The Assemblage Newsletter #62
Welcome to this week’s newsletter from Assemblage. These newsletters go out every Friday to highlight some of the top works from the past week. We hope these links (all friend links, so anyone can view them) find you breathing in the new year and kissing last year’s mania goodbye. You can also view all of ou previous letters via the Letters tab on our homepage.
“If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.” — Cyril Cusack
Happy New Year from all of us at Assemblage. Big things are in store this year, including the fact that we’ve opened up for submissions again. You can review our updated 2021 Submission Guidelines below.
2021 Assemblage Submission Guidelines
Since it was the last week of the year, we did not do our usual Featured Writer and Collection. We will just be focusing this letter on our essays and poems from the last week of that hell cycle we called a year.
Essays and Poems From Last Week
The Wounds We Spend Our Lives Dressing by Felicia C. Sullivan — her debut in Assemblage
“I tried to listen for the sound of your voice, but I heard you only faintly. I suppose this is what death is like. Your voice was once the loudest sound, but now I’ve gone deaf from the silence. Your absence is palpable, complete.”
“the soil of your breath
the weight of you
physically
the weight of what you did
what you took
and what you gave”
Why Bragging About Your Online Success Isn’t Helping Me by George J. Ziogas
“Most braggarts don’t know they’re braggarts, but the rest of the world recognizes it and they don’t like those people. What that bragging impresses upon your audience is that you hold a negative view of the people around you because ultimately, the message you send is that you’re better than them.”
Deluge by Jessica Lee McMillan
“I have two, old glass buoys
and with the air, I can stargaze,
leaving the human forecast
to its diluvian fate”
What to Do Right Now to Find the Right Man by Niki Marinis
“You can’t complain when you knowingly tied your wagon to a loser who treats you like shit every day of the week except Tuesdays.
There’s nothing wrong with raising your standards. More importantly, you should.”
Like Light from Stars by Paul Mulliner
“as endless cosmic skies
drift through inner space
inside all of us.”
3 Not-So-Small Things I’ve Learned About Humanity After Surviving 2020 by Aushaf Widisto
“Collective problems need collective solutions. If we don’t do anything on a larger scale, nothing significant will happen. If the higher-ups don’t enforce any corrective measures, the people will just do what they want.”
Weekly Note
“Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.” — James Thurber
Today starts a new chapter in a new book. Write what you want, but know that what you write about serves not just as a release, but as hope.
