“splashing all over the pages
in a million bits and pieces
all of which were words, words, words,
and each of which were alive forever
in its own delight and glory and oddity and light.”
—from Dylan Thomas’ “Notes on the Art of Poetry”

There’s something to be said about the longevity of words. Lacking expiration dates,
they exist perpetually on these uncoated pages, completed by their visual counterparts. They’ve been arranged just so, strewn gracefully across the page as they wait to be imbibed by thirsty readers.

They are crowded grains of sand that contain more than just multitudes, however. Their creators craft and polish, massage and cajole, until the hieroglyphics drip legacy onto crisp white pages. Every poem, story, photograph and painting within this magazine is testament to a desire to gulp all we can—to satiate the hunger for content that’s driven
us to pen and paper to make sure we aren’t forgotten.

The following words and images are closer to reaching immortality than we will ever be. They bounce delightedly within the walls of our minds and hearts, eager to engage with
an audience that can muster only a finite number of hours. Even in a digital age in which paper is becoming obsolete, the weightiness of these outpourings proves one thing: we have marked a trail that won’t be easily washed away.

Grin as you smack noisily into these words and pictures—and plumb the depths of their oddity and light.

Julie Steinberg
Editor-in-Chief