Welcome to Issue 25 of 3rd Muse Poetry Journal.

First off, I'd like to get some general news/updates about the magazine out of the way.

The print version of 3rd Muse Poetry Journal is no longer being published.

Also, as those of you who are regular online readers would have noticed, the web version of the magazine has hardly kept to its "monthly" schedule of late. This has quite simply been due to a lack of content, and there is never much I can do about that.

I have felt pressured to change the release of the magazine to a bi-monthly or quarterly schedule officially, and either of these options may still happen. For the moment though, I am still reluctant to do that, and prefer to wait and see how things pan out within the next month or two.

Also, due to the erratic release schedule of late, I will now keep a mailing list for those who wish to be notified of each new issue's appearance (something I have never felt a real need for in the past). If you wish to receive notification, you may follow the direct "Subscribe" link from the main page, or simply send an e-mail to editor@3rdmuse.com with "Subscribe" as the subject heading.

And with the above out of the way... On to this month's issue.

I've never felt the need to mention any particular poet in a given issue's editorial, nor actually talk about any of the included poems themselves; seemed to me like whatever needs to be said is there in the poems (or isn't, as the case may be). I still very much subscribe to the point of view above, but am about to make an exception.

Tatiana Dolgushina's poems this month presented me with a dilemma when I first read them: should poetry (or art in general) be judged one hundred percent at face value? Nine time out of ten I would say it should. Possibly more than nine times out of ten. But in this case... Here are three poems which I don't think could be called "polished". But in the face of that you have a fifteen year old who has already grasped the understanding of what poetry actually is. Who quite clearly is already in possession of a distinct voice. And this, is just so incredibly rare; I would go so far as to say phenomenal.

With all the negative events at the top of this month's editorial, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that between this issue and the last one, I've found myself doing a fair bit of soul searching in regard to this magazine. In regard to just what it was I have been trying to achieve here, how successful I have been up till now, and what hope for success there was in the future.

Tatiana, managed to remind me of why I am here in the first place. Of why I wanted to be here in the first place.

And I thank her for that. And I thank all of the contributors this month, and readers, as always.

Mark Melton
Editor,
3rd Muse Poetry Journal