In the living seasons of the written word, homes for poetry can be fragile and fugitive. Such was the onetime fate of Fireweed, a modest but treasured outlet for poems from a watershed in western Oregon. The magazine was vibrant with many voices before it faded from the scene some years ago. But lo, Fireweed now returns, like its namesake after catastrophe. Often first to return on charred ground—coming up through the ash after Mt. St. Helens blew, or rising on burnt slopes following this past summer’s conflagration—fireweed hurtles green stems toward the sky that blossom out in pink, and then in cotton-winged seeds to begin the work of restoration everywhere.

So may the renewal of Fireweed magazine be fed by the work of poets telling the story of now, and by readers in support of lyric news, without which we are much diminished. Your support will help this treasure thrive.

—Kim Stafford, former Oregon Poet Laureate