Wondrous Art. Great Pain.
Strong Colors, Flowers, Creatures.
How’d Frida do it?
This haiku submitted by Martha Kaempfe of Spring Green for our annual celebration of National Poetry Month speaks to us about the resilience of the human spirit. It’s a fitting and timely tribute to our collective perseverance through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the birth of spring with its sundry colors, flowers and creatures.
This time last year, we were embarking upon a three-month digital-only journey during the state-wide shutdown. Having resumed printing last July, we are equal parts grateful for and amazed by the support of the Voice of the River Valley community of advertisers, contributors, subscribers and volunteers that has sustained us and allowed us to continue publishing throughout the past difficult year.
And here we are with our April magazine — the largest we’ve printed since January 2020 — with 25 percent of the pages featuring poetry by Voice of the River Valley readers. Twenty poets from Arena, Bagley, Barneveld, Blanchardville, Fennimore, Hartland, Lone Rock, Madison, Mineral Point, Ridgeway and Spring Green answered our call for poems and haiku. Thank you, one and all!
In addition, this month’s magazine features the voices of columnists Steve Fuller, Doris Green, John Heasley, Sue Leamy-Kies, Jennifer Moore-Kerr, William Robichaud and Kathy Steffen and art by Kate Bausch and Bill Mitchell.
Please take note of and support this month’s advertisers, whose financial support made the printing of these pages possible.
Happy reading,
April’s cover art, “Early Spring on the Pecatonica,” was created by artist Kate Bausch, who lives and paints in Darlington. For more of Kate’s work, see www.katebausch.net and contact her about purchasing prints and note cards at katebausch@hotmail.com. Many thanks to Kate for her contribution to our cover!
To share art or photography in a future issue of Voice of the River Valley, contact us at info@voiceoftherivervalley.com.