What an amazing ride it has been to launch this inaugural issue of Radar Poetry. First of all, we want to thank everyone who submitted their poems for our consideration. It is an honor and a pleasure for us to read your work.
So, what have we learned so far? Poetry is, indeed, alive and well. Within a week of launching Radar, we received over 100 submissions from poets as near as New York City and as far away as England, Thailand, China, and India.
The poems we have chosen to publish in Issue 1 represent many points of view. Even so, we couldn’t help but notice some common threads as we designed the pages on which these poems appear. Here’s what we found: water imagery, themes of memory and childhood, speakers hunted and haunted by sinister forces, powerful voices, magic and magical realism, and plenty of adventures and misadventures in the night.
We’ve also been fortunate to cultivate visual artists along with poets. Issue 1 features the work of artists using a variety of media, from pencil to digital collage. We believe in harnessing the full potential of our electronic format; in our issue, you’ll find poems that expand beyond the confines of the traditional page, enhanced by painting, photography, drawing, film, collage, commentary, and audio recordings.
As writers ourselves, it delights us to connect with other poets the world over and to provide a venue for poems we admire. We are proud to offer our readers a uniquely stunning experience, both intellectually and visually.
We look forward to reading submissions for the second issue of Radar Poetry and, later, for the first annual Coniston Prize. Keep reading, keep writing, and never doubt the power of poetry!
Rachel Marie Patterson and Dara-Lyn Shrager