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“Winter Sandstorm”

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by Eran Eads

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“In 1816, Captain Henry Hall of Dennis, Massachusetts discovered that sand blowing on his cranberry vines stimulated the vine’s growth.”—cranberries.org

A pang of cold arrives
and the sand storms.
The force blasts in
protection, blistering wind,
a pang of cold becomes
the pain of winter. And yes,
the weather will be cruel
but, yes, the weather
brings a blanket with it too,
that is how it is. Life
spindles, living leaflings,
and the sand, and the sand
and then the discovery!
I have kept myself. I have
been made in the weather,
the weather, buried down
into it, this was in winter.
You & I in winter. The storm.
I did not make the weather;
I stayed there, with you.

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Eran Eads (all pronouns) is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. They received their BA & BT from University of Alaska Fairbanks. He teaches writing at UAF & UMGC and develops courses for multiple Learning Management Systems (LMS). They are passionate about education differentials of disenfranchised queer, rural, and military students. His poems have appeared. Check out his Instagram or Twitter and other social things @eraneads

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Who We Are

Military Experience and the Arts, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose primary mission is to work with veterans and their families to publish short stories, essays, poems, and artwork in our biannual publication, As You Were: The Military Review, periodic editions of Blue Nostalgia: The Journal of Post-Traumatic Growth and others. To the best of our ability, we pair each author or poet that submits work to us with a mentor to work one-on-one to polish their work or learn new skills and techniques.

Our staff is based all over the country and includes college professors, professional authors, veterans’ advocates, and clinicians. As such, most of our services are provided through email and online writing workshops.

All editing, consultations, and workshops are free of charge. Veterans and their families pay nothing for our services, and they never will.

Under our Publications tab, there are more than two dozen volumes of creative work crafted by veterans and their family members as well as a virtual art gallery. Our blog posts feature short pieces that cover a wide range of opinion editorials, literary reviews, and profiles on veteran artists and writers.

Please consider spending some time navigating our site and reading and seeing the fine work of veterans and their families from around the globe.

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