REGION — The River Reporter is nearly ready to launch its Literary Gazette, an annual publication showcasing regional writers and photographers. This year’s theme is dreams as inspiration and material for creating art. The featured photographer is Norma Bernstock of Milford, PA, who has worked with Polaroid film to create an enhanced, almost painterly affect. Here is a sampling of what readers will find in the Gazette, to be published on July 21.

Innocent Herbal

By ROBERT CARNEVALE

I was walking along with my thoughts

in a wood where sassafras thrive.

Why would I try to outrun wings

where one torn leaf keeps me alive?

This summer peace is no deception.

If I fall all too easily into the same

tired allure, if I grow offhand with fear,

it is not the sweet woods are to blame.

I do fear the bear and tornado,

and the voracious, alien beetle,

not because they are strong, it is heedless,

but because littleness becomes the little.

Here, I fit easily into my britches

and, pausing to smell a torn sassafras leaf,

I become small enough to fall right in

to a dear antidote to when or if.