prose – Page 2 – TERSE. Journal

And Then The Gray Heaven: A Review by T.S. McNeil

In a culture of increasing representation, which can only be a good thing, one of the aspects of humanity rarely noticed are the truly odd. Not the those who are different because of how they vote or what they like to wear or listen to, but the organic oddballs, who are different in the most…
Meeting Across the Crevasse by Jo Nageswaran Kinnard

I have always been comforted by the space between my fellow human-beings and me, while appreciating what we share in the common ground of our humanity. The idea of losing my individuality in something amorphous is off-putting. However, for a lot of people, “different” is difficult, terrifying, or unacceptable. How do we understand and bridge…
Drawing Blood by T.S. McNeil

Artists can occupy an odd place in culture, both venerated and dismissed, often in equal measure, as both those chronicling and commenting on a moment in time, as well as dreamers away with the fairies. In terms of the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec it was both at the same time. An artist with no…
Storyteller: A Review by T.S. McNeil

The first stories, at least in the Western tradition, were sung. Going back to ancient Greece, long before the written tradition, foundational narrative works such as The Iliad and The Odyssey recited in poem form, often with the accompaniment of a lyre. A bardic tradition carried on well into the 14th century by the troubadour…
Talk Show Star by Pat Dutt

Friday nights Tyler and Minnie would dress up and share a bottle of good red wine as they slow danced to music like, Can’t Live, if Livin’ is Without You! Then Tyler would glue a modest moustache beneath his nose, and don a wig of straight brown hair that hung like a curtain to his…
To See Something New In Your Own Backyard: A reading list for appreciating nature’s minutiae by Brennan Keifer

Because of the Climate Crisis, we often think about nature and the environment on a large, often global scale. The question then asked is what can we, as cities, states, and nations, do to protect the earth and offset global warming. There is utility in this way of thinking. In fact, the Climate Crisis has…
A Zoological Fantasy-Maryann Held by Jason Collins

The Philadelphia-based artist Maryann Held focuses on zoology and botanist themes. The highly detailed animals and plant life follows the classic look of scientific papers but with a twist. The dark, surreal background with brightly colored central focus, the animals, in her artwork are naturalistic but with a mythical finish to them. The artist has…
Braving the Days: Where to Begin by Jordannah Elizabeth

The numerology of 9; I will not delve or glide down a winding road, though, the 36th year, is of some significance, and in the midst of a portion of experience. It is a portion because it has been less than 4 months following my lunar return, a birthday that equals 9, a number of…
Braving the Days: One, One, Seven by Jordannah Elizabeth

January 1, 2023 It is the first day of the 2,023 year of the marking of the evening following the stigmata that completed a story, 33 years long. I read many stories, but tales of history allow years, numbers to ascend. So, when the ancient is uttered in any fashion it has become of some…
“In Every Creation” by Sam Jowett

a sliver of me astral infused queerness myself laid bare upon the mountains I carved the forests I etched the nebulas I painted…