Just a year ago, I walked knee-deep through snow in central Arkansas. This year, here in central Florida, it’s been snow’s liquid sibling that we’ve seen much of. After a long time without rain, there’ve been two occasions in recent days when the sidewalks and streets have been ankle-deep. I know the rain follows the pollen, and in spite of the few days of cooler weather that showed up in its wake, the blooming and budding of everything will soon arrive. The closing of winter has, always, a “hint of of skyline bright,” as D. E. Green’s sonnet from this issue points out in its final couplet.

Our spring issue begins and ends with poems of creation and loss. In the issue’s opening poem, the speaker of Madeleine Gallo’s “Naming Fireflies” considers the power of speech, of naming as an act of creation. The speaker considers she “could have been this or that” except that her mother’s “naming kiss” brought her into being: “here I am, still bodying words she once exhaled.” In the poem that concludes the issue, the speaker of Jill Evans’s “Afterlife” seems to share this sentiment, seen at the end of life through a lens of loss and grief. The poem’s closing questions the act of speech as it relates to life and the meaning that life has: “as if / all / that lasts / after life / leaves / is words?”

The cover of Issue Twenty-Four is a detail from On Edge by David A. Goodrum, and you’ll find this image along with more of David’s work inside. Issue Twenty-Four also includes poetry and prose by J. Adams Oaks, Becky Boling, Jeff Burt, Alice Campbell Romano, Heather Candels, Kenneth Chamlee, Jill Evans, Gretchen Gales, Madeleine Gallo, D. E. Green, Elisabeth Harrahy, Cheng Him, Overcomer Ibiteye, Steven McCown, James B. Nicola, Mervyn Seivwright, Philip Venzke, and Christian Ward.

Digital and print versions of our spring issue are available through Mag Cloud. Digital versions of the issue are free, and perfect-bound copies of the issue will cost twelve dollars. You can order print copies and read the issue online at this link.