January 2008
Dear Friends,
The Poetry Porch is assembling materials now for the next issue. Response in 2007 was enthusiastic,
delivering an abundance of good works from many parts of the world. We are looking again for energetic poems
that show attention to content as well as craft. These may follow traditional forms or make a clear break with
them. We are also interested in essays to continue our discussion of poetical subjects as well as poetry.
In the past we published prose that focused on an established author, discussed the writing process, reworked a
myth, interviewed a contemporary writer, and investigated thematic interpretations across a series of works.
We will also consider reviews.
It has been my long-range plan to host a series of reviews on The Poetry Porch pages. While more and
more books of poetry are being published all the time, it seems that only a handful are ever seriously reviewed.
If you have an idea about a book that has not gotten the attention it deserves, that has received attention
inadequate to its ambitions, or that has received attention too much about the person rather than the poetry
itself, please query by March 15.
The new issue of The Poetry Porch should be online by mid-May. Until then, I hope we get a lot more snow.
I know that many of you are writing productively during these winter months. I invite you to submit original,
unpublished poems and prose to The Poetry Porch. OPEN THEME. We will also consider original sonnets to
add to The Sonnet Scroll. Please include a brief biographical statement. Deadline: March 31, 2008.
Best wishes,
Joyce Wilson
In Memoriam:
Sarah Hannah,
“A hybrid whirr—half bird, half bee—she hovers”
(from “The Riddle of the Sphinx Moth,” Inflorescence)
Liam Rector,
“I picked up this horn one morning,
And it played me until I was away.”
(from “We Should Not Let Munich Slip Away,” American Prodigal)
Anthony Hecht,
“The brass andirons caught a shaft of light
For twenty minutes in the late afternoon
In a radiance dimly akin to happiness—
The dusty gleam of temporary wealth.”
(From “Memory,”The Darkness and the Light)
Joyce Wilson, Editor, The Poetry Porch, 158 Hollett Street, Scituate, MA 02066 jpwwilson@earthlink.net