Meet Me There
Meet Me There
by Theresa Duncan
A damp chill seeps into my pores as I walk. At seven a.m., campus is at peace, silent, waiting. The leaves of all the native and the non-native tress are beginning to change, much the way students from near and far will be transformed by the knowledge and relationships we will each build at the University of Montana.
Autumn semester is upon us, with all its excitement and busyness. This is the season when my right hand begins to ache, when my favorite pen seems to call out to me. Off-white pages whisper to me from behind the journal cover. The streaks of dark purple, midnight blue, deep burgundy, olive green, and brilliant gold reflect the season. A pumpkin decked out in green vines and leaves sits in the bottom right corner. The beauty of this cover begs me to fill the inside with the beautiful music of words. The blue ink flows across the page, creating rivers of life and remembrance. Let the artist have his canvas. For me, words are my subjects – of study, of inspiration, of belonging, of life.
The pace of this new beginning unsettles me, and I ground myself in remembrances of summer. There is the photograph of my brother and I beneath Skalkaho Falls. A scrap of paper marks my place in my Politics of Food class textbook. On this ripped shard, a hastily scrawled cowboy poem pokes fun at jack-e-lope hunting. I pause to remember that character I met on the trail up in Glacier, a bit larger than life, and I wonder what fiction I might craft to tell his story. The true story of my forester father-in-law rests, partially written, on the desk beside me.
What story is asking to be released from you, my friend? What words will flow across your pages? Please, share them. Camas Magazine is seeking submissions for the Winter issue. Your stories will take us on a piece of your journey, perhaps while we sit by a warm fire in the cold of January. Your stories, whether fiction or non-fiction, photograph or poem, will connect each of us on the page in a way only the magic of words and images can.
Take some time. Edit to make sure we will grasp your true meaning. And submit. Perhaps we will not meet face-to-face. Perhaps we will never meet anywhere but on the page. But I invite you. Meet me there, on the pages of Camas.
Theresa Duncan is a second-year Master's student in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. In addition to being a mother, grandmother, and writer, she serves as a senior genre editor for Camas.