15

When we started discussing the possibility of no longer publishing the journal, the realization that we had been at this for 15 years seemed incomprehensible. 

Our friend Edith told me that together JoAn and I had created our own planet, that Tiger's Eye was an energetic entity. When you're in something, you miss that, you are just too busy to see the bigger picture. Stepping back, I can see Edith's point. It does feel a little like having a child. There was an idea and then there was a tiger.

The tiger has always been real to us. We tried calling him "she," but he insisted he was male. You don't argue with a tiger. When we're late getting an issue out, as we are now, the tiger can be found in the corner of the room unsheathing his nails and growling loudly.

Today I am guessing the tiger is saddened by our decision to stop publishing the journal. We too are dealing with a sea change, a major loss. Small press journals are tender things, sometimes lasting one issue. Some last a few more, others turn themselves into larger publications. Our publication remained small, we never pushed into a larger market, we never pushed the tiger to be something it wasn't.

What the tiger was, was a bridge. A bridge between friends. A bridge between silence and voice. A bridge for poets to walk over into a world of acceptances and books. That is what we hoped for in the beginning, and that is unbelievably what we achieved. 

To all of our poets, and in our minds and hearts you are OUR poets, we would like to say thank you for fifteen years of amazing poetry, of imaginative leaps, of true friendships. We know of no other realm where people are accepted for themselves, where ideas and thoughts, no matter how varied, are respected. The world of poetry gives voice and stature to the most timid among us. It creates community where there was none.

JoAn and Jo and myself are still here, still publishing, just not our beloved journal. We aren't saying goodbye, but asking you to stay close, to let us know what you're writing, where you're published. The tiger is still pacing back and forth, and we will follow him into the next phase of Tiger's Eye Press. We hope you'll follow too.

Colette