's writing contests! Starting in 2024, Inscape began seasonal writing contests designed to reward and honor authors with superb writing skills that are bizarre, believing, and beautiful. - [Fall 2025](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2025/) - Cover Image by Vincent Frimpong, Power Within Editor’s Note by Paige Winegar Fetzer Fiction The Milky Way Is Dying by Grayson Uckele Lobster Eyes by Lily Chen Hare in the Wire by Jacob Dayton in-between spaces by Jessica Mohsen-Crellin Creative Nonfiction finite being by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer When I Am Awake by Angela Townsend On Needing a Brother by Carly Quereto - [Fall 2023](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2023/) - Cover Image by James Reade Venable, Blood Chapel Editor’s Note by Mikayla Johnson Fiction Buck Fever by William Musgrove Bone Magic by Ilse Eskelsen Confessional Door by Tighe Flatley Non-fiction A Bleeding Body by Natalie Serber Teeny Tiny by Jessica Mohsen-Crellin To the Shopkeeper on the Corner of East Jerusalem by Siri Quintili Poetry Even Jesus - [Winter 2025](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2025/) - Cover Image by Susan Moss Vernal, Awakening Editor’s Note by Kate Romney Fiction Orbits by Zach Keali’i Forgetting by Beth Sherman Don’t Eat the Raspberries by Jayana Young Jobs by Benjamin Schmitt The Family Plot by Ilse Eskelsen Creative Nonfiction Me and Maya Hawke by Travis Roberson Communion of Saints by Kathleen Fields Three Weeks Ago, I - [Fall 2024](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2024/) - Cover Image by Roger Camp, Blue Dockline Reflections, Turkey Editor’s Note by Kate Romney Fiction Drops of Asteroid by Anna Pellerin On Livestock by Ammon Gillins Creative Nonfiction Last Hours by Lily Jensen A Vernal Pool in Summer by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer It Looks Like A Firefly by Savannah Brantley Poetry Talisman by Christian Ward Fantasia on Picasso’s - [Winter 2022](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2022/) - Clubhouse At Night by Madeline Rupard Editor’s Note by Kath Richards Fiction A Few Miles Off by Ella Jakobi (Inscape Contest Winner) A Bullet for the Renafern Man by Benjamin Vance Thetis by Courtney Lehikainen Wild Geese by Abby Knudsen Nonfiction One Clear Voice by Celisa Fullmer (Inscape Contest Winner) A Car Ride, Beastie Boys, and John Lennon’s Ghost by Evie Darrington Vibrations Through Wire and Air by Kirsten Burningham Two by Chloe Allen Poetry Translation of - [FAQs](https://inscape.byu.edu/faqs/) - Frequently Asked Questions What document type should I use for submissions?Please submit your work as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. What kind of submissions is Inscape looking for? Inscape publishes well–crafted fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual art that embodies one or more of our five defining identities: smart, believing, peculiar, refreshing, and excellent. - [Winter 2023](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2023/) - Cover Image by Lisa Harbertson, Quechua People of the Andes Mountains in Peru, 2022, #4 Editor’s Note by Mikayla Johnson Fiction S L O B by Gary Duehr Sympathy by Maddy Schow Burning Barns by Steven Fromm Slaughtered by Lucas Zuehl A Real Classic by Cosenza Hendrickson Nonfiction Intersections by Bethany Jarmul Your Existence is Impolite by - [Winter 2024 Alumni Issue](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2024-alumni-issue/) - Up by Emily Murry Editor’s Note by Mikayla Johnson Acknowledgements Fiction Sonata in Three Movements by Jeanine Eyre Bee The Hankering by Kiri Case Hell is a Road by Kath Richards At Final Glance by Chanel Earl Stroganoff by Ann Dee Ellis Broken Dishes by Jessica Mohsen-Crellin Creative Nonfiction Collagen by Erika Price The Art of - [Fall 