I spent two afternoons recently on the shore of the Atlantic, just an hour or so each day before the late-afternoon storms moved in. It was quiet then on the beach, the stillness set against the movement of the ocean, and of the line of clouds sweeping toward me. It is the way of things, sometimes: we find these moments of stillness even when we know they will not last, even when we can point out the moment they will end, point to the dark line in the sky and know the moment it will be overhead.

Many of the pieces in our summer issue confront moments of loss, recognize their inevitability, and work to resist the hardening that can come from sorrow. Marcy Beller Paul’s “Saw” seeks transformation in the “butcher[ing] of trees to make way for power lines, and Jeff Burt’s “Everything Rural Will Be Razed” concludes in the despair that although brokenness can sometimes bring forth beauty, it is “now / only brokenness.” Sometimes, these feelings of loss can be overwhelming—witness Becky Boling’s “Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant” or Claire Massey’s speaker recognizing that she has “no choice”—but Burt’s “Richland Centre, Wisconsin” reminds us that any hardness “can be softened / by a swale of grass,” an idea clear in Katie Kalisz’s “Hush Now,” where the speaker seeks a still and quiet space away from the brokenness and volume of our public discourse, offering us a lullaby in the simplicity of the outdoors. Katie Mora’s “Flightline” similarly seeks respite, but with the recognition that loss leaves its mark, and that this “scar tissue” may eventually be a protection, that “it will hurt until it doesn’t.” It is this sense of moving with and through, not around or away from, that resonates through many of these pieces, as in the closing poem, where Annette Sisson’s speaker moves forward, but only with a feeling of the future as familiar territory viewed through new, hard-won eyes.

Issue Twenty-Nine includes poetry and prose by Amanda Hayden, Amanda Nicole Corbin, Annette Sisson, Becky Boling, Claire Massey, Claudia M. Reder, D. E. Green, Daniel Brennan, Jeff Burt, Julie A. Ryan, Katie Kalisz, Katie Mora, Laura Hope-Gill, Marcy Beller Paul, Roxanne Cardona, Stephen Barile, and Tina Plottel. The issue’s cover image is from Hillary Calamaras.

Digital and print versions of our summer 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.