The Battered Suitcase - September 2008

Per Ardua Ad Astra

Greetings from the UK side of our battered but well-travelled suitcase. It's been a strange old month, my friends. Personal difficulty and technical disaster have stalked the corridors of Vagabondage Towers testing all and sundry. But as the old saying goes, when the going gets tough...

Indeed, one could ask what is creativity but mankind's response to disaster? A sweet balm for the ongoing wound of not knowing why we are here or what lies ahead. It's our imagining of other worlds that gifts us comfort in troubled times. And future reality is born consensual from our common dreams and the imagery we create.

We come to you in a slimmer, streamlined suitcase this time around, but there are many great gifts inside.

Townsend Walker weaves a soaring tale around one man's struggle with the shattered fragments of the past, Laury A. Egan holds a failing relationship up to the harsh light of analysis and finds freedom there, while Tom Underhill effortlessly skips through time to face the Void and jump.

Brandon K Brock's meditation on past friendship comes with a painful twist in the tail, Aaron Polson sensitively examines the inherent difficulty of being a different kind of normal yet finds redemption and self-confessed 'writing degree junkie' Ash Hibbert makes the very salient point that, "Japanese is best spoken when it isn't".

The power of what's not said also fascinates our musical guest Paul Jarvis of cult underground UK band Slab! He brings the strictures of Carver-esque storytelling to the art of lyric writing, a match struck to fire the imagination of the listener.

Meanwhile, waiting for you in Poet's Corner, you'll find high school senior Jennifer Viets, new voice Jason Jones and London performance poet Josh Seigal rubbing shoulders with published veterans Darryl Salach, Nick Masseso, Kristin Ong Muslim and Marc Alan di Martino.

This issue, visual riches have been generously provided by Roger Hutchison who finds inspiration in life and movement, and mountain-dwelling butterfly wine drinker Bruce New.

But what's a journey without a little laughter along the way? The vagaries of life are best faced with a smile. This issue, John Carroll provides the chuckles with a tale that will resonate with anyone who's ever stared at a blank page or canvas for longer than is medically advisable.

There are so many stories out there waiting to be told -- as many as there are stars in the sky but to quote from Ash Hibbert's contribution again, "Every good story needs someone to tell it".

And we are all tall tale tellers, fellow travellers stumbling along the same ancient, well-trodden path.

From hardship by endeavour to the stars.

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