launched 27 January 2023
becoming, a metamodern magazine of arts and literature, and two poetry collections: Longing Songs Between Two Worlds by Valentina Teclici andTransformation by Alexandra Balm.
Publications may be purchased by writing to becoming.metamodern@gmail.com
or contacting Wardini Books books@wardini.co.nz
becoming
...a metamodern semi-annual of art and literature. Many important things happen without fanfare. Lowercase becoming aims to capture longings for home – physical and spiritual – , yearnings for and celebrations of presence and transformation, and the countless ramifications of what it means to be human in an increasingly complex world.
Texts by (in alphabetical order): Sandra Arnold, Alexandra Balm, Lucy Boermans, Karine Gwenaëlle, Lincoln Jaques, Irena Karafilly, Fiona Kidman, and Jillian Sullivan.
Artwork by Simon Nicholls.
Valentina Teclici
Longing Songs Between Two Worlds
Where is my home? My real, sweet home?
Maybe there where my memories
grew vibrant, coloured leaves
one at a time in the tree of belonging
for half of a century.
Maybe here, where the ocean is giving me joy
my senses are filled with mermaids’ songs
seaweed smells, cosmic colours, desires and energy
and I feel the happiest woman in the world.
Alexandra Balm
Transformation, a poetry collection
There were so many poems that moved me in that best of ways – the feeling one took that each poem was complete, but not final, that their impulse was still there to extend. Above all, I think, what I so liked was how the most ordinary things and day to day happenings were woven through with tradition and longing as well as satisfaction in themselves.
Vincent O’Sullivan (publisher, Scripta manent, Napier)