A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
April Issue, 2024
My Shadow is Freezing: Winter Poems from Matsuo Basho
these cold winter days
on horseback
— my shadow is frozen
Letter From the Editor November, 2023: Crickets
A cricket sings in my brambling dying herbs every autumn, tangled with the unruly thyme and the ever-flowering chives. I’ve never seen it but I look forward to its return every year […]
Crow and Cricket: Two Autumn Poems from Matsuo Basho
Some thoughts on two autumn poems from Matsuo Basho
In This Our Land
In this our land we have a term for suffering, shege. The proverbial phrase seeing shege is a present participle tense that describes the action of going through it — suffering. And there’s levels to it you see, because in this our land we’re all in the same hell, just different levels.
Voutie-o-roony-mo
“Like, voutie-o-roony-mo means super extra happy and good. It means everything is voutie, like roony-o, you know.” – Slim Gaillard
For a mother whose son was murdered
i was born again when he died
with no language
i had to learn a new tongue
Werner’s Nomenclature of Colors and Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium
There’s so much in life that we can’t capture in words or pictures: everything is shifting, changing, and with more hues, values and shades than our eyes can see, more notes than our ears can hear, more subtleties than our hearts can feel or our minds define. But I love that we still try.
Letter From the Editor July: Words and Silence
It seems more important now than ever to tell our stories and share our stories, and listen to the stories of others. To amplify the voices of anybody struggling to be heard, and to celebrate when the words or images or silences speak to us or bewilder us or transform us. To harness our anger or sadness or joy in a wild productive fury, resonating with the strange perfect words we make our own or the deafening silences we inhabit.
Cristina Finotto: Poems and Photographs
Poetry and photography by Cristina Finotto, of the Po delta.
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