The Poet Takes A Walk

Published by the Poetry Foundation, Poetry November 2009 (“The Poet Takes A Walk”) shall be given a fair summation. Overall it’s a modest packet of prose and poetry, a small white book with blue lettering whose cover art is a cigarette smoking dog (“The Poet Takes a Walk” by Greg Clarke). The back cover does display a quote that ties nicely into the theme of the literary journal; in the words of A. F. Moritz, “Poetry is, above ever other human endeavor, the place where person and society are not merely joined but revealed in their original unity.” At first I thought this was just a corny caption of an artist’s own work, but after putting some thought to it, perhaps there is some elicit truth to that statement. Poetry can be interpreted as an olive branch of piece, bridging the gap between written language and expression for all tribes of humanity. Scattered and variable are the poems in this bounded paper gospel; there are a wide variety of forms and themes through 165 pages of contemporary front runners. Perhaps some of the other modern poets like Nathaniel Mackey would be able to blend in to this material (or more likely stand out), but poets like William Shakespeare, even W. H. Auden would not likely find this journal to be appropriate for their material, or maybe they would considering how much money these journals would be paying them for their written material if this were their hay day. Most of these writers are new to me let alone distinguishable, with the exception of James Schuyler, I am rather unfamiliar with the works of these other poets. As a student to the art, I would be flattered to publish my work in this journal, however I am not yet certain about how a scholar might feel towards this journal, perhaps there are other journals that are more respected privately amongst contemporary poetry gurus throughout St. Lawrence and the rest of the known world. I would recommend this journal to anybody who casually reads poetry and is not in search of a specific work or author, but rather a cornucopia of modern verse and prose from some well written poets and promising ascenders. As an aspiring poet, it is hard for me to dislike a poem or dub a poem my least favorite. My favorite poem is on page 144, a piece entitled “Athens: Peripatetic Fragments” by A.E. Stallings. A poem about modern Athenian life incongruously reverberating ancient Athens; how its streets a modernized but the classical spirit is still there. I found it rather interesting because its lines were separated into short paragraphs of one or two sentences punctuated by a neat design between stanzas.