Dear Flying Island Readers: Welcome to the 4.26 Edition of the Flying Island Journal! In this edition we publish poems by Martha Sherick Shen , Daniel Thomas Moran , Thomas Alan Orr , and Robin Gobetz ; creative nonfiction by Susan Pines ; and fiction by Sally Harvey . Inspired to send us your fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction? For more info on how to submit, see the tab above. Thank you for reading, Flying Island Editors and Readers
A Poet’s Hymn One day a tree grew until the ax drew blood and the tree became pulp became paper became poem became crane and flew away. This flat life thin as paper wings words a poet's hymn and when folded fast by fertile hands: a frog an owl a crane to fly away on bended wing to seek at Least 10,000 words of peace no voice will utter save on soaring wing a silent prayer a wish to sing. And so transformed i fly this once flat life has died in peace as she who wings her words a feast and folds her hands and then became a sign of hope: an origami crane. Martha Sherick Shen is native to Iowa. Born into an academic family, she was labeled a slow learner years before dyslexia was understood. She did not read until she wa