New Work from Issue 2: Ascension 2025
The next issue of Traces Journal continues!
Dear Traces readers & subscribers,
As we continue to release the second issue of Traces Journal: Ascension 2025, we have three new poems and an interview lined up this week!
As always, we encourage you to read, share, like, comment, and become a paid subscriber (if you are able) to support our work at Traces.
New Poetry
New poems from Marie Trotter, E. R. Skulmoski, & Doris Fiszer!
Hope I
Hope I by Marie Trotter Hope is the pregnant woman that Klimt Painted and you saw on the gallery wall, She stared out at you watching her As you noted her body, round with readiness, The skull above her head like a crown. Her hair was aflame and her eyes Saw you, not the dark figures behind her, Her hands held her world together, Instead of hiding her…
Hymn (1)
Hymn (1) by E. R. Skulmoski Jehovah, I was in the basement when the mold And mildew congregated to form the contours of your face, The second coming of the shroud of Turin. I was a river at that time, abruptly damned And cut off, unable to nourish the trees in my garden. Catalog of intrusive thoughts galloped like horses, Peeling back the fa…
Turnings
Turnings by Doris Fiszer Fire, storm, flood, warfare somewhere, always—I barely make it out of bed some days. Seasons pass like shadows over water. Heat returns, followed by cold so numbing even the trees tremble. I’m no longer certain of anything. Yet, this life, this breath. This summer I couldn’t get enough of the various shades of green.
New Interview
Traces Advisory Board Member, D.S. Martin, interviews Canadian artist James Tughan.
Facing the Surrealism of James Tughan’s "Nine Faces of Christ": A Conversation
James Tughan is primarily known for being a visual artist working in visual mapping with chalk pastels. This work celebrates attachment to visible surfaces of the northern Ontario wilderness, but additionally to the less visible landscape of the human psyche, through a careful use of metaphor.
Stay tuned next week for more new writing from our editors and contributors.
Happy reading,
Maya Venters, EIC, & the Traces team