EDITOR’S LETTER

MockingHeart friends! Happy Autumn, and welcome back. It’s so good to see you again. The day has finally arrived–behold the new issue of MockingHeart Review! These poems and art pieces come into the world as it faces an interesting moment.

As we change out the summer gear for cozy sweaters and those so-long awaited wool socks (yes!!) and sip our brand new pumpkin-spiced drink, we continue to face the ongoing pandemic; though it may be rounding a corner, vigilance is still key. Politics, climate, global strife, and other elements have kept us on our toes, even as temporary respite may be found in the turning of the planet toward the end of the year. 2021 has given us a lot to endure, which makes it all the more fitting that Endurance is our Fall 2021 theme.

This notion, of holding on and meeting difficulties with head held high, finds its way into every piece within this issue. Featured Poet Ann Weil lays out the tribulations of loving a family member in distress. In Robert Okaji’s “In a Moment of Existential Anxiety, Kermit Plays the Banjo,” the universe is at once too large and perhaps the key to everything–but as we’ve heard before, it isn’t easy. And artist Roger Camp meditates on an American ghost town whose evidence of passage is at once iconic and forlorn. Endurance, as we see, takes many forms.

Here’s to the stellar contributors in this issue, and here’s to you, reader, who help make MockingHeart Review so singular a community. We’re happy to share these works with you, and we’re grateful for the good work you do in the world.

Autumnally,

Tyler Robert Sheldon, Editor-in-Chief