FEELINGS I - THE WAVES
27 WRITERS/ORBITERS - ON A MOVEMENT OF FEELINGS
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DEAR ORBITER,Two weeks of silence, two weeks of breath, now our chest opens again.One stanza of feeling grew.
And grew.
And grew.Fifty-three voices became pulses.
Fifty-three pulses became a flood.There was no way to contain it in one body.
So this month, Issue XV arrives as a double releasePART I: The Waves — the first rush, the rise, the swell.
PART II: The Tides — the afterpulse, the return, the pull
Because feelings rarely come once.
They come in waves — then they come back as tides.This is our biggest issue yet.
Our boldest.
Our softest.
Our most human.Welcome to FEELINGS.
Welcome to the Waves.
Welcome to the Tides.
Welcome home.With returning light,
Ral Joseph
Planet Ral 🌍Planet Ral is a next-gen build in the architecture of culture - in 2025, it emerges as the first constellation of its kind: a literary magazine and editorial vertical, a community where art, story, and intellect collide.Upgrading to paid grants you full access to Planet Ral’s creative orbit: exclusive editorial issues, magazines, literary community forums, special guest features, upcoming zines, and the verticals yet to come.P.S. All Artwork and paintings in this issue were transformed into mixed-media pieces, specially designed by the editor.
Mark Farley
A Dementia And,
I have dementia, steeling memories, long and short …,
I have a dementia, looting my thoughts …,
I have aphasia, robbing me of my speech …,
I have aphasia, stripping me of my pen …,
Dementia and Aphasia are a leech …
I have an ABI or is it a TBI …, physical, cognitive & emotional, like a fish on a beach …, I have an aneurysm, the brain …, ruptures, no one to blame, I’m not going to meech …,
A wise man says
“what did you do in a past life”
Karma for sure …
but he’s not going to preach … .AN ORIGINAL © MARK FARLEY @ 2025
Liam Randall
Haiku As Prayer
Lord, please look after
her as she has for me. thank
her for me. thank You.AN ORIGINAL © LIAM RANDALL @ 2025
Saira Anwar
And In It's Light,
There were days I drowned in silence,
My voice caged beneath grief’s heavy breath.
But even sorrow, when cracked, can glow,
And in its light, I remembered my name.
This one comes from a quiet, deep place. It holds the ache of losing yourself in grief, and the quiet power of finding your way back.AN ORIGINAL © SAIRA ANWAR @ 2025
Chris B. Writes
13 Miles
Driving 13 miles to where you are,
back and forth collecting way too many scars.
Checking in with the clerks who give out badges,
stitched together by Pepsi and rough patches.
Losing track of all the time that has passed…
the sun looks dimmer through hospital glass. AN ORIGINAL © CHRIS B. @ 2025
Patty Bee
Bears
Sometimes I wear your shirt to bed,
your beloved Chicago Bears,
you always loved them more than me,
which wasn’t hard to do.
That’s not quite fair, perhaps,
but you know what they say
about heartbreak,
just a love story told backwards.AN ORIGINAL © PATTY BEE @ 2025HIGHLIGHTS — ZINE O1 — FIRELIGHT
“From our first zine — FIRELIGHT — All the Hope we carry in the Dark”
Planet Ral © 2025Upgrading to paid grants you full access to Planet Ral’s creative orbit: exclusive editorial issues, magazines, literary community forums, special guest features, upcoming zines, and the verticals yet to come. Orbit with us🌍
Melanie Cole
Astronomical Binoculars
When we stood underneath the stars,
holding up astronomical binoculars to our eyes,
You asked me if I wanted to stay up and
listen to jazz in your car with you or if you
could keep me warm in my tent, set in deep
in the stables where the horses used to sleep.
I told you no. Later, you would tell me that you
were glad I said it because it kept me mysterious
and much later I wish I would have said yes.
There is no mystery to me--only an open wound,
on which you poured salt over and over and over.AN ORIGINAL © MELANIE COLE @ 2025
Harinath👍✨
Usually, But,
Usually, I feel your presence in the room.
But this evening, something is different —
I feel like crying.
Tears turned to words,
pain learned to speak.
I stand where silence broke,
heart trembling, yet alive —
burning, wild, unbound again.AN ORIGINAL © HARINATH B. @ 2025
Tanja Harej
Now I Am Home
She touches me, and goosebumps ignite.
I feel every stroke, every movement, every tender sound.
She whispers in my ear, and blood rushes through my veins.
Like a packed highway pulsing with traffic.
Like a race in a super sports car.
My heart pounds as if it might burst from my chest.
Because my heart wants to reach her.
It longs for her warmth, it craves her touch. It refuses to be alone. Because her touch is a safe haven. A shelter from myself. Because she doesn’t just touch my skin – she touches my soul. She is my refuge and my safety net.
With her I feel home, wrapped in safety.
I rest in her warm and infinite depth,
as if in the arms of eternity.
