Bashar Suleiman + Sylas + Tim Hecker + ISMAEL.

Lord of the shades and patron of the realm
That erst my father swayed, list now my prayer,
Hermes, and save me with thine aiding arm,
Me who from banishment returning stand
On this my country; lo, my foot is set
On this grave-mound, and herald-like, as thou,
Once and again, I bid my father hear.
And these twin locks, from mine head shorn, I bring,
And one to Inachus the river-god,
My young life’s nurturer, I dedicate,
And one in sign of mourning unfulfilled
I lay, though late, on this my father’s grave.
For O my father, not beside thy corse
Stood I to wail thy death, nor was my hand
Stretched out to bear thee forth to burial.

A.

Sherman Fuchs, Argentina.

By far the dominant reason for not releasing sooner was a reluctance to trade the dream of success for the reality of feedback.

K.B.

Andre Gansebohm, Hamburg, Germany.

So spake she, and the father of men and gods smiled, and made answer, and spake to her with winged words: If in good sooth, O ox-eyed, queenly Hera, thy thought hereafter were to be one with my thought as thou sittest among the immortals, then would Poseidon, how contrary soever his wish might be, forthwith bend his mind to follow thy heart and mine.

H.

Photo 1 by Alessandro Zanoni, photo 2 by N. Vent Fischer and photos 3-4 by Florian Mueller.

In the Icelandic and Pomeranian myths the schamir, or “raven-stone,” also renders its possessor invisible,—a property which it shares with one of the treasure-finding plants, the fern.

J.F.

The door ought not to be opened to applicants so
That, when it is ajar, it may not be shut again.
Nobody sees the thirsty pilgrims to Hejaz
Crowding at the bank of briny water.
Wherever a sweet spring happens to be
Men, birds and insects flock around it.

S.

Yuri Balestri, Florence, Italy.

Who knows how white attracts,
Yet always keeps himself within black’s shade,
The pattern of humility displayed,
Displayed in view of all beneath the sky;
He in the unchanging excellence arrayed,
Endless return to man’s first state has made.

L.T.