I don't subscribe to POETRY but do browse through issues when I am in the library, looking for poets whose work I know I like and for some of the prose pieces. I find the majority of poems in any issue to be uninteresting--at least to me--and I suspect Wiman of practising tokenism toward formalism. That is better than nothing, of course, but not enough to make me want to subscribe. I was irritated to get the impression from Goldbarth's poem in the latest "humor" issue that Wiman is soliciting humorous poems from certain poets instead of actually trying to judge poems that come in by whether or not they are funny. That might explain why there are so few laughs in the humor issues in general. POETRY seems to be trying to have a foot in every camp of contemporary poetry, which may broaden its readership, but also increases the chance that most people will find most issues uneven.
I prefer to support journals that are more open to formalism, so I subscribe to MEASURE, THE DARK HORSE, IAMBS AND TROCHEES, BLUE UNICORN, LIGHT, etc. I figure that I can always browse some of the others in the library or at a good bookstore.
Susan
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