TWBTO Literary Journal: Spring Collection 2025-IN HIS GARDEN (Subs open Feb. 1-March 1)
The Way Back to Ourselves Literary Journal Presents:
The Spring Collection 2025-
IN HIS GARDEN
Everything Starts Here
by Kimberly Phinney, founder and editor-in-chief
Battling chronic illness, I have spent a great deal of time in the past few years working and pondering in gardens. And in that obsession (and literal lifeline), I turned my eyes to the gardens of the Bible, too: Eden, Gethsemane, the garden near Golgotha, the poetry, the toil, the gardens of Heaven…
And in those pages of the Good Book and the soil of the Good Garden, I was gifted one epiphany after another. No doubt, they likely weren’t anything earth-shattering, as I suspect most creative contemplatives who believe in the God of the Bible come to know these things too, but for me—in this particular season—they were life-altering.
It seemed all my experiences, prayers, and studies were whispering to me one thing, over and over, in various iterations: EVERYTHING starts here… in HIS garden.
The garden is the metaphor for life. It is life. It is death. It is rebirth. The garden—in its cycles, seasons, stages, and microcosms—tells the story of humankind and the story God is weaving. There is a reason the Bible starts in a garden and Christ’s vital work culminates in a garden (Eden to Gethsemane). From the microscopic organisms to the unseen undergrowth, to the vibrant regality of roses to the great oaks that lend their shady coverage, the garden holds it all—just as God holds the universe in his hands. There isn’t anything here in the garden that goes unseen or without God’s blessings; even the fallow ground, decay, and brutal pruning that must take place are part of God’s order and grace.
After battling sepsis and a near-death experience, this was the very understanding God revealed to me one day in my garden, which birthed my poem “A Brutal Love.” I lovingly call this poem the “Mother Poem” because she birthed my first poetry collection, Of Wings and Dirt.
So, in the spirit of the Spring Collection: IN HIS GARDEN, I would like to share it with you now:
A BRUTAL LOVE
In my garden, mid-bloom,
I take the sheers
and cut them to their knuckles.
Breaking their necks,
the petals shed like blood
on the sodden earth.
I stand over them.
I am brutal
to the roses,
to the daylilies,
and daisies.
To the gardenias,
I am brutal
and unyielding–
their burnt offerings,
white ash,
like a death before me
in the dirt.
But I know better.
Oh, it is a Brutal Love
that birthed the universe,
demanded Isaac,
offered Job,
and required the Cross!
His is a Brutal Love:
ancient and unyielding,
perennial and unchanging.
Oh, it is a Brutal Love
that sheered me mid-bloom,
that allowed for winter days
of barren grief–
a dark night of the soul
like a death before me.
But He knew better.
In His garden
there is a severe mercy
in his pruning–
a Brutal Love falling down like rain.
And in His season
there is a humming from the earth:
a green bud unfurled.
And He is standing over me.
So where do we go from here?
Dear writer, bring us your poetry, miracles, meditations, and stories from the garden of life and faith. Let them be everything the garden is—beautiful and brutal, gorgeous and gritty, blooming and barren… because God’s hand is in it all.
We want to see your Romantic and Naturalist verse excavated from the earth… your realistic canvases and sketches that invoke all aspects of the garden… your bright and bold photography that capture the brimming life happening there: the birds, the bees, the butterflies, the flowers, the trees, the deep roots, the wilting gardenias, the loamy soil, the wandering beetle…
We want to know your journeys, too, or the journeys of Bible figures who loved, broke, and learned in God’s Garden: the brokenness, the toil, the ridiculous awe when things bloom, the deep satisfaction of growing something, the unearthing of mercy and grace down in the dirt…
Find them, make them, and bring them all! We want to stand amazed by the garden we will cultivate—together.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, where do I begin? That’s easy. Go sit outside in the garden or meander a flowered path for a little while more…
The garden will speak to you if you listen…
You belong here,
me
SUBMISSIONS open February 1-March 1, 2025:
Click on “Contact” to learn more. Please carefully follow the submission guidelines for your work to be considered. Work cannot be previously published in other journals or magazines, as well as blogs, social media, and Substack. WE NOMINATE SELECT PIECES FOR THE PUSHCART PRIZE. Have questions? Please email us at thewayback2ourselves@gmail.com.
IMPORTANT: All literary journal submissions must be sent to our new email editor.twbto@gmail.com and follow all submission guidelines. Thank you!
If you’re looking to grow your writing life, improve your poetry craft, and join a supportive community, join Kimberly Phinney and Heather Lobe Johnson’s The Poetry Hour: Spring Cohort. This is a six-week generative course, and it starts March 3, 2025. We’d love to have you. Click HERE to learn more and grab your seat.
