Oi! Void! by Emily John Garcés

Vol VII entitled  Oi!Void! is written by Emily John Garcés. Emily is an artist, writer, and all round creative enthusiast who in this essay tackles the subject of 'The Void' with raw and honest memory and beauty.
 
In this journal, Emily not only turns toward the space behind the darkness but wades through, calling out to the thing that most of us try to aVoid. Why? Because ‘somewhere at the centre of it is a place that feels like home, heaven, the kingdom of god, oceanic oneness, and unconditional love.’
 
This essay is brilliantly peppered with Emily’s poetry and of course includes letters written to the editor, in response to the thoughts presented.
 
Here's a taster
 
A new space was opening up in me. The internal rift was no longer trying to clench itself shut, it was gaping open, like a mouth lost for words, like the great Void of empty space that makes a valley beautiful.
 
Being near a great watery expanse helped me to feel all of this properly for the first time. I wonder if that’s what the sea does to people. Are those who choose a life on the waves choosing to live in a permanent state of connection with The Void itself?
 
...I believe that there’s something of a mutinous spirit in a “pessimistic” view that leads to action. The refusal to play a game by its corrupt rules, the decision not to put your hands over your eyes and to hunker down into your duvet pretending you’ve chosen to be in a shitty hotel, when you’re in a fugging prison. Indefensible violence aside – pirates are wild people who choose to spend their days riding atop the waves of The Void itself. And what does that look like? Who is this human who lives like nihilism is already an event, who has integrated The Void to such a degree that it is part of their very being?