This is a preposterous exercise in Solomonic Judgment, worse than picking 12 sonnets for the Bake-off! I'm going to ask Dick to discuss poems by eight of our members with whose work I expect him to be utterly unfamiliar (which rules out many of us). Cherryburn by Clive Watkins, Night Train by Shekhar Aiyar, Evening Benediction by Oliver Murray, Cervantes' Death In Life, tr. by Roger Slater, Wild Immanuel by John Beaton, The True Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes by Richard Wakefield, The Water Bearer by David Anthony, and Hic! by Jim Hayes. In making these choices I am seeking a wide range of matter and method. Given the central concern of Dick's recent work, I am favoring poems that raise Christian concerns. And I have sought poems of surpassing merit.
PS. Just noticed that only two of our poets are American. The notion that we are all in instantaneous contact, all over the English-speaking world, will astonish our distinguished guest!
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