Emily Brontë : “I'll walk where my own nature would be leading”
William S. Burroughs: “Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.”
Martha Graham: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.”
Samuel Beckett: “All poetry, as discriminated from the various paradigms of prosody, is prayer.”
Shakespeare and his colleagues would beg to differ.
I’m not sure – but surely outliving Jesus
must count for something.
Thunder’s daughter asks me if I write poems,
asks as though the answer is safe for giving,
listens like she cares for the conversation,
hears what I tell her.
I write best alone in a blazing shower.
All my words are echoes of those who’ve raised me:
bloodline blessings, hand-me-down wisdom, lessons
for and in living.
After this, I’m flying the flag of poet.
Name myself and honour the teacher’s wishes.
Woolf and William, Emily, Amy, David:
words will outlive us.
Sophie Collins lives, works, and writes on unceded Arrernte land. These days she’s into modern magic: poetry, love stories, desert rivers, and cardiorespiratory physiology.
Laura Foley’s most recent collection is: It’s This (Fernwood Press, 2023). Her poems have won many awards and appeared in many journals such as Alaska Quarterly, Valparaiso, Poetry Society London, Atlanta Review, and included in anthologies such as: Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. Laura’s poems have been turned into choral music and performed in venues such as the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Carnegie Hall in New York. She lives with her wife, Clara Giménez, and their two romping canines, among the hills of Vermont.
Samantha Pious is a poet, translator, editor, and medievalist with a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Her translations of Renée Vivien are available as A Crown of Violets (Headmistress Press, 2017); her translation of Christine de Pizan's One Hundred Ballades of a Lover and His Lady is forthcoming. Individual poems have appeared in Bi Women Quarterly, The Gay & Lesbian Review, e.ratio, Mezzo Cammin, Strange Horizons, and other journals.
Sierra Earle is a Nonbinary Lesbian poet from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They are a project coordinator by day and Editorial Assistant at Sinister Wisdom by night. They are currently editing a collection of work by Nonbinary/Gender Diverse Lesbians.
delicate, potent witch, brave warrior of the bleak—
let’s feast on the sinewy meat of doomsday
and drink from a briny sea of sorrows.
Such mysterious seductions as hers
require release, an appetite for blood.
Her skin so close to the page I taste tears.
Rhysling-nominated poet E.F. Schraeder is also the author of the Imadjinn Award finalist Liar: Memoir of a Haunting (Omnium Gatherum, 2021), the novella What Happened Was Impossible (Ghoulish Books, 2023), a story collection, and several poetry chapbooks. Schraeder’s first full-length manuscript of poetry, The Price of a Small Hot Fire, is forthcoming from Raw Dog Screaming Press in 2023. Schraeder was co-editor of the feminist charity anthology In-Trouble featuring original and reprinted work on themes of bodily autonomy.
Lesléa Newman has created 80 books for readers of all ages including the Headmistress poetry collections, I Carry My Mother, I Wish My Father, and Lovely. Her literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two National Jewish Book Awards, two Stonewall Honors, and the Massachusetts Book Award. From 2008 - 2010, she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA. Her newest book, Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard, a book-length poem that celebrates Matthew Shepard’s life and legacy, will be published in September 2023 by Abrams ComicArts.
Piper Summer is a young poet from Phoenix, Arizona, who currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a college student studying writing and philosophy. When she’s not writing new poems, you can find her petting a cat, reading anything she can get her hands on, or searching for vintage photos in antique shops.
Lexi Burt (she/her) is a senior at The University of Utah studying English. Her work has been published in Prose Nouveau, The Canticle, and Voices Rising. She currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah.
