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1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

A first update on our spring fund drive: through Thursday's mail we've received just under $3,000. Thank you, all who have given so far!

If you've not yet given, please help us to remain in service to you and to poetry — make your donation today (and ask your friends-in-poetry to join you in support of Poetry Daily)! We depend more than ever on individual contributions. Every donation makes a difference!

Remember that the Daily Poetry Association (publisher of Poetry Daily) is a 501(c)(3) corporation, and that your contribution is tax deductible. Again, warmest thanks to all!!

Meanwhile: this week our prose series continues with "Cool Pastoral," a review of Peter Parker's Housman Country: Into the Heart of England, by A. E. Stallings (Literary Matters, Issue 10:2):

"The heart of the tome is 'The Man and His Book,' a history of A Shropshire Lad, from its fizzled launch to its phenomenon of popularity, as well as a life of Housman, covered with efficiency and thoroughness; the volume is worth the price for this book-within-a-book alone."

Look for it here.

Enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller

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2. Sponsor Messages

 The Litowitz Creative Writing Graduate Program, MFA+MA
This new dual-degree program at Northwestern University offers intimate classes, the opportunity to complete major projects in both creative and critical writing, and close mentorship by acclaimed creative writing faculty in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction and outstanding scholars. Students will receive full support for three academic years (including two summers) to complete the program, which awards both degrees simultaneously—an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in English.

 Vermont College of Fine Arts MFAs in Writing
Vermont College of Fine Arts offers a traditinal low-residency MFA in Writing program—now celebrating its 35th year—along with a residential MFA in Writing & Publishing program.

 Passager Poetry Contest: Writers Over 50
Deadline: April 15, 2018
Reading fee: $20, check or money order payable to Passager/UB includes a one-year subscription (2 issues). Winner receives $500 and publication. Honorable mentions will be published. Submit 5 poems, 40 lines max. per poem. Cover letter, bio, SASE for results. No previously published work.
Send hard copy or use Submittable. No email submissions. Send to:
Passager Poetry Contest
1420 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

Questions? [email protected]
www.passagerbooks.com

 New Letters Literary Awards
Deadline: May 18, 2018.  New Letters invites submissions to the New Letters Literary Awards. Winners in poetry and fiction receive $1,500 + publication. Essay winner receives $2,500 + publication.  For guidelines, visit http://newletters.org/writers-wanted/writing-contests or send an S.A.S.E. to New Letters, 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110.

 The MacGuffin’s 23rd Poet Hunt Contest
The Hunt is on! The MacGuffin’s 23rd Poet Hunt Contest is now open! One first place winner will get $500 and publication. This year, we’ve brought in Alberto Álvaro Ríos to act as guest judge. There are two ways to enter: submit 3 poems, an index card with your name, poem titles, and contact info, and a $15 check/cash entry fee via post; or submit online by visiting www.schoolcraftbooks.com and selecting “MacGuffin” from the SHOP tab. Full info can be found at www.schoolcraft.edu/macguffin/.

 Sixteen Rivers Press
Sixteen Rivers Press, a Northern California publishing collective, announces the publication of The Language of Forgetting by Lynne Knight and The Cloud Museum by Beth Spencer. Of The Language of Forgetting, Al Young writes: “Lynne Knight’s mindful, lyrical book . . . thrills and intrigues, warns and shares, always in language that catches.” Of The Cloud Museum, Pamela Uschuk writes: “Beth Spencer leads us on a physical and spiritual journey into two worlds. . . . Rich in imagist language, [her] poems transcend simple explanation as they transform us at many levels.”

 2018 Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry
The Beloit Poetry Journal invites submissions for the 2018 Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry to be judged by Naomi Shihab Nye. A prize of $1,500 will be awarded for a single poem, which will appear in the journal. The editors will consider all entries for publication. Submissions open March 1 and close April 30. See www.bpj.org for more details.

 Instant Messages
Instant Messages is a new kind of writing, a mash-up of straightforward and accessible poetry, koan-like brain teasers, the delicate observations of Haiku, surprise one-liners, daily mumbling, text-based art, and aphorisms of penetrating insight. All wrapped together in a common theme: things and experience are “messages,” where meaning awaits. Follow on Instagram!

