[Maryann Corbett]

I may be embarassingly late in noting this: Mezzo Cammin's summer issue is up, with a lot of Spherians in it. Sam Gwynn's link to the essay on Elizabeth McFarland (up on Discerning Eye) brought it to my attention, and lo! there are poems by Coe, McLean (I love "Delilah"), and Soderling (whose "Cathedral of St. Nicholas" will make me smile all day). Plus Tiel Aisha Ansari, whom lots of us know from other boards, and several other formalistae whose work I always enjoy.

There must be a way I can sign up to get notified when new issues come out....

[Rose Kelleher]

Yes, there should be a way! Thanks, Maryann. It was nice to read Janice's happy poem and see her big-smile picture. I hate poet-photos where people frown, as if to say, "Don't read my poems! You're not cool enough!"

[Editing in: Susan, your picture's great, too. Lovely background. "Doors" gives me chills (excellent poem!) and the smiling photo somehow makes it even chillier, lol.]


[This message has been edited by Rose Kelleher (edited June 16, 2008).]

[Susan McLean]

Rose, I agree about the poet photos. There seems to be some kind of unwritten rule against poets smiling, if they want to be taken seriously. I think it ties in to the prejudice against light verse, which I also find annoying. I don't believe in playing along with either (though I must admit that after I had my photo taken for the Mezzo Cammin issue, I realized that the grin I had was at odds with the downbeat topics of my poems. But so be it. I may write serious poems, but I am not a gloomy person.

Susan

[Janice D. Soderling]

Thank you Maryann and Rose. That means a lot coming from the both of you.

It was an honor to be in such fine company. Some I feel I know a little via Eratosphere (Susan and Terese), some I feel I know through their poetry (Marilyn Nelson) and others are names I will be alert to in the future.

Kim B. has assembled some fine issues. I sometimes go back and re-read like picking up a book that one especially likes. (And I did this before I ever even submitted, so it is not my own poem I am re-reading )

[Maryann Corbett]

And a propos of this thread, today's Choriamb (choriamb.livejournal.com) links to a Barbara Crooker poem in Mezzo Cammin.

[Terese Coe]

Thanks for posting the news, Maryann--I don't believe it was late at all.

Congrats, Marilyn, Susan, Janice, and Jehanne! I haven't had a chance to read the issue yet--it's been a very busy time for me. BJ Buckley has a familiar face too, so congrats to her as well--have we seen her at WC? Or Gazebo?

I'm very taken with Jane Sutherland's "Little Dancer Aged 14" series after Degas. Divine!

[Marybeth Rua-Larsen]

Terese, Susan and Janice...congratulations. Wonderful poems.