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1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

Our prose series continues this week with "John Ashbery (1927-2017)," by Eavan Boland, from Poetry Ireland Review:

"And so, a contradiction emerges, one almost unique in recent poetry. In his love for French poetry, his surreal affinities, Ashbery could appear a member in good standing with the post-modern mandarin group, a stylistic coterie that cared little for audience and resolutely disdained the search for so-called 'meaning'. But in his vernacular style, his superb championship of the common speech, the beautiful music of the familiar phrase that wanders radiantly through his lines, Ashbery emerged as almost the opposite: as one of the great democrats of twentieth-century poetry. The haunting and humane music of his best poems confirms that."

Look for it here...

Enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller

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2. Sponsor Messages

 Vermont College of Fine Arts MFAs in Writing
Vermont College of Fine Arts offers a traditinal low-residency MFA in Writing program—now celebrating its 35th year—along with a residential MFA in Writing & Publishing program.

 MFA in Poetry at Texas State University
The MFA in Poetry at Texas State University offers students the opportunity to work closely with distinguished faculty such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Cyrus Cassells, Cecily Parks, Kathleen Peirce, Roger Jones, and Steve Wilson. Students also learn from internationally known visiting poets, and develop their craft in a supportive and naturally beautiful setting, just 30 minutes from Austin. Assistantships and scholarships are available. The application deadline is January 15th. Please visit our website to learn more, or email us at mfinearts@txstate.edu with any questions.

 Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference
Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, June 1-7, 2018—Specializing in the literary translation of poetry and prose. Award-winning translators Kazim Ali, Susan Bernofsky, Mónica de la Torre, Bill Johnston, and Sora Kim-Russellwill offer introductory and advanced workshops along with an inspiring schedule of readings and lectures all in the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains. See application details at
www.middlebury.edu/blwc/bltc.

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3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• Homer's The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson, reviewed by Josephine Balmer. (New Statesman)
• Maureen McLane's Some Say reviewed by Michael Valinsky. (Hyperallergic)
• In the latest Poetry Podcast, Terrance Hayes joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Matthew Dickman’s poem "Fire" and his own "New York Poem." (The New Yorker)
• Terrance Hayes introduces a poem by Natalie Shapero. (The New York Times Magazine)
• Jenny Joseph, 85 (The Guardian)
• "What I learned from my feminist mom" - Elizabeth Austen and Bill Radke discuss Kevin Craft's "Matinee" and talk with the poet. (KUOW)
• Ruth McKee talks with poet Liz Quirke and visual artist Yvonne Hennessy about their collaboration on Quirke's debut collection, The Road, Slowly. (The Irish Times)
• And more...

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4. New Arrivals

These new arrivals are available for purchase via Poetry Daily/Amazon.com.

• Keep Talking to Her, Private, Lisa Mullenneaux (Post Traumatic Press)
• Beginner's Guide to a Head-On Collision, Sebastian Matthews (Red Hen Press)
• What You Saw and Still Remember, Judith Waller Carroll (Main Street Rag)
• Earthquake Daily, Jacqueline Lyons (New Michigan Press)
• Night Vision, Claire Wahmanholm (New Michigan Press)
• Deadlifts, Patricia Clark (New Michigan Press)
• Black Sea, David Yezzi (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
• pray me stay eager, Ellen Doré Watson (Alice James Books)
• A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry, Gregory Orr (W. W. Norton & Company)
• DIRTY BABY, Ed Ruscha, Nels Cline, David Breskin (Prestel USA)

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5. This Week’s Featured Poets

The work of the following poets will appear as Today's Poem on the days indicated:

Monday - Leyman Pérez / tr. Katherine M. Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez
Tuesday - Richard Robbins
Wednesday - Sarah Blackman
Thursday - Mark Roper
Friday - Robert Gibb
Saturday - Rachael Hegarty
Sunday - Dick Allen

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6. Featured Poets January 15, 2018 - January 21, 2018

These and other past featured poets may be found in our archive:

Monday - Carmen Giménez Smith
Tuesday - T. R. Hummer
Wednesday - Craig Dobson
Thursday - Carl Dennis
Friday -Christine Gosnay
Saturday - Emily Fragos
Sunday - Moira Egan

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7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

These poems will be retired from our archive during the coming week.

John Skoyles, "Philosophy 101"
Jessica Fisher, "Prague, Late December, 1989"
Kimberly Johnson, "Female"
Floyd Skloot, "City Championship, 1926"
Lisa Russ Spaar, "The Afterbirth of a Fawn"
Neil Shepard, "Lines Written at Tyrone Guthrie"
Molly Peacock, "Life, Lightened"

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8. Poem From Last Year

Life, Lightened

Like a runaway artist, you used to flee
your patients' modern anguish at home

to stroll along the ochre squares of Rome,
to sketch a yellow leaf, a tawny hound,

to see unvarnished color with free eyes
far from our jaundiced complaints,

from having to be wise—as you've escaped
from all of us now, your therapy room

now a studiolo, with a gallery of work
you'd never have hung before,

for fear of disturbing "our work."
And after your attendant

guides you up the elevator that
we, your patients, rode (almost over-

weighting it with our emotions
so some days it barely chugged

to the tan walls of the 21st floor)
you approach your door with

yellow mimosa that you'll paint, after
you unlock it, having learned

to use keys again, holding
both hands to twist the cylinder.

When you lived as an artist on the lam
for that month each year, you used

the watercolor pencils in your hand
not to note our dreams

(and now, who cares?)
but to draw the jonquil things you saw,

and live the raw I am, as you do now,
relearning how to show

the few of us who stay in touch
how to twist and learn.

 

Molly Peacock
The Analyst
W.W. Norton

Copyright © 2017 by Molly Peacock
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission