Editor’s Eye: FM Le

Why hello! I’m excited to have been given this opportunity to select for the Editor’s Eye.  I was asked to select pieces of writing that had few or no comments.

My personal approach was to read things I may have passed over myself in the rush of trying to take it all in. I was looking for a variety of things that appeal to me.  I think that the pieces I’ve chosen all stand alone, for different reasons, in the group of six that I’ve chosen.

I urge everyone to take a second look! I do not expect anyone will be disappointed.  Here they are, in no particular order.

My feelings are that this poem may have been overlooked because, as writers, we like to see the romance and tragedy in everything.  I read this one a couple of times and what is between the lines seems to be the tragedy of our time.  This poem is one that we can all relate to and the beginning draws you in and in some more and makes the very honest, very scary observation that the “digital age” is actually killing our human connections.  Above all of this, it was a poem I could personally relate to seeing as I like to experience everything and not tweet about it. The honesty the poem bleeds is beautiful.

I realize, of course, that all writing is open to the interpretation of the reader.  I selected this poem because it seemed to touch on feelings that we have all had as people.  The feelings that are unspeakable because the words do not exist to express them and so we put up other ideas and actions around where the words would be.  This is one of those poems that can be looked at in several ways.  It could be a deep poem about the way humans feel increasingly uncomfortable in our speedily changing environments or it could be a simple comment on the writer’s feeling at the moment.  I think that everybody can agree that sometimes “there” does not exist in the moment at hand.

This is a longer piece of writing, it is actually the first chapter of the sixth volume involving these characters (indicated by the title). This piece actually struck the side of me that is in love with mysticism, mysterious authority, and enchanted animals. I know we often skip over the longer pieces, due to time constraints and in the rush of our morning breaks, but this piece is worth the read. I must admit I have not read any other volumes to this story. I didn’t need to because within minutes of reading the first section, I was hooked. I was in love with the mysterious thing in the forest, the character Ayane, and the mention of mysterious Society and Clans. I think that this piece was adventurous but full of a lot of underlying themes that I’m personally anxious to explore.

This is a poem that caught me first by the title. Swimming is something we all (hopefully) learn as children in a safe environment with a trustworthy adult. I chose this poem because after reading it I spent a few minutes thinking about the underlying meaning of the poem. The imagery is simple but enough. The point of view of a child is represented extremely in the thought process of the written voice. The ending drove me kind of nuts (in a good way) because I sat for a bit longer (after re-reading it) wondering about the ending. This is one of those poems that makes you think, not about love or hate or revenge or tragedy, but about simplicity that may be squirreling away complicated thoughts and feelings between the words.

The word “octopii” is what first drew me to re-read this poem. Since I’m not up to par with fancy poetry lingo, I’ll do my best with this one. I absolutely love it because it reads evenly. I think it may come off as somewhat endearing but there’s also something of a smirk to the words. I like when I find smirks like this. The form itself was done very well and the imagery is packed in there, tight from the beginning to the end. I know that some may be thrown off by the form or the rhyming and that’s okay! I do believe that this one does deserve a second (or even third) read. I had a lot of fun reading it several times and taking the images apart (bedtime exercises). I think Shakespeare would be proud and maybe giggle a bit.

I had never seen this writer before (doesn’t mean much as I disappear for months) but the title caught my eye at first (Wife of Burning Suns! What’s that about?) and I gave it a read and then I read it again. This story is full of elements and events that would fit into any mythology book or maybe a book of fairy tales. The entire thing struck me as an interesting metaphor for the search of love, replacing love, and burning for love. I think this, out of all of my picks, was the one to illicit the most emotional response. The author did a good job at describing the desperation of the man in the story without actually spelling it out. It was subtle, tragic, beautiful.