Ain’t no way around it, these are dark, dark days. And so we are called to be there for each other a little harder. To be there for the vulnerable, the weary, the downtrodden. Us, who must walk each other the long way home. Art can’t fix it, but it’s still a powerful tool lodged deep in our unbreakable souls. Friends, we’re going deep. Share your light with us. With the world. (Anti-Heroin Chic Call for Submissions)
About the December 2024 issue of the creative journal Anti-Heroin Chic, Founding Editor James Diaz writes:
“That’s why we’re here. To deal with, and to help each other deal with, what won’t go away in us. Every creation that comes from out of the long dark night of us takes some of the edge off our pain. But there is a pain that can never, and maybe should never, be entirely removed from us. It is the very specific, democratic pain that comes with being human. Not the pain caused by injustice and organized cruelty, these are never necessary, but the pain that comes just from being flesh and blood and bone. There is a soul-ouch that cannot be unfelt in being here. Sometimes we feel it too much, or not at all. But it’s there, moving by degrees, throughout our lives. Mended by hand and open heart, by a rigorous honesty. By tending and holding that line, carefully, until just the right moment.”
I was honored that James selected two of my poems to be included in this issue! To read more, visit the links below:
• Anti-Heroin Chic, December 2024
• Editor’s Remarks (James Diaz)
• My Poems (Jen Payne)
randomactsofwriting.net 