Volume 99, Number 3/4

Volume 99, Number 3/4

These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,
If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing….

—Walt Whitman

Cover Caption: “Skaters,” courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.

 
 
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Editors’ Page

Poet Lore, unlike most literary journals, is proud to publish reviews. We know that many of our readers are poets themselves. Good critics help readers and writers appreciate and apply what separates the remarkable from the mediocre. Perhaps it’s fitting that poems and reviews appear at opposite ends of this journal. Poets synthesize-building a structure from bits and pieces of their conscious and subconscious lives. Reviewers analyze-pulling the structure apart to examine and explain its components. Some poets resent reviews, feeling the analytic process destroys or, at least, diminishes the art. Reviewers have said that careful literary analysis is an act that honors, illuminates and continues the artistic process. From one end to the other, Poet Lore helps you experience poetry from all angles. You can admire the bricks and mortar as well as the handsome buildings we invite you to visit for a while.

 

Poetry

Poems by Jen Bryant, John Randolph Carter, Kelle Groom, Beth Martinelli, Jeff Worley, and others.

 

Poets Introducing Poets

David Wagoner introduces a portfolio of poems by Derek Sheffield.

 

Reviews

The Powers of Heaven and Earth by John Frederick Nims
Without an Alphabet, Without a Face by Saadi Youssef
Clumsy by Claire Bateman
The Orchard by Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Granted by Mary Szybist