[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