Introduction

Dear fellow poetry enthusiasts and people of faith,

Thank you for visiting our humble home on the web. Allow me to introduce this month's issue of 
Subjective Substance, which continues to feature contemporary poets writing on themes of a spiritual, 
conscious nature. To the contributors, I owe a world of thanks. You heard my appeals and longing 
for spiritual poetry and your ongoing contributions deepen my appreciation of poetry and of faith. To 
the readers who have shown their support in numerous forms, I thank you for displaying a generosity 
of spirit and graciousness as we expand this art form. 

In this issue, we feature vibrant pieces by Michael Ansara, Linda L. Bielowski, Peter Capelotti, and 
Sean Deardorff intermingled with a more contemplative array by Sana Shariq Warsi, Alan Thibeault, 
and Kola Tubosun. Disclaimer: The poetry this month may tease your mind, pique your senses, and 
question your assumptions...

If you're ready to jump into the poetry, by all means go ahead! Otherwise, let me expound on Subjective 
Substance a bit. The tagline for our journal has long been "Home of God-Conscious Poetry," and that 
was a mindful choice. I have elaborated in previous issues how the journal came to exist in a context of 
a void of such poetry journals. At the time, I considered one of the central subjects in some of my best 
poetry to be God, but could find few journals online that appreciated this type of work. I then set my sights 
on helping to create such a journal. I had a feeling that interested parties would emerge from all quarters. 
My view is that faith and religion are most cogent when they embrace universalities of the human condition. 
Most people who are concerned with questions about their existence and the divine principles that should 
guide one's life, all ask similar fundamental questions. When posed sufficiently abstractly and when 
considered vis-à-vis pure subjective experience, the resultant poetry is universally consumable. I didn't find 
many journals that were devoted to this view of poetry, either.

What does "God-conscious" mean? Here, it implies being aware of the divine in your daily life, or in certain 
pivotal situations that occur in your life. It is a sense of being able to see the presence of divinity in things 
as diverse as:

-the way you see the natural world
-the feeling of unity that you have with other humans as part of a universal family
-the sense that God is protecting you through the course of your outer life
-the subjective and perceptual sense that there is a presence of God in your inner life

God-consciousness can be an experiential understanding attained through one's own subjective experience 
or it can be a learned affirmation as part of a creedal belief system. Both types of situations can lead to 
worthy poetry. The former is often interesting as the poet struggles to determine truth through their unique 
epistemology. The latter leads to poetry that is often interesting as the individual seeks to elucidate the 
obstacles in applying the worldview of their particular religion. In either case, this journal appreciates God-
consciousness from a subjective perspective. My understanding of God-consciousness is not beyond religion 
nor opposed to it, but an independent factor that may or may not interplay with one's sense of religion. For 
this reason, we have found the journal to be a success with a wide audience. Likewise, as the discussion of 
faith at an objective level and polemics is not within the purview of this site, I would refer you to journals of 
comparative religion for that sort of thing.

Hopefully, that sheds a little light on what we mean by our tagline and will inform your reading session. All 
the best as your read this month's spiritual digest.


Omar Azam