INVERTED SYNTAX
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    • 2024 POETRY BOOK CONTESTS RESULTS
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  • The Fissured Tongue Series
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 5
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 4
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 3
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 2
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 1
    • The Fissured Tongue Series
      • Online Issue Two
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    • About The Art of the Postcard
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    • We Are All Artists Exhibit
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        • Churnage FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Daniel Staub Weinberg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Genevieve Rose Barr Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Eva Schultz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Samantha Malay Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • D Allen Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Hayley Harris Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Tony Peyser Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Santoni Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Julia Klatt Singer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Kathryn Kruse Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meg Freer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Moira Walsh Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Staab Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Anne Swannell Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Knott Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Jo Goren Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • CR Resetarits Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Ernestine Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Johnson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Charles J. March III Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Mosley Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Grace Desmarais Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Vieweg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Lawrence Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meca'Ayo Cole Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Andrea Rexilius Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christian Garduno Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Salma Ahmad Caller Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Glenn Thomas Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Yspol Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Michael Thompson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Rikki Santer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
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        • Christine Williams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Beechem Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Imma Dunach Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Ginny Short Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Josh Lefkowitz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Carolyn Adams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
      • We Are All Artists Exhibit Guide
      • We are All Artists Submission Form Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
  • Fissured Tongue Volume 6
  • Poetry Contest Results
    • 2024 POETRY BOOK CONTESTS RESULTS
    • Sublingua 2023 Results
    • Sublingua 2022 Results
    • Sublingua 2020 Results
    • Sublingua 2019 Results
  • The Fissured Tongue Series
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 5
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 4
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 3
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 2
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 1
    • The Fissured Tongue Series
      • Online Issue Two
      • Online Issue One
  • Submission Guidelines
    • POETRY BOOK CONTESTS
  • About Us
    • Masthead
    • More
      • Interviews
      • Blog
        • Blog
      • Resources
        • Writing resources
        • Mile-High MFA
          • Mile-High MFA Writers
          • Mile-High MFA Website
          • Faculty News & Interviews
    • Our Contributors
    • Mission
  • Store
  • Nominations & Awards
    • Pushcart Prize
    • Best of the Net
    • Best Micro Fiction
  • The Art of the Postcard
    • About The Art of the Postcard
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 3
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 2
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 1
    • We Are All Artists Exhibit
      • Video Compilation FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
      • Firehouse Exhibitors 2022
        • Churnage FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Daniel Staub Weinberg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Genevieve Rose Barr Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Eva Schultz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Samantha Malay Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • D Allen Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Hayley Harris Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Tony Peyser Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Santoni Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Julia Klatt Singer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Kathryn Kruse Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meg Freer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Moira Walsh Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Staab Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Anne Swannell Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Knott Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Jo Goren Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • CR Resetarits Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Ernestine Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Johnson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Charles J. March III Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Mosley Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Grace Desmarais Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Vieweg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Lawrence Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meca'Ayo Cole Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Andrea Rexilius Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christian Garduno Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Salma Ahmad Caller Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Glenn Thomas Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Yspol Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Michael Thompson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Rikki Santer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Gamache Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christine Williams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Beechem Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Imma Dunach Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Ginny Short Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Josh Lefkowitz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Carolyn Adams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
      • We Are All Artists Exhibit Guide
      • We are All Artists Submission Form Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
Human expression is never orderly.
​It is a space of disruption.To let ourselves express means to be vulnerable.​It means to invert syntax so as to articulate the visceral. 

I N V E R T E D
​​S Y N T A X

The Fissured Tongue Series 

Picture
“The Thorns of Anxiety" by Ann Wong WanYee. Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, 2024
About the art
Fissured Tongue Volume VI Contributors: Crista Reid | Laura Gamache | Wendy BooydeGraaff and Susan Wider | Tim Carrier | Marie Williamson | Tor Strand | Mary Herrington Perry | brice maiurro | Amy Haddad | Carla Schick | Cady Favazzo | Dana Tenille Weekes | Janice Heiss | Jennifer Griffiths Orudjev | Serge Lecomte | Michael Thompson | Ann Wong WanYee | Robb Kunz | Velibor Baćo | Ruhi Jiwani
Welcome to Fissured Tongue Volume VI
Volume VI is a whole vibe
—it can be read as a meditation on how we hold on when the world feels broken.

