Letters

Presidential and Other Praise
I have just finished the summer edition. First class! I especially enjoyed—if I can even separate out anything—the pieces on Robert MacArthur and Paul Nelson, but the poetry was good too, along with everything else.

—Tom Ragle, former president

So glad to see Potash Hill online. And very glad to see your name as editor, Philip!
—Margie Serkin, friend and neighbor

I think Potash Hill is one of the finest alumni/school-related mags out there, and I see several. I don’t know how you can get more alumni to write in about their lives…most grads or even non-grads have nothing but fond memories of the place and their friends there, many life-long as in my case. Still a great magazine.
—Gail Henry ’72

I appreciated receiving the summer issue of Potash Hill at home and enjoyed the stories a lot, especially the one about Robert MacArthur. Thanks for all of your hard work.
—Amer Latif, faculty member

Congratulations on the new issue! I always enjoy seeing Potash Hill in my mailbox. I’d love to contribute something at some point.

—Matt Lynch ’06

Small but Mighty Tribe
As I page through Potash Hill (Summer 2013), I am struck by the wonderful diversity of expression of our shared Marlboro values. Ghostly forces, the origins of genocide, and bicycle repair workshops…everywhere there is creativity. Rebecca Bartlett’s comment that Marlboro alumni are “not very affluent and with a wide streak of anti-materialism” just made me grin.

At a recent international conference of pediatric ophthalmologists, I presented
 a poster regarding medical mission work in the West Indies. Volunteer work cures the soul of many self-inflicted ills. It restores us each to a global, human perspective. While it takes from us materially, it gives something entirely more valuable. I thank you Marlboro, for I
 am most proud to be a member of our small but mighty tribe, a tribe who give of ourselves, and who (yes, Rebecca) do share a wide streak of anti-materialism.
—Ingrid Carlson ’82

Poetic Justice

I am writing to thank you for the generous (and gorgeous) inclusion 
of my poems in the Summer 2013 Potash Hill (“Your Battered Name”)— surprising and beautiful to me. Surprising because I did not imagine that the poems would appear like this, and beautiful because of your photograph, Dianna. A perfect image for where I live—actually and spiritually!

The whole magazine is beautiful of course. It always is, and I’m deeply grateful for the care you have shown me and my work. Good to read of Sophie’s new book as well (and of the others’). I am among the many fans of Potash Hill and continue to admire its written and visual elegance.
—Kimberly Cloutier Green ’78

Kimberly, skimming through Potash Hill I paused to read your poems. Magnificent. Period. You touched my heart. Thank you. It was bittersweet—I realized that had I not lived so long and fully, much of the beauty would never have resonated with me. You have lived and thought wide and deep. Your voice is clear.

I am reminded of the difference between Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy and Tehanu. When the fourth book came out, almost 20 years later,
 I was stunned. There was no way she could have written it earlier. And there was no way I could have understood it earlier. When I read it then, I mused that part of me was nostalgic for the spirit that couldn’t understand. The simple and pure faith of a little one who breaks a shoelace, looks up to the heavens, and says “Father, my shoelace is broken. May I have another?”
—Mark “Mordechai” Levin ’82

My Potash Hill arrived today, and I read most of the obituary section and most of the new books section; three cheers on the latter. It seems only fair that my new book of poetry, Steep Stony Road, receive equal attention. The book includes “River Goddess,” winner of the Dudley Review Poetry Prize from Harvard University.

Perhaps if there are not sufficient new books to fill out your new On the Shelf section in the next issue, you could add a few new acquisitions to the wonderful Rice-Aron Library.
—Daniel Picker ’82


(Sorry we missed your book in the New Alumni Books section. For our readers, here is the info: Steep Stony Road, by Daniel Picker. San Francisco: Viral Cat Press 2012. ISBN: 0615631673–ed.)