If this is the first time you’ve stumbled across our Pond, then we’d like to extend a warm welcome and we thank you for taking the time to support us and our artists! If you are a returning whimsy-seeker, then welcome back — thank you for your continued support and for being a part of our literary community!

We are all Geese with our own individual lives and dreams, but writing and art has always tied the Flock together, and we feel so lucky to still be here, doing what we love, a full year after we started. 

Finding joy and community is integral to us as writers, but also as people, and we know sometimes it can be hard to find a place where you belong. That was why we started this magazine in the first place. We wanted to expand our literary community and bring people who love the art of whimsy together. Writing and art has brought so much color to our lives, and we know it has done the same for many of you. Whether you have the artistic itch yourself, or you’re just a sommelier of stories, we are happy to have you here with us. 

If there is anyone in your life who could use some whimsy in this wild and weary world, send them our way, we’d be lucky to have them. 

Thank you again, dear reader, from the bottom of our silly, goosey hearts, for being here with us as we launch our fifth issue. We hope you love it as much as we do. 

The Flock, 

(Lexi, Parker, Rhiannon, Eric, Ian, Annelise, and Julia)

Hello and happy honkin’ summer to you! We here at The Pond are so happy that you’re with us for the release of Silly Goose Press Issue Five — honk honk! 

This issue lands during the height of summer, when the sun is hitting our feathers and we yearn and flirt and fall in love all of our waking hours. We plan to spend our late-July days relaxing in the pond and honk-shooing in the sun (hey, even geese need a vacation!), but before we fly off into the sunset, we are here to drop off an issue full of wonderful new stories, poems, and artwork for you to enjoy!

This issue is full of worship, romance, speculation, and wonder. Here at The Pond, we don’t necessarily set out with a theme for each issue, but themes emerge nevertheless. See if you can find these threads as you read through Issue Five! We are so lucky to be a place where writers and artists from all walks of life send their work, and we are excited to expand our little family even more in the years to come. 

We hope this issue fills your summer days with whimsy and allows you a respite from your woes. We hope you can lounge by the pool or fly up to the mountains and enjoy these wonderful works of art with an ice-cold drink under your wing, we know we will be! 

We love you! Happy summer! 

Honk honk! 

The Flock