Introduction by Marge Simon and Bruce Boston: Startling Minds

          As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, "A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us." We think this sums up what we were hoping for when we read submissions for this issue—poetry that intrigued our fancy and confounded our imagination, speculative poems that showed us strange and different ways of perceiving the world.

          We received many competent submissions, and some exceptional ones, but too often these poems were not what could be considered speculative. In the end, we are pleased to have a varied palette to offer you, as The Pedestal Magazine has so often in the past.
 
          Ride along with a forlorn traveler as he time-hops through the centuries and back again. Learn what is important to notice about the habits of frogs. See what grows when you plant a shark's tooth. Read ten very short steam punk novels in under five minutes. Consider what you would do if Neil Armstrong landed in your pool. These and more poems await your reading—some visionary, some amusing, and all of them speculative. We hope you encounter minds and visions that startle you along the way.

Marge Simon and Bruce Boston