Wild Loves and New Fervors
Dear reader,
This week in Metapsychosis, we are proud to feature two new poems from poet, teacher, and playwright Doraine Poretz, one of the founders of the Venice Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California.
Poretz generously responded to our call for submissions on Creature Consciousness, and her poetic contributions, “The Return” and “Meditations,” both explore the sweet tension between love and estrangement that weaves a relationship between humans, animals, and the natural world.
“The Return” begins:
Because you look into their eyes and see them turn their eyes away:
because they are afraid to touch you.
Because for generation after generation,
you have called each other lover, kin…
… and continues through encounters with a hawk, a deer, trees, and stars—which “take you, oh yes, they take you, hoisting you / effortlessly, pressing you close to the wild night.”
Lover recognizes herself in her beloved; recognizes herself as beloved of a lover as vast as death and darkness, ocean and sky. In “Meditations,” this love morphs into “quantum waves overlapping…” “Our task: to love each other into flesh.”
As such lines suggest, there is a remarkable subtlety and richness in Poretz’s poems, so I hope you’ll read them, re-read them, read them out loud or quietly to yourself, and enjoy their beautiful consciousness and exquisite composition. Thank you to editor Lauren Lockhart for bringing these poems to the pages of Metapsychosis.
Next: a deep-diving and wide-ranging interview with Kelvin Matheus Rosa, a writer, teacher, gamer, and zine-maker from Brazil, courtesy of gonzo psychedelic novelist and intrepid interlocutor Chase Griffin. Their lively exchange covers literary influences, eminent authors in Portuguese, Brazilian culture, the political responsibility of artists, the joy of gaming, the place of irony, and the need for what Rosa names as “fervor,” among other topics and a few personal anecdotes.
Rosa sees the “new fervor” as a more apt attitude to oppose the nihilistic and do-nothing irony that writers such as David Foster Wallace were critiquing in the ‘90s, which is arguably even more rampant on the internet today. He says: “We need fervor, we need passion. People that are ironic about politics are usually ok with things just running their course and trying to put themselves above the situation as if one could be ‘too good for that.’”
What do you think? If “The New Fervor” sparks something in you, don’t be shy to leave a comment. We love hearing from our readers and want to know what you have to say.
And with that, I’ll leave you with our customary invitation to join our creative community and support our independent journal by becoming a Metapsychosis Patron. For $7/month, Patrons receive access to our private community forum (Infinite Conversations), reading groups, author events, and much, much, much, much more—by which I refer to the wonderful warm glow of a feeling that comes from the exercise of generosity in support of literature and the arts. That good kind of dopamine hit is just a click away.
And that’s all for now, folks. Thank you for reading, and have a beautiful week!
Marco V Morelli
Editor-in-Chief, Metapsychosis journal
Co-Creator, Cosmos Co-op
@madrush on Mastodon
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