Best of ITF 2010
Another great year.
By Aaron Richner
Monday, January 3, 2011

It is hard to believe that another year has come and gone, and harder that I'm writing and believing such cliches. I used to think that only old people marveled at how quickly years passed, and now I find myself doing it as well. I suppose it is the way of the world.

2011 will bring many changes for ITF. We're getting ready to unveil a new site design, and will be welcoming several new staff members in the coming months.

Looking back on 2010, we featured a lot of great pieces, but here's a selection of what we thought was our best:
 

The rhythm of remembrance in health and healing by Larry Jaffe

Yellow River journalism by Caitlin E. Schultz

Making history out of footnotes by Jillian York

Haiti, before the ground shook by Gergana Koleva

Toasting Poe by Cynthia Pelayo

 
Thank you very much to all of our readers! Best wishes in 2011!

In the wounded haze
of this unfolding moment,
Black Jesus slips to earth,
unshaven.

Dressed in torn jeans,
he sits, hookers at his feet.
Sunlight circles his head.
Complaints rush in to city hall
about wine found in the water main.

We turn on the sprinkler,
cares tumbling from fingertips
as we soak in the amber spray.

Our bodies glow
from memories rising
of days long ago, days
when you still loved me.

Poet's commentary:

I often think of the people we pass in our everyday lives who are filled with goodness and the ability to inspire goodness in us. We don't see many of them because we judge them by their outward appearance and dismiss them. The poem is a tribute to those unseen people.