Mayari Literature, Issue IV: Sun Align

Our literary magazine’s fourth quarterly edition. Celebrating the magnificence of our closest star.

Art by Tala Lillie

A Letter From Our Guest Editor Maureen Medina

"To err is human, to forgive is divine." - Alexander Pope

And what is the sun, if not divine? She bestows pardon on the "criminally unkind", "piercing us in forgiving beams of hope"¹ with every day that she rises. "Tomorrow will come before [we] know it"² not because we deserve it, but because the sun wills it so. Humans, the most fallible creatures in existence, wreak havoc as though we are not "flushed in warm love caress", ³ taking for granted the "solar energy orbiting billions of grass blades"⁴ and even more lost souls. 

"Every sun needs a flower, every flower needs a sun"⁵ and herein lies the error of humanity: we believe ourselves divine and omnipotent, though we are tender like flowers, our resilience ordained by the "spectrum of the sun".⁶

It happened once that we would go "out on a limb aligned in the sun",⁷ but the ethos of unity has weakened into near invisibility. "We have not come so far"⁸ and, at 4.6 billion years old, the sun "laughs at our fated folly".⁹ We are more distant from each other than we are from the sun, and "when [we] look up in longing...[we] wonder at the star[s we are]".¹⁰

A return to who we truly are demands "submitting ourselves to the magic of this world"¹¹ and reveling in our multitudes in a clumsy "ballet of worlds".¹² We must receive "the sun, a beacon, a center so grand"¹³ as a timeless remedy. 

If only we danced instead of trampled, we would "heal [our] tired feet"¹⁴ and the rest of our aching existence. If only we loved so fiercely that liberation was not an option, we would bathe in the "sunset...a riot of colors".¹⁵ If only we dared to bear witness to the realities and lifetimes that remain ever-connected, "a new dawn [would] break[ our hearts] into blossom".¹⁶ If only we expanded our mind, we would hear the "whispers of solstice, a celestial sign"¹⁷ and ascend to heights "that witness the sun’s' gentle sigh".¹⁸

Love cannot hide from the sun, so let us coax our shadows into freedom and "dance with light, hand in hand".¹⁹ May we always hold reverence for the sun and the elements that sustain us. May we always align our lifestyles with our values. May we always practice grace. May we have the audacity to let love - light - in until even the sun aligns.

Thank you all so much for creating, amplifying, and bearing witness.

With gratitude and humility,

Maureen

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Table of Contents

Julian Matthews Mondays

Jackie Chou two tanka

Joan McNerney Wildflowers

Neil Daswani The Lines of the Sun

Jennifer Leong Ellipsis

Lynda V. E. Crawford Dimming the Sun

Terri Rose-Jertson The Buzz

Julian Matthews Sun/Flower

Sudipta Mishra Golden Sunshine

Anjetta Williams-Brown Waltz of The Planets

Deepika Singh MYSTIC NATURE

Jackie Chou Searching for the Sun

Ray Whitaker IN A TENT ON THE BEAR PRESERVE

Mona Zamfirescu Aubade

Lynda V. E. Crawford Sun & Twinkling Dust

John Jackson Sacred Alignments

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