From Weekes’ love illusions that feels that love is but a liar and flips the script on affection, to Perry haunting us with memory’s shadows. And where Reid’s chaos is a body’s language, Haddad’s illness is painted with quiet light, "with the illusion of life," and Carrier, whose work moves through intimate spaces of friendship, language and spirituality, unfolds as a meditation on how connection is a form of resilience.

You cannot help but hear Tim Carrier's confrontation with what it means to exist in this world, reminding us that art must be a straight-up act of resistance. And that’s just a glimpse into some of the pieces in this volume. 
Indeed, Fissured Tongue Volume VI speaks to the complexity and fragility of being, while also suggesting that when we connect, witness, and name, that these are the ways by which we can resist using the arts.

Ready to feel something? 
Dive in. Vibe out.
​
Fissured Tongue Volume VI is curated and edited by Nawal Nader-French, Editor, and Jesica Davis, Editor
Work was selected by Yesica Mirambeaux, Allissa Balint, EA Midnight, Melanie Merle, Nawal Nader-French, and Jesica Davis
Picture
“errantry" by J G Orudjev. Mixed media collage, 5 x 7 inches, 2022
Cortisol Ain’t Love But a Liar
​by Dana Tenille Weekes

 Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025​
"I first wrote this piece during my sacred time with friend and amazing poet, Zia Wang. Zia suggested that we use part of the time to generate a golden shovel in 20 minutes. For a few days prior, I was sitting with Ocean Vuong’s Time is a Mother, so I decided to turn to a random page and pull a line." --from the writer's process 
Read More

Picture
“Split the Difference" by Robb Kunz. Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, 2024
151
by M. H. Perry
Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
       "You understand that this is Indiana? The land ravaged by the mining company is now
grown up with grass and studded with lakes the migrating waterfowl come to rest in between
flights. While the visiting nurse looks after my son, I drive out here to photograph the birds."
Read More

Picture
"Paloma Picasso's Portrait" by Michael Thompson. Mixed media, 6 x 4 inches, 2021
Etiology of a Broken Leg
​by Crista Reid

 Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"In vowel sounds gutturally.
The birds are inside the house
But I paused the singing.
Perched and gesticulating
Though not frequently."
Read More

Picture
"Life of B Bishop Interview" by Robb Kunz. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 inches, 2025
More Could Fall On Us
by Laura Gamache

 Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"newly wrenched from earth,
monster fist of roots shedding soil. A man
materializes, ties yellow tape to cones,
separates us"
Read More

Picture
"Trampoline" by Ann Wong WanYee. Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, 2024
Two Poems:
Colors Floating on Water
& Elegy For My Breast
​by Amy Haddad

Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"A blown-out eggshell  
marbleized pink and chick-yellow 
from an Easter long past  
wedged into a shot glass."
Read More

Picture
"Covidia" by Michael Thompson. Mixed media, 18 x 11 inches, 2021
untitled remember: a revolution
by brice maiurro
​
Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"[...] social change is a spiral, rather than the linear climb I had hoped it was in my younger years. That being said, I believe in revolution and that it changes us and the world around us, and that inspired these words."  --from the writer's process ​
Read More

Picture
"Wait" by Ann Wong WanYee. Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cm, 2023
White-Winged Dove's Song
​by Wendy BooydeGraaff & Susan Wider 

Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"Wendy and Susan have a regular habit of phone calls to discuss writing. Susan is often watching her outdoor bird feeders during these calls and cannot resist commenting on the bird visitors. One day she tried to describe a white-winged dove. Wendy mentioned later that she couldn't stop thinking about the bird. Her thoughts became poetry and Susan replied with nonfiction snippets about the doves." --from the writer's process 
Read More

Picture
"Ripe Fruit" by Serge Lecomte. Acrylic on canvas, 22 x 24 inches, 2023
Don't You Know All You Need is Sky
​by Tor Strand

Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"Full on & fast around the corners, my father always took them with ease,
jolting but in it, unwaveringly there in the high part of the mind
just behind his hairline which isn’t all too bad for a man in his
late 60s. He is almost to Whitehorse."
Read More

Picture
"Untitled (Bird)" by Michael Thompson. Mono-print, 18 x 12 inches, 2018

​Look At a Bird
by Tim Carrier

Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"You are my friend who says, Look at a mountain. Look at a bird— in new poems.