2019](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2019/) - Editor’s Note by Noah Hickman Fiction I Dreamed That We Were Sister Wives by Chanel Earl Kingdom Awakening: A Play by Dallin Hunt Slipping (Flash)back(s) by Mauri Pollard Nonfiction Painted by Rebecca Cazanave Back to the Salt Mine by Chanel Earl Gail Enough by Gail Roberts Elegy by Logan Davis A Woman Here by Ranae Rudd Poetry New Year’s Eve by Olivia Moskot Constellations by Michael Jenkins - [Winter 2020](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2020/) - Fiction Make It Up by Rachel Leishman The HOA by Allie Manner A Million Kinds of Happiness by Karina Andrew Heartbroken Man Seeks Time Machine by Lisa Christensen Nonfiction Jesus the Pyromaniac by Tom Fairholm Udong by Idongesit Ekpo Wilson by Gillian Walch Human Anatomy by Natalie Van Wagoner Saturday at the Campus Chick-fil-A by Nathan - [Fall 2022](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2022/) - Deep Lake Colors by Torrin Omokoh Editor’s Note by Tanner Millet Fiction Elvis Lives by Gary Duehr Heather Called by Kath Richards The Summer of the Sharks by Becky Tuch Nonfiction Indigo Black by Leah Gaush Ten More Seconds by Samantha Sweetin Of Toros and Toreros by Sarah Safsten Dibéłchí’í (Brown) by Leah Gaush Poetry Awakening by - [Fall 2020](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2020/) - Cover Art by Aïsha Lehmann Tanner, “Touching The Color Line” Editor’s Note by Rebecca Cazanave Fiction Antibiotics by Micah Clemence The Garden by Zach Murphy Possibility #257 by Madelynn Jones Channel Thirty-Eight by Cody Byers Nonfiction Ode to Spell Cheak by Paul Guajardo We by Anelise Leishman On Melancholia by Sarah Safsten My sister must - [Fall 2021](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2021/) - Editor's Note by Kath Richards Fiction Based on a True Story by Christi Leman (Inscape Contest Winner) Isaac and the Lamb by Toriann Molis Death by Chanel Earl Nine Lessons and Carols by Paul Brownsey Nonfiction Genesis by Mauri Pollard Johnson (Inscape Contest Winner) Kissing in the Street by Kalli Abbott Cut Pants by Julia - [Summer Writing Contest](https://inscape.byu.edu/2024-summer-writing-contest/) - Summer Writing Contest Inscape calls for your submissions for our first ever summer writing contest! We have long awaited the day when we could pay our published authors for their creativity and superb writing skills, and that day has finally come. The winner of the contest will receive $300 and the runner-up will receive - [Winter 2021](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2021/) - Searching for light by Max Fisher Editor’s Note by Rebecca Cazanave Fiction Affirmations by Chanel Earl The Sin of Certainty by Tyler Slade Packages by Erin Goulding Red Balloon by Paris Nilson An Anchorite’s Meditation on Water by Chanel Earl Nonfiction Peace (Shanti) by Jamie Marquis Inheritance by Abby Thatcher Quarter of an Inch by - [Fall 2012](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2012/) - Fall 2012 | Edited by C Dylan Bassett “Arriving from always, you’ll go away everywhere.” -Arthur Rimbaud Dear reader: Go read. This issue is a winding stair. This issue is a dirty hula hoop. In this issue, you forget about fingernails. You forget about shoes and breakfast. The names get mixed up and the bathrooms are flooded. A - [Piece 1](https://inscape.byu.edu/piece-1/) - This is the text! - [Awakening](https://inscape.byu.edu/awakening/) - Awakening by Jonathan Travelstead The little god sits up. Wet with moon, winds around their little finger a frothing of clouds. What I could do if only a little wind, if only a little water. Lonely with human story, they hear an alien voice, their own: Take a bit of cumulus & fashion earth. Of - [Winter 2013](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2013/) - Poetry Subsentimental by Allison Leigh What