Table Of Content

te FISHER POETS EDITION SPRING 2007 Clatsop Community College Library 4680 Lexington Ave., Astoria, OR 97103 (503) 338-2462 RAIN Magazine is an annual production of students at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Oregon. Funding is provided by the generous support of private patrons and local businesses sponsors. Please send donations to RAIN Magazine 1653 Jerome Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103. Submissions were voted for acceptance by members of the student staff. No mate- rial in RAIN Magazine may be reproduced without the author's written consent. Cover Photo: “Cold Stream” by Sam Higgins Cover Design and Ad Layout: Bradley Knox Page Layout and Design: Larissa Williams Contributors Notes : Kirsten Trued Table of Contents: Brittney Haskell Special thanks to Nathan Williams, David Myers, and Lucien Swerdloff for ongoing technical support. Text and Graphics: Printed by Ann Gydé, CCC Publications Services Cover Printed by Multnomah Printing Portland , OR 97214 Perfect Binding by Rose City Bindery Portland, OR 97210 Mail submissions for future editions to: Nancy Cook, Faculty Advisor RAIN Magazine 1653 Jerome Ave. Astoria, OR 97103 [email protected] Submissions are accepted between October 1 and January 10. No more than 10 pages prose, 3 poems, or 3 quality digital graphics. Original artwork may be de- livered to Fertig 3 on the Jerome Avenue campus. Please include SASE for return. Otherwise we'll recycle your manuscript. Include name, address, phone number, email and a brief bio with all entries. Online submissions are welcome as Word at- tachments, JPG or TIF. Include full author information. [lq] Literary Arts RAIN Magazine’s 2007 Fisher Poets edition was supported in part by an Oregon Literary Fellowship. CONTENTS FICTION DALE FLOWERS Fast and Loose 11 LAURENCE ROBERSON Number 10 23 DENNIS WARREN Clock 136 BRANDY HUSSA Lucky Sevens 139 POETRY Sunday Brunch: Coffee and Spilling the Beans RACHAEL BURBANK For My Little Sister Who Can’t Remember... MONTE READ Berrypicking What We Are Left With =o on Grampa When | Was Four Years Old CLAUDIA HARPER River Story Blind Pedestrians EDWARD M. FERGUSON BRIAN F. HARRISON Pioneer Cemetery Biggest One Yet ROBERT MICHAEL PYLE Three A.M. at the All-Night Logging Show The Problem With Following Deer Trails When Lost ScoTT STARBUCK Kalapooya Poem BUCK MELOY Astoria Winter Gray in Yellow Headlights 132 DaAviD CAMPICHE LARISSA WILLIAMS Descent into Unimagined Fantasy Make Believe ANN HALVERSON Workaday World NANCY BERRY The Courting REBA OWEN Blackberries TrRiciaA GATES BROWN She Took the Name Nancy Expectation BRANDY HUSSA Harvest Moon VINCENT REYNOLDS Winter Storm Flowering Cherry Trees Vic CAMPBELL El Rayo/Moonbeam JEAN DOMINEY A Thousand Miles JAMES RICKETTS Harbinger Haiku Falls to Winter MARYANNE MASON Mist and Rain Waltz BARBARA STOFFER Winter Renga KATY SHANNON Sue PARK Beirut, May 1967 Roads JOHN D. CIMINELLO High School Cruise 190 APRIL RANTA After Several False Tries, Finding the House 199 ANNE PHILLIPS Our House 200 Sue FALKNER WOOD Darkness Path 202 CHRIS AHLVERS War With Words (WWWI) 203 High School Cruise 190 APRIL RANTA NONFICTION Notes on the Oregon Coast MARGARET D. SMITH Did | Tell You About our Tree House? 38 JUNE STROMBERG Blur of Fur 40 ROBERT BRAKE Pithy Phrases to Inspire You 42 A Monster In My Backyard 134 JANE MEANS Ride ‘em Cowgirl! 143 JAN BONO Buoy 10 145 This Side of Sand Island 148 VICTORIA STOPPIELLO The Mountain 151 ReEBA OWEN Matters of the Heart 154 MAYA TRYSIL SCOTT REUTER Kairos 165 Life Where 9/11 is 24/7 179 CHARLES A. HILLESTAD Evolution of an Ecolabel 193 DAN KENT Road Trip 204 SHAUN HUNTER Just About Perfection 206 FRANK MILLER The Smoker 207 FISHER POETS SECTION ROBERT BROWN Abstract 189 FLORENCE SAGE Introduction PaT DIXON Commemorative Poster Corridor Dancing Sky, Anchored Moon Fisher Poets Farewell DAVE DENSMORE Leaving In The Dark Fishing Fever NANCY COOK F/V Coldstream Text SAM HIGGINS F/V Coldstream Photos WESLEY GENO LEECH The More You Eat The More You Make Uniontown Cannery Stiff Male & Female Sockeye DON NISBETT Port of Ilwaco Freedom Crab VARIOUS ARTISTS Columbia River Salmon Labels New Boyfriend AMY ZIDULKA JOHN STRULOEF Fishermen The Language of Rain Salmon Waterfall TARYN ARNOLD Broom-Hilde JOANNA REICHHOLD The Original Language of Boats Fourteenth Birthday ERIN FRISTAD Escapement LINDA TOWNSEND Erin Crab Pots FRED WHITE IRENE MARTIN Salmon Water Fishing/Marriage DAVID CAMPICHE Sucker Punch JEN WINSTON Erin Fristad & Dave Densmore 83 MOE BOWSTERN A Woman’s Dream, A Woman’s Zine 84 TOBY SULLIVAN Attu Island, 1991 86 Calista Sea 1977 / Elaine 88 DARLENE BRAMMER Salmon 87 JIM HERON Ship Tossed 