After a tough week, it was a pleasure to see a couple more of my epigrams in the new issue of First Things (Paul and Jody took a bunch of them over the summer).

I'm very grateful for their continuing support.

Congrats., Mike. Love epigrams and love your epigrams--I may have to get a submission to that mag.

I see Mike Juster started this thread before I could get around to it. Mike's first poem in the issue is worth quoting, as it comes as welcome relief at the end of a tediously detailed history of the stem-cell debate:

A Stern Warning to Canada

If you want peace,
withdraw your geese.

But the November issue of First Things actually has a bonanza of poems, many by Eratospherians:

Paradise by Samuel Menashe
Wind River Justice by Timothy Murphy
A Stern Warning to Canada by A.M. Juster
Caravel by Wiley Clements
At Lansallos by John Drexel
Revisionism by A.M. Juster
Background Radiation by Amit Majmudar
Singing to the Penguins at the Memphis Zoo by Rob Griffith

All worth a look, yes?

JB

[This message has been edited by Joseph Bottum (edited October 12, 2008).]

My sincere thanks to Paul and Jody for including "Caravel" in this issue of First Things. There could be no more appropriate context than this for an allegory of hope and resurrection. The issue also provides a full-page setting for Tim's powerfully affecting "Wind River Justice."

And there are numerous fascinating articles, especially an appraisal of the political history of stem cell research authored by Jody and Ryan Anderson---as well as a fierce opinion piece by Sally Thomas on the dumbing-down effect of digital devices on the current generation of teenagers.

A great magazine!

G/W

[This message has been edited by Golias (edited October 12, 2008).]

I have primarily published epigrammatic poems in First Things, about ten of them I think, and I am particularly grateful that Jody and Paul gave me a full page for Wind River Justice, which underwent considerable metamorphosis at the Deep End. For the record, I'd been trying to write a blank verse poem for forty years (!), and along came Alan's 60th birthday and this reflection of events on his 37th.

I am unsurprised that Paul took Caravel, Wilbur's clear favorite from the May bake-off, another poem that benefited considerably from being deep-ended. No big changes, just fine tuning of wooden-ship lingo.

[This message has been edited by Tim Murphy (edited October 15, 2008).]