Waterwheel Review

Literature Without Labels

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From the Editors | Issue #24

February 2023

From the Editors

That’s all we have, finally. The words, and they had better be the right ones. —Raymond Carver

editors Cheryl Wilder, Suzanne Farrell Smith, and Claire Guyton sit in beach chairs on a cold sunny day on a sandy beach

How many people live inside stories / that never come true asks Richard Jackson in the final of his three “Understories,” a word that could serve as a title for Issue 24. Kalani Padilla’s “Translator’s Note” hints at the stories we might find if we dig into the layers built into words. In “Sight-Paths,” Hoyt Rogers reminds us that in truth there is just one story containing everything, and in that grand narrative, the pilot of a helicopter is much the same as a frigate bird or a buzzard hunched in a tree. To make artful sense of it all, we have to get the words just right. And we do.

—Claire, Suzanne, Cheryl 

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Who made it? Issue #24

Who made it?

February 2023 | Issue #24

With “Translator’s Note” by Kadini Padilla

Shadow Figures of a Lantern and a Hawk, ca. 1842
Shadow Figures of a Lantern and a Hawk, 1842, by Utagawa Hiroshige.

With “Understories” by Richard Jackson

“The Night is so Moonlit” by Vera Lytovchenko.
Spotted doe standing on grassy meadow looking over her shoulder at the camera
“Spotted doe standing on grassy meadow” by David Selbert.
A star cluster within a nebula. The center of the image contains arcs of orange and pink gas that form a boat-like shape. One end of these arcs points to the top right of the image, while the other end points toward the bottom left. Another plume of orange and pink gas expands from the center to the top left of the image. To the right of this plume is a large cluster of white stars. There are more of these white stars and galaxies of different sizes spread throughout the image.
“Star Formation in Cluster’s Dusty Ribbons” by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.

With “Sight-Paths” by Hoyt Rogers

Murmurations by Xavi Bou.
drawing of two black birds by a record player outside on the grass by a pond and a small tree
Listening for Birds by Fiona Watson.

Acknowledgments

Infographic of left and right brain found at Get Blend.

Image of Shakespeare engraved quote found at Sandpoint Wellness Council.

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Who made it? Issue #23

Who made it?

January 2023 | Issue #23

With “Self Portrait” by Terri Brown-Davidson

Bubble Artist 蘇仲太 by Kuma Films.
painting with blue background, two green spirals like a slinky going upward outside one yellow cone spiral facing upward with a small tight orange coil coming from the center
Primordial Chaos, No. 16, The WU/ROSEN Series. Grupp 1, 1906-07, by Hilma af Klint. 
Le livre du Ciel et du Monde (Illustration of the Celestial Spheres), 1377, author Nicole Oresme, artist unknown.

With “Edward Hopper, Hotel Room” by Mark Katrinak

“M.C. Escher – ‘Relativity’ Stairs” by Visual Impact Systems.
circa 1770 illustration of a British soldier where one half of the man is only his skeleton and the other half is fully fleshed and dressed
Life and Death Contrasted, ca. 1770, by Valentine Green.
oil painting of a woman in a white dress sitting in front of a large window at a sewing machine on a sunny day in front of a burnt maroon wall
Girl at Sewing Machine, 1921, oil on canvas, 48.3 x 46 cm, by Edward Hopper.

With “Odradek” by DB Jonas

“Upstairs Neighbour Walking on Creaky Floor” by Dead Perspective.
late 1500s painting of an anthropomorphic landscapes where a mountain is a man's face with houses in the eye sockets, a tower for the nose, trees and country side on the head and a bridge going over the mouth with a waterfall running underneath
From a series of four seasons in anthropomorphic landscapes: Allegory of summer, early 17th century, oil on panel, 52.5 x 39.6 cm, by Joos de Momper the Younger.
late 1500s illustration of a pear, caterpillar, fly, and centipede
“Fly, Caterpillar, Pear, and Centipede” from Mira calligraphiae monumenta (The Model Book of Calligraphy), 1551-96, Joris Hoefnagel.

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Who made it? | Issue #22

Who made it?

December 2022 | Issue #22

With “Hinoki – ‘breath of life’” by Martin McGowan

“Just Breathe” by Pearl Jam.
© God’s Prototype, The Nature of Man: Lungs, by Ian Crawley.
“American Beauty” by Thomas Newman.

With “What You Should Know (The Nile)” by John Bradley

“The Sound of Nile” by AAM World Music.
Feather, 2014, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in, by Katherine Ace.

With “the final chord” by Andrew Oram

“Final chords of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4” by the Vienna Philharmonic and Herbert Blomstedt.
La Sultane Bleue, 1910, costume sketch for the ballet Schéhérazade, by Léon Bakst.

Acknowledgments

Background photo of Reclining Buddha in Gal Vihara, Polonnaruwau by Lankapic via Wikicommons.

Background image of the Nile River via Google Earth.

Background photo of the Sydney Opera House by Nick-D via Wikicommons.