Later, in “Before Desire,” the speaker makes this conflict a bit clearer. More crucially, she believes that “the system / can’t need us to be superhuman” as she watches “the ways we still overflow / with hunger, so much hunger / with nowhere to go.” It doesn’t feel quite like a judgment on the mother, but perhaps a rejection of that model for herself after witnessing the wear on her bones. In the next poem, “Garbage Boogie,” the speaker notes that she has “trash guilt” and will “discard what can’t carry”-a stark contrast. What power do we have, or do we not have, to choose to linger in the lives of others? To sustain our loved ones in whatever way they may need? ![]() Love is intertwined in what is consumed, as when the speaker notes the mother “eats what we won’t,” despite her complaint that “ no one wants to be garbage.” Later, the mother wishes, “ If someone loved me more, / maybe I wouldn’t gain weight.”įinding a connection between the mystic ocean themes and the more mundane question of nourishment, Niu draws a sketch of a dead whale’s remains becoming an “ecosystem,” contradicting her mother’s wish not to “become food”-illustrating a fear that love means being consumed. These more potent metaphors reappear throughout the poems. “She is always in motion, urgent for something / she cannot name.”īoth qualities of the relationship become more apparent in “Midden / Appetite,” the first of many poems that center less around water and more around themes of food and, more significantly, “trash” or “garbage,” as the mother identifies herself. “Her relief that I can conjure, / even in sleep, what she cannot give me-good rest, / good luck, an ocean to dream in.” This care, as well as the discomfort of it at times, is evident throughout the chapbook, with the speaker frequently drawn in and away from the mother’s gravity. “Water Dreams” pulls the central mother-daughter connection in and out of focus, like a tide. The first two poems of the collection (following a mythic sort of prologue) immediately set up some essential themes, with the motif of water carrying particular weight. No answer to that question could be straightforward, and Niu’s thoughtful exploration of it ensures its emotional dimensions remain intact. She searches for some balance between nourishing other people and relationships, and self-preservation. If you would like to learn more or submit to Plainsongs, please visit their website here.Stephanie Niu’s chapbook, She Has Dreamt Again of Water (Diode Editions, 2022), conjures both a dreamer’s perspective and longing for freedom, as well as a clear-eyed understanding of how it can be restricted. They publish each of these poems alongside a short essay about the poem written by the Plainsongs Reader’s Board. In addition, Plainsongs honor three poems from each issue with a $50 award. They do not accept previously published work.Īll poets published in Plainsongs receive a copy of the journal in which their work appears. They accept simultaneous submissions but ask that authors immediately withdraw work published elsewhere. Plainsongs accepts submissions online, not via email or by post. Poets may submit up to six poems of any length, although they prefer poems between 14 and 70 lines. Poets who submit around those deadlines can expect a reply within eight to ten weeks, while poets who submit at other times can expect to wait longer for a response. Accordingly, they recommend submitting by December 15 or June 15 for a timely response. ![]() They accept submissions year-round however, they hold two main reading periods a year and might not reply as quickly to submissions received at other times. Plainsongs is published twice a year in print. They hope to represent the vastness of wide-open Midwestern landscape by curating a diverse collection of voices, both new and established. ![]() Plainsongs publishes both free verse and formal poetry in a wide range of styles, from experimental to traditional. And, they prefer verse that lives in the present while honoring its modernist and post-modernist heritage. They are looking for poetry composed of living language as vital and expansive as the great plains. In print since 1980, Plainsongs is an established poetry journal produced by Hastings College Press in Hastings, Nebraska.
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