A Muted Life
Patricia Edmisten
A71 by Ryn Holmes
A Muted Life
Life now is muted, subdued,
like an out-of-focus photo
or seeing a masterpiece through a veil
like breathing country-fresh air through a mask
or seeing the shadow of a tree on a gray winter day
like a melody you can’t quite retrieve
or twilight sleep during surgery
like a term paper you’ll never finish
or a plot you can’t follow
like a virus that endures.
Patricia Edmisten
Life in the Time of Corona
Within weeks after March 11, 2020 World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, West Florida Literary Federation offered its writers a catharsis. By April, regional writers were submitting words and images to preserve this time in history. The ongoing project began with Phase I, a special edition of The Legend published in May. It featured more than thirty juried submissions. Life in the Time of Corona continues with Phase II, updated as submissions are accepted. Here are the voices of health care workers, poets, essayists, historians, and the images of artists and photographers, documenting this time in Northwest Florida's history. The ongoing project ends with the advent of a vaccine or declaration by the World Health Organization.CONTENTS
Photo Essay
A71Social Distancing at Johnson's Beach
B1
B.W3
A122
A116
Six Feet Apart
The Last Haircut
A48 COVID-19
The Passage to Paradise
When Hammock Becomes Mask
Prose
JanuaryRiding Out a Hurricane in a Pandemic
To Butt in or Not
Bends and Turns
Pandemic Pen Pals
Happiness Jar
Getting Along
Kutina
Prayer to The Theotokos
Grieving Loss of Many Kinds
Why Wear Masks?
Corona Beach
COVID 19 Sidewalk Chalk 4-16-2020
View from Within
The Enigma of Deadman’s Island
In the Kitchen with Andrea, Corona, the Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Tutu
Cardinal Experience
Meditations on the Coronavirus
Life in the Time, Again, of Pandemic
Resurrection
Poetry
Post-Covid ParadiseOnly 2 Things
A Muted Life
Writing Poetry
American Dreamer
Jade Sea
America is on Life Support; Prognosis Poor
Crossing COVID Bay
Next Week’s Plans
Broken Destiny
Eyes
A View of the Stars
Some Inland Curse
From My Soul To Yours
Eating the Mango
Blindly It Slays Thee
Coastal Intruder
Death in the Time of Corona
What to Do
The Earth Lives On
COVID-19 from the Beginning
Let This Scourge Pass
Quarantine
Viral Hurt
Phantom Freedom
Earth Day, 2020
Old School Dream
Chronicle of Fools
The Myrtle
Ghost of COVID-19
The Year of the Virus
The Mask III
Halted
Behind the Mask
Short Fiction
Passage to ParadiseMardi Gras Queen
The Legend
The Legend Special Edition Life in the Time of CoronaAuthor Biographies