AS IF we didn't need more proof, the new issue of The Lyric is out (Volume 81, No. 2). In it OUR Deborah Warren is awarded the magazine's quarterly prize with the judge's comment "a marvel of nonobtrusive metrics and rhyme...". And to think she was just a grant-to-grant free verse poet when she found us! (not actually true, but a good story nonetheless). The issue also highlights the considerable talents of OUR Jennifer Reeser and OUR C.G. McDonald, who were executives for the trade association representing unemployed and underemployed MFA's when they found Able Muse and realized that their lives up until that point were pointless (also not true, but an even better story!). Congratulations to this talented trio, and I hope it causes some of you to check out The Lyric, an august but cheap ($12 for four issues annually) journal which publishes some of our finest formal poets, but is also open to beginners and very kind to them.

Michael, thank you! Surprisingly enough, Ms. Warren and I are also together in the most recent number of 'The Lamp-Post: Journal of the Southern California C. S. Lewis Society.'

I've added one of those poems from 'The Lyric' to my webpage, along with one each from the recent issues of Blue Unicorn and Pivot, for any and all who care for free poetry, of a sort:
http://www.geocities.com/jdreeser

Jennifer