The next issue of Able Muse will 1) feature a number of guest editors in all areas, and 2) attempt to feature as many Eratosphereans as possible in these areas … even including an Sphere-centric contest. With that, I’m pleased to invite the submissions on behalf of the guest editors. The pertinent details follow. In all cases, the submission guidelines for Able Muse are online here. The deadline for all submissions indicated below is May 1, 2009.

POETRY

1. To begin with, I have asked

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"From A Very Little Sphinx"
-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Come along in then, little girl!
Or else stay out!
But in the open door she stands,
And bites her lip and twists her hands,
And stares upon me, trouble-eyed;
'Mother,' she says, 'I can't decide!'


Dear Poets,

With only five days left until the bake-off sonnet submission deadline, already I am having to make some very tough decisions....

Into the golden vessel of great song
Let us pour all our passion; breast to breast
Let other lovers lie, in love and rest;
Not we, - articulate, so, but with the tongue
Of all the world . . . Edna St. Vincent Millay

In a half-forgotten box in my parents’ attic, there is an old black and white photograph of my sister Debby and me sitting on the lawn of the Vassar College campus, Poughkeepsie, NY, circa 1954. On the back of the picture, my mother wrote those...

Good morning!

So far, I have received a variety of sonnet forms, including the Sicilian, Petrarchan, Shakespearean, and Spenserian. Various meters, rhymed, unrhymed; voltas all over the place or non-existent. I've even received one double sonnet (which is OK as the double sonnet is a recognized form where two sonnets together form a single poem).

I just wanted to make it clear that these forms are acceptable for the bake-off, as would be a caudate or curtal, should...

In answer to a submitter's question on protection from Google, Alex has been kind enough to inform me:

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