Notes on this Issue:

It’s been over a decade since I’ve experienced the transition of Winter to Spring. I was born in the North but have spent the past 10+ years living in our country’s dingleberry state, Florida—where it’s always hot and perpetual identity-crisis is at the basin of culture. Regardless of that, I’ve been thinking a lot about the poetic significance of seasonal shifts. There’s a lot to be said on the topic, but let’s encounter one thing in particular:

Autumn to Winter and Winter to Spring rarely, if ever, embody Death and Birth. Rather, they’re more akin to dormancy and awakening. The former, inappropriate correlation is one budding poets frequently make. ‘Death’ and ‘life’ carry with them tremendous implications as any words do, but these especially. We all exist in only two states with this imagery, alive or dead, representing semi-permanence and permanence. Seasons change and change again, just as we do in life through active and dormant periods. As the case always is, there’s an effective way in poetry to make any comparison work, but as poets our merit lies in our awareness of context and implication—without them, we might as well be scummy bloggers.


- W.B.