oxygen12

 

The cover of the most recent issue of oxygen magazine is by Jan Price. The title is 'Emerge'. 

On the opening page is a quote from James Baldwin 'Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it.' 

Too many of us, instead of wearing a crown upon our heads, wear a feeling of not being good enough. We don't hold our head high, and we don't feel that crown that sits upon it. This is not only a bad situation for ourselves but for others around us. If we don't honour ourselves, can we truly respect and honour others? A feeling of not being good enough crushes more surely than a repressive government. 

  

 

Issue 12

 

This water                                                                                                          All water

This moment

                  All time 

When I receive the submissions and begin reading, a theme emerges. Work is then selected on the basis of how the poems from different contributors speak to each other. Choices are not based on how clever or polished a poem is. Not that it does not matter because in modern poetry every single word choice is of vital importance. Caring about how we use language is what elevates poetry. 

Plato would banish the poets who do not speak the truth; those who lead people into indulging unhelpful emotions.  

The poets in this issue encourage us to be who we truly are. They ask us to look out through eyes that are clear and bright. And have courage in our hearts. As well as to acknowledge and accept uncertainties. 

The Place Where We Are Right 

From the place where we are right                                                        flowers will never grow                                                                        in the spring.

The place where we are right                                                                is hard and trampled                                                                           like a yard.

But doubts and love                                                                            dig up the world                                                                                  like a mole, a plough.                                                                           And a whisper will be heard in the place                                                where the ruined                                                                              house once stood.

Yehuda Amichai                                                                                1924-2000                                                                                       Born in Germany, Hitler's rise to power caused his family to leave and settle in Palestine when he was 12. The horrors of World War II and his service in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war deeply affect his poetry. While writing in the Hebrew language he speaks of the universal. According to Amichai all poetry is political no matter what the subject matter, because 'real poems deal with a human response to reality, and politics is part of reality, history in the making.' Everything is a reflection of politics, that is, how we relate to each other and the world around us.                                                                        

 

Submissions for oxygen12: August 2026

 

July 2026

An invitation to submit visual art, including photographs and cartoons, poetry, and nonfiction prose, for consideration regarding inclusion in oxygen12.

Some words to contemplate:

Vale David Hockney

'And yet, in an art world heavily overburdened by theoretical nonsense, David cut through with simple, not simplistic, propositions. Art was an act of love. Drawing and painting are designed to bring people closer to the world that surrounds them. It's about joy and celebration but also looking harder, noticing more.'

'According to Hockney three things are needed for art — the eye, the hand and the heart. Two are not enough.'

Andrew Marr on David Hockney, The New Statesman, 13/6/26

 

'Historically, artists have been employed by leading institutions to bring emotional truth to established principles. Yet in our new global society, no institution has the wide acceptance to create values and direction for the majority of people. Markets in free societies are rapidly replacing governments and religious institutions as regulators of the highest authority, and markets perform without values; they do not converse in a human tongue.'

'Revolutionary shifts in the operational structures of our world seem to call for new definitions of who we are and what we are here for.'

'Art, after all, is about rearranging us, creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal.'

Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander, 2002, The Art of Possibility, Penguin Books, USA.

 

'I stand in the Rothko Room at Tate Britain, in front of the monumental painting Red on Maroon.'

'As a painter I know about layers, and Red on Maroon captures layers of paint delightfully. But my dominant thought in response to this masterpiece is not of layers but of sacrifice. This is a work of what I call “essentiation”, rather than abstraction. In order to find the essence, a journey away from self-expression, there is sacrifice.'

'Rothko's Red on Maroon offers a tear-filled sacrifice, but as a redemptive portal, toward a feast at the edge of the abyss.'

Makoto Fujimura, Afterword: Mark Rothko, A Painter of Ideas, in The Artist's Reality, Mark Rothko, 2023, Yale University Press.

 

Remember that words in a poem are only shadows — it is

how you use them that reveals meaning. Concision can

carry more meanings than expansion. Detail can ground a

poem, while abstraction can cause it to evaporate like a

cloud on a sunny day.

Nonfiction prose is also art. Knowing what to include and

what to leave out is a skill. Prose takes the reader on the

journey with you. Poetry doesn't necessarily do that. It

can leave the reader to their own particular wonderment.

Remember that the decision not to include work submitted

is quite impersonal. Just as it has nothing to do with you

what kind of weather comes with each day, whether sunny

or cloudy, rainy or windy, the weather is indifferent to you

personally.

Poems must be submitted in hard copy by post. Name and

address on each page. A stamped, self-addressed

envelope must be included with the submission.

Prose can be submitted as an attachment by email.

Art must be submitted by email.

Cheryl Howard

PO Box 614

WOODEND VIC 3442

poetry.clh@gmail.com