Isn’t Felt about What Isn’t Said in the Rain by Allison Leigh Seedless by Allison Leigh College Movie Night by Riley Bassett Ode to Brussel Sprouts by Luke Swenson How to Pray by Matthew Fee The First to Grow Up by Parker Smith Fiction Circadian Rhythm by Tyler Corbridge The Broadway by Kristen Perkins Nonfiction On the Tracks by - [Fall 2013](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2013/) - Poetry A Stillbirth by Cherise Bacalski Birthmark by Cherise Bacalski [you–in a still pond] by Cherise Bacalski from Datum by Nicholas Gulig from Datum by Nicholas Gulig from Datum by Nicholas Gulig Currently Dead by Lexi Johnson Standing Definitions, Current by Lexi Johnson Wolves by Sophie Lefens “Your Inner Goddess is Persephone,” Says Suzanne’s New Age Quiz by Kylie McQuarrie The Summer After Trek I - [Winter 2014](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2014/) - Editor’s Note On Digital Epistemology (or On the New Cosmography) by Kylan Rice Poetry The 2013 World Series by Estée Arts Welding by Tanner Bean Halcyon by Lauren Bledsoe Brother Keeper by Emily Ho Your foot touches your mother’s by Emily Ho A Pregnant Woman Riding the “El” by Sophie Lefens Go Black by Sophie Lefens Fiction Burning Spirits by Adam Edwards Thirty-Four Candles (One - [Fall 2014](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2014/) - Editor’s Note Dear Reader by Lauren Bledsoe Poetry Dearest Father, by Zach T. Power Remember That Night by Mark Strand Cicatrix by Lauren Bledsoe Anemone by Craig Arnold Since Now God Hath Impald Us by Kylan Rice Wake Up, Missile Man by Sam Thayn Only in America Would This Make Any Sense by Dallin Law Contemplating a Mandelbrot Set by Melissa Morgan Eggs by Sophie Lefens Notions - [Winter 2015](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2015/) - Poetry The 2013 World Series by Estée Arts Welding by Tanner Bean Halcyon by Lauren Bledsoe Brother Keeper by Emily Ho Your foot touches your mother’s by Emily Ho A Pregnant Woman Riding the “El” by Sophie Lefens Go Black by Sophie Lefens Fiction Burning Spirits by Adam Edwards Thirty-Four Candles (One for Good Luck) by Kristen Evans Morning Walk by Sophie Lefens The Wheelchair by Wesley - [Winter 2018](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2018/) - Poetry Preparing Peruvian Lomo Saltado by Mallory Dickson Gamos by Jonathon Egan Nocturne Beginning with a Line by Derek Walcott by Gavin Gao Unreliable Marketing Strategies By Rich Ives The Threat of Happiness by Rich Ives Leaving Alabama in 1987 by Alexandra Palmer On Rites and Watercolors by Alexandra Palmer Memento Mariposa by Anthony Pearce That They Would Pray to Google by Isaac Robertson Fiction - [Fall 2015](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2015/) - Editor’s Note by Adrian Thayn Poetry Publikum by Merril Asp How to Drink Tequila by Lauren Bledsoe Wontons in my American Kitchen by Hadley Griggs Aphorisms on the Pen by Briggs Helton For Thomas by Briggs Helton To the Ghost of Ginsberg by Briggs Helton View of Nopales from a Whale Bone by Lindsey Keller The Drive Home by Scott Porter Blue #17 by Shelli - [Winter 2016](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2016/) - Poetry Alba by Scott Porter Diversey Avenue by Meghan Lorenc I, Amphibian. by Will Finlayson Man by Will Finlayson Maren Sanchez, Murder Victim by Scott Porter The Gleam by Will Finlayson Fiction The Field by Nicholas Montes A Letter to the Man Who Once Left Me by Sam Yager Aspermont by Will Finlayson Nonfiction Almost Normal, but Not Quite by Benjamin Featherstone A Portrait of a Young Man - [Fall 2016](https://inscape.byu.edu/fall-2016/) - Editor’s Note by Zach T Power Poetry Open Lab by Laura Toland From the Skate Park in Front of the Church by Bryn Watkins While Chewing They Seemed Grateful by Joanna Ellsworth Mauve by ShelliRae Spotts Infinity is a Field by