Notes from the Editor

Issue 7, Fall 2019, offers a cornucopia of beauty, diversity, insight, and depth of feeling–from all over the world, poets are sharing a wealth of spirit. Never have I felt the poet’s work to be more timely. These artists have tapped into the collective consciousness and subconscious, drawing forth to the reader a knowing that transcends the boundaries of our complacency.

Joanna Townsend’s “Somewhere near Odessa, 1900s” inspired response poems about Russia :  Buff Whitman-Bradley writes about “Looking for Chekov”; Maria Muzdybaeva, “Another One for the White Nights”. Other poets wrote to the theme of departure: Lynda Tavakoli‘s “Reach”; Maria Rouphail‘s “Heading West”; Vivienne Popperl‘s “First Winter in Kopjes”; Lavinia Kumar’s “Not Voyaging to Brooklyn”; Tricia Knoll‘s “Why Would You Want to Move 3003 Miles to Vermont?” and Lisa Hase-Jackson’s “You Find Yourself in Kansas City”. Still other poets wrote to the departure of loved ones.

Enjoy these and several other poems in this issue. Doug Stone and Diana Pinckney offer some stunning ekphrastic poems. Also, find the first Willawaw Folio at the end of the journal which focuses on the artwork of Hokusai. Martin Willitts Jr. takes us through a handful of the artist’s “stations” around Mt. Fuji, writing in Haibun and assuming the persona of the artist.

I have found the work in this issue to be a great companion as I turn inward, with the equinox, toward the “dark time” of these increasingly shorter days. I hope you find some of the same resonance and satisfaction.

Warmly,
Rachel Barton