Poet Lore and Grace Cavalieri

One journal that I consistently like is Poet Lore. I recently finished reading the Fall/Winter issue. I always read this journal cover to cover. I like it because it's always packed with good poetry, has one or two terrific essays, and offers a handful of book reviews. Poems I especially admire in this issue are by Tim Mayo, Nin Andrews, and Gardner McFall who is introduced by Jane Shore. Nancy Mitchell's review of Dzvinia Orlowsky's Convertible Night, Flurry of Stones prompted me to immediately order the book. It awaits me at my kitchen table.

I was fascinated by Grace Cavalieri's essay, "Poetry in—and on—the Air." The essay presents a historical account, going back to 1970, of Cavalieri's work with bringing the spoken word to the air waves. The essay is intriguing because it provides a behind-the-scenes' view of how radio has changed, how poetry has changed, and how the teaching of poetry has changed. Then it focuses on "The Poet and the Poem," the radio interviews and readings that have made Cavalieri such a valued member of the poetry community. If my math is not too off, she's done close to 2000 of these programs. You can hear some of them at Cavalieri's website. Under the link for "The Poet and the Poem: Interviews and Readings form the Library of Congress," you'll find audios for such poets as Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, and David Tucker (a New Jersey poet and newspaper man). Under the link for "Innuendoes" and "On Location," you'll find such poets as Billy Collins, Jane Hirshfield, and Donald Hall. There's also a link for Interviews with Poets Laureate. There you'll find the text of those interviews. What a wonderful resource to have available to us!