Notes from Joan

Once more Tryst lies before its readers, a banquet waiting to be sampled. As I, most of you will dive in and partake of the treats. Some will nibble, others will bite through the bones what Mia and I have to offer from the contributors' pantry. My aim while shopping was to find the freshest and most tempting work to set before you. Unless you the reader, you the poet, you the author, painter, photographer, can go that one step further then the best can’t, and will never be achieved. I hope you find that something in these pages to inspire you to go one step further. I now look forward to seeing and meeting all the poets I have chosen along with you the readers, because I make it my policy not to read a Bio until it is in print. Be seated and enjoy with my compliments to all. ~Joan

Acknowledgements

I'd been carrying around this quote by Horace Mann, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." My victories are small: waking up and getting out of bed; reading a good book; eating at my favorite restaurant. By Mann's account I should be ashamed to die, but I would be more ashamed to let someone else die if it were in my power to prevent that person's death. I would be ashamed to live if I began to take pleasure in hurting another living being. Now that I've weighed and considered Mann's quote, I can safely dispense with his desideratum. I will tell you this, it made me stop and think. It made want to write up this mini essay. You must draw your own conclusions.

On that note, my gratitude to all the contributors, even the ones who did not make it into Tryst, know that Joan and I are rooting for you. We want you to keep writing no matter how many times you've been turned down. And to those who have faithfully returned to Tryst, we consider you part of our success as dedicated artists. Finally, I would like to recognize the following people for everything they did to make this issue possible:

Claudia Grinnell for her generous time with her feature and provocative interview, as well her photowork in the Flash presentation. It was exhilarating, good chemistry. *Victoria Perelet for the "cherry" photo at the Entrance and for her warm spirit. *Rosa Revsin, for her beautiful heart and eyes. Joan, a godsend if ever there was one. I do hope her halo will fit through that Gate when she arrives demanding her wings back. To our readers, thank you for reading our journals. Enjoy ~Mia

*Feature Galleries are best viewed in Full Screen Mode: F11, or View —>Full Screen. Toggle to resume Normal Screen.