Aly Northrup Liturgy by ShelliRae Spotts Response by Sarah Farrar Leak by Anne Thomas Heat Lightning by Richard Merelman The Logistics of Walking Through - [Winter 2017](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2017/) - Editor’s Note by Zach T Power Poetry The Secret of My Parent’s Marriage by Yvonne Higgins Leach Dew Claws for Everybody by Carol Hamilton Corbin’s Birthday by Carol Hamilton Procession on Cochran Road by Gaby Bedetti Dinner Time by M. Anthony C. Quodam by Sarah Farrar Mill River in the Evening and a Funeral by Tamara Thomson Fallacy by Tamara Thomson Letter to Stevie - [Winter 2019](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-2019/) - Poetry In the land of the dead by Emily Brown These are the kind of times when we ask, what kind of times are they by Emily Brown Fiction Birthday and Christmas by Giorgio Palladino Art 3 AM what day is it? by Greg Caldwell Playground by Sally’s Apizza by Madeline Rupard Soccer in Cacoosing Meadows Park by Madeline Rupard - [Sample Page](https://inscape.byu.edu/sample-page/) - This is an example page. It's different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this: Hi there! I'm a bike messenger - [Rubber Sharks](https://inscape.byu.edu/rubber-sharks/) - dedicated to Maurice Brayley by Brent Cottle In grade six I hunted deadly rubber shads that lived beneath the ice over the playgound puddles. Rubber sharks were just something to pass the time of recess. Or were they? Could there actually be a herd of man-eating rubber sharks lurking beneath the icy puddles of Cardston Elementary - [Birth](https://inscape.byu.edu/birth/) - by Neil Aitken here where the pavement rises I place my ear down listen for the pulse of the concrete ciry the second pulse of the slow-moving sewer hear the electriciry leakirg the steel vibrating the yearning ache of bedrock the stirring of waters, oils, sands, deep beneath the child breaking forth from the womb - [5:30 Dialogue](https://inscape.byu.edu/530-dialogue/) - by Marilyn Nelson Smells good, dear; what do you call this stuff the peppers, please, honey. I'm getting such a headache this client is turning out to be. I'm not sure I can even handle on this pan is coming loose and the laundry isn't folded which means the whole firm is nearly bankrupt, so - [Dishes](https://inscape.byu.edu/dishes/) - by Karl Thomas Rees Lord, when it is time for my exit, please, accept my prayer. Do not let me break and go the route of my china on the kitchen floor. I shall wish to say goodbye, and let the world know where she can find me. - [Home Page R2](https://inscape.byu.edu/home-page-r2-2/) - [et_pb_section fb_built="1" use_custom_gutter="on" gutter_width="1" specialty="on" padding_top_bottom_link_1="false" padding_left_right_link_1="false" padding_top_1="0px" admin_label="Header" _builder_version="3.29.1" inner_width="100%" inner_max_width="none" custom_padding="4px|4px|4px|4px|true|true"][et_pb_column type="1_2" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_post_slider posts_number="1" include_categories="69" show_arrows="off" show_pagination="off" show_more_button="off" use_manual_excerpt="off" excerpt_length="0" bg_overlay_color="#c88bda" use_text_overlay="on" text_border_radius="0px" _builder_version="4.6.5" header_font="Cardo|700|||||||" text_orientation="left" background_layout="light" custom_padding="273px|0px|32px|0px|false|true" custom_padding_tablet="100px||||false|true" custom_padding_phone="32px||32px||true|false" custom_padding_last_edited="on|phone" hover_enabled="0" header_text_shadow_style="preset3" header_text_shadow_color="rgba(0,0,0,0)" body_text_shadow_style="preset3" body_text_shadow_color="rgba(0,0,0,0)" border_width_all="5px" border_color_all="#ffffff" border_radii_image="off||||" bg_overlay_color__hover_enabled="on|hover" bg_overlay_color__hover="#ffffff" sticky_enabled="0"][/et_pb_post_slider][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_2" specialty_columns="2" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||"][et_pb_row_inner _builder_version="3.29.1" custom_padding="0px||1px|||"][et_pb_column_inner saved_specialty_column_type="1_2" _builder_version="3.29.1"][et_pb_post_slider - [Application](https://inscape.byu.edu/application/) - by James Richards 'We want your name. Yes, we must have that. No name? Paste the stamps from your forehead onto the page. We take what we can. Numbers, we want them all. This might hurt a bit. - [Blessed Are The Meek](https://inscape.byu.edu/blessed-are-the-meek/) - by Philip White When I think of earth I don't hope anymore in a kingdom of white cliffs,a pinnacle from which you breathe sky and leave the scratch and scar of man far below you. In the dawn I saw before me shapes of peaks beyond peaks above the haze. I thought I could lose - [Dream of the Anxiety Clinic](https://inscape.byu.edu/dream-of-the-anxiety-clinic/) - by Shannon Castleton I float through leaves to a sign, "Anxiety Clinic"—the building glass-fronted and next to Ultimate Bodies where men and women twirl in their bright skins like fish. A woman asks can you say circadian rhythm, explain how we see dreams with closed eyes? Wrapped in gauze, a man slouches next to me. - [Requiem for a Dean](https://inscape.byu.edu/requiem-for-a-dean/) - by David Harmer Several poems composed by Miss Emily Dickinson, the enigmatic Belle of Amherst, revealing bereavement occasioned by the pathetic and untimely death of her esteemed colleague, Ricardo Cracrofto, the quiet and reclusive poet (so tragically and unjustly neglected by the Literati, then as now), in which Dickinson comments upon death in general. - [Home Page R2](https://inscape.byu.edu/home-page-r2/) - [et_pb_section fb_built="1" custom_padding_last_edited="on|tablet" admin_label="Header" _builder_version="4.6.5" custom_padding="0px||40px||false|false" custom_padding_tablet="||0px||false|false" custom_padding_phone=""][et_pb_row column_structure="2_3,1_3" make_equal="on" custom_padding_last_edited="off|desktop" _builder_version="3.29.1" max_width="none" custom_padding="0px||0px||false|false" custom_padding_tablet="||0px||false|false" box_shadow_style="preset4" box_shadow_horizontal="30vw" box_shadow_vertical="0px" box_shadow_color="#c5e0dc"][et_pb_column type="2_3" _builder_version="3.27.3" custom_padding="8vw|80px|60px||false|false" custom_padding_tablet="|40px|||false|false" custom_padding_phone="|20px|||false|false" custom_padding_last_edited="on|phone"][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.6.5" header_font="Montserrat|700|||||||" header_text_color="#000000" header_font_size="10vw" hover_enabled="0" header_font_size_tablet="80px" header_font_size_phone="42px" header_font_size_last_edited="on|tablet" locked="off" sticky_enabled="0"]Latest Articles [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.27.4" text_font="Cardo|700|||||||" text_text_color="rgba(0,0,0,0.03)" text_font_size="150px" text_line_height="1em" custom_margin="-0.8em|||-0.8em|false|false" custom_margin_tablet="-100px||||false|false" custom_margin_phone="-80px|||-60px|false|false" custom_margin_last_edited="on|desktop" text_font_size_tablet="100px" text_font_size_phone="60px" text_font_size_last_edited="on|desktop" locked="off"]Latest[/et_pb_text][et_pb_blog fullwidth="off" posts_number="6" show_thumbnail="off" show_excerpt="off" show_pagination="off" - [Wind Ensemble](https://inscape.byu.edu/wind-ensemble/) - by Craig Witham The breathlessness gathered until he was drowning again. He reached for the mask-translucent rubber, green-attached by a rubber umbilical to - [Ode to a Dean](https://inscape.byu.edu/ode-to-a-dean/) - by David Harmer Some lines of the exuberant and unabashed all-American poet, the Honorable Walt Whitman, lamenting