Editor Note

By Molly Hill

November Poems 2022
Editor’s Note:

Dear Readers and Writers:

Because our submission numbers are so much larger than the amount of writing we are able to publish, we’ve added a November Poetry issue this year to showcase more good work from our student writers. We still end up turning down more work than we accept and students often email to ask us what type of writing we’re looking for. The best answer is to read the type of work we’ve already published.

Regarding poetry, certainly we’re open to a variety of forms, and publish haiku, odes, elegies, ghazals, sonnets, prose poems etc. But we also welcome hybrid and unconventional forms as well. In our FALL submissions queue this year, there was a LOT to like. And while it feels like the writing gets stronger, the longer we publish, this is just a small sample —a bit of the ‘best of’ our FALL reading.

In this issue—

Cameroonian writer Hyla Etame writes about longing in Love Letter to My Fatherland. And in Beautiful Marigold, high school student Mustafa Dost shows how an unconventional style can really work— this is not a typical ‘flower poem.’

Kevin Song successfully builds beautiful lines into strong stanzas in Triggers and Disappointment, while Quinn Murphy confides a very relatable worry in A Seething Fear.

In Wheel of Fortune (X), Filipino poet Rigel Portales manages to combine in a short poem—cobras, dice, Twilight, and heart surgery— with excellent results.

Isabel Isaac creates a beautiful, intimate scene in kitchen light, and Haze Fry explores the state of the world in her poem Sixteen.

Sandra Lin covers culture clash in ESTRANGED and wow, — Arim Lee shows off some skill weaving memory and image in k-summer.

Amelia Glass’ reflective voice begins with one bed:empty, in her poem thinking on the meaning of the word ‘gone.’

Something for everyone here. Please send more.

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

Issue 27
September 2022

Editor’s Note:

Dear Readers and Writers,
As we watch (and enjoy reading) the many literary magazines that proliferate the internet we want to say thank you — to those who stop by our site to read the latest issue, and to our many (!) contributors who keep our submission queue at flood stage. We know you have a lot of choices for reading and we DO appreciate all of you.

We’re also aware that this is back to school, return to the office, things-might-be-back-to- normal time of the year again. Exciting for sure, but nerve wracking if you aren’t especially feeling like your shiniest, have it all together self. Our Fall issue is showing up just in time, to calm you down or rile you up, depending on which selections you are reading.

We’d also like to leave you with a little Maggie Smith. Her book Keep Moving, has a permanent spot on the editor desk, and well,— there’s this:

Accept that you are
A work in progress,
both a revision and
a draft: you are
better and more
complete than
earlier versions of
yourself, but you
also have work
to do. Be open
to change. Allow
yourself to be
revised.

Keep moving

—Maggie Smith

Feeling more like a rough draft than a polished manuscript??
Same.

Enjoy the issue!

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Ferris Bueller

Editor’s Note
Summer Poems 2022

Dear Readers and Writers:
Summer is fleeting, — which is why we’ve called upon the tried and true wisdom of Ferris Bueller, to introduce our Summer Poems 2022 online issue. As life speeds along, we read hundreds of poems for every issue, and the ones we select for publication are those that make us pause, because they show us life presented in a fresh and original way.

For example, we receive many poems about beloved pets, but a Ghazal* of Jealousy about an English Bulldog? Haven’t seen that before (well done Tyler Sookralli). And while we weren’t specifically looking for poetry about The Life Cycle of an African Bush Elephant, Lucy Somers showed us why this was exactly the poem we needed, and that it wasn’t really completely about elephants,— was it?

Sometimes when we turn down writing, students email and ask what did I do wrong? Instead of our responding: write more like this, we can only send encouragement to write more like your own self. Because ultimately, we are asking for what happens when you stop and look around once in a while. What do you see, from your corner of the world? Write, and send it to us so we don’t miss it. The idea being that each Blue Marble Review issue then becomes a collection of all of these disparate points of view.

Summer is flying, and there’s something out there you shouldn’t be missing. Make sure you get it down on paper.

