Welcome...

to the spring-moving-into-summer 2005 issue of Crescent Moon Journal.

This issue's showcases the results of the Desert Moon Review's Spring 2005 Poetry Contest 'Critters', themed on all things living that creep or crawl, gallop or lumber, slither or swarm. We have had a large number of entries and the best of the best are featured here. Congratulations to the winners Lisa Cohen, Laurie Byro and Lynn Rees, and our gratitude to judges Cheryl Snell, Ron Lavalette and DMR's very own Christopher George for their fine work and excellent choices.

Featured in this issue too, are the poems of DMR's members and staff, some on animals and some not, all wonderfully evocative, a ready reckoner of the weather under the Desert Moon today. Special mention must be made of Charlene Dewbre, our designer whose quiet work powers the engine you navigate through now. Many thanks to Noah Grey for the use of the photographs.

Before we let you loose into this menagerie, perhaps we can all collectively celebrate the return from near extinction of a particular kind of creature- Phylum Chordata, Class Vertebrata, Sub-class Mammalia, Family Primates, Genus Homo, Species Sapiens, Sub Species Poet who now roams the globe and its interlaced fibreways with optimism and glee, stretching out and howling, occasionally at the Desert Moon.

Mustansir Dalvi
Editor
Bombay, India