Friday, February 23, 2007
Notable journal poems
This time out it's the Winter 2002 edition of Barrow Street. I got this back issue from someone else quite a while ago. Here are the poems I liked, with poems I would especially want to publish in bold (no personal connections in this batch).
"A Beige Scarf," Edward Bartok-Baratta
"The Humorist," John Beer
"Creature," Cheryl Dumesnil
"Primary Reading Lesson," Chad Faries
"Yinglish Strophes II," Thomas Fink
"Kicking Small Dogs," Matt Gambrill
"Morning Breaks the Window," Arielle Greenberg
"Tweedledum," Taj Jackson
"Temperate Rain Forest," Jacqueline Osherow
"In the Jewish Mystical Tradition," Ira Sadoff
"The Dead Don't Return What You Lent Them," Hal Sirowitz
"Towns Along the River," Charlie Smith
"After a Decade Passed, It Was All or Nothing," Paula Szuchman
"Californian," Brian Teare
That's 14 of 41 or 34.1%, which meets Jordan's criterion for a good issue, and it did feel like a good issue while I was reading it--I think the 12.2% of poems in the highest category is also excellent. The general ratio is even better if you take out Osherow's five or six sonnets, which were underwhelming. Why do so many contemporary poets going to the metrical-rhyming well insist on sonnets? Bugs me to death.
"A Beige Scarf," Edward Bartok-Baratta
"The Humorist," John Beer
"Creature," Cheryl Dumesnil
"Primary Reading Lesson," Chad Faries
"Yinglish Strophes II," Thomas Fink
"Kicking Small Dogs," Matt Gambrill
"Morning Breaks the Window," Arielle Greenberg
"Tweedledum," Taj Jackson
"Temperate Rain Forest," Jacqueline Osherow
"In the Jewish Mystical Tradition," Ira Sadoff
"The Dead Don't Return What You Lent Them," Hal Sirowitz
"Towns Along the River," Charlie Smith
"After a Decade Passed, It Was All or Nothing," Paula Szuchman
"Californian," Brian Teare
That's 14 of 41 or 34.1%, which meets Jordan's criterion for a good issue, and it did feel like a good issue while I was reading it--I think the 12.2% of poems in the highest category is also excellent. The general ratio is even better if you take out Osherow's five or six sonnets, which were underwhelming. Why do so many contemporary poets going to the metrical-rhyming well insist on sonnets? Bugs me to death.