Now I am home.AN ORIGINAL © TANJA HAREJ @ 2025
Rashida Beal
Snap
They said it was my ACL
But along with it
Broke my heartAN ORIGINAL © RASHIDA BEAL @ 2025
Outtamydamnmind
And What I,
After the quiet, I shatter
words I want to say,
movements I want to make,
feelings rolling like fire through me,
holding, letting go, reaching, waiting,
alive in the space between what is
and what I ache to be.AN ORIGINAL © OUTTAMYDAMNMIND @ 2025
Glen Woods
I Once Thought,
I feel the pain of the daily cost
paid for years of abuse to my body.
I feel the confusion from the toll
the tumor takes on my brain.
I feel the loss of people
I once believed in.
I feel the absence of the things
I once thought were important.
I feel the support of those
who truly love me.
I feel the joy for the people
who possess my heart.
I feel the belief in second chances.
I feel the gratitude
that this is now my life.AN ORIGINAL © GLEN WOODS @ 2025HIGHLIGHTS — ZINE O1 — FIRELIGHT
“From our first zine — FIRELIGHT — All the Hope we carry in the Dark”
Planet Ral © 2025Upgrading to paid grants you full access to Planet Ral’s creative orbit: exclusive editorial issues, magazines, literary community forums, special guest features, upcoming zines, and the verticals yet to come. Orbit with us🌍
Kelly Trost
Beyond Measure
I feel like this day is one day in many
But this day is a treasure beyond measure
I feel like tomorrow may seem a lifetime away
But tomorrow is a treasure beyond measure
I feel like yesterday may tease and tempt me
with a maze of memories, a labyrinth of lies,
But yesterday, if honored, is a treasure
…A treasure beyond measureAN ORIGINAL © KELLY TROST @ 2025
Devo/Murphy Carpenter
Two Hours Last Night
Lost tire, reaching for unattainable goals
Sleep a mystery yet unfolds
Two hours last night,
nine the one before
I’m afraid to drive
I’ll skip this chore
My nemesis has returned
To plague me watch me burn
But I have hope,
kindness and love
It’s hard right now,
but I will rise aboveAN ORIGINAL © DEVO MURPHY CARPENTER @ 2025
Adrian Fulle
Ancient, Alive
Joy rises in brilliant streaks
as dawn through the pines,
a pulse beneath the moss,
the breath between stones.
It does not shout,
it hums, ancient, alive,
as if the mountain remembers my name,
and for a moment,
I belong entirely to the earth.AN ORIGINAL © ADRIAN FULLE @ 2025
Eljon de Ocampo
Resilience
We rise from each stumble with new strength in our stride,
For mistakes are our teachers walking close by our side;
Though yesterday faltered, today we start again,
With courage in our hearts and hope that will not bendAN ORIGINAL © ELJON DE OCAMPO @ 2025
Allan P Trottier
My Own Heart
Weary, I wander through the hush of my own heart,
alone, yet not unloved.
Even the dimmest flame remembers how to glow,
and I, too, will remember.AN ORIGINAL © ALLAN P. TROTTIER @ 2025HIGHLIGHTS — ZINE O1 — FIRELIGHT
“From our first zine — FIRELIGHT — All the Hope we carry in the Dark”
Planet Ral © 2025Upgrading to paid grants you full access to Planet Ral’s creative orbit: exclusive editorial issues, magazines, literary community forums, special guest features, upcoming zines, and the verticals yet to come. Orbit with us🌍
Elisa Affanato
Dear Hearted October
Overture that is October
sounds in quiet blue twilight,
proposing a softer season.
Summer has closed its eyes to sleep;
silent musings shift inward,
transformation blooms in purple flowers.
A sense of irony emanates in warmth
felt in thoughts of colder monthsAN ORIGINAL © ELISA AFFANATO @ 2025
Mark Armstrong
The Endless Cycle
You have cut me, and I bleed
My life runs out and pools upon the ground
You laugh as I die, and your cruelty rings in my ears
Then all sensation dims, and I am lost to utter darkness
Once I stood firm, invincible and resolute
I walked in the sun and feared no one
I was filled with hopes and dreams, but you have smothered them
You have blotted out my life, and I am seen no more
Yesterday I gleamed and flashed with youthful confidence
I cut through life with joy, and carved a righteous path
But you have smashed me, my jaws are shattered and broken
I lie here under your obscene weight, gasping out my last breath
And so it goes, On and on.
Rock, paper, and scissors
Trapped in an endless cycle
Of victimhood and self-obsessionAN ORIGINAL © MARK ARMSTRONG @ 2025
Hera Morgan
Walls Of My Bedroom
A yawning dog stretches out at my feet
Thoughts expanding, ever outward, on repeat
Morning light dapples the walls of my bedroom
A new day beckons me onward like a sweet perfumeAN ORIGINAL © HERA MORGAN @ 2025
Wildwood Writer
Anatomy Of Empathy
I wake with the world lodged in my throat,
the starving child, the drowned city,
the mother’s empty hands.
