An editorial rant:

I've always said I didn't like the way poetry zenes were done. Now I'm finally going to do something about it. What, you ask, is different about this zene? I don't really know myself, let it suffice to say that I'll have to like the poetry I read before I put it in Chronic Awe. "What do I like?" you ask. Anything that makes me think. Anything that makes me sit back after reading and enjoy a moment of imagination at the poem's expense.

For me, poetry is not just some words on paper. Poetry is life itself: jotted down, limited horribly by the written word. Poetry is emotion and thought, event and idea. I find myself enjoying poems which can be described as a snapshot in time, a moment acquired in such detail that I feel I have actually experienced that moment.

Then again, poems can be humorous, taking the way language fucks up reality, and playing it out to its farthest proportion, or poems can be... whatever.

Chronic Awe is hopefully going to be a stimulating journey through time and space via the infinite mediums of poetry and the written word. It is my intention to include poetry via submission and/or my own feeble skills. The poetry will not be limited by length content or form, however; the editor reserves the right to edit poems for spelling unless a note is included explaining the word or words misspelled.

Subscriptions are $5, and are priced so much higher than the cover price because I then have to pay shipping and handling as well as initial printing costs. Also, subscriptions will feed the forthcoming issues, making sure they don't starve to death. For that matter, so will submissions.

Speaking of submissions; please include a self addressed stamped envelope if you wish your work returned.

I will print letters on basis of their intelligence, content, and relevance. Actually, the same can be said of poetry. If you have black and white art you'd like to see on a cover of Chronic Awe, send me a photocopy, and I'll get back to you if I really like it.

Chronic Awe is not meant to be picked up and read cover to cover. It is especially not meant to be read in any linear order. The correct way to read Chronic Awe is to pick it up without looking at it, flip to some random page-- and absorb. There are numbers on the pages only to give the reader a handhold with which to cling to reality.

Sincerely,
   Martin Grider
   Editor, writer, fool.