Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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Winter 1942 • Vol. IV No. 1 • Poetry |

On Darkness, on Evil, on Night, Etc.

Let those of poor energy
 Fear night. Not I.
Night does so unmake me
 Into purity of disparate parts, where I lie
Sleeping my wrong dreams my
 Bad fears that they may never be.

And out of self so ill
 Begin again
With the unbroken will,
 The unspoiled energy of the lion’s den.
Night’s the recess under the hill
 Where serpents uncharm men.

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