YOUNG RAVENS LITERARY REVIEW
ISSUE 11 PREVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
Issue 11 will be released at the end of December.
Until then, we hope you enjoy previews of poetry, art and nonfiction,
and interviews with author and artist.
POETRY PREVIEW: TAY GREENlEAF
David Bowie is Dead
For some reason all I can think about is this myth about an English explorer from the 1900s
who discovered a crater-like hole in the depths of the Tibetan forest.
The hole, exhibiting all the layers of the earth down to the hot core
was lined with bodies of some otherworldly, undead creatures
who seemed just like us but were decidedly not of this earth.
They say the candid faces gazed at the Englishman, reached upwards and called:
Oh! Humankind! Do you hear me? What is it like to be you?
I have been looking upwards for too long today.
But it’s hard to think about looking anywhere else.
Over a million people took to the streets to sing for you,
But I’m walking home in a silence so deep I can hear my soles giving out.
I see the stars move with me and at once I feel whole again.
Oh! Otherkind! Do you hear me? What is it like to be you?
INTERVIEW
1. What do you cherish as "Otherkind" in your life, and why?
"Otherkind," to me, is more of a feeling than it is a particular person or thing. It's a sense of outlandish importance; something that breaks dimensions so to speak. I think the first cherished "Otherkind" for me was the folklore or mythology I read as a child—it's that weird middle ground between knowing something is unreal, wholly unattainable, or even outlandish, but yet so powerful and demanding here in a very real, mundane world. I think anything that makes you stop and think "Wow, this feels bigger than me" is something of an "otherkind," whether stories, music, or a person.
2. What do you love about being human, and what do you wish you could change?
I love the human capacity to lie lovingly. What are stories if not lying with good intention—for enjoyment even? I wish I could change our hubris. The human brain decided it was the smartest.
3. What is one of your favorite lines of poetry, and why?
"Some day I'll love Frank O'Hara" —Katy by Frank O'Hara.
It's just such a relatable line—do we not all wish, fight, and impossibly fail to love ourselves constantly? Maybe not all the time for some (for me, a daily activity), but I think it’s the perfect, wistful statement of the human condition.
Tay Greenleaf is a poet and journalist in Asheville, NC. She holds a degree in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina and continues to write poetry while quibbling with her resident two gophers Karl Marx and Karl Marx's Friend. Her work can be seen in local lifestyle magazines such as Bold Life and WNC Magazine and literary publications such as Headwaters, Orison Books, and Abberation Labyrinth.
"Otherkind," to me, is more of a feeling than it is a particular person or thing. It's a sense of outlandish importance; something that breaks dimensions so to speak. I think the first cherished "Otherkind" for me was the folklore or mythology I read as a child—it's that weird middle ground between knowing something is unreal, wholly unattainable, or even outlandish, but yet so powerful and demanding here in a very real, mundane world. I think anything that makes you stop and think "Wow, this feels bigger than me" is something of an "otherkind," whether stories, music, or a person.
2. What do you love about being human, and what do you wish you could change?
I love the human capacity to lie lovingly. What are stories if not lying with good intention—for enjoyment even? I wish I could change our hubris. The human brain decided it was the smartest.
3. What is one of your favorite lines of poetry, and why?
"Some day I'll love Frank O'Hara" —Katy by Frank O'Hara.
It's just such a relatable line—do we not all wish, fight, and impossibly fail to love ourselves constantly? Maybe not all the time for some (for me, a daily activity), but I think it’s the perfect, wistful statement of the human condition.
Tay Greenleaf is a poet and journalist in Asheville, NC. She holds a degree in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina and continues to write poetry while quibbling with her resident two gophers Karl Marx and Karl Marx's Friend. Her work can be seen in local lifestyle magazines such as Bold Life and WNC Magazine and literary publications such as Headwaters, Orison Books, and Abberation Labyrinth.
