---

1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

We resume our prose series this week with Lawrence Raab's "Not Knowing," from Why Don't We Say What We Mean: Essays Mostly about Poetry (Tupelo Press):

"'It is true,' Emily Dickinson wrote, 'that the unknown is the largest need of the intellect, though for it, no one thinks to thank God.' Following her lead, we might also wish to thank God for his unwillingness to reveal himself, for all that is hidden, and for the value, finally, of not knowing. And then we should be grateful as well for those works of art that appear to present their true and authentic selves only to undermine our confidence upon a closer reading, and so make larger and more surprising demands on our imaginations."

Look for it here.

Enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller

---

2. Sponsor Messages

 Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway
January 12-15, 2018, Atlantic City area, NJ. Presented by Murphy Writing of Stockton University. 24th year!
Featuring Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn and Gregory Pardlo. Join us for small, intensive workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and memoir. Enjoy challenging and supportive sessions, insightful feedback and an encouraging community. Scholarships available. Register early and save: www.stockton.edu/wintergetaway

 Palm Beach Poetry Festival
January 15-20, 2018, Delray Beach, Florida 
Workshops, readings, interview, gala and performance events with Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Chard deNiord, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ross Gay, Rodney Jones, Phillis Levin, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Tim Seibles. Admission is by application. For more information, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org or email srw@palmbeachpoetryfestival.org

 Wake Forest University Press proudly announces our fall titles.
David Wheatley’s The President of Planet Earth brings an experimental sensibility to bear on questions of land and territory, channeling the messianic ambitions of modernism into rich and subversive comedy. Frank Ormsby, in The Darkness of Snow, covers vast territory in five parts, from meditations on art to insightful poems on life with disease. And in his eleventh collection, Angel Hill, Michael Longley explores familiar Irish landscapes as well as vignettes from the Western Scottish Highlands. http://wfupress.wfu.edu/

 2017 UNT Rilke Prize 
Wayne Miller's Post-, published by Milkweed Editions, has won the 2017 UNT Rilke Prize. The $10,000 prize recognizes a book written by a mid-career poet and published in the preceding year that demonstrates exceptional artistry and vision. 
The judges also selected three finalists for this year's Rilke Prize: Christopher Bakken's Eternity & Oranges (University of Pittsburgh Press), Ruth Ellen Kocher's Third Voice (Tupelo Press), and Dana Levin's Banana Palace (Copper Canyon Press).

 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.

 Jackson Center for Creative Writing at Hollins
Write the next chapter of an epic.
Talented faculty. Visiting writers. Writer-in-Residence.
Graduate Assistantships, Teaching Fellowships,
Travel Funding, and Full Scholarships. 

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
More than fifty years of achievement in poetry,
Fiction, and nonfiction. 

Bachelor of Arts with concentration or Minor in creative writing
Where students mature into authors. 

Most of all, a vibrant, supportive community.
https://hollinsmfa.wordpress.com/first-child/

---

3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• Rebecca Foust introduces Tamam Kahn's "Blue Date Cake." (Women's Voices for Change)
• Milton and the Making of Paradise Lost, by William Poole, reviewed by Marcus Nevitt. (The Spectator)
• Elaine Showalter visits “One Life,” the Sylvia Plath exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. (NYR Daily)
• Sina Queyras's My Ariel and Arleen Paré's The Girls with Stone Faces reviewed by Phoebe Wang. (The Globe and Mail)
• James Wright: A Life in Poetry, by Jonathan Blunk, reviewed by Eric McHenry. (The New York Times)
• Langdon Hammer on Hart Crane's The Bridge. (NYR Daily)
• Oliver Callan on Patrick Kavanagh. (The Irish Times)
• Deeds and Their Days (After Hesiod), by Peter Fallon, reviewed by Bernard O’Donoghue. (The Irish Times)
• And more...

---

4. New Arrivals

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

• The Complete Poems of A. R. Ammons: Volume 1 1955-1977, A. R. Ammons, edited by Robert M. West (W. W. Norton & Company)
• The Complete Poems of A. R. Ammons: Volume 2 1978-2005, A. R. Ammons, edited by Robert M. West (W. W. Norton & Company)
• The Life Beside This One, Lawrence Raab (Tupelo Press)
• Collected Poems, Galway Kinnell (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Hallowed: New and Selected Poems, Patricia Fargnoli (Tupelo Press)
• Marvels of the Invisible, Jenny Molberg (Tupelo Press)
• The Cowherd's Son, Rajiv Mohabir (Tupelo Press)
• The Voice of That Singing, Juliet Rodeman (Tupelo Press)
• Good Bones, Maggie Smith (Tupelo Press)
• The Amoeba Game, Tara Skurtu (Eyewear Publishing)
• Almost Human, Thomas Centolella (Tupelo Press)
• Ordinary Misfortunes, Emily Jungmin Yoon (Tupelo Press)
• [ G A T E S ], Sahar Muradi (Black Lawrence Press)
• Albatross, Dore Kiesselbach (University of Pittsburgh Press)
• Ornaments, David Daniel (University of Pittsburgh Press)
• Book of Exodus, Kathryn Smith (Scablands Books)
• Days' End, Mickey J. Corrigan (Main Street Rag)
• Night Light, Donald Markos (Small Poetry Press)
• On the Porch, Under the Eave, Jane Simpson (FutureCycle Press)
• Tales of Intrigue & Plumage, Catherine Arra (FutureCycle Press)
• Dark Matters, Katharyn Howd Machan (FutureCycle Press)

---

5. This Week’s Featured Poets

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

Monday - Lee Upton
Tuesday - Zachary Medlin
Wednesday - James Longenbach
Thursday - Angela Ball
Friday - Maria Terrone
Saturday - Moira Linehan
Sunday - Nick Harp

---

6. Featured Poets November 20, 2017 - November 26, 2017

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

Monday - Catherine Pierce
Tuesday - Bruce Smith
Wednesday - David Wojahn
Thursday - Lynn Melnick
Friday - Christian Wiman
Saturday - Warren Slesinger
Sunday - Dimitri Psurtsev

---

7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

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

Mary Elder Jacobsen, "This Be the Oyster"
Stephen Edgar, "Twister"
James Galvin, "On First Seeing a US Forest Service Aerial Photo of Where I Live"
Aliki Barnstone, "When My Greek Grandmother Came to Visit"
Janice N. Harrington, "Tell My Heart"
Thomas Reiter, "An Outcropping"
Amy Wright, "Scarab"

---

8. Poem From Last Year

This Be the Oyster

This be the cup, brimming fathoms of nectar
This, the well that flows from forever

This be the saltcellar, trencher of tears,
and also the teardrop, stone-wept from ocean

This be the stone, lost among cairns,
and there, another, hidden in middens

This be the hull that casts off its seed—
thus grows the reef, encrusted with life—

This, ancient vessel, anchored to reef,
This be the ark where life resides

and this, tiny cradle, bearer of treasure,
This be the oyster, slow-rocked by tides.

 

Mary Elder Jacobsen
The Greensboro Review
Fall 2016

Copyright © 2016 by Mary Elder Jacobsen
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission