Songs for the Sforzando Issue (a selection)
This has been a truly horrifying week, & we hope that in all the madness you are nourishing yourself in whatever ways you can—attending to life as much as death, painting with sun as much as blood. It stuns us that this even needs to be said, but we will say it over & over, a single note drowning in truth: Black lives matter, now & always. Injustice anywhere is still injustice everywhere. Half Mystic encourages you to educate yourself with the George Floyd Resource Compilation or NAACPLDF, commit to reading books by Black writers, donate to ActBlue or Showing Up For Racial Justice or Campaign Zero, understand the duty of white & non-Black people in fighting for racial justice, &—if you are able to do so safely—attend a protest against police brutality in your city.
The sforzando issue feels like a wreck-layered clarion call to the time we’re crashing through right now, & we have hope that this collection might offer your splintering bones a place to rest. Issue VIII features poetry, prose, music, & art by Jessie Lynn McMains, Elizabeth Ruth Deyro, Peter Milne Greiner, Gale Acuff, Elijah Mann, C.A Scheherazade, Cindy Xin, Rodney Wilder, Matt Mitchell, Leela Chantrelle, Jonah Howell, Jam Pascual, Hana Widerman, Love In the Ruins, Joan Pope, & many more. You can preorder your copy here.
If you’d like to see your own writing or music in the issue, submissions close on June 18—& if you make a donation to any charity of your choice, we offer 250-400 word editorial critique on both writing & music submissions through our Half Mystic Gives Back programme. Consider donating to any of the charities we shared above, or to a bail fund or racial justice organisation of your choice.
Finally, as is traditional, a playlist encompassing the crowning paean to change that is Issue VIII, the songs our team has been spinning as we work to curate your—& our own—burning & cracking & aching into something beautiful for you. A selection of songs for sforzando: the car-struck dissonance—the backslide into wreckage—the single note of shattering. Please be safe, dear songbirds.
“Los Ageless” by St. Vincent
how could anybody have you?
how could anybody have you and lose you?
how could anybody have you and lose you
and not lose their minds, too?
“Fuck With Myself” by BANKS
‘cause I fuck with myself more than anybody else
it’s all love
I used to care what you think about me
it’s all love
‘cause my love so good
so I fuck with myself more than anybody else
“Witches” by Good Kid
a narrative waste of patches of light
we grew up in suburbs then cut all our ties
now take a look at this through Gwyllion eyes
you’re wrong, my friend, the road bends a bit to the right
“Anxious” by Hippo Campus
am I looking for a change?
a way to mend?
something tells me different
but I know it never ends
“Chance” by Angel Olsen
I’m not looking for the answer
or anything that lasts
I just want to see some beauty
try and understand
if we got to know each other
how rare is that?
“Here I Found / No Self Control” by Billy Lemos, ft. Quiet Luke
She said, my heart is overgrown
the weight I never knew
I'm further in time than most of—
—here I found the feeling long forgotten
as I'm older than now
the feeling uncommunicated
“Because Dreaming Costs Money, My Dear” by Mitski
I can still smell the fire
though I know it's long died out
the smoke still hangs in my hair
and on some quiet evenings it burns my eyes
“Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor” by Aly & AJ
knights in armor hide under eyeliner
lights are low, the night will take us higher, higher
“Cop Car” by Mitski
I want to jump into blue water
and I miss riding horses, I miss running fast
I miss riding horses, I miss running fast
I was meant for running fast
“I Want You To Love Me” by Fiona Apple
I move with the trees
in the breeze
I know that time is elastic
“Silver Springs” by Fleetwood Mac
I follow you down until the sound
of my voice will haunt you
give me just a chance
you’ll never get away from the sound
of the woman that loved you
“Spoliarium” by Eraserheads
at ngayon ‘di pa rin alam
kung ba’t tayo nandito
pwede bang itigil mo na
ang pag-ikot ng mundo
“Under the Water” by AURORA
so many souls that lost control
where did they fall?
and to the deep, what do they see?
where did they fall?
“Million” by IDER
love will find you in a million parts
coming up like the hotel bar
“Twinkle Lights” by the Sonder Bombs
well, there’s nothing really wrong with me
I’m just choking almost constantly
“I Wish I Was Someone Better” by Blood Red Shoes
I wish I was someone better
made a mistake
made a mistake
“Cut Your Bangs” by Girlpool
last night I saw your face in the hallowed light
you were standing taller than a mountain side
your long hair flowed down in blues and whites
I just stood there, bathed in the quiet