Collateral Journal

06/08/2026

In Kristen Keckler’s new essay “Jungle Flower”, generations and memories are close enough to touch, to wonder about each other. What happens when survivors of war (and their children) meet far away from combat with stories still clear in their minds and bodies? To read, follow the link in our bio.

“I wrote ‘Jungle Flower’ to capture how war and its aftereffects can pop into one’s everyday routines at unexpected moments—which can be both jarring and enlightening. Ever since reading Tim O’Brien’s The Things We Carried, I have wanted to express in my own writing what the children of Vietnam veterans carry and hold. I believe in the power of stories to connect people and forge compassionate understanding, even about the most unspeakable things.” —Kristen Keckler

Kristen Keckler teaches creative writing at Mercy University in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Her work has appeared in L’Esprit Literary Review, The Argyle, Sky Island Journal, The Disappointed Housewife, The Collidescope, Does It Have Pockets, and other journals. In her spare time, she plays amateur detective while compulsively listening to cold case podcasts. Kristen’s father served as a Marine pilot in Vietnam (1968–69) in squadron HMM-364, ‘The Purple Foxes.’

06/03/2026

Next week! A workshop with yours truly, Collateral poetry editor.

This workshop is designed to give participants time and space to more fully process how the traditional concept of resiliency has been weaponized against and pushed on military and military-connected communities in an effort to silence the telling of painful truths and legitimate concerns. In this workshop, participants will consider authenticity as a more growth-centered approach to appreciating their strengths while acknowledging the necessity of voice, witness, risk, and care in the process of surviving our stories.

Participants will:

🔸 Reflect on how (and why) resiliency has been perceived and promoted in the past.
🔸 Consider authenticity, the power of truth-telling, and the benefits of strength beyond silence.
🔸 Explore through creative writing exercises the benefits of prioritizing authenticity and courage over traditional resiliency practices.

Facilitated by: Abby E. Murray, Author

Designed for: Community Providers, Community Members, Employers, Educators, and Students

Registration is free and open to all ➡️ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989857460229

This program receives funding from King County VSHSL

06/01/2026

Welcome to Pride Month, when—no matter who is in office or how hard they’d like to pretend we aren’t here—we remember that we are everywhere, serving our communities, raising our families, building connections, creating art, listening to our stories, and empowering each other.

Today’s a good day to read Sylvi Morgan’s new poem, “We Convenient Scapegoats”, from our new issue. Link in bio.

“‘We Convenient Scapegoats was born in the aftermath of targeted attempts to erase transgender Americans and service members. Hate cannot erase what love provided.” —Sylvi Morgan

Sylvi Morgan is a speculative fiction author whose work explores identity, resilience, systems, and the fire that shapes human destiny. She spends her days writing, reading, studying history, and spoiling her two cats.

05/25/2026

When every day is memorial day because war does nothing but take and take and take. Plan for what you need to remember today, whether it’s support, memory, safety, space, time, community, guts, clarity, or all of the above. Love from Collateral.

05/25/2026

This Memorial Day weekend, we offer you new fiction—a short story from Colin W. Sargent that asks us how to remember our (own) ghosts. At what point do we realize we are not just memorializing those we’ve lost but our own selves as well? At what point do we make choices based on the knowledge of that loss? Read the story at the link in our bio.

“Just three months ago, I reconnected with my mentor at VP-26, who finished his distinguished career as a Navy captain. He showed me what it is to be an officer and a gentleman.” —Colin W. Sargent

Colin W. Sargent is the founding editor and publisher of Portland Monthly, est. 1985. He flew Navy helicopters in the Indian Ocean (including Diego Garcia) before editing ApproachMagazine, earning his PhD, and teaching writing at William and Mary. His novel Museum of Human Beings is distributed by Simon and Schuster.

05/18/2026

“As a war correspondent in verse, I respond to conflicts and atrocities in my poetry. This is no easy task, as the ultimate mission of art is to stay faithful to truth in all its complexity. Poetry is not political partisanship. It is an attempt at understanding the world. The word for poetry currently in use in Persian is she’r (شعر). It is an Arabic word whose roots mean “understanding”, “comprehension”, and “knowing”.

The poem ‘Testimony’ tries to capture the complex reactions of Iranians inside and outside Iran to the recent massacre and ongoing war. On January 8 and 9, the Islamic Republic brought out its military and militias against protestors, with the order to shoot to kill. By some accounts, tens of thousands have been killed and tens of thousands more arrested. This deadly campaign has continued even during the war launched by the United States and Israel.

The brutal massacre of protesters was a watershed moment for many Iranians. That was when in desperation some of them supported an attack by foreign countries in the hopes that the regime would be overthrown. Even now, under heavy bombardment, the nightmare that haunts some people inside Iran is the end of the war before the end of the Islamic Republic.

I oppose war. I don’t believe that war will bring liberation or democracy. As an Iranian, I remind my fellow anti-war activists that the Islamic Republic has been in constant war against its own citizens. I invite them to oppose this most brutal of wars as strongly as they oppose wars across borders.

As a war correspondent, I do not privilege my own perspective but instead try to help readers understand what others go through. This poem is an attempt at truthful reporting. It tries to be a poem in the Arabic sense of the word.

It was not an easy poem to write. It is a poem I wish I didn’t have to write. It is a poem I didn’t have the luxury not to write.” —Bänoo Zan

Link in bio.

05/10/2026

It’s Mother’s Day weekend here in the States, and to be honest (and pleasantly surprised), our current issue has a strong maternal current through its poetry section especially. We love this particular poem from Anna Geoffroy and how it speaks to the relationships between mothers and children as well as this country’s government and its people. We’ve put the link in our bio—have a look.

“My poetry in the 12 months that followed the 2024 US presidential election explores the struggle of integrating a personal history of prolonged and sometimes futile feeling political resistance with the realities of aging, grief, and an undermining of the sense of self.” —Anna Geoffroy

Anna Geoffroy is a Massachusetts-based poet, propagandist and pope (non-exclusive). She is the co-host of the live-to-tape Contro-Verse open mic in Malden and editor of the Holy Nonsense project. You can find her art and poetry in a variety of online and print collections and a street post near you.

05/04/2026

Glad, and re-energized, to read this poem from Collateral Journal contributor Kathleen Hellen!

A bright cold day in April after Orwell    I’m looking out the window at black ice that took me by surprise, the remnants of La Niña, of Polar Vortex pushing south the bitter Arctic air. Ice that sheaths the fixtures, railings. Glistens in disguise, while I wait in early light for thaw. I won.....