I read with great interest OBR’s interview with Tim Green, a most welcome feature in an excellent issue.

Let me assure you, Tim, that I share your positive outlook -perhaps with a less guarded optimism- on the future of poetry, more so within the American scene. Though we cannot expect a great deal of people to appreciate poetry during these times of varied competing interests, still there are many of us who feel the need for still and silent consideration, what we may even call “unhurried contemplation” of people, things and events affecting our lives, leading us to the great attraction of literature, especially poetry. (I took note of your experience of poetry as a meditative exercise that refreshes the soul and makes the mind see more clearly.) I would even go as far as saying that the financial crisis currently felt in the U.S. and the growing threat of a global meltdown are blessings in disguise, since they will make more people realize there are realities beyond mere enjoyment of material wealth and consumerism.

I like the metaphor you employed to describe good poetry–as poetry that makes us “rattle,” each poem like “a little stone we swallow that bounces around inside of us, resonating with our bones…” It reminded me of similar pronouncements I came across while writing an awarded masteral thesis on communication in poetry.

Congratulations on “American Fractal”! I think it is already a resounding success!

Marciano Malvar Guzman

Some of the poems that spoke to me included Green’s “Cheers,” Riley’s “Wounded,” Nicole Hama’s two poems,
Alex Stolis’ “What’s It Like,” Corey Harvard’s “If I Could,”
Ed Peterson’s “Fall,” though (or because) it is confusing, and Puma Perl’s “If Dreams.” I’ve seen poems
before that use words as images, but Perl’s stuck to me. And the rushing lyricism had me wanting
to get out some jazz and play it.

I was, also, moved by your short poem, “My Melancholy.” The last four lines especially because
even though they use very simple, plain words and an old-time metaphor, the way you worded
them creatively anew has such emotional power. I also liked the near rhyme/assonance and consonance, and the
very strong ambiguity.

Green was an excellent choice for an interview. While I enjoyed reading his clear poems, it was
some of his defining statements in the interview that got to me. I kept cutting and pasting out quotes.
I’ve read too many dry texts on the nature of poetry that put me to sleep and beat out any power
of poetry (to paraphrase Collins).

I especially liked Green’s comments about how poetry needs to be accessible on the first read
but then lead one onto a second, and third read–and keep rattling around inside of oneself.

One doubt though I have is about his view that poetry has some kind of non-religious religious
importance. I have read this many places over the years, and I even make a similar point on my own poetry
website, where I wax lyrical about poetry’s transcendent function.

But I wonder if it is really true of poetry of the present, in current poetry magazines (or the past
for that matter).

It seems that quite a bit of modern poetry actually gives voice and power to the worst
and most destructive in human experience. And I’m not even talking about rap or slam
poetry, which I saw wreck havoc in the lives of the teenage boys (and girls) I taught
in the 80′s, 90′s and 00′s. Of course, maybe the boys just sought out poetry that fed
their own destructiveness. I know that there are very complex reasons why any given
teen lives out rap lines literally.

Of late I’ve come to the conclusion that poetry like other arts is an ambiguous medium that swirls
out of human consciousness, empowering either good or evil or the vast gray in between,
depending on the mindset and worldview of the poet.

By the way I really enjoyed the audio part of the magazine. It was intriguing to hear Green
orally interpret his poem “Cheers.”

Antonia Clark

L. Ward Abel