Magpies, oak trees, rain and sunsets. Tourists, rivers, street art and soap. Air, earth, fire and water.
The ancient Greeks believed there were four elements from which everything was made up. Issue 6 is made up of four elements. Everything in Issue 6 is made up – and believable.
We were delighted to receive hundreds of powerful stories, poems and photos for this issue. The selected pieces spoke to us on several levels. They opened up worlds and wormholes; they spread into the ocean’s expanse, and honed in on a single raindrop.
Thank you to all our readers for your support and encouragement. And thank you to all our contributors for your talent and enthusiasm. Whoever you are, please do consider submitting to a future issue – every voice is worth hearing.
SUBMISSION CALL FOR ISSUE 7: CLIMATE ACTION
COP26 is taking place in Glasgow from 31 October until 12 November. In Issue 7, we would like to dedicate a special feature to the climate emergency. Submit up to three stories, poems or photos that say something about the natural world or human destruction of it. Full details here. Regular submissions will also remain open.
Four seasons, four elements, four humours, four cardinal points, four chambers in a human heart, four suits in a deck of cards, four issues of Briefly a year…
AIR
Tenarevyč, Two Haiku
Lorelei Bacht, ‘With orange blossom scented soap’
Ruth Callaghan do Valle, ‘Like the wind’
Jayant Kashyap, Two Poems
Will Musgrove, ‘Each Morning’
EARTH
Kimberly Madura, ‘Still Life – In Pink’
Dervla O’Driscoll, ‘In Search of Gender’
Rachel Canwell, ‘Tourist Trap’
Lillian Ramirez, ‘Two Oak Trees’
Gabriel Rosenstock, ‘A bilingual tanka in Irish and English in response to street art in Amsterdam’
FIRE
David Harrison Horton, ‘A Song of Rivals’
John Tustin, ‘Looked Away’
cloudassassins, ‘Sunset’
Abbie Madigan, ‘Retired Park’
Daniel Addercouth, ‘You Haven’t Changed At All’
WATER
Najeeb Yusuf Ubandiya, ‘Rain’
Louella Lester, ‘Alone Along the River’
Kris Spencer, ‘Magpies’
Jason W. McGlone, ‘It goes without saying’
Briefly Write 