The latest issue from Poet Lore arrived and it was well worth the wait. Have been dipping in and out of “The Poetics of Liquid,” by Terrance Hayes, “Mysterious Me, a Brief Meditation on Personae,” by Leah Souffrant, and “Making it Real in the Time of Trump,” by Annie Kantar. These thoughtful essays explore the personal and public aspects of writing poetry, of living in an uncertain world. Not to be missed, Robert Schreur’s “Leaving Baltimore” and Barb Reynolds’ “March 10, 2016.” Grateful that my poem, “Pieces, Some Blue,” was included here.

Dodging the Rain is an innovative “blogazine” out of Galway, Ireland with quality writing and some amazing visuals. If you haven’t seen it yet, visit https://dodgingtherain.wordpress.com. “November Turning” appeared November 1^st.

The Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University recently established the Kay Boyle Poetry of Witness Award. A longtime writing professor at SFSU (and two-time O. Henry Award winner), Boyle was active for many years in Amnesty, while much of her fiction and poetry focused on the need for political awareness. Available to students of SFSU, the award offers a prize of $500. For writing contests open to the general public, see https://pw.org.

Each of the twenty-two poems in Ted Kooser’s final volume, “At Home” (The Comstock Writers Group, 2017), demonstrates his finely-honed powers of observation. “That Kooser often sees things we do not would be delight enough, but more amazing is exactly what he sees. Nothing escapes him; everything is illuminated,” says the Library Journal. Selections reflect the Nebraska farm life he knew and loved — a squirrel’s nest, a meteor shower, a barn door, a bat, a croquet ball, an owl, a milk jug — and each reveals the universal in the particular. Describing the cracks around an aged croquet ball as “rings on a planet,” he suggests, “…perhaps it is a planet, and not even one of the lesser ones, but something worth our full attention…”  Kooser’s poetry offers nothing less.