By Heidi Naylor IN HIGH SCHOOL, I worked as a lottery ticket agent at a strip mall newsstand called Tri-State Book and Game. I was sixteen, seventeen, selling lottery tickets I was too young to buy or redeem, and I suppose such a situation is not so uncommon. But it was a job that …
Category: Issue 169
Poem: Never Trust Anyone Who Doesn’t Limp
By Anita Tanner Lopsided life, designed to make us lame, to rupture our vulnerabilities, teaches us to walk with a halt, turn toward the grave hunchbacked and clubfooted, left eye nearsighted, right eye, far, disproportionately dealt by fate’s slings and arrows— left-handed, right-brained, even our faces are asymmetrical— deviated septa, long crooked noses, men …
Poem: Before Language
By Richard Schiffman Up from the fountain the babble of children, drenched with surprise. Alive! The rain of their syllables does not strain to speech, their glottal whoops and yells never jell to full-fledged words or phrases. Parents hover bird-like by their brood. Parents fan and fan their little flames. And I, alone, the …
Poem: P-Day at the Sugar Shack
By Dayna Patterson This day brims with too much sweetness. The maple syrup, liquid gold we’ve poured into pea soup and red Kool-Aid, over beans, flapjacks, and sausage links. We are the only patrons in this cabáne a sucre made to hold a hundred. We crowd one table. Our hosts watch curiously. …
Poem: The Swing at Orient Point
By Greg Moglia There on the beach a swing for two and in the late afternoon empty We sit and take in the world, we two and words are said but not remembered Something to pass the time ‘How lovely, how perfect . . . ’ But all that’s needed is my foot that …
Poem: In the Day of the Great Slaughter
By Les Blake Young September in the city parkbenched with the good book, water whispering near running dark and God, the gritty two leaves now spinning skew in sunlight’s morning cup bottomside down then up in gravity’s flutter flue leaf on leaf, set fast to page let fresh from tree still living …
An Olive Leaf: Gently Down from Pedestals
20 September 2012 marked the loss of one of Mormonism’s most beloved professors and champions of LDS literature, Richard H. Cracroft. With both joy and sadness, we offer the following slice from his wonderful essay, “The Humor of Mormon Seriousness: A Celestial Balancing Act,” from the January 1985 Sunstone. MANY, . . . FROM BERT …
Update: Days Before the Election, Romney, LDS Church Probed
The last few weeks before 6 November, stories about Mitt Romney and the LDS Church made headlines in mainstream publications as well as in alternative media outlets, probing not only Romney’s connection to his faith but also controversial aspects of Mormonism such as disciplinary practices and the meaning and use of temple garments. According to …
The Family Forum: The Hidden Family System
By Michael Farnworth Don’t forget to win first place Don’t forget to keep that smile on your face Be a good boy Try a little harder You’ve got to measure up And make me prouder We’ll love you just the way you are If you’re perfect —ALANIS MORISSETTE I’VE BEEN STUDYING families and their dynamics …
Borderlands: Miscellaneous News and Interesting Items
By D. Jeff Burton SLC SUMMER SYMPOSIUM ON 27 JULY 2012, at session 253 of the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, “Family Values: Coping with a Borderland1 Family Member,” I was joined by John Dehlin, Lilly Shults, Adam Fisher, and Suzann Werner in a panel responding to questions and comments from the audience. We received …