I take great pleasure in pursuing spectacular poems. And given how much poetry is being published at this point, this is not not an easy task. So much good work is being published! So aside from looking for work by the poets I admire, I look for editors with great taste. Or magazines and presses who consistently rely on editors with great taste.
These are some of the poems I’ve found that are spectacular! Or I think they are, at least.
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“Fools,” by Franklin K. R. Cline
There are so many benefits to a title that’s brief in its statement. Is Franklin K. R. Cline saying, “Fools,” in a movie tone of voice. Like when Felonius Gru talks about something his minions did wrong, even with the best of intentions, and he says, “Fools.” Or is the grocery store where this poem…
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“From ‘Long Life,’” by Lesle Lewis
What always fascinates me about Lesle Lewis’s poems are their iteration. Like the poem is this activity we’re in the middle of with the poet. I’m in the moment with her as I read any given line, like her composition and my reading were simultaneous. Then the line ends, and I’m floating above the moment…
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“Memory and Geography,” by Stav Poleg
How surprise unfolds like slow moving silk kerchiefs. I’m surprised. But I’m slowly surprised. Like if I was commenting on what it feels like being surprised, so it slowed “surprise” a little, I could extend how I feel about it a little bit. Not that Stav Poleg’s poem, “Memory and Geography” is slow-motion. The poem…