NEW ::: POETRY | 2016 | International edition

Dear Reader, What you hold in your hand is the work of many, across continents, wires and seas. It is our impassioned aim that through poetry, prose and the sharing of ideas that we may make a mark upon humanity suffusing it with light and an indefatigable desire to better humankind.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated: “We need poets to change the world.” Though some may naysay this, and claim that poetry is just distilled language only useful for greeting cards and wooing, it must be remembered that throughout history, and prior to this technological age, poetry was not only lauded for its ability to allure and soothe, but as a rallying cry; its thunderous tocsin, the clapper echoing violently through marketplaces announcing and proclaiming for the masses of the day the political injustices which impacted them. This is poetry at its finest hour, it is what it was crafted for. One need only to look to Iran where Fatemah Ekhteari and Medhi Mousavi, two Iranian poets, were imprisoned for poems they wrote challenging the status quo. If poetry were merely meaningless drivel, the powers that be would not be threatened thus.

Similarly, a US spoken word performance on the Queen Latifah show by BE, RM, and ZA, three teenagers who are members of the Get Legit organization entitled Somewhere in America, on the Queen Latifah Show, declaimed regarding censorship in education, and the pressures on young women within society both peer and the undercurrent of sexual objectification which permeates all cultures.

This is the imperative of NEW ::: POETRY, to bring voices together from around the world, through poetry, and in a loud voice, around the issues that affect us all. Therefore we can declare to all the detractors that poetry is not a happenstance, it is not a frivolity: it is the fuel that lights the engines of change.

Foreword by editorial staff.