Please join Synkroniciti in welcoming back writer and photographer John Sheirer. We’ve featured John for short story in “Hidden” (2:2) and flash fiction in “Intersections” (4:4), but this time he shows his talents as a photographer, adding visual beauty and punch to the “Wild” issue. “North Hero Island Kayak View” reveals a dramatic autumnal landscape, sky and trees reflected so clearly and audaciously in the waters of Lake Champlain that the eye cannot tell at first glance which way is up. North Hero is one of the Champlain Islands in Vermont and home to North Hero State Park. The glorious color of the trees and lake are streaked by white clouds that invite the viewer to gaze deeper. “Pocket Autumn” is a bright and cheery image of a fallen red leaf in a man’s shirt pocket, crisp and delightful. How might the world be different if we could all keep nature’s wildness and mutability close to our heart? In the final photo, “Wildflower Hypnosis,” a single flower, I’d say a Galliarda or Rudbeckia, blazes into view, its petals curling back, red into orange into yellow, with an astonishing multi-tone purple center. The color is extraordinary and we do feel hypnotized. These are fantastic images that bring wildness closer to us marked by vivid color and clarity.
See John’s splendid photography in Synkroniciti’s “Wild” issue: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
John Sheirer lives in Western Massachusetts and is in his 30th year of teaching at Asnuntuck Community College in Northern Connecticut where he edits Freshwater Literary Journal (submissions welcome). His work has appeared recently in Wilderness House Literary Review, Meat for Tea, Poppy Road Review, Synkroniciti, Otherwise Engaged, 10 By 10 Flash Fiction, The Journal of Radical Wonder, Scribes*MICRO*Fiction, and Goldenrod Review. His latest book is Stumbling Through Adulthood: Linked Stories.