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        • 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
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        • Sarah Ernestine Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Stephanie Johnson Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Charles J. March III Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
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        • Andrea Rexilius Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
        • Christian Garduno Firehouse Art Center Postcard Exhibit
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        • 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
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      • We Are All Artists Exhibit Guide
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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 Only..." by Lisa Berley, collage, acrylic paint on board, 12 x 16 inches, 2023

Welcome to Fissured Tongue Volume V! 

In this issue we have a number of multidisciplinary artists sharing powerful prose with us—artists, photographers, filmmakers, musicians both in the studio and on paper. No matter the medium, they bring us great gifts. These pieces exist as scattered dots twinkling across a continuum that extends through cardinal and dimensional directions; babies scream on Santa’s lap in the North Pole, a hot mess drives through the Mojave desert, a temple makes its home wherever you want it to, and somewhere in the unsettled past, wild curls bounce onto the gleaming floor of a drafty salon.

Read the rest of the introductory letter from the managing editor and scroll down to discover all of the contributors published in this issue.

Fissured Tongue Volume V is curated and edited by 
​Yesica Mirambeaux,  Associate Editor & Managing Editor of the Fissured Tongue series
with editorial assistance from
EA Midnight, Editorial Assistant
Allissa Hertz, Associate Editor
In this volume
Peruse below or check out a PDF version:
Volume V (PDF)
Picture
"Eye of the Spoon" by María DeGuzmán, digital photograph, 2018​
From the Eye of Hart Crane
​by María DeGuzmán


María DeGuzmán offers that "This visual poetry piece (submitted under the genre of fiction) composed of photographs and text functions as an informal ode to the work of US 'Modernist Romantic' poet Hart Crane, particularly to the collection White Buildings which contains “Voyages,” a mystical and queer lyric poem sequence. “From the Eye of Hart Crane” is steeped in ecological concerns and an awareness of intensified ephemerality and extinction. The photographic images accompanying the text portions were obtained by agitating water with a spoon in a small bowl and photographing the water while stirring it..."
Picture
"Portrait" by William H. Johnson; oil on plywood; 31 1⁄2 x 25 3⁄4 inches; 1944-1945; open source from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery.
Break
​by Piper Martin

Of this piece, Piper Martin tells us "When you ask a kid what their favorite holiday is or what they want to be when they grow up, their answer will be instantaneous. Children have the freedom of seeing life for all the good it has to offer. Their favorite holiday is Valentine's Day because they like giving candy to their friends, and they want to be a vet because they like animals. For them, it truly is that simple..." 
Picture
"The Loge" by Edgar Degas; oil on wood; 5 x 8 5/8 inches; 1883; open source from the National Gallery of Art
The Story
​by ​Lawrence Bridges
​
​​
" The story
Today
Begins with the wheel
Through snow and
Industrial steel..."


from The Story
Picture
"Uprising of the Mujeres: Study for Figure One" by Judith F. Baca; pastel on paper, 21 × 24 1⁄8 inches; 1977; open source from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
On Ongoingness
​by Alison C. Powell

"To the East

You were twenty-three and did not know what to do. You had an idea for yourself, so you followed it. A place and a time. This is you all over. You maintain now that the idea was to go to a big place to learn what to do. You sold your hours for pennies, the trade: you would appear at the coldly precise time and disappear eight oiled hours later, troubling no one in between..."

from On Ongoingness
Picture
"Georgia O’Keeffe" by Alfred Stieglitz; platinum print; 1919/20; open source from the Art Institute of Chicago​
keep
​by Courtney Elizabeth Young​


" The work days continue, long, but not as long as the waits in waiting rooms where I wait with you. Today, we wait for the woman my doctors call The Wig Lady, who specializes in wigs for women who have the type of breast cancer I have, who have the same limited treatment options I have, who have a baldness I will have."
Picture
"Metamorphosis II" by Peggy Stieler Wahrmund; cotton; 57 7⁄8 x 39 1⁄4 inches; 1990-91; open source from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Two Poems
by Dana Curtis


Temple of Stars

​Causation



​“Flowers and birds collaborate
to create new constellations
for this newly molded world,
radiant and empty. Welcome,
I whisper in my most
sinuous voice. I imagine you..."

 
from Temple of Stars
Picture
"Femmes au bain" by Suzanne Valadon; soft-ground etching; 1893; open source from the National Gallery of Art
The Invention
​by Anna Marie Ray

"Give her a whirl; make the siren sing.
            The prompt, echoing in my head
as she draws like Betty, so familiar
            with the female form
Yet with some reluctance
            a hesitance to
                          give in
to the urges
               that dare to

                              Overwhelm."

from The Invention
Picture
"Niagara Falls, New York. Elaine Colgan's bureau in Mrs. Hannegan's boardinghouse. In the mirror she can be seen reading a letter from home to her roommate, Alice. Girls live two and three in a room; pay eight dollars a week board. Receiving and writing letters is their favorite pastime" by Marjory Collins; photograph; 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches; May 1943; open source from the Library of Congress
Tentative Titles for Poems About Former Roommates
​by Kate Polak

Poet Kate Polak shares that "This poem is based on entirely true stories, including those in which I am the villain. This piece I initially envisioned as a series of interlinked roommate poems, but as I compiled partial drafts, I slowly realized that the titles themselves were more than sufficient for the narrative arc I was seeking. Some of the poems came together, some of them haven't (yet?), but the titles all told the story I wanted. I finally decided that while the concept was great, I wasn't actually producing great poetry about it, but I *was* producing great titles."
Picture
"The Paper Aeroplane" by Christy Sheffield Sanford; materials includes Pages, Photoshop Elements, image sourced from "Paper aeroplane diagram" by Ushakaron on Commons.wikimedia; 8 x 10 inches; 2021
The Paper Aeroplane
​by Christy Sheffield Sanford

Christy Sheffield Sanford shares that "The paper aeroplane page focused on the artist model and included my mother, who posed — not in a kimono but often in costume -- for my father. I had read about a poet in France who sent his poetry flying out his window in hopes people in the street would read it. That charming act played a role in the idea of writing on a paper aeroplane."
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  • The Fissured Tongue Series
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 6
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 5
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 4
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 3
    • Fissured Tongue Volume 2
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    • Online Issue One
    • Online Issue Two
  • Submission Guidelines
    • The Fissured Tongue Series Guide
    • POETRY BOOK CONTESTS
  • Poetry Contest Results
    • 2024 POETRY BOOK CONTESTS RESULTS
    • Sublingua 2023 Results
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  • About Us
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    • 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