WhimsyLand

Junie inside the church in the woods.

Where was I?  Oh, yeah, talking about the recent Poetry.   I liked David Biespiel's Citizen David well enough.  Hey, there's Laura Kasischke again, this from I am the coward who did not pick up the phone:  "..//I am the ox which drew the cart full of urgent messages straight into the river, emerging none the wiser on the opposite side, ...".  Then, some translations from Latin by Richard Wilbur.  Lucia Perillo's Early Cascade mainly about a tomato, but quite a bit more I surmise ("The miser is accused by her red sums").  Susan Hutton with a couple, this from Atmospherics: "..//Not spider nor plum nor pebble possess any of the names we give them").  Landis Everson with what appears to be a trio of Valentine poems.  Thomas Sayers Ellis with a diverting Or, : "Or Oreo, or / worse.  Or ordinary. / Or your choice / of category ".  Small, tight verse by Jean Monahan.  Lots of Gottfried Benn, at last, all translations from the German by Michael Hofmann (why isn't Claudia doing this kind of thing?), this from Syntax:  "We all have the sky, and love, and the grave, / that's not at issue, / that's  been chewed over and done to death in illustrated lecture-series."  Michael Hofmann graciously explains the whole Benn Thing for us.  W. S. Piero contributes Semba!: A Notebook which was pretty diverting ("Losing your way in writing is good and bad.").  Danielle Chapman discusses The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks, also well worth reading.  The Letters To The Editor are the usual bitching, moaning, and one-upmanship.

I've got at least 5 more publications to tell you about, including the latest Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, the Time with Barack Obama on the cover, the Journal of the Academy of American Poets, and Poets & Writers which has Paul Muldoon on the cover looking like an overdressed Irish hitman.

More tomorrow.