9 months. That is how long it takes, to make a baby. 9 months. That is how long it has taken for this issue of Magma to arrive, from the earliest days of the submission window in July 2024 to the launch in April 2025. The responsibility of bringing it into the world, the expectations of submitters, contributors and future readers, as well as our own fears and doubts- would we be good editors, would we choose the right poems, commission the right articles, review the right collections – was a lot to carry. But with the support of those who have edited Magma before us, and with our abundant first-hand experience of being submitters ourselves, we took on the editorial role, body and soul. And now, here it is – In the Flesh – a precious thing, a unique issue. Between its covers you will find beautiful poems, inspiring articles, and interesting interviews. What’s more, you will also get a taste of poems from the winner, and three of the shortlisted entrants, of Magma’s recent pamphlet competition. A feast. And, by special request, not only a review of Adam, Gboyega Odubanjo’s debut collection but also four poems from the collection, accompanied by personal responses from some of those who were fortunate enough to know and work with him.

Flesh. Embodied, consumed. Flesh. Embraced, ridiculed. How differently each of us comes to this word, how many things we take from it, how weighed down it has become with social, cultural, ecological, political and religious meanings and agendas.

And now, with advancing technology, specifically AI, we are at a point where the significance of flesh as truth, as real, has become ever more relevant and urgent. As writers, we fight to maintain authority and autonomy over our words and images, as people over our bodies.
With the rise of health issues from increasingly compromised food products, alongside the increasing costs of natural food due to the climate emergency and corporate greed, coupled with the perpetual insistence that our bodies must fit a certain form, (though the rise of social media brings it with the defenders of the flesh as well as its virulent detractors) the mantra you are what you eat has never been so hard to swallow.

But there is also much joy to be found here. There is wonder and awe and ecstasy; intimacy, understanding, and solace. There are unspoken bonds, unrequited passions, the triumphs and consolations of the flesh to assume and consume. This is an issue of life, death, desires, consumptions, expulsions. Sit with it and revel in the ferocity of wolves, and brazenness of naked mole rats. Marvel over the weight and the heft of a single hair, the agility of mortality, the bodies that cool us, calm us and threaten to engulf us. There are bodies here that age backwards, or not at all, drunks and dancers, dishes of cuttlefish risotto and beef wellington to cut your teeth on. There are mishandlings of bodies, medically, socially, charitably. There are many houses here, and much skin, with varying degrees of thickness. There are bones and blood, blocked drains and white goods. Move between the words and around the poems. Settle into Amy Acre’s word-worlds, take a seat at any one of David Toms’ tables. Be inspired by our Inspired poet, Rachael Allen and indulge in the words of our selected poet, Catherine Redford. Carry this issue with you as your body moves through your world- read it on the bus, in the bath, let it carry the marks of coffee cups and dropped sandwich fillings. Or read it reverently in bed at night, in the sanctuary of your local library. It is yours. Read on.

 

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From Magma 91, In The Flesh 

 

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