Introduction by Chad Parenteau

Photo by Edward S. Gault



This issue is not an example of timeliness. That's all I'm certain of.

Tributes have been the core of the first two issues of Spoonful: Issues #0 and #1 (don't ask, just nod and go with it). For this issue, I had set out to have a more energetic and eclectic collection of work for Issue #2.

By the end of last year, I had lost my father to cancer and Stone Soup had lost another friend, Patricia Fillingham.

I could have skipped the tribute entirely and saved Patricia for another issue, but she deserves all the respect we can give her. So there is tribute in this issue as well. This issue also features work from the departed Simon Schattner, another friend of Stone Soup. A poem for my father is absent, to be saved for another time.

This issue is widely-ranged, though not the way I intended. A celebration to creativity: including poems I've heard on the Stone Soup open mike. Poems written by and dedicated to dearly departed souls. Which works define this issue more? In some ways, I'm so determined to get the issue out, I'm too frazzled to know.

I'm so grateful for the patience of the contributors, particularly those who knew about my personal struggles, while this issue was being created. I know you guys must be curious about this issue. So am I

And now, the unveiling.