Cover art: Treachery of Empire by @dominikus
Issue 27
If it weren’t for the poets and artists we would have no maps for our sacred selves. Every poet is a cartographer and translator of the psyche.
Reading a poem is like walking blindfolded within myself, feeling my way by touch — wall by wall — while I figure out the exact dimensions of my depth. Someday I will accept that I am an abyss.
We make do with what we have — our native tongues, our limited grasp of life. I grab for fistfuls of more and more consciousness and all I come away with are a few new wisps of meaning.
Poetry is a back door to our within. This issue is a composite of our human spirit — boundless and mystifying. I am grateful to all the contributors for sharing and showing themselves — a constellation of souls singing and gleaming.
Contributors: Lily Beaumont, Jennifer Frederick, CL Bledsoe, Ana Jovanovska, Douglas Cole, Adele Hally, Jack Kogut, Vincent Vecchio, Henry Motto, Jaye Nasir, Roy Christopher, Dominikus, Susan Bloch-Welliver, Lorrie Ness, Shana Ross, Luna Monet Sierra, Jason M. Thornberry, Taylor Richardson, Maureen Frank
Claudia Dawson, Founding Publisher & Editor
July 2022