Soundings East is the literary journal of Salem State College, published annually via the joint efforts of the English Department and the CCPA. Founded in 1973, the journal is run by SSC students under the direction of a faculty member from English who serves as an advisory editor. Soundings East publishes poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. It has a press run of 1200 and is dedicated to publishing high quality literature.
Poetry Excerpt, Vol. 28, No. 1
“August” by Wendy Mnookin
Flowers scatter themselves
without even trying—
there are lilies under the apple tree,
lamb’s ear by the hammock. Butterflies
ignore the butterfly bush
and fend for themselves, seduced
by the rustle of blue aster.
Take off your clothes.
I’m only pretending to sleep.
This morning a hummingbird swooped close,
considering my bright red shirt.
Fiction Excerpt, Vol. 27, No. 1
“Chickens” by Michael Lohre
Hot dirt days. Dust bowl days. Drought and wind always, sun shining half-light at best, different shades of dirt boiling through the surface of the sky. The Dirty 30s. Farmhouse shut up day and night – every door and opening buttoned tight – and when young Curtis Jones wiped dirt from the windowsills to his fingers, when he looked at its color, he knew it wasn’t dirt from Minnesota. Some days his fingers looked a blood red. Other days a steady copper tint with a smudge of black topsoil in the mix. Hot, light southern dirt churning itself darker as it blew across the northern prairies.
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