Love in the July Bundle

Hi AAPA'ers! 

Fern & I are so impressed with how very much love & outstanding work has been going into the Bundle in these unusual days! Care, dedication, & magnificent writing! Charming pieces that so speak right directly to our hearts. These days especially, Fern & I send out so much appreciation & gratitude to all contributing. And to Heather & Ivan, always.

Well Dave Schwartz's Ohkee-Doekee No.95, "Getting old can be fun"-- sure brought us a ton of very much needed levity! Sendin' ya a huge smile right back, Dave!!

Laurence Peterson & Gene Gates, at Nine-18-Thousandths Press, sent us a Bundle piece that so deeply touches our hearts. One amazing paragraph that truly feels like it contains the very essence of life-- as we each experience & then learn from our experiences. So very much expressing of real life-- the inner part rarely said out loud-- that it seems to put the struggles into blessed order. Definitely a Bundle piece to be framed!

John Carvalho's A Martlet's Tales, Volume 18, is just plain wonderful! Here are words about working in loving partnership with this good earth, producing plant material for papermaking, printed right on some of John's exquisite, handmade paper! The effect is of bringing the reader right into the whole process, season by season. Adding in Walt Whitman's poetry & the color green, lets all of us very happy readers touch the earth & the experience too. Thank you for such a deep good feeling, John, right when we so need it! This Bundle piece is truly an artwork.

Bil Stahl's Rags from a scrap-bag mind for July, brings us a visit with Thoreau. Bil, we're all so in need of communing with nature right now! And your very genuine & descriptive writing brings us all right along with you on your Thoreau journey. Fern & I smiled appreciatively, reading in your Colophon about Caslon! Thoreau would have deeply enjoyed taking a walk with you!

And finally, Greg McKelvey's The Ink Zone, No. 176, also brought a dose of genuineness & real life. Yes, definitely-- terrible physical discomfort is best measured by how little or much it is interrupting life's cherished activities...

As an artist who's intensely studied creativity all her life, how deeply I can appreciate your sharing about this interruption. Greg, you are most definitely heard. And Greg, you write so expressively, I can so clearly feel your joy in observing each of those charming birds.

Fellow AAPA'ers, I am richer for having delved into the thoughtful works of the July Bundle.

With gratitude,
Marey