by Meghan Laakso I let out a long, forced exhale as I left the examination room. In my hand I held a light blue piece of paper, prescribed for Effexor. The doctor’s hand fell on my shoulder, making me jump out of my anxious thoughts. “This will help you feel better, Meghan,” he said. “If … Continue reading Revealing Vulnerability
by Emily Hanson Every issue of Rock & Sling witnesses to a myriad of different ideas, feelings, and actions and each piece does so in a way that is specific to the individual writer. Issue 12.2 is no different than the rest in how it witnesses to a diverse set of ideas, but, what makes … Continue reading 12.2, an Issue in Review
by Julie Riddle I have a child for you. In an instant these six words dismantled my long-held identity as a woman who had chosen to not have children. (On my bookshelves you will find a copy of Beyond Motherhood: Choosing a Life without Children. Its pages are heavily highlighted. That book got me.) I … Continue reading Shaping Identity: This Beautiful Mess
by Alanna Carlson Anyone who knows me knows that I am unabashedly, loudly, political. Not infrequently, a family member (often on the other side of the political aisle than myself) will ask me some variation of the question, “Why do you care so much about something that doesn’t really affect your life?” I have, until … Continue reading What Witness Means
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A note from Rock & Sling: Jason Mehl’s essay “Ears to Hear” appears in Rock & Sling 13.1. You can read the essay here. By Jon Maire On the surface, “Ears to Hear” is an interesting personal essay about a safari and a guy with a real – or imagined – heart problem. But when … Continue reading An Interpretation of Jason Mehl’s Essay “Ears to Hear”
These shifts of the perceived subject happen frequently throughout the poem, and cause me as a reader to reread previous lines differently due to the knowledge gained from later lines.
With a poem, faith is a hidden constellation, beginning with the still-mysterious act of writing. The blank page, which is simultaneously white and dark, is the abyss each writer stares into until the moment, as Nietzsche said, where the abyss stares back into the writer.
Like books, blog posts plunge me into a perspective different than my own, but in a way that is immediate, a compact chunk of text to absorb while taking the bus to work, multitasking during a Netflix binge, or sitting on a park bench during my lunch break. The great posts divert me from my comfort zone, helping me see myself, my community, my life, in new ways, sending me back into my day with a subtle shift in perspective, a gentle (or not so gentle) nudge to keep chewing on this new idea.
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