The Belfast Review Team | 21 March, 2024
Thanks for joining us for Week 5 of our Spring Blog. Each week we feature a handful of creatives, with Art & Photography on Sundays, Fiction & Nonfiction on Tuesdays, and Poetry & Song Lyrics on Thursdays.
This week we're exploring the theme of 'Connection.' It's a hot topic in a world where we have so many technologies to put us in touch with one another and yet loneliness has become an epidemic.
“Only connect!” as E.M. Forster wrote in Howard's End (published in 1910). And yet the full quote gives a better context, “Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.” Over a hundred years later, thanks to new technologies, we live in fragments more than ever. And passion has been replaced with the need to monetize.
Where and how are we meant to connect to ourselves, our world, and each other? This week's creatives tackle the subject in unexpected ways.
Featured songwriter: Rory Strong
We featured another song by this lyricist in our debut issue, titled “Magazine.” Now we're pleased to present another, one that feels in keeping with this week's theme. This is from their new album, Catholic Guilt.
This is a song that lends itself to multiple interpretations, but ours is that the narrator searches for meaning after a bad break up and finds strength by identifying the “final girl” energy of some famous horror movie heroines.
Is there a better way to channel “break up” energy than to connect to one's inner scream queen? You tell us.
Shelley Duvall
RORY STRONG
Phone call from the gas station
I got my car turned around in a government office.
Followed the headlights, missed my exit, missed the next one.
I wasn’t paying much attention to be honest.
I drove my car at a wall,
you returned my call.
I was screaming bloody murder
just like Shelley Duvall.
I had a box of our stuff
packed in the trunk.
Not much, just some shoes
and a picture of us.
Don’t know what I’d say if anyone should stop by.
It’s a drive I’ve made a hundred times before.
It’s a drive I might never make again.
And all the signs bleed into the colors of the forest.
And the lines on the highway begin to bend.
It’s getting late,
yeah it’s a quarter past two.
I start to think maybe I’ve bit off more than I can chew.
And it’s Halloween, so if I get home by three
I’ll be walking ‘round town just like Jamie Lee,
wonder where my friends have gone.
And it’s true there’s been some sideways rain here.
It’s true that there’s been this ringing in my ears.
It’s true there’s been monsters standing way too near.
So it’s the end of the line,
yeah it’s the end of my turn.
I’m gonna make it out of here
just like Marilyn Burns
with the blood dripping down my face.
Because if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.
I put the car into gear and I eased off the breaks.
If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.
If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.
ARTIST BIO
Rory Strong (they/them) was born in Maine and lives presently in Long Beach, California.
Socials: @roryory1
Special thanks to the artist for trusting us with their work.
Thanks to all of you readers for reading! Be sure to like, follow, and share.
Check out our other posts this week:
Wordy Tuesday (19 Mar) with Fiction by A. Joseph Black
Rhythm-Verse Thursday (21 Mar) with Poetry by Joshua Pipkins.
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