A mournful and poetic tale of wartime death and release

Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows. 
In the great hour of destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows. 
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win  
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.

I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,   
Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,
And mocked by hopeless longing to regain   
Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
And going to the office in the train.
- Dreamers, Siegfried Sassoon (1918)

Read Sprigs and Kindling Volume 6 here.

Editor-In-Chief
Amanda Mullins

Layout Artists
Alexander Thomas Guy Coursolle
Aaron Burkett
Ryan Yokle

Chief Copy Editor
Rebecca Hall

Deputy Editor
J. Carter

Editing/Layout
Bjorn Ove Asperem , Darren Brockes,
Kim Dalton, Dorian T. Hawkins,
Robert Merkel, Gabriel Robinson,
Clint Smith

Disclaimer
Sprigs and Kindling is not affiliated
with Gauntlet Publishing or Jason
Cordova but is published with
permission.

AI Statement
Sprigs and Kindling is
against the use of
generative AI in creative
works.

If you think we have accidentally
included AI-generated content please
contact us at sprigsandkindling
@gmail.com.

Image Credits
Cover Page Illustration: Rapidpunches
Cover Masthead: Mike Martens
Unless noted otherwise, images are
provided under a no attribution
licence from vecteezy.com, free licence
from unsplash.com, and public
domain (creative commons.org.)

For more (including 3 images), view the original article.

A pulp science fiction Incursion of strangeness and survival

The configuration of the skies had changed beyond all recognition; the Signs were no longer those that are known to terrestrial astronomers; far-off stars had leapt into blazing suns and had faded back to stars; and there had been a flying glimpse of stranger planets. And year by year the cold terror of the endless deeps, the vertiginous horror of untold infinitude, had crept like a slow paralysis upon the souls of the crew; and a nostalgia for the distant earth had swept them with unutterable sickness; till they could bear it no longer, and had made their hasty, ill-planned attempt to secure control of the vessel and turn it homeward.

- Clark Ashton Smith, Marooned in Andromeda, 1930

Read Sprigs & Kindling Volume 5 (2025) in full here.

Editor-In-Chief
Amanda Mullins

Chief Layout Artist
Alexander Thomas Guy Coursolle

Chief Copy Editor
Rebecca Hall

Deputy Editor
J. Carter

Layout Artist
Arthur Wells

Editing/Layout
Valentin Gerber, Jack Hargreaves, Chaotic Jamgochian, Mike Martens, Nicolas Ronvel, Jesse Ross, Brian Sago, Michael Van Vleet

Sprigs & Kindling is not affiliated withHedgemaze Press, Gauntlet Publishing, or Jesse Ross, but is published with permission.

Trophy™ is a trademark of Hedgemaze Press. The trademark and “Designed for Trophy” Logo are © Hedgemaze Press, and are used with permission.

AI Statement
Sprigs & Kindling is against the use of generative AI in creative works.

For more (including 4 images), view the original article.