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1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

On Tuesday we continue our series of prose features with an excerpt from James Longenbach's The Art of the Poetic Line, just out from Graywolf Press:

"In every case, however the line is shaped, what will matter is not the line as such but the relationship of the line to the poem's syntax—to the unfolding structure of the poem's sentences. That relationship is endlessly various. Short lines or long lines don’t inevitably function in any particular way. A rhyming line doesn't necessarily function differently from a free-verse line. In the end, line doesn’t exist as a principle in itself. Line has a meaningful identity only when we begin to hear its relationship to other elements in the poem."

Look for it on Tuesday on our news page.

We hope you enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller
Editors

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2. Sponsor Messages

Li-Young Lee and Franz Wright at the 92nd Street Y
Come see Li-Young Lee and Franz Wright read at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center! Monday, January 28, 2008, 8:00 pm. Li-Young Lee's books of poetry include Rose, a winner of the Delmore Schwartz Award, and Behind My Eyes. Among Pulitzer Prize-winner Franz Wright's 15 books of poems are The Beforelife, Walking to Martha's Vineyard and God's Silence. 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, NYC. Tickets: $18.00/$10.00 Age 35 and under. Call 212-415-5500 or visit us online...

Spalding University Brief-Residency MFA in Writing
Spalding University offers a four-semester, brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing. At the beginning of each semester, students participate in a 10-day residency, after which they return home to study one on one with a faculty mentor. Students may begin in spring, summer, or fall. The summer residency is abroad (London/Bath, 2008). Spring and fall residencies are in Louisville. Concentrations are offered in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children, screenwriting, and playwriting. mfa@spalding.edu; 800-896-8941x2423

StAnza: Scotland's Poetry Festival
One of the most welcoming festivals runs from 12-16 March in the ancient Scottish town of St Andrews. StAnza: Scotland's Poetry Festival features over 60 poets including Adrian Mitchell, Tess Gallagher, August Kleinzahler, James Fenton, Sarah Maguire and John Burnside. Themed around Poetry & Conflict and Sea of Tongues, this world-class celebration features poets from the UK, Europe, the USA and beyond. Showcasing poetic superstars, talented newcomers and innovative performers, the readings, conversations, masterclasses and cabaret take place in the town’s exciting and atmospheric venues. A unique festival not to be missed.

NYU: Writers in New York
Writers in New York
NYU Creative Writing Program—8 undergraduate credits—June 2-27, 2008

Writers in New York offers poets and fiction writers an opportunity to develop their craft while living the writer's life in Greenwich Village. Students participate in workshops and craft classes, are mentored by professional writers and attend readings by New York-based writers. Students work intensively to generate new writing, study great literary works by other writers and participate in a series of readings, literary tours and special events.

Summer Writers Colony at The New School June 2-20
Fiction • Nonfiction • Poetry • Writing for Children
 
Discover the writer’s life in New York City at The New School’s Summer Writers Colony. Visiting writers include Russell Banks, 2007 National Book Award Finalist Lydia Davis, National Book Critics Circle finalist Major Jackson, Pulitzer prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, Phillip Lopate, Honor Moore, Bruce Coville, and Newbery medal winner Patricia Reilly Giff.
 
Housing is available. Find out more at 212.229.5611 and on our web site....

Passager Poetry Contest For Writers Over 50
Deadline: February 15, 2008
Reading fee: $20, check or money order payable to Passager includes a one-year subscription to Passager (2 issues). Winner receives $300 and publication. Honorable mentions will be published. Submit 3-5 poems, 50 lines max. per poem. Include cover letter, bio, SASE for contest results. No previously published work. No E-mail submissions. Send to:
Passager Poetry Contest
1420 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Questions? passager@saysomethingloudly.com

Colrain & Compleat Poetry Manuscript Conferences
For Poets With a Book-Length Manuscript: first conferences to provide the faculty, connections, and method necessary to set poets with a completed or in-process manuscript on a path towards publication.
 
Faculty includes editors and publishers Jeffrey Levine (Tupelo Press), Martha Rhodes (Four Way Books), Jeffrey Shotts (Graywolf Press), Chase Twichell (Ausable Press), Peter Conners (BOA) and others; workshop leaders include Joan Houlihan (Concord Poetry Center); Frederick Marchant (Suffolk University), Ellen Doré Watson (Smith College), Steven Cramer (Lesley University), Daniel Tobin (Emerson College) and others.

Sawtooth Poetry Prize from Ahsahta Press
C.D. Wright will be the final judge for this year's Sawtooth Poetry Prize from Ahsahta Press. The Prize honors a manuscript of original poetry in English by a single author and carries a $1,500 honorarium upon publication plus 25 copies of the published book. Full entry guidelines are available with an SASE from the address below, or online. Submit manuscripts of 48-100 pages with a $25 entry fee between January 1 and March 1, 2008, to:

Sawtooth Poetry Prize
Ahsahta Press
Boise State University
1910 University Drive, MS 1525
Boise, ID 83725-1525

Last year's winning book, the true keeps calm biding its story, by Rusty Morrison, was selected by Peter Gizzi and is available January 15 from Ahsahta Press.

