May 2021
EDITOR'S NOTE
Dear Villagers,
When I suggested the optional theme of "Remembering" for this month's issue, I had several things in mind. First, this month my father has a birthday (92) and my next younger brother was born on Memorial Day (the actual day, not the observed day) - he would have been 68. But he is gone - auto accident. His wife went before he did - cancer. My mother left before both of them - cancer. And so many more of my family gone, but memories always stay. So May is always a month of remembering for me. I expected to see a fair amount of nostalgia, some admonition, and some lovely surprises in the submissions. And that's what I got. I am grateful for the range and depth of humanity in your poems.
In the widest context of "remembering", we find our place in history. Our identity exists in the stories that have come to us, whether from a single generation back, or from milennia of a stubbornly cohesive group (there are many.) Stories, including every story told by a poem, are how we remember who we are, and how we project "us" into the future.
This month's COVER ART comes to you courtesy of Caitlin Buxbaum. Taken in Rwanda, it is for her, and hopefully for us as well, a reminder of both the brutality and the compassion that we humans are capable of.
Submissions for the June issue are open from May 1 to May 10. The size of each issue is gradually increasing, which is wonderful, but it comes at a cost for me in terms of the time and energy required to read, respond, format web pages, and publish each issue. In order to keep the size of the journal manageable, I am asking that if you have appeared in the last three consecutive issues, that you hold those beautiful poems you want to send me, and submit them for July, instead of June. The only exceptions to that are the contributing editors, who are expected to submit monthly. I will see how that works for June, and most likely return to a policy of limiting submissions to every other month.
And I'd like to ask for two favors, to humor this grouchy old editor.
First: PLEASE LEFT JUSTIFY EVERYTHING. Your name, your bio, your email address, your web address, the titles to your poems, the poems themselves, your gracious salutations. EVERYTHING. It really makes a difference when I begin preparing your poetry pages.
Second: PLEASE DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN ALL CAPS UNLESS YOU WANT IT PUBLISHED THAT WAY. Poem titles included.
Submission Guidelines will be especially important for you to review. I've made some changes.
That's all. Remember that in a world where you can be anything, be kind.
When I suggested the optional theme of "Remembering" for this month's issue, I had several things in mind. First, this month my father has a birthday (92) and my next younger brother was born on Memorial Day (the actual day, not the observed day) - he would have been 68. But he is gone - auto accident. His wife went before he did - cancer. My mother left before both of them - cancer. And so many more of my family gone, but memories always stay. So May is always a month of remembering for me. I expected to see a fair amount of nostalgia, some admonition, and some lovely surprises in the submissions. And that's what I got. I am grateful for the range and depth of humanity in your poems.
In the widest context of "remembering", we find our place in history. Our identity exists in the stories that have come to us, whether from a single generation back, or from milennia of a stubbornly cohesive group (there are many.) Stories, including every story told by a poem, are how we remember who we are, and how we project "us" into the future.
This month's COVER ART comes to you courtesy of Caitlin Buxbaum. Taken in Rwanda, it is for her, and hopefully for us as well, a reminder of both the brutality and the compassion that we humans are capable of.
Submissions for the June issue are open from May 1 to May 10. The size of each issue is gradually increasing, which is wonderful, but it comes at a cost for me in terms of the time and energy required to read, respond, format web pages, and publish each issue. In order to keep the size of the journal manageable, I am asking that if you have appeared in the last three consecutive issues, that you hold those beautiful poems you want to send me, and submit them for July, instead of June. The only exceptions to that are the contributing editors, who are expected to submit monthly. I will see how that works for June, and most likely return to a policy of limiting submissions to every other month.
And I'd like to ask for two favors, to humor this grouchy old editor.
First: PLEASE LEFT JUSTIFY EVERYTHING. Your name, your bio, your email address, your web address, the titles to your poems, the poems themselves, your gracious salutations. EVERYTHING. It really makes a difference when I begin preparing your poetry pages.
Second: PLEASE DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN ALL CAPS UNLESS YOU WANT IT PUBLISHED THAT WAY. Poem titles included.
Submission Guidelines will be especially important for you to review. I've made some changes.
That's all. Remember that in a world where you can be anything, be kind.