Personal Rejection Letter is a great podcast from two Midwest writers with day jobs. Dan and Kelly discuss “the seedy underbelly of the lit life.” So far in their first two episodes they have had plenty to say about the trumpifying question of art’s role in times of trumpble (see 2River’s #poetsagainsttrump) to the annoying fees that many literary magazines charge (2River’s a big NOT) for reading submissions.
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I like the why toward the end, where Robert Hass says, “Paradise Lost was printed in an edition of no more than 1,500 copies and transformed the English language. Took a while. Wordsworth had new ideas about nature: Thoreau read Wordsworth, Muir read Thoreau, Teddy Roosevelt read Muir, and we got a lot of national parks. Took a century. What poetry gives us is an archive, the fullest existent archive of what human beings have thought and felt by the kind of artists who loved language in a way that allowed them to labor over how you make a music of words to render experience exactly and fully.”
It’s here: winter! As well as a great pristine issue of The 2River View, with new poems by Lee Robison, Ayla Fudala, Paulette Guerin, Kathryn Jacobs, Babo Kamel, Mary Kasimor, Mercedes Lawry, David Murchison, Mae Remme, Jeanne Wagner, William Walsh.
Visit 2River on the first day of winter for the 21.2 issue of 2RV, with new poems by Lee Robison, Ayla Fudala, Paulette Guerin, Kathryn Jacobs, Babo Kamel, Mary Kasimor, Mercedes Lawry, Mae Remme, Jeanne Wagner, and William Walsh.
It’s hard to find online info about poets against Donald Trump. To let you know, 2River opposes him. Spread the word of #poetsagainsttrump.
— 2River (@2weetRiver) October 12, 2016
It’s here! the Fall 2016 issue of 2RV, with new poems by Scott Edward Anderson, Walter Bargen, Lana Bella, Michelle Brooks, Vincent Casaregola, Ja’net Danielo, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Christien Gholson, Vincent Poturica, William Rector, and Amanda Wells.
The cool 21_1 (Fall 2016) issue of The 2River View is just a week away! Meanwhile, enjoy this poem from the issue.
Vincent Cassaregola
Trees etch themselves
deftly, carefully,
on a watercolor wash
of blue-grey sky,
their unleaved branches
starkly definite,
black as inkstrokes.
At the horizon,
the edge of sunset fades
gold to pale yellow,
even as I watch.
Somewhere in the grass,
or bushes, a final cricket
sounds its passing notes
for these last warm days,
unexpected in December.
Together, we wait,
leaning toward solstice,
believing that seasons still
take their inevitable course
and even growing darkness,
heavy as it may be,
falls away, hits bottom
and has an end.
It’s September in St. Louis, where the midwest heat is starting to fade like a late summer day, a sure sign a cool Fall issue of The 2River View is just down the road.
So a friendly reminder: hit 2River on the first day of fall for the 20.1 (Fall 2016) issue of The 2River View, where you’ll find new poems by Scott Edward Anderson, Walter Bargen, Lana Bella, Michelle Brooks, Vincent Casaregola, Ja’net Danielo, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Christien Gholson, Vincent Poturica, William Rector, and Amanda Wells.
Muddy Bank 