Four Way Books Intro Prize in Poetry
Four Way Books 2008 Intro Prize in Poetry
Brigit Pegeen Kelly, judge
Publication, $1000 award, reading in NYC
Submit a book-length collection between January 1 and March 31, 2008 via email or post.
$25.00 entry fee
Visit us online for guidelines and entry form.

Tupelo Press Snowbound Series Chapbook Competition
$1,000 and 50 copies of the winning chapbook upon publication by Tupelo.
The judge is Dana Levin.
Submissions should be postmarked by February 15, 2008.  Visit us online for full guidelines.

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3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• John Repp reviews Li-Young Lee's Behind My Eyes. (The Plain Dealer)
• Dan Chiasson reviews The Poem of a Life, A Biography of Louis Zukofsky by Mark Scroggins. (New York Times)
• William Logan reviews Geoffrey Hill's A Treatise of Civil Power. (New York Times)
• Robert Pinsky introduces a poem by Charles Wright. (The Washington Post)
• Andrew O'Hagan appreciates Robert Burns. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Fiona Sampson considers newly published translations of Pierre Jean Jouve (by David Gascoyne) and Arthur Rimbaud (by Alan Jenkins). (Guardian Unlimited)
• An obituary for Maori poet Hone Tuwhare. (The New Zealand Herald)
• Ted Kooser introduces a poem by William Kloefkorn. (American Life in Poetry)
• Eliot Weinberger on Robert Alter's The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. (The Oregonian)

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4. Selected New Arrivals

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

• Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic, Roger Sedarat
• The Art of the Poetic Line, James Longenbach
• Nettles, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, tr. Marilyn Hacker
• In a City You Will Never Visit, Young Smith
• The Dazzling Land, Brigitte Byrd
• Bed of Want, Carine Topal
• An Architecture, Chad Sweeney
• Primitive Mentor, Dean Young

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5. This Week’s Featured Poets

Monday - Catherine Jagoe
Tuesday - Federico García Lorca /tr. Pablo Medina and Mark Statman
Wednesday - Margo Berdeshevsky
Thursday - Jim Harrison
Friday - Page Hill Starzinger
Saturday - Sarah Hannah
Sunday - J. Allyn Rosser

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6. Featured Poets January 14 - January 20, 2008

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

Monday - Carol Frost
Tuesday - George Kalogeris
Wednesday - Deema K. Shehabi
Thursday - Rae Armantrout
Friday - Margaret Rabb
Saturday - Fabio Morábito / tr. Kathleen Snodgrass
Sunday - Timothy Liu

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7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

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

Susan Wood- "The Lord God Returns"
Marvin Bell - "Five to Seven "
Karl Kirchwey - "The War" and "Homecoming"
Averill Curdy- "When I Was Beautiful"
Carmen Bugan - "The Names of Things"
Alan Shapiro - "Country Western Singer"
Steven Cramer - "Self-Portrait with Insomnia, Rocks, and Fireflies"

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8. Poem From Last Year

The War

Having survived the European Theater,
        my father shipped home in July of '45.
Passing through Midtown, he looked up and saw
        something amazing, an Army B-25
protruding from the seventy-ninth floor

of the Empire State Building. What were the odds of that?
        He thought for a moment he'd gone Asiatic
under the pressure of imminent redeployment
        to the East, where he might confidently expect
to be killed as his brother had been. But this was different:

contingency came home with Lt. Col. William Smith,
        decorated for one hundred missions over Germany,
on a milk run to Newark from Bedford, Mass., with
        a couple of riders. This was no kamikaze
attack on a flat-top. In the stone trap and labyrinth

of Manhattan, he got lost and crashed his p***, as if
        he'd been saved through combat only for this:
to show an icon vulnerable, not proof;
        to breach its maze of domestic complacencies
(the offices of Catholic War Relief);

. . .

to die in the bright inferno of a star
        at the behest of an invisible will;
to shake a homeland that presumed too far,
        and rouse it from its dreams of useless skill.
All the rest was just telling a good story.

His widow said the night before, their infant son
        had recognized him for the first time (Hector with Astyanax);
several were caught in a river of burning gasoline;
        one jumped to his death; the elevator brakes
saved one after falling seventy-five floors. An aircraft engine

hurtled clear across to Thirty-third Street
        and dropped onto the roof of a sculptor's penthouse studio,
demolishing the maquette of a work called Pro Patria.
        (The artist was away at the Scarsdale Golf Club, though,
testing a new kind of five-iron he hoped to patent.)

. . .

Archbishop Spellman said the building had been "gored,"
        and with poignant grief, a week before Hiroshima,
he prayed for those whose human hopes lay with the dead.
        My father saw the whole thing as an emblem
of the odds against his ever being spared.

But what am I to make of this later miracle?
        Two pillars of cloud lead us daily,
while fire burns, Solomonic, in the temple,
        unappeased by grief's idolatry.
Here is the war. Where is the enemy?

Karl Kirchwey
The Happiness of This World
G.P. Putnam's Sons

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Copyright © 2007 by Karl Kirchwey. All rights reserved. Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.