“Bite-sized wisdom on an invisible stick” —Billy Collins

"Wonderful, surprising, often profound—made me daydream.” —XJ Kennedy

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3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• A "massive, unknown source of Shakespeare's plays:" John Timpane reports. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• "What role can poetry play in our discussion of gun violence?" Adriana E. Ramírez reports. (Los Angeles Times)
• Rebecca Foust introduces "Sin," by Forough Farrokhzad, translated by Jasmin Darznik. (Women's Voices for Change)
• "Second Acts: A Second Look at Second Books of Poetry:" Lisa Russ Spaar continues her series with collections by Gabriel Fried and Tomás Q. Morín. (Los Angeles Review of Books)
• Gregory Cowles notes John Ashbery's They Knew What They Wanted: Poems & Collages, edited by Mark Polizzotti. (The New York Times)
• The Nerve of It: Poems New and Selected, by Lynn Emanuel, reviewed by Suzanne Lummis. (Los Angeles Review of Books)
• Terrance Hayes introduces a poem by Leah Umansky. (The New York Times Magazine)
• And more...

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4. New Arrivals

These new arrivals are available for purchase via Poetry Daily/Amazon.com.

• The Golden Coin, Alan Feldman (University of Wisconsin Press)
• Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense, Jenny Uglow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Public Land, Matthew Sumpter (University of Tampa Press)
• Unearthings, Wendy Chen (Tavern Books)
• DiVida, Monica A. Hand (Alice James Books)
• We, the Almighty Fires, Anna Rose Welch (Alice James Books)
• Brown, Kevin Young (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Night Farming in Bosnia, Ray Keifetz (The Bitter Oleander Press)
• All That Held Us, Henrietta Goodman (BkMk Press)
• Fable of the Pack-Saddle Child, Mia Leonin (BkMk Press)
• Lessons in Camouflage, Martin Ott (C&R Press)
• Yield Architecture, Jake Syersak (Burnside Review Press)
• Hothead: A Poem, Stephen Cushman (Louisiana State University Press)
• Eon, T. R. Hummer (Louisiana State University Press)

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5. This Week’s Featured Poets

The work of the following poets will appear as Today's Poem on the days indicated:

Monday - Carl Dennis
Tuesday - Claudia Emerson
Wednesday - Alan Feldman
Thursday - David Bottoms
Friday - James Merrill
Saturday - Mary Peelen
Sunday -Adam Vines

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6. Featured Poets April 2, 2018 - April 8, 2018

These and other past featured poets may be found in our archive:

Monday - Ellen Bass
Tuesday - Leontia Flynn
Wednesday -Carol Muske-Dukes
Thursday - Major Jackson
Friday - Michael Waters
Saturday - Henry Wei Leung
Sunday - Felicia Zamora

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7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

These poems will be retired from our archive during the coming week.

Rachael Boast, "Pleasant Thought for Morning"
Laura Scott, "and Pierre?"
Michael Chitwood, "Search & Rescue"
Adrian Matejka, Two Poems
Lee Sharkey, "Equations"
Michael Shewmaker, "The End of the Sermon"
Chase Twichell, "A River in Egypt"

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8. Poem From Last Year

and Pierre?

With his ripe face like one of those pale freckled pears
you hold in your hand and his mind shuddering across it

like a bruise – he’s legible to all the world. With his great legs,
broad and strong as the trees, he walks in and out of chapters

smelling of eau de cologne, or an animal that sleeps in a barn.
With his long fingers running across the stubble on his jaw,

he listens to the black Russian rain before he picks up his pen.
With his eyes so blue you’d think he’d drunk the sky down

with all that champagne, he watches the soldiers (red epaulettes
and high boots) drag that boy to the place where they shoot him.

He watches the boy pull his loose coat tight before he sags and slides
down the post. And when it’s all over, he watches them roll him

gently into the hole with the others and before he can look away,
he sees, there in the earth, the boy’s shoulder still moving.

 

Laura Scott
PN Review
March / April 2017

Copyright © 2017 by Laura Scott
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission