This new issue of Beltway has been cooking slowly, and we think you will be delighted with the seasoning, the thickness of the soup, the presentation. We release it, however, at a forlorn time, of war, of immense suffering, death and fear. Poets tend to capture the spirit even before the spirit knows what it contains. Look here for poems that speak to us as bombs fall in Ukraine, as millions of refugees march again. Look for consolation in these verses, reasons to keep walking along the road.
There is no one theme here except what now characterizes this eclectic journal. Borders have been exposed and crossed. Languages, riotous and delicate, are brought into English for the first time in our pages. In this issue, we celebrate poetry in Swedish and Mayan. And we are always looking and listening for the right word and rhyme.
Borderless, we call ourselves, as a sovereign is seized, her borders ignored, constructed lines do not belong to any one builder—but the line, the word, the space and the poem, all require some emptiness, sometimes. See what you will, in the spaces between. Perhaps you will see new borders, or none at all.
Indran Amirthanayagam, Editor
Sara Cahill Marron, Associate Editor
Renee Gherity, Guest Editor