The Calyx Hope Network

Dear readers,

I wrote this poem a few months ago, before I’d dreamt of what it would look like to create a literary magazine, yet it ended up being the message at the heart of it all. It is woven into its every fiber of this journal, the need for solutions as tangible as the taste of sun-warmed fruit.

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, whose book What If We Get It Right? I was reading at the time, for her incredible anthology of solutions-based interviews. They inspired me greatly, and I will forever be working to write with the incredible clarity she possesses, and with such gravity and lyrical beauty. This poem may be, with luck, the beginning of my contribution, and I can only dream that this journal may be the continuation of its message.

Sincerely,

Luna

The other side a seed
solutions are made up of hope —
inherent; as planting to a sprout.
something has helped the dream
to find its place,
has believed a bit in its potential.

Who knows what will grow?
could be good or bad or in between
or dead before the summer’s
in full swing

but it’s here —
it’s been seeded by the past
in some form that’s worth a little wonder,
at least

a little beauty goes a long way now
when wars rage and we destroy our world
and can’t – won’t – choose peace
over profit
a little beauty goes a long way

a sprout is novel in a burning world,
a blade of grass a miracle,
a sunray the gentlest spotlight,
a seed a declaration,
a preparation,
for reparations down the road.

a statement — we will live
to see the age
of our solutions!