Dear Readers,
I broke my Word. This is not a cosmic or theological statement, but a statement about Mac computers old enough to vote and Microsoft products. The program needs an update, but the update is one my computer can’t read. (Same with InDesign, now that I think of it. Although there’s a little work-around for that. It involves smashing buttons and swearing.) So, with a broken Word that doesn’t spell-check and opens sometimes, I type this out.
What can we say with broken Words? I imagine we can still grunt and point. Look, look. Perhaps it is enough to still be able to do that.
Not everyone has broken Words, thank goodness. In fact, in these pages (digital and real) we will find Words doing quite well. Words with a future. Robust words, we might say. Words that can run a marathon.
Take, for example, the velvet of deer. Two different poets discovered that in this issue. I placed them side-by-side because I thought that was beautiful. Take, for example, ”the things we bind ourselves to: faith, hope, medicine, shoes” from Laura Tate’s poem.
I’ve been working on a long essay in fragments—when my Word is working—about hope. By feeling my way around in the dark, I think I’ve come to the quiet realization that hope works by simile. This is like this. And both things can be horrible, overwhelming, dark, and strange—like a portal in one’s skin, like too many crabs in your bedroom. That doesn’t matter. You noticed this is like this, which means you are still in the world, noticing things. And if you notice a connection that means the world has something to offer, and you have something to offer the world.
What I have to offer is a thimble. No, that’s not it. What we have to offer is a thimble. And that, too, is a kind of hope. Metaphor: to carry across. The poems and art and prose were carried to me and now we offer them back in a thimble.
May we measure out our medicine by the thimble. May we always find a way to say look, look.
Best,
Nadia
Haz clic aquí para leer nuestro número especial en español, Revista Literaria Guardacabo
To read our special Spanish Language issue, Revista Literaria Guardacabo, click here.
