In a world that pulls you in every direction, feeling disconnected is real. Through original poetry, essays, and craft insights, each themed issue helps readers reconnect...with themselves, their stories, and the world around them.
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The Heritage Issue
Published about 1 month ago • 3 min read
February 21, 2026
Weathered Goods, Allusions, Inheritance of Words, A Persian Form, and More.
Welcome to The Heritage Issue. At the center is my poem Relics, asking what we carry, what we bury, and what quietly lingers. To me it's about the inheritance of memory and the marks left by those who shaped us.
This issue also takes a brief look at allusion as a poetic device, and, because poetry never exists in isolation, I pause to note what unfolded on this day in poetry’s long lineage. To me, it's a simple reminder that every poet and poem is part of a larger, living conversation.
In closing, I unpack one of my favorite new poetic forms, the ghazal. It seemed like the perfect fit for this issue, steeped in repetition, longing, and heritage. It's just another way to link the present moment with what came before us.
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Featured Poem
Relics
Relics by Jason Z Guest
Most all that remains are the broken things: outside, wire lassoed over a barn door like the prized kill of a generation ago, its cinder walls pocked in welts of red paint; inside, smells of oil, sack feed, and leather give weight to the dank of each space. A pocket window frames coffee cans full of mismatched nails and bent fence staples, relics of a hard life on the Divide, while heavier sighs of a late rancher ride in on winds that whistle through metal, an air of disapproval over dried saddles, only rusted trimmers fit for his pale horse.
Allusion is a rhetorical device where writers reference a person, place, or work of art outside the text to add deeper meaning. In poetry, an allusion might nod to ancestral stories, historical moments, or classic literature, connecting the present to the past. They creates a sense of lineage, making them a natural tool for exploring heritage and the threads that link us to those who came before us.
“She lost a shoe.” — Shrek (2001). This alludes to the classic Cinderella story, instantly evoking a legacy of fairy tale tradition. By referencing this, the film nods to cultural heritage passed down through generations of storytelling.
On this day in 1907, W. H. Auden was born, a poet whose work shaped the heritage of modern literature. He bridged time and place, weaving formal craft with moral inquiry and showing that poetry carries the weight of memory and conscience. From reflections on human suffering to meditations on art and connection, Auden’s verse reminds us that heritage is not just what we inherit but what we make, line by line, for those who come after us.
What follows are a couple of excerpts from Auden's work:
“About suffering they were never wrong The old Masters”
— "Musée des Beaux Arts" (1938)
“I sit in one of the dives On Fifty‑second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade”
I discovered the ghazal like you discover an old family saying or proverb, confusing at first but impossible to forget. Rooted in Persian and Urdu poetry and passed down for centuries, it carries love, faith, exile, and longing. The ghazal was not made to resolve; it was made to remember.
A ghazal is made of couplets, each able to stand on its own. A refrain, in a word or phrase, returns at the end. That repetition is not decoration; it is the point. The poem circles rather than moves forward.
Writing a ghazal feels like walking through inherited ground. You take a few steps, stop, look back. Writing in this form has taught me that heritage doesn’t move in straight lines. In a way, it echoes, and I hope you check out my poem "Destined for Anguish and Pain" on my site by clicking below.
In parting, I want to leave you with a few of my favorite quotes that tie poetry to heritage. These words linger, reminding us that poems carry memory, ancestry, and the traces of all who came before us. Enjoy the small sparks that connect the past to our present.
“Poetry is the memory of language.” — Jacques Roubaud
“Poetry is the memory of the people and the great creator of ghosts.” — Octavio Paz
“The poetry of a people comes from the deep recesses of the unconscious, the irrational and the collective body of our ancestral memories.” — Margaret Walker
“Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.” — Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Rediscover connection through poetry that hits bone.
In a world that pulls you in every direction, feeling disconnected is real. Through original poetry, essays, and craft insights, each themed issue helps readers reconnect...with themselves, their stories, and the world around them.
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