Always and without fail, I would like to thank all the contributors of Issue VII for their poetry, photography, art and music. It should also be noted that September's Issue VI was a huge success, the "one" that pushed Tryst over the edge as emails poured in from all over the world congratulating every contributor by name. That to me is an accomplishment all of its own, outside of Tryst, when people can take time out of their busy lives to connect with our poets, artists and personally congratulate them. I think that is all the motivation any of us really needs to continue creating and living our dreams. And while it's important to recognize these achievements, let's not forget those less fortunate who may have lost their homes, families, hope, their lives. Thank you for reading our journals, wishing you a peaceful year —Tryst Editor

The image to the left is by Alex Nodopaka © 2003.

Thanksgiving

It's three a.m. in the morning and more than anything I want to release this issue because I am suffering from sleep deprivation, numb down to my toes from sitting up too many nights in one position. The manic phase has worn off and I'm feeling slightly disoriented--what day is it? Oh my God! It's Thanksgiving and I have done nothing to prepare for it. Like every holiday, Thanksgiving being one of them, for the past few years I have declined numerous invitations to celebrate with friends and family. I get so overwhelmed by a flurry of activities I tend to shut down and withdraw from society. This year, I caught some kind of sentimental bug. For some odd reason I invited four people over for dinner and ended up having Thanksgiving with six people, cleaning, doing laundry, washing dishes by hand all day.

Not to syllogize or to belabor any point, but what if I told you that the true meaning of celebration is not in the eating, impeccable table manners or the many interesting places you've seen or the conversations you've had with someone; the many things we tend to collect--like extra pounds, friends, books, or...even memories. Because, every one of these things we tend to take for granted which is odd considering at any moment we could so easily lose them. But the one thing you and I don't take for granted is work. I am not talking about an hourly job, or any paid job. I am referring to the kind of work that Yeats once penned in a poem, Among School Children:

          Labour is blossoming or dancing where
          The body is not bruised to pleasure soul.
          Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
          Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.

It is by this work we measure our self worth, our toils, our pains and accomplishments. Putting all this in perspective, I had come to realize how thankful I was for having Tryst as a creative outlet, though it requires a lot of work, the end results are truly a blessing and a labor of love. With this in mind, special thanks go to Sky Gilbert for his beautiful heart and mind and to Paul Schwartz for his celestial music (which can be heard in the Flash Intro--it may take a while to download but well worth the wait). Both of these artists came into my life over five years ago and unbeknownst to them, it was their music, their words that helped me heal and literally pulled me through some very tenuous times. I would also like to thank Alex Nodopaka for his wonderful enthusiasm and patience; as well, a big thank you to Tony Schanuel for seeing Tryst in the light. To Alison Weis what a fantastic eye! thank you for accommodating every one of my last-minute requests. Also, I am incredibly thrilled to have William Waltz, editor of Conduit Magazine, grace us with his delightfully witty and charming essay.

I would like to warmly welcome back Arlene Ang, Jnana Hodson, Alison Eastley, John Grey, Allen Itz, SL Lee, Duane Locke, Jim McCurry, Chris Major, JB Mulligan, Pedro Trevino-Ramirez and Jerry Vilhotti. A huge welcome to our new contributors: Dave Clapper, Nancy Henry, Michael Ladanyi, Paul Lomax, Clay Matthews, David Matthews, Sue Miller, Maurice Oliver, Jessy Randall, Frances Raven, and Alex Stolis.

In Other News

Congratulations to the following Pushcart Nominees:

T. Birch - "Leap" (Poetry: Issue V)
Jim McCurry - "A Note on Concierto de Aranjuez" (Essay: Issue V)
Tom Sheehan- "A Toast to Skink" (Fiction: Issue V)
Ward Kelley - "Little Parts of the Same God" (Poetry: Issue VI)
Nancy Henry - "This Book of Scars" (Poetry: Issue VII)
Francis Raven - "Overwhelmed Symphony #2" (Poetry: Issue VII)

More information about the Pushcart Nominees and Best of Tryst 2003 contributors will be available in the News section under "Pushcart."

Technical Notes

Contributors, please read over the guidelines carefully before submitting. Tryst has a robust built-in security and spam detection software. Your email goes through three levels of security before reaching my Inbox. You need to make sure when submitting to put "Poetry (Prose) Submission: Tryst" in the subject of your email; otherwise, any deviation from this format, could and has resulted in your submissions ending up in the trash can accidentally.

How to view this site since not all browsers are equal: Internet Explorer is best for expedience, incorporating the latest web technology; Netscape tends to show colors more vibrantly, but can be exceedingly slow with a lot of annoying popup ads; Opera is fast, but not as compatible with all the web technology out there. Also, depending on the type of monitors, operating system, video cards that each individual uses determine how a site is displayed. For optimal settings, I would recommend setting your display at 1024 x768:

1) For WindowsOS, right click on a blank area of your desktop-->Left click on Properties
2) Click on "Settings" tab--Slide the Screen resolution to 1024 x 768 pixels
3) Set your color to Highest Quality, preferably 32bit

For Mac, best way to set your display is to go to Control Settings-->Monitor and switch your settings.

Finally, sometimes the reading can be an eyestrain when the fonts are small and there is a lot of text, but in order to fit the standard window and minimize scrolling, a website like Tryst sometimes has to scale down the font size for compatibility. Here's a small trick which mostly applies to PC/Windows:

1) Go to any page, this page for example, then click on File-->Print Preview
2) Then "Zoom In":
» Internet Explorer--Click on the plus sign, or use these Keyboard shortcuts ALT + (Plus), and to zoom out, ALT - (Minus)
»For Opera--Click on View (Menu Bar) and Zoom In/Out accordingly, or use these shortcuts: CTRL++ (to zoom in) CTRL +– (to zoom out)
» The same steps for Opera above apply to Netscape.
3) If the text is cut off, then go to File-->Page Setup and set the Orientation to Landscape which will extend the window.

That is all for now. Thank you and have a wonderful, warm holiday season.


Mia:editor@tryst3.com