A Literary Magazine Sponsored by The University of Maine at Farmington
The River is a representation of the Sandy River itself, which runs alongside the university and what inspired the name of the journal. It is a constantly flowing, ebbing and surging, body of content filled with contemporary work. To submit to The River please visit our Submissions page to the left or e mail TheRiverEditors@gmail.com directly.
By Joanne Holdridge EVENING COMES TO ROCKPORT a long slow darkening moving across the ocean’s surface softening to shadow the rocks of the breakwater edging out day as … Continue Reading “EVENING COMES TO ROCKPORT”, “WHEN LOVE IS A FACT IN YOUR LIFE”, “NO WAY BACK”, and “LET US ALL SAY AMEN”
By Fran Schumer The Art of Waiting My mother waits, watches the snow. She’s frail, 94, paralyzed with Parkinson’s. Until last year, she swam walked, cajoled, exhorted, ate … Continue Reading “The Art of Waiting”, “Light in August”, “Yizkor/Remember”, and “Dead Mothers”
By Ayòdéjì Israel What Disfigures This Poem is the Mention of Fire it was midnight. we dragged our feet … Continue Reading “What Disfigures This Poem is the Mention of Fire”, “Scatter My Sorrow”, and “Sweet Home”
By Frederick Wilbur Learners for Heather Sunday afternoon, my daughter, just fifteen and proud of an officially clean permit, drives ovals around the school parking lot. I … Continue Reading “Learners”, “Happen”, “Vessel”, and “Pocket Poems for a Pair of Jeans”
By Arno Bohlmeijer Aheadindefinitely The clock with patience,counting my hours or days,has been to the creator’sfor ages, for repairs. Now the hand can even beturned back, which scares me,although … Continue Reading “Ahead indefinitely”, “Prelude”, and “The insight, learned by fright”
By Abbie Hart gardening habit allegory of garden.seditious tongue,when you askbuti am the gardeni am the thing rotting in itand i am a housebecause that is the only thing … Continue Reading “gardening habit” and “refuge”
I still don’t think I can understand the fear I felt when I watched A Picnic At Hanging Rock. I hated nature when I was a kid but as a … Continue Reading No More Picnic s at Hanging Rock, a film essay by Sean Maher
By Anna Heneise Violence is foundational to Star Wars. In fact “Star Wars” is probably the most basic and accurate name that could have been given to this sprawling story … Continue Reading Bleeding Red: The Grand Army of the Republic and Humanization Through Violence, Part II
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio starts with a child dying in a bombing by the Italian military. The narration states that they were just offloading ballast, a bomb specifically. It hits … Continue Reading Pinocchio but actually mostly about Chris O’Connell , A film essay by Sean Maher
By Anna Heneise An enduringly popular character in science fiction and fantasy is the living weapon— a person who isn’t a person so much as they are a destructive force … Continue Reading Bleeding Red: The Grand Army of the Republic and Humanization Through Violence, Part I
By Anna Heneise The infamous Order 66 sequence in Revenge of the Sith (2005) begins with Commander Cody opening a message from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. The order is issued. Without … Continue Reading Light and Dark: An Introduction to Racism in Star Wars
By Anna Heneise When asked about how the original trilogy connected with the prequel trilogy, George Lucas infamously said, “It’s like poetry […] they rhyme.” Whether you find this phrase … Continue Reading “Like poetry:” Lucas, Legacies, and Working Backwards
It has come to our attention that the poems “Renovation,” “Fishing with Bill,” and “Dislocated,” published under the name John Kucera, were plagiarized. These poems were published through The River … Continue Reading In Regards to Plagiarism
By George Wehrfritz Is it appropriate to call this a situation? Interfacing within parameters you freely selected, conversing at your behest about events in the little city which – although … Continue Reading A Very Barthelme Christmas
By Morgan Neering A woman filled with the joy of living returns home puts her keys on the table receipts from the store, puts the bills in a bowl there, … Continue Reading On the Kitchen Table
By Claudia Wysocky When it begins to sink— When it pains me to believe that something won’t change even though you try, And all your words mean nothing all these … Continue Reading Thoughts on Cars?