Back in June, I traveled Europe from Munich to Barcelona. I swam in the Mediterranean while thinking

about him and ate delicious fish in the small French town of Collioure. In July, I flew to Seattle and, on Lake Washington, found a family of friends I trust with my pulsing heart. The day after I returned to Philadelphia, I obtained my drivers license, and the world further opened itself to me. From birthday parties to lunches and catch-ups with friends, I spent this summer falling vigorously in love with the world. Of course, poetry continued, and so did the work that came with it, but for the first time in a long time, it felt secondary. That is not to say that I am falling out of love with it. In fact, I allowed my language to breathe and gave it time to mull over the angles of its own tongue. The poems, however few and far between now, are fresh to me and real. As creatives, I fear and hope we constantly have to interrogate ourselves on what makes our art tick; what will save us. This nightly questioning led me to the realization that my poems are nothing if not yearning. They are, at their very core, romantic. With this discovery, I have grown all the more appreciative of feelings. Whether it be a year-long situationship or slurping udon noodles from a warm bowl of soup, there is love to be found in everything around me so long as I allow it to be. In this way, poetry has ceased to become a condition for my survival, but the act of living itself. 

The pieces in Hominum's Issue 7 are fully alive. Look in their shadows, and there are hands reaching

out for love, safety, peace, and understanding. They are yearning. Poets Rosa Crepax and Hayden Corwin showcase in their terse poems "In the shade of solar panels" and "Jesus Married" the rare depiction of peace and hope in moments of vulnerability. In Peter Mason's poem, "Flood Stimuli," how vulnerability is not always so. Julian Gallo and Joyce Newman Scott both offered us a subtle and familiar expression of love. The yearning of all of these creatives reminds me to continue seeing the world as a romantic. That we are all "warming / up / learning / about love." 

Reader, I would like to thank you all for your support of Hominum for the past few months. We have

received so much love and are incredibly glad to be doing this work. We have now hit the one-year-anniversary since we restarted and we cannot wait to reach the various milestones glimmering on the horizon. Please bear with us as we cope with the increasing amount of submissions and inquiries and as I venture into the college application process. Stay romantic. Stay beautiful. Stay true.

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Sincerely,

Evan Wang

Editor-in-Chief