Table Of ContentR A I N
M A G A Z I N E
48TH VOLUME
2017
passport edition
Rain Magazine is an annual publication produced by students and faculty at Clatsop
Community College in Astoria, Oregon. Funding is provided by the generous support
of private patrons and local business sponsors. Submissions are voted for acceptance
by members of the student staff. No materials in Rain Magazine can be reproduced
without author’s written consent.
2017 Student Staff
James Bentley, Anngelina Chasteen, Shaun Cubie, Catherine Gardner,
Jackie Harwood, Hunter Krause, Melissa Lahti, Kelsi Leer,
Benjamin Rodriguez, April Brown
Faculty Advisor
Ryan Hume
Printing and Binding
Ash Creek Press, Portland, Oregon
Matt Batchelder
Special Thanks to Alison Ruch,
Lucien Swerdloff, Nancy Cook,
and Kathy Peterson of KP Graphic Arts
Inside cover images courtesy of Lynne Johnson
Umbrella and Rain colophons designed by Shaun Cubie
Submissions are accepted between October 1 and February 1. Please submit no more than
three previously unplublished items total, including less than 5,000-word prose and poems,
photographs, and high quality digital images of original artwork. Online submissions are
encouraged as text document attachments (RTF preferred) or high resolution (at least 300
dpi) JPG or TIFF files. No PDFs. Manuscripts will be recycled. Send submissions for future
editions to: [email protected]
Rain Magazine
Clatsop Community College
1651 Lexington Avenue
Astoria, OR 97103
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Introduction
In the spirit of last year's Preservation issue, but also wielded binoculars at the larger world
let's examine a snippet of text from that edition's to discover their place within it.
intro circa June 2016: So let this issue of RAIN take you both near
“The old walls tell stories new walls cannot. As structures and far, away from whatever ails you.
and ideals are updated and revised, it is comforting to know
Kay Stoltz whirls us from one imagined
that remnants of the past still stand—and that we care to keep
natural terror into a very real one. Kathie
them around. Also, it’s hard not, with a name like Patriot, to
think of the implications of a patriot receiving a makeover. Hightower ruminates on that same imagined
The new building will open just as a new US president is terror to show us there is no escape. Current
inaugurated. Hard not, as we consider new leaders, to
graduate Melissa Lahti stares into two different
consider what aspects of patriot might be revised, what
aspects be preserved. What comprises a patriot’s integrity?” eras of Astoria’s past, with one eye personal
Right now this feels a lot like opening and humorous and maybe a little bit fishy,
up a time capsule only to find out that while the other is refreshingly trained on a
Twinkies do not keep the way the internet revisionist assessment of one of Astoria’s most
has promised. As of press time, many months notorious characters. Cameron Pierce makes
after the inauguration, Patriot Hall has still us giggle beneath the darkest of waters. And
not swung open its doors (though it will be poet John Ciminello offers up some fables that
open soon for graduation!), new walls tell all do not feel that far away from home.
the stories—whether fiction or nonfiction is We did not set out to have a theme this
not yet clear—and the very concept of patriot issue, but we kept coming across one anyway.
is mired in the slow exhalation of Russian As our local writers and artists kept sending
interference in the 2016 US Presidential us dispatches from outside our borders, we
Election. Yes, it is easy to be queasy in 2017— got to thinking about what it means to hold
no expired Twinkies necessary. a passport. It is certainly a privilege, but can
This has been quite the tumultuous year. it also be a curse? We spoke with Iranian
Locally, Manzanita, oddly enough, suffered a novelist Aida Moradi Ahani, who was briefly
tornado. We have just overcome a pitiful record stopped from entering the country during
for, yes, more rainfall than ever documented President Trump’s first attempt at a travel ban.
on the North Coast. Nearly ninety inches The poet Robert Michael Pyle sent in some
since October 1 as measured—that's at least vivid portraits of Cuba from a trip that would
170-plus days of rain, which, ironically, is have been forbidden just a few years ago. We
akin to this magazine's production schedule. document the CCC Adventure Club’s recent
Unironically, our national conversation is spilt trip to Europe as they set about devouring
and nearly devoid of empathy. some of the continent’s greatest art. And
Now there is possibly no better place to photographer Martha Clarkson shows us some
finger the true pulse of the zeitgeist than from of the new stories that old walls can tell.
deep within a slush pile. Sure, we did find Of course, any book can be a passport in
some anxiety within our submissions, and also the right hands, a vehicle for empathy and
anger and fear, but also, happily, luckily, plenty understanding and discovery. There's no need
of hope, optimism, and redemption. Our to leave your chair to travel the globe.
contributors took a microscope to our coast, Go ahead, get lost!