the unfortunate demise of Ricardo Cracrofto, his beloved friend, the shy and retiring poet. They were recently discovered by David Harmer, who found them scribbled on the back of a remnant of a brown paper sack found in an - [Love Song Early Evening](https://inscape.byu.edu/love-song-early-evening/) - by Philip White Day gawks at gist of night. Under neath all trees wet soil fields of weed froths of corn merge into one evening green. Stars soonest flicker days last glimmer eyes that are only hers. Waft of children's voices laughter tiny bells between green earth and narrowing sky. What nether clarity is - [Visiting Seattle](https://inscape.byu.edu/visiting-seattle/) - by Corey A. Blades I winced as he reached Into the garbage And ate in America Land of the free. He caught me staring And asked With day-old breath For a buck. I gave him some In God we trust And wondered if he did. We introduced ourselves As strangers In respective stupors And - [First Night Home](https://inscape.byu.edu/first-night-home/) - by Barry McKendry With little Nathan at her breast, my wife she rocks a lullaby of maidens fair and unicorns that fly in starlit night-time. I cat-walk to their side and softly lift my hand to feel the shudder of her ember flesh and gasp at his tiny snowflake hands. Barry McKendry is - [The Oil-Child](https://inscape.byu.edu/the-oil-child/) - by Carla Thomas She names it "Moon Among Clouds," Covers it with canvas and translucent blues: Her firstborn, brought forth in a frenzy. He calls it salacious, a bastard child, And drinks his morning coffee Without cream. She watches the sun from the kitchen window As it breaks blue sky-waters And sends red streaks of - [Forecast](https://inscape.byu.edu/forecast/) - by Carla Thomas The snail moves slowly up the trunk of our sugar maple, leaving a sticky rainbow trail for early-morning explorers to follow with their fingers: a phosphorescent alphabet of horrors done in braille. The fireflies have been alive for two weeks now, flashing their lanterns in the summer air, tiny mobile lighthouses. And - [East of the Reptile House](https://inscape.byu.edu/east-of-the-reptile-house/) - Susan Lewis ACT I The lights come up slowly revealing a park bench in the middle of a metropolitan zoo. It is summer and the area abounds with green grass and trees. A tall sign to the right of the bench, in the shape of an orangutan, declares, PRIMATES THIS WAY. A similar sign - [Norton's Boots](https://inscape.byu.edu/nortons-boots/) - David Brake It was 1946, the war was over and Norton was once again on his front porch. He leaned forward in the rocker to look at his new boots, tipping his head slightly to the right and then to the left, pausing just long enough to allow his eyes to catch their own reflection - [So I'm Going to Do You a Favor](https://inscape.byu.edu/so-im-going-to-do-you-a-favor/) - Andrew Olsen “Well, so far you say you like everything I've told you about our condominiums and resort here, ” Mr. Corbett summarised. “Do you have any questions? ” “Just the big one, I guess, ” Karl answered. “The big one?’ ‘Yeah, price. ” “Well, of course. Now believe it or not, I've been saving - [Coyote Canyon](https://inscape.byu.edu/coyote-canyon/) - Marianne Sorensen The July sun shone hot over the northeastern Nevada desert, making the alkali flats shimmer. Several inches of dust covered the wheel-track road leading out through the sagebrush. There had been no rain to fill the canyon streams, but the boss, Stu Richins, wanted to keep his cows feeding in the higher country, - [Rothko: Black on Grey, 1970](https://inscape.byu.edu/rothko-black-on-grey-1970/) - Steven Wallace I. Black There were four howling colors here before; Lamplight after shadows found no grey. Still in the eye all colors change by light, As though the light, voice-like, within their core Could chant for