We’re seeking writing of all forms for our next literary mixtape event, to be held virtually on 8/2. All selected writers will be paid + published in sPARKLE & bLINK 111.
Curated by Rhea Dhanbhoora (L) + Mahdis Marzooghian, (R) submissions are open thru 7/9.
Questions? Email evan@quietlightning.org.
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art by Stuart Robertson
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HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A GHOST?
"I have accompanied a ghost. I was alone with my mother-in-law when she died. I felt her spirit move down and out of her body, then we were both floating in the air above a garden of hers long ago, her favorite place there, and then she was hesitating to leave and I wondered whether I was going too."
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A GHOST? OR: WHAT'S THE STRANGEST THING YOU'VE EVER SEEN?
"No, I have not seen a ghost.
Three dolphins jumping toward each other in the shape of a three-petal flower after I kept calling to them “Dolphins! Please jump for me!” for about two minutes on Ocean Beach."
IF SOMEONE SAID I WANT TO DO WHAT YOU DO, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR THEM?
"Read widely and slowly. Listen to poetry podcasts, attend readings, volunteer as a reader for a literary journal, and participate in local or online workshops (and find scholarships). Have faith in being a writer outside of academia. Let the work be the reward. Make friends and find trusted readers. Keep it real and be kind. It’s never too late to become a poet.”
Jacquelyn Bengfort, in her piece "Tilt", presses you to reflect on the tilt. Not the tilt of your head, when you are looking up at the stars or when you're balancing the phone between your shoulder and check. No, the tilt of the Earth. A small, slight tilt of 23.5 degrees that allows for humanity to exist. These are the questions of the universe, Shakespearean in a way: to tilt or not to tilt? With a tilt comes life, and with life comes death. Bengfort, as she describes herself, “a minor poet on the edge of a minor galaxy” asked the major questions of the universe and in turn proves that her poetry is anything but minor.
