A Gathering of Literature and Art
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Frontispiece
Spring/Summer 2025 Archive
The Arc of the Moral Universe
Is long but it
Bends towards
Justice
Theodore Parker
Copyright Notice :
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including, photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests, mail the publisher at:
thelinnetswings@gmail.com
ISBN:
978-1-7392526-7-0
Original Art
Lisa Walters
Greet Tiiskens
Contributors to the Issue
Stephen Zelnick
Oonah V. Joslin
Ian Fisher
Lisa Walters
Mari Fitzpatrick
Greet Tijskens
Kathleen Cassen Mickelson
John P. Bourgeois
Prologue Continued
Inspired by a visit to the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration in Stamullen, Co. Meath, this poem explores the sacred rhythm of chant, memory, and silence. Through layered verse and luminous imagery, it evokes the timeless pull of prayerful repetition, where breath and voice awaken the soul's ancient longing. The cloister becomes a living field--one that remembers, responds, and rekindles grace each time its sacred name is spoken. |
Spring/Summer 2025 Archive
What the Field Remembers
Prologue
There are memories that don’t belong to any one person. They move through us like breath and like breath they shape all they touch. Like the JFK assassination, the tsunami in Thailand, Princess Diana’s death, the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, and other events of international and national significance, for once formed in such a shocking fashion they create a pattern and once mentioned in conversation the pattern recreates itself.
In this issue, we follow the spirals of tradition, the rhythms and the dreams that are not wholly our own. Each work here arrives not as invention, but as recognition. Yeats knew that the artist is both dreamer and awakener: one who listens for the music beneath the world’s noise, one who serves the eternal by shaping the transient. And he knew that to awaken from “the common dream" is not to abandon beauty, but to support it.
Our contributors this quarter listen for the murmuration beneath the surface. The echo of an old grief in a modern line, the arc of a bird mirrored in brushstroke, the ancient hush that falls when a new story is well told. They understand that when ritual is repeated with reverence, the whole of creation may join in the remembering. Here in this issue we gather more than pages. We gather resonance and memory as in- heritance--that was felt, embodied, and then passed through hand, voice, and vision.
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Stephen Zelnick explores Timon of Athens as Shakespeare’s most furious, unvarnished critique of greed, flattery, and broken friendship. With insight into its chaotic structure and modern staging, this essay reveals a play that mirrors our own disillusionments. |
 In this meditative poem, Oonah V. Joslin traces the spiral of connection and disconnection through time, matter, and memory. With echoes of Escher and DNA, the poem explores the fragile chemistry of identity, friendship, and the spectral nature of being. |
In this quietly luminous story, Ian Fisher charts the long arc of family, memory, and connection through the life of Bronagh Bumgarner. From Montana cabins to dreams by the Stillwater River, Carousel is a tribute to legacy, love, and the names we pass on. |
 This piece by Lisa Walter opens our seasonal art with a question rather than a conclusion. It speaks to the interplay of permanence and impermanence, of woman as witness and cipher. And in doing so, it anchors our broader exploration this season: how art, like memory, lingers-uninvited but undeniable-on the walls we pass by. |
Inspired by Paggi’s Venus and Cupid, Greet Tijskens reimagines memory through smalti mosaic. Rooted in Baroque light and maternal grace, this work blends Italian art history with a personal vision shaped by time, illusion, and the fidelity of feeling over fact. |
 In this tender garden elegy, Kathleen Cassen Mickelson reflects on memory, labor, and the quiet transformation of grief. Through pruning, presence, and green promise, the body remembers love-and turns sorrow into soil. A poem rooted in care and renewal. |
In Knotted Fables, John P. Bourgeois weaves classic animal tales into a darkly playful, richly allegorical novella. From a boastful hare and stoic tortoise to a bone-coveting dog and a calculating crane, the stories explore vanity, hunger, and moral compromise. With wit, pathos, and lyrical bite, these reimagined fables reveal the tangled instincts beneath civil disguise-where every creature, no matter how clever or cautious, must reckon with the cost of being hungry, proud, or simply alive. |
 In The Echoing Field, Mari Fitzpatrick blends memoir, mysticism, and memory to explore sacred resonance in places like Ferrara, Knock, and Leitrim. From Eucharistic miracles to personal visions, she reflects on the soul’s capacity to tune into a deeper field of meaning. Drawing on Irish Catholic heritage, poetic insight, and Rupert Sheldrake’s morphic theory, this lyrical essay invites us to consider whether miracles are echoes-ancient notes still sounding for those who listen. |
 Why 'Human Being Responsibilities?' Because fostering respect for human rights contributes to stable and harmonious societies where every individual feels valued and protected. It reduces conflict, enhances social cohesion, and builds trust in institutions. When individuals respect and uphold the rights of others, it creates an environment where equality and justice can thrive, improving overall quality of life. |
Savonarola
Set in Renaissance Florence, this powerful poem captures the tension, beauty, and destruction surrounding Savonarola’s infamous Bonfire of the Vanities. With vivid imagery of hidden art, sacred fear, and the irreversible cost of creation, it bears witness to a city torn between devotion and expression. Artists vanish, sketches burn, but beauty endures in memory--etched in charcoal, pigment, and conscience. |
 Tracing the legacies of Eleanor of Aragon and Isabella of Castile--two royal daughters whose choices shaped culture and history. From Eleanor's artistic patronage in Ferrara to Isabella’s sponsorship of Columbus, the short piece links brushstrokes and voyages, courts and cathedrals. As the world marks 250 years of U.S. independence, these early echoes remind us how art, power, and faith shaped our present. A lyrical meditation on inheritance, influence, and the enduring symbols that still guide us. |
A playful, poignant tribute to artist Louis Wain, whose whimsical, electric cats transcended convention-and perhaps reality. Oonah V. Joslin celebrates his visionary spirit, exploring art, madness, and the feline spark that lit Wain’s extraordinary imagination. |
 This lyrical poem reflects on time, memory, and heritage through the image of an ancient clock tower. With graceful rhymes and quiet reverence, it explores the rhythms of history, the constancy of symbols, and the dreamlike thread connecting past and present. |
 Kathleen Cassen Mickelson's poems trace the contours of memory, place, and quiet revelation. With vivid detail and emotional clarity, she transforms everyday moments--grief, childhood, discovery-into tender meditations on what endures. |