Bethany Freese
Trees
Bethany Freese is a photographer and writer living in Washington State. Her work is autobiographical, and aims to capture the past and present of the Pacific Northwest.
Butterflies, Phoenixes, and Ephemeral Self-Love
Source material for Disney movies is mostly R-rated. Take Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, which hinges on premeditated murder. There’s also the idolized butterfly. In truth? It’s grisly in the cocoon. The caterpillar isn’t sleeping, it’s liquifying into protein-rich ooze.
Hallmark disavows it, but I celebrate the hero’s journey. We can also burn to ash and resurrect victorious. Hardships convey alchemy. Our spiritual journeys are the same—annihilation then rebirth, like the legendary phoenix. It’s how we emerge with wings and launch our fellow suffering… through the passion of our personal resurrections.
Spiritual work naturally generates a higher quotient of self-love. Though emotions are shifting and relational, there’s Grace beneath our imperfect perfection.
Self-love exists on a sliding scale, but God’s Love is immoveable. Once tasted, it forever fosters your ability to embody it.
Susan Dyer is a champion of women’s spirituality. She was born clairvoyant and merged with unnamable ‘God’ in a 2017 near-death experience, which clarified her journey. She graduated Hamilton College with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Cultural Anthropology. She’s published in FOLIO Literary Journal, Dance Magazine, forthcoming in both NINETENTHS Quarterly and Down in The Dirt. Find her at www.susandyer.com and on social media @SusanDyer1111.
Next of Kin
our granddad fought the Germans but I battled through lunches
my bloodline gathered in the kitchen uncles with 5 o’ clock
shadows mistake me for schoolgirls they lured with pocketmoney
& promises I pull myself together in their pipe smoke
arrange tins of beans in jaunty pyramids kick shins of cousins
beneath the table their tree bark cheeks ruddy passing the sauce
as past lives lurch across history’s headland victories chipper & hard-won
I want to start fires in the bathroom wear the alley like a cat in heat
upend the garbage take off my clothes swear like a trooper
slice my thumb with the carving knife mop the blood with my bread
but I please&thankyou my way through dessert
impossible the things we don’t say to one another
stewing like spoilt fruit & cream
Rebecca Faulkner is a London-born poet and arts educator based in Brooklyn. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Solstice Magazine, Smoke Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, Pedestal Magazine, The Maine Review, SWWIM, CV2 Magazine, On the Seawall, Into the Void, and other journals. She has been anthologized in the Best New British and Irish Poets 2019-2021, was a finalist for the 2021 Foster Poetry Prize, and the Jack McCarthy Book Prize. Rebecca was a 2021 Poetry Fellow at the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. She holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Leeds, and a Ph.D. from the University of London.
Print & Digital Issues
Featuring:
Issue 110, published April 2024, features works of poetry, flash fiction, short nonfiction, and visual art by Seo Jin Ahn, John M. Blodgett, Roger Camp, Teresa Hyoju Chang, Sarah Chavera Edwards, Mark Connelly, Mark Crimmins, Elias Diakolios, Kim Farrar, Steve Fay, Sam Graham, Sydney Greiner, Angie Hexum, Ken Hines, Richard Holinger, Aidan J Hong, Diane Hueter, Kathryn Jordan, Jian Kim, Jihu Kim, Josef Krebs, Linda Laderman, Nicholas Mayo, Martha Nance, Larena Nellies-Ortiz, Gloria Demasi Nixon-John, Edie Noesser, Larry Oakner, Yeobin Park, Eric Roy, Claire Scott, Cindy Sams, Vimla Sriram , Maxwell Tang, Jim Tilley, Katherine Tunning, William J Waters, Ian Wells, and Stephen Curtis Wilson.
