Blog — Half Mystic

Opus II, Issue III is a shattered mirror reflecting the many timbres of light & its lack, the edges of the body dissolving on the lip of gravity.

Topaz WintersJuly 28, 2026

“If there is a god, it probably wants us to make things.” (An Interview With Jaydra Johnson)

I need silence, especially if I’m trying to make work from an egoless place.

“I felt like a hair standing up on the arm of the world.” (Maria Gray on Vesper)

There is something otherworldly about daytime unhinging itself from the necessity of light.

Literature, Music, Personal EssayGuestJuly 20, 2026John Keats, Ocean Vuong, Susan Sontag, Annie Dillard

The Vesper Letters (A Selection)

I never write a poem unless it is a song, and I never write a song unless it is a poem.

“What have we lost in the separation of me from you?” (Jordan Escobar on Vesper)

We don’t have to bruise ourselves to be in love with this process. We can listen to the music and let the evening carry us.

Songs for the Vesper Issue (A Selection)

Venus is rising on Half Mystic Journal. Opus II, Issue III: Vesper sleepwalks to life on July 28th, plucked like a violin string from that quicksand hour before dreaming.

“I keep my eyes open even when I can’t see & call that prayer.” (David Eileen on Vesper)

I gave up the certainty in sunlight, 8 A.M. Sunday service. But aureole, catacomb, vigil, vesper: those have stayed with me.

Personal Essay, MusicGuestJune 16, 2026David Eileen

“There are some songs whose rooms I can walk through for hours.” (An Interview With Matt McBride)

Surreality brings me closer to reality.

“These poems were a map of the ocean I’d crossed.” (Matt McBride on At the Mercy of the Flies)

I wrote as a way to explain the world to myself—to feel like I had some agency, even if my only power was as a witness.

Literature, Music, Personal Essay, PoliticsGuestApril 24, 2026Matt McBride, Donald Trump, Joe Biden

“Songwriting helps me feel my way back into myself.” (An Interview With Savi Kaboo)

Many of my songs are inspired by humanity’s relationship to nature—how we move toward and away from it, and what we lose or find in that process.

Music, InterviewsMia Arias TsangApril 6, 2026Savi Kaboo, Dounia, Lil Peep, Little Simz, Mac Miller, Jorja Smith, Empress Of, Mahalia