For our third annual issue, we were thrilled to have so many excellent submissions. Among them, these are the poems that startled us and asked us to consider their words in a new way. I remember the moment I first read each of these poems, and it was like being privy to a great secret. We are delighted to share this collection of secrets with you.
Abigail Michelini, Poetry Editor
In an often-chaotic globalized society, sometimes intimacy begins to feel like a luxury, a sudden spark that we stumble upon. Well, here are twenty-nine sparks you can join in on anytime you choose. The poems in our third issue take readers to all sorts of private corners of the world, from a Russian cathedral to the American plains to Brumadinho, Brazil. They allow us to witness singular moments of grief, disillusionment, despair; to overhear people we will never meet having conversations in the car and praying for rain. They paint an honest picture of what it is to be alive, acknowledging the hurt but also the moments of hope, of desire, of how history meets up with the present and we somehow continue on.
Emily DeMaioNewton, Poetry Intern
