Stirring after long slumber...
 

Those of you who know me well know that I have been for a long time in a nonprolific period for original work and for about five years have mostly done translations and a few fixer-uppers from the distant past. Semiretirement has been good, though, and I have three poems that I started in the past year that will be coming out before long: "Autoimmune Attack" in Southwest Review; "The Devil in the Details" in First Things; and "Concession to My Colleague" in Light.

The revived Light (thank you Melissa!) will also include my essay " 'Casey at the Bat' and its Long Postgame Show." It will include poems by the author of Casey that have not been printed in well over a century --although in most cases, blessedly so. "Casey at the Bat" will be 125 years old in twelve days.

I love "Casey at the Bat". It is one of the first poems I learned by heart when I was a kid. There were many people I knew who could recite it all. It is rollicking. I certainly don't want to miss that essay, so I'd better subscribe.

It's all good news. Big congratulations.

You can contribute (and people here should), but it will be free online in the new incarnation of Light. The first relaunched issue (with "Casey") should be up in July.

Great news, to know that Light will be online in July! I look forward to your Casey at the Bat essay. I did not know that the author had written other poems.

It will be helpful to the future of the new no-subscription Light to drive web traffic to the site to impress advertisers, so if you know of sites interested in 19th century baseball, light verse, 19th century poetry, The Harvard Lampoon, William Randolph Hearst, Ambrose Bierce, the city of Worcester, or any of the artistic endeavors (including an opera and a Disney film) based on Casey or, for that matter, any other subject discussed in the essay, please be an aggressive but polite advocate for Light and ask those sites to link to the essay.

We would be grateful in a time of angst.

Heavens, I never even knew "Casey" had an author. I'll be interested to see what else he wrote!

Congratulations on retirement. I'm sure you don't want to be involved with the IRS just at present.

Mike, Congratulations on these future publications. I'll never forget my 9th grade English teacher having the class recite "Casey at the Bat" together. I'll never forget the awful feeling in the pit of my stomach when we got to that last stanza. Casey deserved his fate, but it was too bad for the fans.

Congrats on all those pubs, Michael. And on waking up! I'm curious about that essay...

Charlotte

Good to hear you're getting back to it, Mike. Congrats on the pubs.

David R.