The Cenacle | 130 | April 2026 | 31st Anniversary Issue! *Just Released*

[Cenacle]

The Cenacle | 130 | April 2026 | 31st Anniversary Issue!
https://scriptorpress.com/cenacle/130
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Hello everyone,

Here comes the just-released Cenacle | 130 | April 2026. It’s the 31st Anniversary Issue! Very exciting to be arriving to this point, & to celebrate this milestone with such a great issue of contributors!

This issue features new poetry by Madelaine Taylah, Tamara Miles, Martina Reisz Newberry, Colin James, Judih Weinstein Haggai, & myself. Plus a re-visit of a poem by the late, beloved Cenacle contributor Tom Sheehan.

Also new fiction by Timothy Vilgiate, Algernon Beagle, & myself. And classic fiction from Edgar Allan Poe.

And new prose pieces by Lou Gámez, Nathan D. Horowitz, Jimmy Heffernan, & myself.

There is also new graphic artwork by AbandonView, Epi Rogan, Louis Staeble, Tamara Miles, Madelaine Taylah, & Kassandra Soulard.

Contents of this new issue include:

From Soulard’s Notebooks
[Excerpt]

Tuesday, November 3, 2026 is when this nightmare can truly begin to end. Simple as that. Vote every last Republican on the ballot out of office. None can justify running affiliated with this party. None deserve a pass.

* * * * * *

Feedback on Cenacle 129
[Excerpt]

Lou Gámez truly made my brain go boing with his short fiction “British Museum Acquisition Number EA363914,” a beautifully plotted, carefully realized, eruditely entertaining short story about a centuries-spanning love. The image of Hager kissing the backs of Zahrah’s knees is wonderful, as is the image of him rubbing her withered or gnarled feet. That’s love.
(Nathan D. Horowitz)

* * * * * *

From the ElectroLounge Forums:
Cross-Interview with Epi Rogan
[Excerpt]

I think so many of my photos are of liminal spaces, and from the point of view of an outsider looking in. Growing up, my family didn’t go to church. We lived in a small conservative community where all my friends and peers did go to church, and I think I was quietly obsessed with all the esoteric things involved with religion because I didn’t have a grounding in it. It was all these strange rituals, and artwork, and mad outfits worn by clergy. Anyways, I’m still obsessed with all that stuff.
(Epi Rogan)

* * * * * *

Poetry by Tom Sheehan
[Excerpt]

When he found me,
pawed, frayed, diminished,
he said he’d never leave me again.

* * * * * *

Notes from New England:
Dream Raps, Volume Fifteen
by Raymond Soulard, Jr.
[Excerpt]

I’ve always thought that bus stations are good places to see what’s going by in this world. All sorts of
reasons people are on the bus, taking the bus, waiting for the bus. One elderly lady with grey hair done up in a pretty pink scarf, multi-colored layers of clothes, sits next to a strange ragged figure before leaving abruptly. Wait: Was that me, in some other way, some other time?

* * * * * *

On Suspicion [Prose]
by Lou Gámez
[Excerpt]

I shut the door thoughtfully, resumed playing my music, walked slowly back to the soapy dishes in the kitchen awaiting their rinse, and tried to puzzle this out. What was going on? Today was an unexceptional Wednesday—though come to think of it, I did mow the front lawn this afternoon. Not my usual practice. The weekend was just too fine to waste with yard-work. No need to encourage my neighbors to have their dogs piss and shit on my grass more than they already do.

* * * * * *

Poetry by Judih Weinstein Haggai
[Excerpt]

listen world
clean up your room already
enough is enough

* * * * * *

Poetry by Martina Newberry
[Excerpt]

As full day seeps from morning, it grows so bright and hot
that I am happy that my eyes are small—
that my ears fan the still air—
that there is shade and cool water.

* * * * * *

Rivers of the Mind (A Novel)
by Timothy Vilgiate
[Excerpt]

I tried to keep my smile steady. Grace looked like she wanted to strangle me. Dusty looked like he wanted to dissect me. Phillip looked—hopeful. God help him.

* * * * * *

Many Musics, Twelfth Series
by Raymond Soulard, Jr.
[Excerpt]

Tonight we do what’s often done when lost
loved ones reunite. We tell our long travels
from shared then to recovering now.
Build our path new with words, with gestures,
blood-bricks laid thence to hereon. The salt & spice
of memories to excite the senses to presence.

* * * * * *

Notes on Hinduism (Part i)
by Jimmy Heffernan
[Excerpt]

The lesser gods and goddesses that are actively worshipped are meant to make it easier for people to approach and incorporate Brahman in their daily lives. Usually a person will pray to a god that has special meaning for them, for whatever reason. Hindus believe that these lesser gods and goddesses have been sent to Earth to help individuals find and relate to Brahman in their lives, and to purify their karma and prepare their souls for their next incarnation. Some key gods that are actively and widely prayed to are: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Saraswati, Parvati, Hanuman, Krishna, Rama, and
Ganesha.

* * * * * *

Poetry by Madeleine Taylah
[Excerpt]

There are the clouds, and then there are my hands.
Somehow, they feel further away.
I hold my palms out to catch the cascading leaves
that rain from the autumnal canopies above.
Some fall gently. Others are ripped away in
mini tornados of dust and dirt.

* * * * * *

Poetry by Tamara Miles
[Excerpt]

Your breasts are veiled, they demand
contemplation. Men who lie beneath
them have their faith tested. Mayahana,
Tathagata, they nourish all beings.

* * * * * *

Bags End Book #23: Why Is There Something Instead of Nothing, Part 1 (Fiction)
by Algernon Beagle
[Excerpt]

Your old editor & reporter friend & pal Algernon Beagle is not what you might say to be a deep or very philosophical guy. I mean, I know lots of smart guys like Sheila Bunny & Princess Chrisakah of Imagianna, Crissy 4or fun, & even mah own newspaper’s loyal riter-downer Lori Bunny, who probably knows about a lot more about these things than I do.

* * * * * *

Poetry by Colin James
[Excerpt]

Collecting our allocations of mushrooms,
fungi turning blue correspondingly.
Familiarity saviors lassoed.

* * * * * *

Dietmar & the Flies Dancing [Travel Journal]
by Nathan D. Horowitz
[Excerpt]

And maybe time is shaped like a tree. Since I don’t know what really happened, I can only ask questions. Where is my heart going to live? What kinds of instruments do the Swiss use to make holes in cheese? Can white people be shamans? Can black people be investment bankers? How much longer will this deteriorating hut last? Is there another word for synonym? My God, what’s that smell? Is my notebook paper content with its Scythian tattoo of words, blue like smurfs?

* * * * * *

The Fall of the House of Usher
by Edgar Allan Poe (Classic Fiction)
[Excerpt]

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

* * * * * *

Labyrinthine [A New Fixtion]
by Raymond Soulard, Jr.
[Excerpt]

You will one day lie inert in a box, like the ones a hundred, a thousand years ago. Inert, boxed, buried, as new days come & go, & you are forgotten, become a listing in history books. Just another mortal, failed human being who could have raised the world up, holy & high, but did not. Soon you will be gone too.

* * * * * *

Respond with your feedback here — or by email at editor@scriptorpress.com

Peace, 
Raymond