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Gihon River Review – Spring 2005

Volume 7

Spring 2005

Biannual

Donna Everhart

The Gihon River Review’s spring 2005 issue offers a bountiful selection of stories and poems. Allan Peterson’s poem “Slight of Hands” I appreciate for his use of detail and personification, and fresh way in which Peterson reveals a sense of frustration: “The clock is holding its head in its hands,” he writes in the third stanza. Introducing the fourth, in which that sense of frustration seems to have ended when a “gnat burns itself crazy on the bulb.” The Gihon River Review’s spring 2005 issue offers a bountiful selection of stories and poems. Allan Peterson’s poem “Slight of Hands” I appreciate for his use of detail and personification, and fresh way in which Peterson reveals a sense of frustration: “The clock is holding its head in its hands,” he writes in the third stanza. Introducing the fourth, in which that sense of frustration seems to have ended when a “gnat burns itself crazy on the bulb.” Similarly, Richard Ives’ “An Absence of Clouds” bursts with one-liner surprises, and the lines in his poem are like singing a song. “Wedding Day,” by Barry Kitterman, is a short story that is like watching a movie: the angles change; you may side with one character and, as the story progresses, you may switch sides. Preacher Gerald Micheals has lost his faith. When he soon disappears, Grace with the “oily hair” and Orlando with his FFA jacket, “a blue corduroy with a single patch,” come to the foreground. In Kitterman’s concusion, Micheals has a brief but momentous interaction with Orlando. Kitterman includes exactly the right amount of detail to create memorable characters. This excellent journal ends with “Ms. Goffer,” a non-fictional work that is both honest and sensitive in its reflection. Ms. Goffer, a stereotypical character, is an instructor for the advanced riding class at the military academy where she is at once resented and cherished for her feminine influence and spontaneity. In his writing, Darren DeFrain does not shy away from experience; he explores it. And the effort that it takes for a writer to do so makes the time spent with the journal worth the while.

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