Issue 14

Notes on this Issue:

Poets must be picky with their words—it’s the fundamental unit of our toolset. We rely on strict definitions for acute clarity as much as we rely on ambiguous definitions to evoke poetic connotations. For this reason, I must speak about my, but more importantly our relationship with one word in particular: ‘judgment.’ I’ve had a personal gripe with the common connotation of ‘judgment’ for as long as I can remember. Statements such as ‘that person is judgmental,’ ‘people are too judgmental,’ or ‘I don’t like when people judge others’ are common phrases that almost always fail to recognize the actual meaning of ‘judgment.’ These statements typically imply a negative connotation while, in actuality, there is no negative implication with ‘judgment’ if the term is used properly. In fact, the opposite is mostly true:
 

Judgment is discernment with investment.
 

Most of the time ‘judgment’ is inappropriately conflated with ‘insulting,’ ‘dismissive,’ and ‘disrespectful,’ but this couldn’t be more wrong. In order to discern with investment, you have to care for the thing, person, or idea you’re discerning. You must reflect on it deeply and, in the circumstances involving supreme care, you must love it. This is why judgment is not negative, rather: 
 

Judgment is an act of care in its simplest application, 
and an act of love in its most complex. 
 

So please, with all the investment and love that you can muster, judge our poems that follow. I’d be honored.

-W.B.