When “EAP: The Magazine” first started up, I had this kind of selfish idea. The idea was the space would attract like minds…the kind of minds that worked a bit, well, differently. My idea was that real creativity happens on the margins, where people try out different ways of seeing and being, and it was those surprises I was on the look out for.
It was content I was looking for, not literary perfection, since my theory was that perfection too often conceals a lack of content, or, as we say around here, “The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good.” (And we mean it, too.) I was kind of right about that, although, to my surprise, not always: as it happened, a lot of content came my way, along with a good whacking lot of near perfection. From writers like Brian Griffith. Tim Myers. Charles S, Kraszewski. David Budbill. Margaret Hultz and Marie Davis. Marissa Bell Toffoli. Ronnie Pontiac. David D. Horowitz. Debbie Naples. And of course, always, Mike Madrid.
So that all worked, using the magazine for my own fiendish ends of making stimulating connections far and wide with people of like, if differently tilted, mind. And mining those thoughts (the more tilted the better) for those same fiendish ends. Selfish, like I said.
Meanwhile, it was bubbling up, the way these things do before they burst into sight, that there was something more (still thinking those selfish thoughts) that “EAP: The Magazine” could be useful for…some trick I was missing. I’ve been keeping that question mark in the back of my mind, checking in with it once in awhile, trying to see if it’s developed into anything more. Then Marissa Bell Toffoli sent in her contribution to this issue, “Turkish Coffee.” There it was in the poem: “What use the answer for the wrong question.” And I realized what I want to know now is just that: what are the questions we’re trying to answer in groping around in the fertile dark the way we do? What questions are grabbing us right now, taking us by surprise in that dark, at this point in time? We, and the world around us, are sure as hell groping for answers. But answers to what exactly?
That’s what I want to know now.
What question is it that you most want answered? If the fairy godmother appeared right now, or the magic nightingale, or the gnome, or the genie, or the demon, or even the god, what would be the one query that would leap passionately to your tongue, straight from your heart?
I repeat: that’s what I want to know now. That’s what I’m interested in most of all. So if you feel like indulging my selfish wish, or even if it goes to grant some selfish wish of your own, let “EAP: The Magazine” know what question most disturbs…or confounds…or enlightens…you.
Or even—best of all—all three at the same time.
Welcome back.