Everything bruises me.
Even sunlight feels guilty
for landing on my skin.
I want to turn myself off,
unplug this trembling machine of empathy,
but my heart keeps swallowing headlines
like pills too large to die from.AN ORIGINAL © WILDWOOD WRITER @ 2025
Stacy Adair-Hixson
Wonder
The leaves that scatter in the breeze
Their colors
So vibrant
I stare
And marvel
enraptured
By the beauty
That is fallAN ORIGINAL © STACY ADAIR-HIXSON @ 2025HIGHLIGHTS — ZINE O1 — FIRELIGHT
“From our first zine — FIRELIGHT — All the Hope we carry in the Dark”
Planet Ral © 2025Upgrading to paid grants you full access to Planet Ral’s creative orbit: exclusive editorial issues, magazines, literary community forums, special guest features, upcoming zines, and the verticals yet to come. Orbit with us🌍
Waving From A Distance
Handmade Paper
I feel like I am...
delicate pages faded,
and with time forgotten.
Like thin sheets of handmade paper,
my edges beginning to crumble.AN ORIGINAL © WAVING FROM A DISTANCE @ 2025
Joakim Blytt
Smelled Like Yellow
I remember roots I never saw,
whispering beneath the road that left without me.
Buildings rose like promises I could never keep.
I learned the shape of light before faces,
the hum of greatness before warmth.
Maybe I was the dark one all along
smiling at a mirror that mistook me for someone better.
Still, I kept searching for what smelled like yellow
for the magic no one else could see.AN ORIGINAL © JOAKIM BLYTT @ 2025
V S Uma
State Of My Mind
My feelings are like ripples in a pond
when pebbles are thrown —
expanding endlessly, disturbed by unseen hands.
Like violent tidal waves before a storm,
a cyclone, a tsunami —
restless, rising, unpredictable.
I feel insecurities, sadness, confusion, anger,
hopelessness, anxiety, and stress
all colliding within me.
Like a chaotic traffic jam
with no space to move,
like a cord of wood on weary shoulders
with nowhere to unload.
My heart feels heavy,
burdened with melancholy —
a silent ache seeking calm.AN ORIGINAL © V S UMA @ 2025
Asili
Memories Between Us
In my dreams, I am restless, but my wake is even more of a misery, for indeed I weave memories in solitude and in a crowd too. I always find myself in need of saving — saving from myself. I ask you to embrace me, ease this drumming of my heart; forever overwhelmed in loneliness.
How is it you are a stranger, yet the only one who knows and shares my darkest moments? Youth is quite the deceit, and we were just hopeless.
I cannot explain how close we were - you as me and I as you, an unbelievable tale for our future.AN ORIGINAL © ASILI @ 2025
Alana Foy
Threshold
We are dreamers wearing bones,
learning the art of remaining—
even when the wind asks us
to scatter.AN ORIGINAL © ALANA FOY @ 2025
Kristine Dubuque
And Miracles,
Chatter AND Silence
Whole AND Broken
Beginnings AND In Progress
Bruising AND Healing
Anxious AND Calm
Unimageable AND Miracles
Absence AND AdaptingAN ORIGINAL © KRISTINE DUBUQUE @ 2025HEAD OVER TO PART II — “THE TIDES”
After “The Waves,” the feeling continues — drift over to Part II: "The Tides" for the second pulse of Issue 15. The orbit isn’t done moving yet 🌎PLANET RAL — FEELINGS PLAYLIST 🎵
A soundtrack for The Waves & The Tides. For your feelings.
Issue XV in audio form — 19 Songs.
ZINE O1 — FIRELIGHT — VIEW HERE
LATEST ISSUE — 14 — VIEW HERE
ZINE 02 — FLAGSHIP ISSUE 16
THEME: RENAISSANCE
ON: HOPE, REBIRTH, REDISCOVERY, NEW ERA, RENEWAL, HISTORY, CULTURE & POWERWe’re opening 33 slots for 33 contributors. Match your creativity to one of the 33 items on our contributor menu — text, art, visuals, lists, playlists, comics, micro-stories, letters, and more.Secure Your Spot! This form allows you to select a specific topic for your submission in the next issue of the Planet Ral Zine.
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Wow! Thank you, Ral! What an honour to be featured among such deeply moving and powerful voices. This issue of FEELINGS is truly something special,,soft, bold, human, and full of heart. Thank you for creating this breathtaking space for us to share the waves and tides of what it means to feel. I’m so grateful to be part of it. You are amazing, thank you for all that you do, and all that you are. Congratulations to all! 🥰🥹❤️🫶🏻✨️🎉
This is incredible work once again Ral, love the corresponding artwork too! Can’t wait to dive in - thanks for including my piece!