Spring Break! Finally a bit of time to sit and read, sit and think, sit and write. The first thing I grabbed this morning was the March 2008 issue of Poetry. I cracked the beautiful spine and began with the first poem “Nights on Planet Earth” by Campbell McGrath. McGrath is a poet I’ve struggled with in the past. Often, there are poets others are enthusiastic whose poetry I cannot get into. So, I was surprised today, when I immediately fell in love with this 3-part poem. Then, to my surprise, the magazine followed up with a mini-Q&A with the poet about the poem. While the poem stands alone, and I admired it before I read McGrath’s comments on it, the comments were insightful and illuminating, opening the poem up again in a different light.
I glanced through the rest of the issue, and it turned out, there is a Q & A with each poet. Nice.
This journal is usually hit or miss for me, but I always find one or two poems that I feel justify the reading of each issue. In this case, many of the poems were hits for me, and I’m so glad to have the time to enjoy them.