Molly Hill
Editor

* (Pronounciation: “guzzle”) Originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love, medieval Persian poets embraced the ghazal, eventually making it their own. Consisting of syntactically and grammatically complete couplets, the form also has an intricate rhyme scheme. Each couplet ends on the same word or phrase (the radif), and is preceded by the couplet’s rhyming word. (www.poetryfoundation.org)

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

An empty space is full of potential. Believe that you are making room for something. Turn on the vacancy sign. Keep moving. (Keep Moving, Maggie Smith)

Issue 26
June 2022

Happy Summer! Our June issue lags a bit behind summer’s arrival this year, but we’re proud of all the work that we rounded up for Issue 26. We’ve never done ‘theme’ issues, relying instead on a veritable buffet of views and themes from our student writers. Our hope is always that any issue of Blue Marble Review creates a new sense of space for the reader, and that there is a story, essay, poem, or work of art in each issue that stimulates a new way of thinking, a greater sense of empathy, or perhaps just a nod of understanding.

There’s a LOT of fine work in this issue, but in particular we’d like to highlight the Cover Art from Sabahat Ali Wani. Her artist statement— poignant and powerful, is here:

The mixed media artwork titled, ‘Revisit: A Wardrobe’ is an artist’s attempt to celebrate a Kashmiri woman’s wardrobe in an authentic way. It is a celebration of our culture that often gets appropriated and capitalised upon. Yes, it is a political statement but it also tries to bring in a fairytale aspect that goes beyond the conflict by appreciating our scarfs, sleeves, clothes etc., which are long forgotten but still stand as symbols of our existence and resistance.

Look for more of her mixed media work in our ART section.

We plan to continue to make space for readers and writers who use creativity as an emblem of both existence and resistance.

Enjoy the issue—

Molly Hill
Editor

Editor Note Issue 25

By Molly Hill

Editor’s Note
Issue 25/March 2022

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going, no feeling is final.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Dear Reader’s and Writers:

We’ve never asked students to submit writing according to a particular theme, but when each issue is curated, polished and ready to go online, the writing seems to always reflect the current cultural mood. Some of the titles featured in this issue* show us that although there is still struggle, search, and lots of figuring out how to cope going on— creativity and hope are alive and well.

Not sure how we got to Issue 25 so quickly(!), but we’re still championing the idea that reading, writing, and creative work can provide both solace in a challenging world, as well as a sense of empathy and connection to others in these pseudo-quarantined-is-it-over-yet times.

Still engaged in that Sisyphean task of thinking positive, trying not to get discouraged, and figuring out the new normal? Us too. Let’s just keep going.

Molly Hill
Editor

Conde Nast TagID: cncartoons025158.jpg/Photo via Conde Nast

(cartoon by Zachary Kanin for The New Yorker)

*A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, The Things We Love Most in the World, How Coin Tosses Prove God Exists: A Lab Report, Legacy Ends Here, Tormentor, Dreams About Death, Nostalgia, grief, deconstructed, Blind Spots, Bonding, in the margins, Dear Brother, The Homeless Tiger, After Lucy, The Neighborhood Infinite, Smoke Breaks.

Editor Note

By Molly Hill

Winter Poetry 2022

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
― Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

Dear Readers and Writers,

This year our Winter Poetry issue expands a bit— to allow for some incredible art. We received Alina Yuan’s graphic/comic/artistic submission in 2021, and held onto it until we could give it it’s own issue. And when we received multiple art submissions from Parson’s student Jaeyeon Kim, we accepted all of them. We’re delighted to feature Pre-Chapter as this issue’s cover art, and look forward to including more of Kim’s work as 2022 unfolds.

Our aim during this monochromactic winter season is to put up an issue with a synesthesia-* type vibe. Hoping the imagery in the POEMS, and the richness of the ART helps you see why we celebrate creativity in all its forms, every month of the year.

Thanks for reading.

Molly Hill
Editor

*synesthesia:

—a condition in which one type of sensory stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of sound produces the visualization of color (freedictionary.com)

—in literature…the description of one kind of sense impression using words to describe another

—a situation in which skilled use of language, color, and creativity, experienced on your iPhone evoke a sensory festival resulting in empathy, connection, and a sense of shared humanity. (bluemarblereview2022)