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1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

In our prose series this week, we present "The Poetry Gym" by Tony Roberts, from PN Review, a review of A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry, by Robert Hass, and The Poem is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them, by Stephen Burt.

Look for it here.

Enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller

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2. Sponsor Messages

 Wake Forest University Press proudly announces our fall titles.
David Wheatley’s The President of Planet Earth brings an experimental sensibility to bear on questions of land and territory, channeling the messianic ambitions of modernism into rich and subversive comedy. Frank Ormsby, in The Darkness of Snow, covers vast territory in five parts, from meditations on art to insightful poems on life with disease. And in his eleventh collection, Angel Hill, Michael Longley explores familiar Irish landscapes as well as vignettes from the Western Scottish Highlands. http://wfupress.wfu.edu/

 Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway
January 13-16, 2017, Atlantic City area, NJ. Presented by Murphy Writing of Stockton University. 24th year!

Featuring Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn and Sharon Olds. Join us for small, intensive workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and memoir. Enjoy challenging and supportive sessions, insightful feedback and an encouraging community. Scholarships available. Register early and save: www.stockton.edu/wintergetaway

 SHENANDOAH Seeking New Editor
Shenandoah Editor and Visiting Assistant Professor of English

The Department of English at Washington and Lee University invites applications for a three-year position beginning Fall 2018, with a possibility of renewal.
Closes: Oct 11, 2017

http://shenandoahliterary.org/blog/2017/08/shenandoah-seeking-new-editor/

 ellipsis...literature and art
Accepting submissions until November 1. Honoraria and a prize judged by Srikanth Reddy. https://ellipsis.submittable.com/submit

 Palm Beach Poetry Festival
January 15-20, 2018, Delray Beach, Florida 
Deadline to apply for workshops: November 10
Workshops, readings, interview, gala and performance events with Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Chard deNiord, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ross Gay, Rodney Jones, Phillis Levin, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Tim Seibles. Admission is by application. For more information, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org or email [email protected]

 2017 UNT Rilke Prize
Wayne Miller's Post-, published by Milkweed Editions, has won the 2017 UNT Rilke Prize. The $10,000 prize recognizes a book written by a mid-career poet and published in the preceding year that demonstrates exceptional artistry and vision. 

The judges also selected three finalists for this year's Rilke Prize: Christopher Bakken's Eternity & Oranges (University of Pittsburgh Press), Ruth Ellen Kocher's Third Voice (Tupelo Press), and Dana Levin's Banana Palace (Copper Canyon Press).

 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.

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3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• Sinead Morrisey talks about her book On Balance, winner of the Forward Prize. (Belfast Telegraph)
• John McAuliffe reviews new collections by Elaine Cosgrove, John Murphy, Joan McBreen, and Trevor Joyce. (The Irish Times)
• Rebecca Foust introduces "These Bones," by Kathi Stafford. (Women's Voices for Change)
• David Roderick presents an excerpt from Javier Zamora's "To Abuelita Neli." (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Patrick Mackie on Ashbery's "openness, errancy, and faithfulness." (Paris Review Daily)
• Luc Sante on John Ashbery. (The New York Review of Books)
• Frank B. Farrell reviews The Songs We Know Best: John Ashbery’s Early Life, by Karin Roffman. (Commonweal)
• And more...

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4. New Arrivals

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

• Late Empire, Lisa Olstein (Copper Canyon Press)
• Killing Summer, Sarah Browning (Sibling Rivalry Press)
• Felicity, Mary Oliver (Penguin)
• Ardor, Tina Kelley (Jacar Press)
• In Case of Sudden Free Fall, Deborah Bogen (Jacar Press)
• Ultra Deep Field, Ace Boggess (Brick Road Poetry Press)
• Leaves Surface Like Skin, Michelle Menting (Terrapin Books)
• Crossing the Waters, Norita Dittberner-Jax (Nodin Press)
• Little Eternities, Sharon Chmielarz (Nodin Press)
• The New York Editions, Michael D. Snediker (Fordham 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 - Cintia Santana
Tuesday - Benjamin S. Grossberg
Wednesday - Wesley McNair
Thursday - Michelle Brittan Rosado
Friday - Peter Cooley
Saturday - Alison Jarvis
Sunday - Ghassan Zaqtan / tr. Fady Joudah

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6. Featured Poets September 12, 2017 - September 24, 2017

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

Monday - David Ferry
Tuesday - D. Nurkse
Wednesday - Meghan O'Rourke
Thursday - Catherine Owen
Friday - Clea Roberts
Saturday - Nancy Chen Long
Sunday - Rory Waterman

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7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

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

Jane Mead, Three Poems
Alfonsina Storni / tr. by Nicholas Friedman, "To Eros"
Randolph Thomas, "Living Alone"
W. S. Merwin, "The Present"
Adam Fitzgerald, "Oregon Trail"
William Logan, "Bad Uncle"
April Bernard, "Bloody Mary"

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8. Poem From Last Year

The Present

As they were leaving the garden 
one of the angels bent down to them and whispered

I am to give you this 
as you are leaving the garden

I do not know what it is 
or what it is for 
what you will do with it

you will not be able to keep it 
but you will not be able

to keep anything 
yet they both reached at once

for the present 
and when their hands met

they laughed

W. S. Merwin
Garden Time
Copper Canyon Press

Copyright © 2016 by W. S. Merwin
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission