Letter from the Editor

we are feeding each other
from a tree
at the corner of Christian and 9th
strangers maybe
never again.
– Ross Gay, To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian

In elementary school, when the Des Moines Register published my first poem, my grandmother framed it for the top of the television so everyone could see it. Framed on the television or in a wallet, that’s how families used to share such things. Later, when my uncle had articles written about his public art she sent photocopies to people and kept extras in her handbag. If people gathered, she got the photocopies out. 

These days we gather online, sometimes more often than we meet face-to-face. Social media also makes it easy to follow a writer, to learn things about them as they choose to frame and reveal things. One of my greatest delights began when a writer I am connected to started sending me reels of her grandson’s work as a multidisciplinary performing artist. Because his grandmother made this connection for me, every time I see a clip of his performances I feel the kind of joy that comes from community. 

I love this. 

This kind of gathering also happens online when people post links or share what they’ve read and loved in Citron and elsewhere. Some people think that writers do that as part of promoting their work or networking, but really sharing what we love is one way humans feed each other. 

Since January I’ve been reading and saving poems that nourish our sense of belonging. Ross Gay’s To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian is one of my favorites. I found it while searching for poems about hope. Walking in the city, the poet meets a woman who invites him to take as many figs from the tree as he likes. This leads to grabbing figs for a man, and then meeting another man who grabs figs on his way to work. All of this becomes a poem I find and share with an online reading group. 

The things we write nourish the world. The work and how it is shared makes us no longer strangers.  Thank you for making our Summer Issue part of your world.

Angela M. Brommel
Editor-in-Chief
Poetry Editor
The Citron Review

IMAGE ABOVE: George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. “The fig tree” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1751.

IMAGE AT RIGHT: Book Cover, Amy Cipolla Barnes, Author of Child Craft: Stories

Masthead

Table of Contents

Poetry

Notes on the selections by Levi Bradley Jessup

Creative Nonfiction

Notes on the selections by Ronit Plank

Flash Fiction

Notes on the selections by JR Walsh

Micros

Notes on the selections by JR Walsh

Zest

This issue features an interview with a Citron contributor.

In Case You Missed Our Love & Desire Special Issue