Poemeleon's New Issue

Good news: The latest issue of Poemeleon is now online and it's a beauty. Meticulously edited by Cati Porter, this journal has quickly become a force to be reckoned with. If you haven't yet checked it out, do not delay doing so. Devoted to the persona poem, this issue is filled with voices and surprising revelations.

Diana Adams offers two stunning poems in the voice of Frankenstein—"Frank, The Error of Days" and "Frankenstein's Ice Mirror." The second poem begins with these snazzy lines:

The left orb protrudes
but the right's a diamond,
it captures riverwords,
dwells on velvet faces
on turned earth and chittering trees.

Deborah Bogen is a poet whose work I've read in a number of journals and am always happy to meet again. Who could resist this title: "Pastor Jackson Attends the Grateful Dead Concert"? Her two persona poems prompted me to jot down the title of her book, Landscape with Silos, on my To Order Soon list.

Pat Fargnoli, Poet Laureate of New Hampshire, has three poems in this issue. One, "The Questions of Bluebeard's Wife," is particularly interesting as it consists of a series of questions. "Undertaker’s Wife" left me breathless as the speaker talks about being touched at night by the hands that all day have touched the bodies of the dead.

Be sure to read David Graham's multi-part poem, "I Call to Remembrance My Song in the Night," a poem written in the voice of his late father-in-law. The poet performs the difficult job of imagining and expressing someone else's struggle with Alzheimer's.

So far, I'm not quite halfway through the issue, thus the absence from my list of people with names later in the alphabet. But this should give you powerful motivation to take a trip on over to Poemeleon. Also, the introductory comments by each poet about the experience of writing persona poems are fascinating and instructive.

Of course, I'm also excited about this issue because there's a lovely review by Ingrid Wendt of my book, What Feeds Us.

Now I'm on the look-out for appropriate subjects for a persona poem or two of my own.



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