Dear Gentle Reader, For years, I have been thinking about this first post—how to begin a conversation in a space so deeply tied to what...

by Lee Erickson Mastering the Art of Being Broken begins where many childhood wounds begin: on the playground, under the watchful eyes of other children, in the moment humiliation first teaches you that being different can make you a target. What starts as a skinned knee becomes something larger — a lesson in shame, survival, invisibility, and the quiet work of getting back up when no one comes to help. This poem reaches back into a distinctly Midwestern childhood filled with

by Lee Erickson Backlit scene from a display at Ueno Park. Tokyo, Japan. Grief rarely leaves us with neat images or comforting...

The summer I turned ten, Aldo Jones—eleven, but a grade behind— hunted monarchs as they landed on his mother’s zinnias.