Content warning:
1Not ivory towers, but towers that telescope,
each climbing step an irregular height.
This, the poem editor’s envelope,
with pigeon holes where messages alight.
(of course birds! every poem is about birds!)
2But what shape each letter, how tall or wide?
What purpose expressed, and to what effect?
Diff’rence has value, too much to elide:
Reading texts closely is to show respect.
(“Even negative readings!” cry critics.)
3Through countless years and countless requests
our generous community shines on:
the fuel that propels our rocket best,
imagination our north star at dawn.
(What we achieved here together is vast.)
4Swimming in the sea of story.
Call-and-response currents. Proseships drift on the tide.
From the whale-roads come heart-storms, come worldpools, come strange solar winds,
breaking dams, breaking walls.
5Thank you for submitting.
We’re pleased to appreciate the chance
to accept your story, read your work, wish you the best.
Our current schedule has this running forever in time.
(But that could change—though we hope it never does.)
6I return to the mycogenic mines
to excavate mycelial verses,
seeking genius in the spor(e)-adic lines
that describe ’shroom doom, cordyceps curses.
(Help! The Kingdom Fungi rules the slush pile!)
1. Romie Stott, poetry editor and management, Texan accent. Buy Romie’s new horror novel, Nothing in the Basement!
2. Dan Hartland, reviews editor. Listen to Dan’s latest album, Haywire!
3. Kate Cowan, development and fundraising. Kate thinks you should check out the Prisoners Literature Project!
4. Hebe Stanton, fiction editor, form-breaker. Read Hebe’s blog, The English Student!
5. Aigner Loren Wilson, fiction editor. Read her horror novella, Twilight Children, free to read through her newsletter!
6. Lisa M. Bradley, poetry editor. Buy Lisa’s science fiction novel, Exile!
If you would like to add to the mythology, post your own verse on social media! Write four lines with an ABAB rhyme structure and 10 syllables per line, followed by a non-rhyming one-line parenthetical annotation that is also 10 syllables. Or make your own rules.