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Contents
Poetry
7 Scott T. Starbuck At Astoria Bistro
At Jewel Mist
16 Hunter Krause From the Post Office
17 Ashley Schacher White Pass
18 Ann Farley With the Minus Tide
20 John Ciminello Swan and the Mirror
23 Niccolea M. Nance Across Infinity
24 Wayne Downing My Last Prayer
32 William Chamberlain The Asteroid
66 Hunter Krause In the Pacific Northwest
67 Wayne Downing A Long Road
69 Reed Clarke Waking
Waiting
70 The Crash
78 Katya Mariya Three Haikus
79 John Ciminello Moon and the Wolf
81 Florence Sage Night Visitor
85 Karin Temple North Dakota in Scripture
89 Niccolea M. Nance The Secrets Burn
90 James Dott Our Time with Dogs
92 Scott T. Starbuck Rogue River Erosion
96 D.K. Lubarsky Breezes
99 Rosetta Hurley Tracking the Bee
101 Gail Henrikson Sticky-Haired Man
108 Victoria Boone Reasons Not to Pull Dandelions
Willapa Bay, Late Winter
112 James Dott Hiking the Ridge Trail
120 Niccolea M. Nance Resolute (Still in the Game)
125 Lance Nizami Sanctuary
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Poetry
126 John Hagerty Level
127 Tela Skinner The Color of Blood
133 John Ciminello Deer and the Apples
134 Pattra Monroe The Daisy
135 Wayne Downing The Great Depression
138 Kathy Bowman Pachelbel's Slingshot
139 Reba Owen The Greatest Gift
140 Amy Lewis Company
141 Autumn Buckridge On a November Walk . . .
143 James Dott Salmon
Fiction
1 Andy Barker Hollow Bones
13 Heather Davis Loyal to a Fault
21 Lynn Connor Kotaro's Stone
29 Cameron Pierce Observations on the Aquatic World
103 Robert Brake The Hole
115 Melissa Eskue Ousley Just One Smile
129 Mike Bates Into Madness
Non-Fiction
9 Kathie Hightower Faulty Paradise
25 Melissa Lahti Crimping
71 Alyssa Graybeal Halfway Hot Springs
83 Jan Priddy Can We Talk About Race?
87 Kay Stoltz Nature's Whim
93 Melissa Lahti Perfectly Chilled Beer
109 Phillis Mannan Green Leaf
121 Linda Webb Gustafson Where Kindred Spirits Fly
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Art
6 Kelsi Leer Whimsical Lane
8 Kim Rose Adams 20, 000 Pounds
12 Terry Shumaker Lunch at Big Red
19 Kim Rose Adams Oyster Shell Landscape
28 Roger Hayes Glitch Abstract
64 Anngelina Chasteen Eyes of Astoria
68 Kim Rose Adams Skeleton Tree
80 Alec Chapa Moonlit
86 Rick Crawford Vortex
91 Roger Hayes Sublimate
95 Logan Tausch Sweet Misery
98 Heather Davis Heart of the Woods
100 Anngelina Chasteen Tulle
102 Roger Hayes Tree
111 Ashley Schacher In the Hands of a Farmer
114 Anngelina Chasteen Angel Wings
119 Kelsi Leer Owl of the Summer
124 Lisa Ackerman Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)
128 T. Strobel Division
137 Bill Dodge Astoria
141 Martha Clarkson Morning After
142 Logan Tausch Blue Heron
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Passport Section
33 Vicki Lawson Coming Home
35 Aida Moradi Ahani Interview
41 Martha Clarkson The Graffiti of Valparaiso, Chile
47 Robert Michael Pyle The Cuba Poems
55 Jerry Ostermiller Diving Costa Rica
59 ¡CCC Adventure Club! Destination: Europe
62 Bill Dodge A Papal Visit
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