Tag: bitterness

A soft-focus close-up peers down into a pale green drink containing mint and a curl of sliced cucumber. The ingredients dissolve into luminous shapes, their boundaries blurred by glass and liquid. Shades of mint, lime, and yellow-green fill the frame, giving the image a cool, muddled, almost abstract quality. Freshness and sharpness mingle in this hazy study of sweet and sour. Photo by the author.

“Sweet and Sour” * Fiction * Karin Doucette

aromatica poetica August 26, 2026

Like many young-marrieds in the 1970s, Bob and Jill devoured Siddhartha and Vonnegut, appreciated Hendrix, and filled their bodies with revolutionary meals from the spiralbound pages of Moosewood Cookbook and the Diet for a Small Planet. They bought a small, shingled house, set back from the Seattle street, which they papered, painted, and flower-potted with vigor. Both got good jobs and then had a healthy, happy son. On TV, Julia Child stirred an enticing pot of life’s possibilities which captured …

“Petri Dish Emotions” is a vibrant, collage-like composition that fills the frame, structured around four large circular forms resembling petri dishes or cells. Each circle contains layered spirals and fragments of cut paper—snippets of printed text with phrases such as: “A Wild Love,” “connect,” “research,” “deep time”, and organic shapes—arranged in swirling motions. The background is densely textured with crayon or pastel marks in green, yellow, pink, and blue, creating a sense of energetic movement between the circles. Smaller circular cutouts scatter across the surface, especially in the lower right, adding rhythm and variation. The overall effect is playful yet intricate, evoking microscopic life, growth, and interconnected systems.

“Petri Dish Emotions” & “Eating Emotions” * Art & Poetry * Janina Aza Karpinska

aromatica poetica April 3, 2026

Note from the author to the editor: I had in mind that I might send you “Eating Emotions,” originally published in Magma 85—a schools edition, but reworked since looking at it again. This morning when I lifted my head I noticed a piece of artwork I’d made, Petri Dish Emotions, that held my eye in a way that only made sense later in the day when I saw a short video clip of a TED talk by Brené Brown and …