I couldn't be more pleased to see my poem, "Ritual," in print at Liminality, one of my all-time favorite speculative poetry magazines. Edited by the immensely talented Shira Lipkin, the issue is a meditation on love and loss; a journey through the underworld of myth, magic, and grief, tinged (perhaps) with the faintest outlines of hope.
As Shira notes in the editorial introduction, this is the penultimate issue of Liminality, and the thought of such a beautiful creation coming to an end makes me immensely sad. To all things a time, however, and I certainly wish her well in her future endeavors.
I hope you enjoy "Ritual," a meditation on how the last year has changed me. Despite constant, overwhelming stress, daily panic, and what felt like near endless crises, I somehow managed to pick up a pen and write again, an act that felt like both rebellion and triumph. This poem was the first thing that came out when I did so.
Though on a certain level we were all stuck in place by this pandemic, life and love and loss are never static things. "Ritual" was my way of attempting to take back control of how I felt in response to nonstop emotional upheaval. Almost like a magic spell, it helped me to remember the strength of where I come from, and the strength I still carry inside me. I hope you enjoy it.