life, could choke the sound away, Till deepest of all roar the dull leaden nights: Outside , the - [Kid with the Hair: circa: 1975](https://inscape.byu.edu/kid-with-the-hair-circa-1975/) - Laurie Wood When I figured he was wiser It wasn't too late. He knew my faults (I saw he had them too), But he overlooked them— Nearsightedness I guess. He pointed out we were different, No better, no worse than the other. He accepted my friends, Wanted me to love God, Wanted me to love - [Kid with the Hair: circa: 1970](https://inscape.byu.edu/the-kid-with-the-hair-circa-1970/) - Laurie Wood I didn't know him, Didn't particularly want to: I considered his existence with contempt. Angered at the mention of his achievements I tired of comparisons. He said the right things, Did the right things, Knew the right people. I didn't. My hatred was labeled rivalry Which made it worse— That and being reminded - [Rain Coming](https://inscape.byu.edu/rain-coming/) - John W. Schouten The limbs of the sycamore flatten out against this Utah sky like the lines of a road map. There's a breeze. I can almost smell the distant blackness, the rising Columbia. At night sometimes it turns on itself, flows backward seeking its source, and the black-mouthed Chinook ride it home. I've seen - [Surrogate](https://inscape.byu.edu/surrogate/) - Diana Stewart We broke a window at the Dastrups' and never talk to them because they kept our lime-green super ball. We hid and Rags sought (and usually found) us Summer Sidewalk browned- ignorant laughing. Until the day that Daddy cut our bangs without the scissors. Then we stopped. And now the Doctor sleeps alone, - [Hopping a Train](https://inscape.byu.edu/hopping-a-train/) - John Snyder Call me a vagrant. I think that's what Melville really wanted to say when he started Moby Dick. Conviction left him though, and he settled on "call me Ishmael," which is actually just another way of saying the same thing; if you are an Ishmael, likely you have been cast out and have - [A Schoolboy Contemplates Infinity](https://inscape.byu.edu/a-schoolboy-contemplates-infinity/) - Joseph K. Nicholes Bent over a fake wood desk While Mr. Looft paraboled the board, The boy drew a plain grey line As straight as he could (Just like in the book) With a sharp black arrow on the end— That was because there wasn’t one. The line went right, over the edge of his - [For the Drunken Lover](https://inscape.byu.edu/for-the-drunken-lover/) - Steven Wallace —Miser ineptc, ne desinas ineptire, sed obdura These days (and there are so many like them) Are misery for the obdurate lover Since he, poor fool, resolved to spurn all others And fastened hard his heart to the lady’s whim. Still, is it really better to unyoke Him from the girl that drags - [Ten O'Clock News](https://inscape.byu.edu/ten-oclock-news/) - Laurie Wood I’ve seen death only on the news, And now I’ve seen blood and grief. What am I to do with these deaths in my head? Make room for them— Make room for puddled blood Preserved, reviewed and edited. Make room for a nameless victim, A numberless victim, Another prime-time newsmaking death. What am - [Search Inscape](https://inscape.byu.edu/search-inscape/) - [Digital](https://inscape.byu.edu/digital/) - [Coming Soon] - [About](https://inscape.byu.edu/about/) - Inscape is the inward quality of objects as they are perceived by the joined introspection of a poet, who in turn embodies them in unique poetic forms." — Gerard Manley Hopkins Inscape is a literary journal run and produced by students of Brigham Young - [Winter 1987](https://inscape.byu.edu/winter-1987/) - Poetry Over the Other Side of the Country by L. Danielle Beazer Christina’s World by D. Kendric Blake Palenqueo by Laura Hamblin Sailing Through Chicago by Matt Mosman Man of Corn by John David Wolverton Moons by C. 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