Bounty

Our final theme of 2025

As Danielle, Caroline, and I were brainstorming a theme for our final issue of this year, we all seemed to be gravitating towards the autumnal reality of Bounty.

Sheaves of Wheat by Vincent Van Gogh (1890)

From bundles of hay, to harvests of corn and apples and cranberries, mounds of gourds in a churchyard pumpkin patch, to pots of soup being ladled with friends and family gathered to eat together, Fall really is THE season of plenty.

How natural it is for us, The Clayjar & Clayjar community, to go from meditating on our “rootedness” to celebrating the bounteous fruit that comes from deep and healthy roots. Committing ourselves to a church and community leads to a harvest of friendship, sanctification, and freedom; honoring our family and our ancestry produces an abundance of wisdom; and, most importantly, grounding ourselves in the love that God has for us leads to a plentiful harvest of love that we freely give to others.

When we are able to see our lives and the people around us through a lens of bounty, we begin to live open-handed and open-hearted, always expectant that our loving Father will care for us as He does the sparrow.

For this issue, we are looking for works that celebrate the bounty of our faith. We want works that are spilling over with harvests in all seasons, fruits that are vibrant and flavorful, and just plain gratitude for the good and perfect gifts we have been given by God. We want this issue to be a festival that commemorates the extravagant generosity of our God and the ways in which we get to sow as lavishly as we reap.

Submissions for Bounty are now open!

Our submission window is open from September 21st until November 2nd. You can find all of our guidelines here and submit below.

I’ll leave you with this poem from our second issue, Wise & Gentle:

Lord of earthquake
And earthworm;
Lord of conflagration
And guttering candle,
Have mercy.

Lord of hurricane
And last breath;
Lord of inundation
and of each tear,
Have mercy.

When earth’s rubble and ashes
And our hearts too—
Everything
Knocked flat or flooded,
Lord, we trust in You.

About the author: Don Thompson has been writing about the San Joaquin Valley for over fifty years, including a dozen or so books and chapbooks. A San Joaquin Almanac won the Eric Hoffer Award for 2021 in the chapbook category. For more info and links to publishers, visit his website at www.don-e-thompson.com

With gratitude,

Alexandra, Caroline, & Danielle