I’m writing this in the old Great Village Temperance Hall in Nova Scotia, just yards around the bend from the house where Elizabeth Bishop spent much of her childhood.
I’ve been sleeping in the bedroom that would have been hers, channeling. Her story “In the Village,” her poem “The Moose,” or her sketch “Primer Class” reverberate with new meaning now that I can visit the school, stand where Mate’s blacksmith shop stood, and see the church steeple pierce the pale blue sky. Literature is a living thing.
On the occasion of our second year retrospective, I’ve decided to provide a link for each edition of the Congeries and list the name of those poets included. The list is long and illustrious, and there are the up and comers, too, and names with which readers may not be familiar. Click around and you will find most of what we consider as serious poetry these days—in subject matter, in style, in vision, these writers represent and define and contend. This is as it should be; this is what I had in mind. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and please let these poems be a part of it.
Great Village, NS7/14/11
September, 2010: Keetje Kuipers, Carl Dennis, Quincy Troupe, Susan Ludvigson, Ching-In Chen, Doug Anderson, Mark Bibbins, Lenard D. Moore, Meg Kearney, Ron Houchin, Lewis Turco, Julia Johnson
October, 2010: David Daniel, Elizabeth Robinson, Alfred Corn, Dana Levin, Mark Jarman, Charles Fort, Lee Upton, Jeff Friedman, Chad Davidson, Rebecca Dunham, Sidney Wade, Nick Lantz
November, 2010: Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Peter Cooley, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ron Smith, Tim Suermondt, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Julie Kane, Josh Kalsheur, Terri Witek, Valerie Nieman, Kirk Nesset
December, 2010: Sue Goyette, Marge Piercy, Afaa Michael Weaver, Ada Limon, Diana Park, Philip Terman, Brian Brodeur, Stacey Waite, Leslie McGrath, Nicky Beer, RJ Gibson
January, 2011: Leanne O’Sullivan, Elizabeth Spires, John B. Lee, Terese Svoboda, Hayan Charara, Katrina Roberts, Glenn Shaheen, Katherine Soniat, Chard deNiord
February, 2011: James Applewhite, Dave Smith, Patrick Lane, Cheryl Dumesnil, Nathalie Handal, Alfonso D’Aquino (translated by Forrest Gander), John Bensko, Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, Stuart Dischell, Wendy Mnookin, Alexander Long
March, 2011: Carmelia Leonte (translated by Mihaela Moscaliuc), Kyle Dargan, Angela Ball, James Hoch, Ralph Black, Brittany Perham, Billy Ramsell, Stephanie Levin, Will Wells
April, 2011: Alice Friman, David St. John, Dan Albergotti, Natasha Saje, Robert Hedin, celeste doaks, John Redmond, Amy Tudor, Thorpe Moeckel, Sharon Fagan McDermott, Chad Prevost
May, 2011: Donald Revell, Roxane Beth Johnson, Jane Springer, Earl Sherman Braggs, Sandra Meek, Richard Jarrette, Deborah Bogen, Laura Hope-Gill, Andrea Witzke Slot
June, 2011: Brian Barker, Martha Collins, Beth Gylys, Monica A Hand, Ravi Shankar (with Terri Witek), Lea Graham, Cathryn Hankla, Bill Griffin, Charity Gingerich
July, 2011: Judy Jordan, Carol Frost, Sam Witt, Nick Thran, Julie Carr, Rebecca McClanahan, Blas Falconer, Judith Baumel, Dannye Romine Powell, Robert Cording, Deborah Ager, Christopher Davis