94 HARRISON SMITTY SMITH The Ballad of Rubber Hooks Devine 95 JEREMY EDWARD SHIOK Letter From Fishcamp oF East Point Prose Poem & A Line Borrowed From Neruda 98 EAY TEIN EEliong Shadows in the Mist 99 KIRA THORNTON Another Day at the Office 100 KATHERINA AUDLEY Fish Fever 101 CHRIS FREEMAN Untitled 105 CLAUDIA HARPER Hammond Netscapes HAL LAREE JOHNSON Fish Tales: The Life & Stories of an Alaskan Fisherman il2 George Collage 7 113 JOHN PALMES Peavines and Longlines 114 Woe Are the Fisherman 11s DENNIS SPERL Blind Love 118 FRANK SEAMAN The Albatross 119 First Time North: A Young Woman’s LORRIE HAIGHT True Alaskan Adventure (excerpts) 120 Turning Point 23 JAY SPEAKMAN Morning Song 127 Jay Speakman 128 LAURIE ANDERSON JULIE BROWN Salt in Their Veins 129 Fresh Today 131 DONNA QUINN ARTWORK Rock Square BRANDON SAWAYA Stream & Ferns 21 Child of the Grass KRISTIN GSHAUCK Watch The Swing BS JOHN WUBBEN Fotoscope 32 LESLI LARSON At the Movies 208 SUSAN RHOADS Contour 36 Ink Wash 39 Luis GOMEZ Everyone Smiles 136 CHRIS AHLVERS Box Study 141 BRADLEY KNOX Abstract 203 DaviD LEE MYERS Anagama Mama 147 CHERYL GARRETT Madame 156 Asteroidea 164 DAVID RR HOMER Ink Landscape 171 DEVAN GILL 174 KENNETH BENTON Contour Eyes 187 NEEN DRAGE Still Life 189 TARYN ARNOLD High School Cruise VIER. APRIL RANTA = 7 ee ree.) racesS ee wire isan <—wT) | ee bh Set) ae SUNDAY BRUNCH: COFFEE AND SPILLING THE BEANS Rachael Burbank We find comfort in a violet oasis of velvet: chairs whose furs seem to hold our hands and whose ears perk up whenever we want to vent. We come to them in waves, craving a double tall dark and handsome with no whipped cream. For about an hour we giggle, snicker, and snort about how cute the guy in the blue hat was or the nerve of that girl showing up and the inevitable walk of shame stories. These chairs know who’ cheating on who, the answers to all the tests how she likes the frappuccino while I prefer the iced chai. They hear the cleverness of great scholars gabbing on their headset cell phones, bur they never talk back, they keep our secrets. They don't give you advice they don't judge you they don't tell you what you want to hear that comes from the girls in the chairs next to you. Those chairs are a Sunday service that doesn't involve singing a hymn but still allows the little old ladies to chat over who gained weight and who shouldn't be wearing that linen skirt after Labor Day. NOTES ON THE OREGON COAST Margaret D. Smith Fresh Gift Most fish stories are exaggerated or false, but recently I learned of a true fish story. An Astoria man doing yard work behind his home was a bit surprised when a thumpingly big Columbia River salmon plonked down quite fresh in front of him. The salmon was large enough to have killed him if it had hit his head, but the man was spared. Unfortunately, the salmon was not. Having escaped the talons of a bald eagle (seen flapping off distract- edly), the fish probably died on impact on the grass. The man wasted no time. He sacri- ficed the fresh gift from the heavens on the backyard barbecue. Flying Fish There is another local flying fish story, this one based at Astoria High School. Last May, during a track meet, the javelin throw had to be postponed briefly when fish began dropping onto the track and field. It seems that hundreds of thousands of pencil-long coho salmon smolts were being released into Youngs Bay across the road, causing a great flustering of feathers among the Caspian terns in the area. The birds caught up too many fish in their bills, and as they flew over the track, local gulls met them midair, squabbling over their fishing rights.... Chase What happens when you cross a sea lion with a salmon? In other words, what happens when you make a sea lion angry by taking a salmon out of its mouth? A friend was sitting in a restaurant overlooking the Columbia not long ago. Glancing out the window over the river, she spotted a sea lion coming up from the water with a salmon in its mouth. As my friend watched, a bald eagle flew in and snatched the salmon away. But since the salmon was so large, the eagle could only flap along the surface of the river as it tried to gain alti- tude. The sea lion gave chase through the water, nearly catching both fish and bird. Bully Game An osprey hovered high over the pilings on the Columbia this evening as I took the Astoria Riverwalk with a friend. Wingspan for these birds, up to six feet, is almost the same as a bald eagle's, so the osprey when it comes on the scene is one to be reckoned with. Other birds pay attention to it. This particular bird seemed to enjoy a bully game of swooping in close to a piling just to frighten a few gulls away. The gulls, not known for