sappho beyond hades by jo walton

Source.

Sappho Beyond Hades

Jo Walton

The shades are silent and there is no making.
She misses the warmth of sunlight on stone
and the sound of children playing.
There are children here, but they are all so grave,
like their elders, moving gravely through death’s halls.
She misses the bright constellations, she misses burning.
She has begun to forget the sound of the sea
and the heft of words.
When she has forgotten how to yearn
when not even blood will bring back names to her
she will slip down through Lethe to begin once more
with “Aaa, oooh, milky goo”, and that is a star, and this
is what it means when you get the words right.

stone telling 3 is here!

The Stone Telling Whimsy issue, edited by Rose Lemberg, contains a roundtable discussion led by Julia Rios, nonfiction articles by Deborah Brannon and Nin Harris, and poetry by Jo Walton, Catherynne Valente, Emily Jiang, Sonya Taaffe, Michael R. Fosburg, Caitlyn Paxson, Sara Saab, Susan Rooke, William Doreski, Benjamin Cartwright, Mary Turzillo, and moi. :)

From the introduction:

In “Whimsy” we tilt sideways to look at the world askew – and all kinds of things fall out of the pockets. There’s cloud skeins and language and landscape. There’s salt, and portraiture in mushrooms, and a rice cooker. There’s death, and photosynthesizing cats, and a six shooter called Witty Rejoinder. Boundary-crossing is a serious business.

This issue leaves a trail of hazelnuts. I think it leads to a place unafraid of saying strange true things. New things. Brain-popping things. We flail around for a voice and find pomegranates. We speak of happiness and pain and who we are and how we mesh, but we are not a crowd of lookalikes. Some of us love mythpunk, others disavow genre definitions. We argue, and come up with new stuff. Here- however you define it – here, in this sort of speculative, sort of literary, always in-between liminal space we don’t have to be concerned with conforming, complying, fitting in, faithfully following in the steps. These steps are our own steps. I hope you find what we do here meaningful – and fun.

A few editorial announcements:

Issue 4 will be guest-edited by Shweta Narayan and J. C. Runolfson. Please send them stuff!

My future plans include an International Mythic issue (Stone Telling 5), and a Science and Science Fiction Issue (Stone Telling 6). More information soon!

Congratulations to Stone Telling 1 and 2 poets who were nominated for the Rhysling Award:

Mary Alexandra Agner, “Tertiary” (issue 2)
Tara Barnett, “Star Reservation” (issue 1)
Amal El Mohtar, “The Winter Tree” (issue 2)
Samantha Henderson, “The Gabriel Hound” (issue 1)
Sonya Taafe, “Domovoi, I Came Back” (issue 1)

And finally, I’d like to welcome the newest addition to the Stone Telling team. Jennifer Smith is our tireless proofreader and occasional html wrangler.

Happy reading!
Rose Lemberg, editor

In “Whimsy” we tilt sideways to look at the world askew – and all kinds of things fall out of the pockets. There’s cloud skeins and language and landscape. There’s salt, and portraiture in mushrooms, and a rice cooker. There’s death, and photosynthesizing cats, and a six shooter called Witty Rejoinder. Boundary-crossing is a serious business.This issue leaves a trail of hazelnuts. I think it leads to a place unafraid of saying strange true things. New things. Brain-popping things. We flail around for a voice and find pomegranates. We speak of happiness and pain and who we are and how we mesh, but we are not a crowd of lookalikes. Some of us love mythpunk, others disavow genre definitions. We argue, and come up with new stuff. Here- however you define it – here, in this sort of speculative, sort of literary, always in-between liminal space we don’t have to be concerned with conforming, complying, fitting in, faithfully following in the steps. These steps are our own steps. I hope you find what we do here meaningful – and fun.

A few editorial announcements:

Issue 4 will be guest-edited by Shweta Narayan and J. C. Runolfson. Please send them stuff!

My future plans include an International Mythic issue (Stone Telling 5), and a Science and Science Fiction Issue (Stone Telling 6). More information soon!

Congratulations to Stone Telling 1 and 2 poets who were nominated for the Rhysling Award:

Mary Alexandra Agner, “Tertiary” (issue 2)
Tara Barnett, “Star Reservation” (issue 1)
Amal El Mohtar, “The Winter Tree” (issue 2)
Samantha Henderson, “The Gabriel Hound” (issue 1)
Sonya Taafe, “Domovoi, I Came Back” (issue 1)

And finally, I’d like to welcome the newest addition to the Stone Telling team. Jennifer Smith is our tireless proofreader and occasional html wrangler.

Happy reading!
Rose Lemberg, editor