MODRON Issue 3 call for submissions

Hello to our readers! For issue 3, MODRON magazine is opening for its first poetry submission period from August 25th – September 15^th 2023. This year, National Poetry Day is on the theme of refuge, and we are particularly looking for submissions on refuge and the environment. Please note however, that submissions are not limited to the theme. If you have work that you think would be suitable for Modron we encourage you to send it.

In a time of ecological emergency, what does refuge mean? Is it even possible? There are many layers to the theme of refuge, and multiple readings of how the word can be understood. Here are just a few ideas, but there of course are many more ways of interpreting the theme.

With wildfires, rising sea-levels, resource scarcity, war, and eco-system collapse, displacement of populations becomes inevitable. There is predicted to be huge disruption to human populations, with many millions of people becoming “climate refugees”. UN Secretary General António Guterres points out that already, many people are being forced to move by environmental factors:

“Climate change [is] now found to be the key factor accelerating all other drivers of forced displacement. Most of the people affected will remain in their own countries. They will be internally displaced. But if they cross a border, they will not be considered refugees. These persons are not truly migrants, in the sense that they did not move voluntarily.”

In addition, in the West, migrants often are greeted by an unsympathetic and “hostile environment”, which downplays the West’s role in ecological catastrophe. The nonprofit Climate Refugees emphasizes that “climate change disproportionately impacts the most impoverished, marginalized, discriminated and disenfranchised people in our world who played very little role in contributing to the problem in the first place, and will pay a heavier, disproportionate price that challenges the enjoyment of human rights of huge populations.”

We are also interested in poems that tackle the possibility of emotional refuge in a time of alarm. Seeking and finding a place of refuge can be necessary to protect our mental health. However, taken too far, it can become escapism, seeking sanctuary in the many consumerist distractions that our culture offers us. Are people disengaging and disappearing into online bubbles and echo chambers? How do we avoid despair without ignoring the facts of the ecological crisis? What can act as a bulwark against despair? Can we draw strength from faith and spirituality? From community? From campaigning, organizing and protesting?

Animals, birds and insects also seek refuge. Plants also move into new habitats as ecosystems change. Species movement is dictated by the changing climate, habitat destruction, and ecosystem collapse. The praying mantis, for example, has been traveling north from France to the Channel Islands and as far as Dorset, as warmer winter temperatures make the UK a viable habitat. We might also consider what is called “shifting baseline syndrome,” whereby the loss of richness and abundance in the natural world of previous generations is not recognized by present generations, who accept a degraded environment as normal. With this shifting perception, it can be hard to recognize the extent of what we have already lost.

MODRON is open to writers from all backgrounds. We do encourage submissions from writers who have been marginalized traditionally in publishing, for example people of the global majority, LGBTQIA+ writers, disabled writers, neurodiverse writers, writers who experience economic stress, and those from immigrant backgrounds.

·      Please send up to six poems in MS Word with a 50-word bio. We close at 12 midnight on Friday September 15th. 

·      Please send submissions to modronsubmissions@gmail.com. Do not send to our regular email address.

If you are looking for examples of poetry that we enjoy, please see our previous two issues: one and two. Please also see this article on the National Poetry website which highlights previous work published on the theme of refuge.

Finally, please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky Social.

You can also keep in touch with us by signing up to our mailing list.

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Helo i’n darllenwyr! Ar gyfer rhifyn 3, mae cylchgrawn MODRON yn agor am ei gyfnod cyflwyno barddoniaeth cyntaf.

Eleni, mae’r Diwrnod Bardd Cenedlaethol ar thema lloches, ac rydym yn ceisio cyflwyniadau ar loches a’r amgylchedd. Fodd bynnag, nid ydym yn gyfyngedig i’r thema. Os oes gennych waith y credwch fyddai’n addas ar gyfer Modron, rydym yn eich annog i’w anfon.

Mewn cyfnod o argyfwng ecolegol, beth mae lloches yn ei olygu? A yw hyd yn oed yn bosibl? Mae yna lawer o haenau i’r thema lloches, a darlleniadau lluosog o sut y gellir deall y gair. Dyma ychydig o syniadau yn unig, ond wrth gwrs mae llawer mwy o ffyrdd o ddehongli’r thema.

Gyda thanau gwyllt, cynnydd yn lefel y môr, prinder adnoddau, rhyfel, a chwymp ecosystemau, mae dadleoli poblogaethau yn anochel. Rhagwelir y bydd tarfu enfawr ar boblogaethau dynol, gyda miliynau lawer o bobl yn dod yn “ffoaduriaid hinsawdd”. Mae Ysgrifennydd Cyffredinol y Cenhedloedd Unedig, António Guterres, yn nodi bod llawer o bobl eisoes yn cael eu gorfodi i symud gan ffactorau amgylcheddol:

“Erbyn hyn, mae newid yn yr hinsawdd [i’w weld yn] ffactor allweddol sy’n cyflymu holl yrwyr eraill dadleoli dan orfodaeth. Bydd y rhan fwyaf o’r bobl sy’n cael eu heffeithio yn aros yn eu gwledydd eu hunain. Byddant yn cael eu dadleoli’n fewnol. Ond os byddant yn croesi ffin, ni fyddant yn cael eu hystyried yn ffoaduriaid. Nid yw’r bobl hyn yn fudwyr mewn gwirionedd, yn yr ystyr na wnaethant symud yn wirfoddol.

Yn ogystal, yn y Gorllewin, mae mudwyr yn aml yn cael eu cyfarch gan “amgylchedd digydymdeimlad a gelyniaethus”, sy’n bychanu rôl y Gorllewin mewn trychineb ecolegol. Mae’r sefydliad nid-er-elw, Climate Refugees, yn pwysleisio bod “newid yn yr hinsawdd yn effeithio’n anghymesur ar y bobl fwyaf tlawd, pobl a ymyleiddiwyd, pobl sydd wedi’u gwahaniaethu a phobl wedi’u difreinio yn ein byd a chwaraeodd ychydig iawn o ran mewn cyfrannu at y broblem yn y lle cyntaf, ac a fydd yn talu pris trymach, anghymesur sy’n herio’r mwynhad o hawliau dynol poblogaethau enfawr.”

Mae MODRON yn agored i awduron o bob cefndir. Rydym yn annog cyflwyniadau gan awduron sydd wedi cael eu hymyleiddio yn draddodiadol wrth gyhoeddi, er enghraifft pobl o’r mwyafrif byd-eang, awduron LHDTCRhA+, awduron anabl, awduron niwroamrywiol, awduron sy’n profi straen economaidd, a’r rhai o gefndiroedd mewnfudol

·      Anfonwch hyd at chwe cherdd yn MS Word gyda bywgraffiad 50 gair.

·      Os gwelwch yn dda, anfonwch eich ceisiadau at modronsubmissions@gmail.com. Peidiwch ag anfon at ein cyfeiriad e-bost rheolaidd. Os ydych chi’n chwilio am enghreifftiau o farddoniaeth rydyn ni’n eu mwynhau, edrychwch ar ein dau rifyn blaenorol: un a dau.  Gweler yr erthygl hon hefyd ar wefan National Poetry sy’n tynnu sylw at waith blaenorol a gyhoeddwyd ar thema lloches.

Yn olaf, dilynwch ni ar Twitter, Facebook, Instagram a BlueSky Social. 

Gallwch hefyd gadw mewn cysylltiad â ni drwy gofrestru ar gyfer ein rhestr bostio.