08. Autumnal Equinox

We wanted to go home. 

After the vast, golden trek due west, nothing sounded better than a pilgrimage to the source. To an ancient and formative self, born in place. Walls and echoes and bare hearth stone. Shadows dancing, a trip the light fantastic of images roused by the rising day’s rays. Better put: We longed for the bright warmth of remembering through the dim window of now.

To achieve balance, the equinox offers light and dark in equal measure. A scale set in harmony only once hindsight hitches a ride to foresight. Day into night into day. Into night. Yesterday must become today. And the following works showcase this staunch fluidity with grace and grimace. We are where we came from and, also, we are new.

HamLit’s second, and final, equinox issue features poetry and short fiction from ten PNW writers unhampered by heading home. These works hold on while letting go with such elegance you’ll want to form the words aloud, shape them into a melody, and cast each verse back out into the world. Watch your head, though. This sound magic is a boomerang. It returns the mind’s eye to: A gate inching open. The many names of identity. Dual rings of resilience. When alone ends. The ups and downs of cycles. Erasure as salvation. Another day’s joy. The power of rooted presence. A righteous rhythm. One shared key.

There is no singular way to experience a homecoming. To turn backward also means to live onward. Even if the carved chorus must first circle the full moon. It, like you, will return.

Welcome the sunrise. Tomorrow has arrived and so have you.

With continued gratitude to past and present editors, designers, authors, and readers; the PNW would not have Issue 08, or HamLit, without your partnership.