Introduction: “VESSELS”: BPQ Fall 2022

As we slouch towards winter and its solstice on the East Coast of the United States, where Beltway is edited, we dream of the other side of the world where palm trees sway in a gentle ocean breeze. As Blake posited with his contrarie states of the human soul, the poet is dreaming always of the other side, of the yang for her ying, summer to her winter.

While we edited this issue, Sara and I crossed the Southern border to read at the Festival Internacional de Poesia Ignacio Rodriguez Galvan in Tizayuca, Mexico. It was an enormous pleasure to read poems in the town’s zocalo, to passersby, to students, to bus drivers, to the zenzontles flying by the shade trees in the evening getting ready to rest; to read with poets from all over the American continent and Europe as well, and yours truly representing Asia.

The crowning event took us to a local technical college where several hundred students gathered to hear the poets. What a pin-prick silence reigned as each poet read. And at the end, there occurred a gentle storming of the poets as the students asked for autographs.

Poets are vessels for the Muse’s messages. The students are the future of our human society. This magazine is a vessel too, a bridge between the Muse and society. Enjoy these poems that cross borders, that invite the Sun and Moon to the writing desk, from all corners of the planet.

Love and Poetry

 

Indran

Sara

Renee