The L of your name was once a lion. Then a mouth. A raised arm. Then a staff.

Its shape imparting direction to the animals

& the land."
Read More

Picture
"Retraction" by J G Orudjev. Mixed media collage, 5 x 4 inches 2023
Panniculus Carnosus
​by Marie Williamson

 Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"Skin tag fringe forming after power wash
  Hangnails and murmurs vitiligo
               All echoing
                                       The hosanna in a hay fever
​
                                       The heaven in a rising hemline"
Read More

Picture
"Alone my gentle friend has left me" by Ann Wong WanYee. Oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm, 2024
Two Poems:
What If Love Could be Found Sitting in the Basement of a Bookstore?
& ​I have always loved
by Carla Schick

Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
" 'What If Love Could be Found Sitting in the Basement of a Bookstore?' was inspired by a poem by Timothy Liu, who was inspired by Hafez. During my adolescence I would sit in the basement of a bookstore on 5th Ave in New York and read poems, as though I were stealing words. I didn’t have the money to buy books and reading it in the bookstore seemed much more daring than going to the library (which I also did frequently). During this time I also grappled with the loneliness of being a queer, but not out, youth who found comfort in poetry and language." --from the writer's process 
Read More

Picture
"The New Gods (diptych)" by J G Orudjev. Mixed media collage, 4 x 5 inches, 2023

​​Memory
​by Cady Favazzo​​ 

Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"Here is the tree I named April when the month
was June when my dad was gone, inside, door locked,
and my spoon was filled with peanut butter."
Read More

Picture
"Untitled as my soul" by Velibor Baćo. Mixed media, digital, 2024
Fortune Cookies
by Janice Heiss

Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"Your best friend ran 10 miles per day, the week before she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.
You wonder why people drop things that break.

You will never keep a boyfriend longer than a car.
You dream in black and white because it’s cheaper."
Read More

Picture
“The Thorns of Anxiety" by Ann Wong WanYee. Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, 2024
Muscle Memory
by Ruhi Jiwani
Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI  |  May 2025
"Later, we lie on the ground, and he says, 
​
I can’t move. Can you adjust around me like water?

I don’t want to be the one adjusting,
but [...]" 
Read More

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  • Fissured Tongue Volume 6
  • Poetry Contest Results
    • 2024 POETRY BOOK CONTESTS RESULTS
    • Sublingua 2023 Results
    • Sublingua 2022 Results
    • Sublingua 2020 Results
    • Sublingua 2019 Results
  • The Fissured Tongue Series
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 5
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 4
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 3
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 2
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 1
    • The Fissured Tongue Series
      • Online Issue Two
      • Online Issue One
  • Submission Guidelines
    • POETRY BOOK CONTESTS
  • About Us
    • Masthead
    • More
      • Interviews
      • Blog
        • Blog
      • Resources
        • Writing resources
        • Mile-High MFA
          • Mile-High MFA Writers
          • Mile-High MFA Website
          • Faculty News & Interviews
    • Our Contributors
    • Mission
  • Store
  • Nominations & Awards
    • Pushcart Prize
    • Best of the Net
    • Best Micro Fiction
  • The Art of the Postcard
    • About The Art of the Postcard
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 3
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 2
    • Art of the Postcard Issue 1
    • We Are All Artists Exhibit
      • Video Compilation FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
      • Firehouse Exhibitors 2022
        • Churnage FirehouseArt Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Daniel Staub Weinberg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Genevieve Rose Barr Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Eva Schultz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Samantha Malay Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • D Allen Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Hayley Harris Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Tony Peyser Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Santoni Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Julia Klatt Singer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Kathryn Kruse Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meg Freer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Moira Walsh Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Staab Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Anne Swannell Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Knott Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Jo Goren Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • CR Resetarits Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Sarah Ernestine Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Johnson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Charles J. March III Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Mosley Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Grace Desmarais Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Emily Vieweg Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Lawrence Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Meca'Ayo Cole Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Andrea Rexilius Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christian Garduno Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Salma Ahmad Caller Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Glenn Thomas Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Claire Yspol Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Michael Thompson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Rikki Santer Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Laura Gamache Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christine Williams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Beechem Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Imma Dunach Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Ginny Short Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Josh Lefkowitz Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Carolyn Adams Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
      • We Are All Artists Exhibit Guide
      • We are All Artists Submission Form Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit