[W.F. Lantry]

Hey, folks,

The latest issue of The Wallace Stevens Journal is out, themed to discussions of the intersections between Stevens and Henry James. The poetry section is led off by a nice piece from sometime Spherian Rachel Hadas, who blended together lines from Stevens and Portrait of a Lady. It really is quite well done.

And, to top it all off... drumroll, please....

They've allowed a barbarian to clamber over the iron gates! Yes, yours truly has a piece in there, combining a Stevens-like approach:

"... the windy lakes and long imaginings
of cloudy peaks and clear peninsulas..."

with some lines taken from a doubly obscure book of James' essays (Picture and Text), and turned into actual pentameter. It was not done with ease, but it was worth the effort.

Orwn will be deeply disappointed to discover that it's four stanzas of six lines each. Sorry, Orwn, next time I'll try to throw a knuckleball, I promise. But right now, I feel like I just threw a big beautiful sweeping curve, and got to watch it glide and settle perfectly into the catcher's mitt.

I would be remiss if I didn't thank my darling bride. She found the announcement, wouldn't let me come home until I'd written something, sent it off, dealt with the proofreading, etc., etc. Thank you, Darling!

We, all of us, have so many daily disappointments and frustrations. Then things like this happen. Hurrah!

Thanks,

Bill

[Maryann Corbett]

Worthy of celebration, Bill. Congratulations.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Hurrah, indeed. Sigh, wouldn't it be nice to have a Kate?

But if I had one, it would be necessary to be able to be worthy of her.

Dream on, Janice. Congratulations to you both.

[Steve Bucknell]

Slightly disappointed to find that this thread turns out not to be a discussion of the intersections between Rachel Stevens and Wallace Stevens but congratulations to you Bill. Rachel Hadas is a fine poet, and the Journal sounds impressive. The intersections theme sounds a good idea for a Bakeoff : how about Larkin/Salinger? Any more ideas?

[Janice D. Soderling]

It is the Accomplished Members forum and a place where congrats are often given. But I agree that an "intersections" discussion is worthy.

Why not start one, Steve, at say, Musing on Mastery.

[Adam Elgar]

Seconding that, Steve. Interesting ideas.
And congratulations to you, Bill. Great stuff!

[W.F. Lantry]

Originally Posted by Janice D. Soderling

Hurrah, indeed. Sigh, wouldn't it be nice to have a Kate?

But if I had one, it would be necessary to be able to be worthy of her.

Janice,

I'm not sure *anyone* could be worthy of her. I certainly am not. Look what she's done: she told me, on my birthday last year, "If you write a poem every day, I'll send them out, and we'll see what happens." Um, OK. And since June 1st, she's placed over 50 poems. In print or online, here or abroad, typeset or as audio file, nothing phases her. And all this, starting from a position of knowing nothing of poetry, or the publishing world, or the poetry community. It's amazing. Especially given that I'd published nothing in over a decade.

There's an old saying about Ginger Rogers. "She did everything that Fred Astaire did. But she did it all backwards. And she did it in heels!" That's Kate. And she looks fabulous while she's doing all this!

I think there's pretty general agreement all this success has very little to do with the quality of the verse in question. I can't actually explain her success. I'll see her preparing some submission for someplace, and I'll exclaim "We'll never get into that journal!" She just says "Trust in Mary." Um, OK. I've even seen her whisper a little prayer, and then click the send button. I can't explain it, but it works, more often then not. Whether it's Mary, or the Goddess, or the Muse, or whoever, I have no idea, but she must have some kind of inside track. None of that stuff ever worked for *me*!

So, yes, Janice, *everyone* should have a Kate. Sadly, there's only one. And thank goodness she's mine!

Thanks,

Bill