Half Mystic Journal Opus II, Issue II: Sevdah

The theme for Half Mystic Journal Opus II, Issue II is Sevdah, a genre of Turkish & Bosnian folk music evoking sorrowful love and ecstatic, amorous yearning—from the Arabic sawda, meaning “black bile,” or a melancholy state of longing. For our twelfth issue, we’re looking for violin solos, velvet on bare skin, half lights, broken odes, empty airport terminals, redamancy, zinnias at the edge of wilting, damask curtains, clipped swans’ wings, inosculation, heroic crowns, the memory of a late-night lake with a long-gone lover, when the sky and water turned the same colour and met at the edge of the world. Desire is holy and heavy as the still before the train comes. Moor us in the unquenchable. We want a begging to believe in.