4
2 Editor's Note
Hello and welcome to the third annual issue of Here: a poetry journal. A guiding thought behind this and every issue of Here comes from Seamus Heaney's distinction, offered in an interview shortly after winning the Nobel Prize, between the words "herd" and "heard." He said "I always like to make a play on two words that sound the same––“h-e-r-d” and “h-e-a-r-d.“ I think in writing poetry, especially in times of crisis, you’ve got to beware of “h-e-r-d” feelings as opposed to individual "h-e-a-r-d.“ The writer is there to be “h-e-ar-d” singularly, not to be part of the tribe, although, at times of crisis, this is a very fine and important distinction." As a country and as a planet, we are, of course, experiencing no shortage of crises at the moment. And we are experiencing so much shouting––in person, on television, and online––so much suffering and silencing, and, in this world that moves fast as a thumb scroll, so little listening. If you're reading this, then you already know how much we need to listen, really listen, to each other's stories to expand our capacity for empathy and to recognize the power of the stories that each of us carries inside. My student editors and I strive to create on these pages a space in which such listening can occur. We keep the journal small so that you might read it all in one sitting and so you might see how we've organized the poems to be in conversation with each other, across pages and ages, across labels that designate difference to celebrate our common humanity. On behalf of this year's Eastern Connecticut State University Creative Writing Club and Here's four exceptional student editors (Allison Brown, Kaitlyn Rasmussen, Victoria Congdon, and Sydney Hebert), I hope that you enjoy this issue and that you'll spread the word about us to anyone you think needs these poems or whose work we need to read. Daniel Donaghy
Here: a poetry journal
