Editor’s Note.
Welcome to issue 4 of The Birdseed!
Sometimes authors will ask me what the themes are for the upcoming issue. It’s a fair question–I would want to know, too. But the truth is that we let the authors choose the themes. Once we’ve finished reading and selecting the pieces that will make up the issue, once our authors have accepted publication, once we’ve read and reread every piece–only then do the themes come together.
By letting themes flower as they may, we get to look for the common threads–the themes and preoccupations and worries and hopes that unite us as creators and as humans. The things that we need to get on paper and out of heart, the things that we struggle to understand.
Revisiting our issue 4 pieces, it was clear to me that we have something like Spring on the brain. These pieces are about newness and creation and birth and growth, and about what it means to begin again, to struggle toward the light. Underlying them all is a zingy spark of life, something that feels unexpected and new–something that you can’t help but to connect with. And that is our theme: New. Creation, Recognition, Horizons, Perspective, and Endings, with Issue 4, we celebrate that which is human and that which is new.
These 35 pieces are fantastically original and just plain good, written by authors with a talent for capturing–in as few words as possible–moments that make life feel new and fresh.
May you find connection, hope, refreshment, and invigoration in these pages.
Happy reading!
– Kourtney Jai
Creation
We start at the beginning, with creation. With green things and small things and the promise–and fear–that comes with creating something from nothing.
Recognition
The spark of meeting someone your soul recognizes, the jolt of acknowledging something your heart has kept buried, the feeling of seeing an unexpected familiar face, the pain of failing to recognize. These pieces explore the emotion that comes with recognition.
Horizon
Look out and beyond: to expanded boundaries, the white space off the edge of the map, the place you dream about when your dreams are unweighted. What’s there?
Perspective
To see from a different perspective is to begin life anew, a shifting of a kaleidoscope that has been stuck in the same position. These pieces explore shifts in perspective, offering fresh, new, and unexpected views.
Endings
Endings, but more. Dear reader, you wouldn’t be blamed for asking if these pieces are actually a quiet contemplation of beginnings.
The Birdseed 