Issue #4

Hope

Table of Contents

Letter from the Editor: Hope Begins in Darkness

Letter from the Nonfiction Editor: The Art of Hope

Dying Under an Overpass | Paul Rousseau
Monkey’s Love | Sandi Parsons
Vanishing Point | Art Hanlon
Boobs and Bones | Frances Park
A Pony Named Pixie | Allison Oesterle
Because of Ryan | Wendy Kennar
Learning to See with Grandpa | Rosemary Gemmell
Dancing in the Dark | Susan Sparrow
An Experimental Cure for Sorrow | Laura Sergeant

Letter from the Poetry Editor: Timeworn Challenges, Timeless Remedy

meditation at the cancer care center and Embracing the Dead | Wilda Morris
Cream Puffs and Leftover Spools | Ellen Stone
black woman’s guide to not dying in childbirth | Mia Wright
Bookends and Burning Incandescent | Seth Grindstaff
one decides and temple | JI Kleinberg
The Life of the Ball Turret Gunner and Word Lady | Vincent Casaregola
A Morning Lesson | Preeti Shah
Dream of Secrets and When Halved Hearts Hear | James Littwin
The Bones of the Hospital | LindaAnn LoSchiavo

Announcing the winners of Please See Me’s
Mental Health Awareness Writing Contest:

Nonfiction
Comorbidity | Todd Richardson 

Fiction
Bodies in Flight | Eren Harris

Poetry
The Fall | Aubrey Zahn

Nonfiction
Whiteboards and Courage | Beth Burgmeyer

Fiction
Scrambled | Robert Kramer

Poetry
OBSESSIVE / COMPULSIVE | Shay Alexi
Saving Sylvia | Laurinda Lind

Why We Need to Elevate the Voice of Vulnerable Populations

Letter from the Fiction Editor: Things with Feathers

Wendy’s Eighty-Eighth | Mike Bonnet
Straightforward and Safe | Akhil Bansal
Bump | Roisin Doyle-Bakare
Assurances | Ann Michael
Anatomy of an Assault | Gargi Mehra
A Philadelphia Winter | Mark Tulin
Everyday Heroes | Tricia Lowther
Koan | Will Leggat

Cover Image and Art by Laura Vitale: Reconstructing Hope

Stairs to Light | Alan Bern
Trees Through Metal | Marilyn Hallett Granzyk
No Mud, No Lotus | Soojin Jun
Bright Rays | Peter Marshall
Recursive Topography of Uncertainty | Ryota Matsumoto
Lettering Hope | Patricia Tiffany Morris
Singing Tree of Trust and Nine Seasons of Trust | Amy Oestreicher
After Soft Rains and more | Richard Wu