Welcome to Issue 41!
As the moon and many constellations of stars shine brightly on a freezing winter evening, we invite you, dear reader, into the warmth of our winter issue. Our contributors are responding to the chaos of the world with empathy and grace. Their work ranges from domestic to pastoral, with a dash of hyperrealism and a welcome dose of sly humor.
We begin with Zoe Boyer’s “Against Hope,” in which she writes: I wake bitter, taken by a hard frost. I hunger for/what the sun could make me—full-bright,/petal-soft, a woman who believes in mercy.
We close with “evening near the village of Dikanka,” in which Kathleen Winter writes: this is my best for now/ give me a minute as I explain a few things/ the story of Moscow the story of Prague/ the beginning of spring a blue flower is only/ a hemisphere away but nearer still/ the afterlife.
As always, we feature poems and artwork by both emerging and established artists. We are fortunate to have so many strong submissions from which to choose those dozen or so pieces for which we have space. We wish we could share even more of the brilliant work we read and see, but alas, this two-woman enterprise has its limitations.
Speaking of our two-woman enterprise, we have an exciting addition to the masthead to announce in early March. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and join our mailing list!
Here’s our sincere wish for all of you: May the poems and artwork in Issue 41 lift your spirits and fill your imagination with hope and beauty. We believe in the redemptive power of art!
—Rachel Marie Patterson and Dara-Lyn Shrager, Editors