The Alembic

Read by Elizabeth Mignardi

What is The Alembic?

We’re thrilled to introduce you to a brand-new chapter in The Alembic’s history. For the first time ever, we’re offering an audio edition of the journal—an exciting new endeavor for 2025. In this edition, you’ll hear every written piece read aloud by Providence College students, bringing a new dimension and life to the written word.

Coming down Monadnock
the whole unmarked sky
a blue ensign of perfect surrender,
and the mountain smaller
than its grand solitude declares,
the journey requires only this:
give attention to where each foot
is placed on the tourist-polished granite scarp.
and the skidding scree.
Low blueberries cosset their clusters of clouded sapphires
under oval leaves like sprays of tears
gold-tipped and bear-ready. These few for me.
I’m always thirsty for the world, ascending
and descending across the giardia-laced streams
pausing to sip the glory of the autumn woods below
and the plain to forever with its small, mortal farms
and bicolor nursery cows nipping the dandelions
and school kids with their unscuffed tablets ready for everything.
Heel and toe, carefully on the gravel,
a butt-slide down a steep stone groove.
Heading downhill is more risky for climbers than we like to think.
Time accelerates and the muscles become less sure,
and impact’s a known quantity
we have to keep an eye on.
But when the pair of turkey vultures sweeps by, southward,
those emperors of air, drawn scimitars
cleaving the blue in what must be joy,
stand still and take them in,
your own feet, wherever you are, set in a sure place,
your heart needing to be reminded of flight.