THE CORTLAND REVIEW

GERALD STERN - WINTER 2008 FEATURE

FEATURE
	Gerald Stern
		Five poems by Gerald Stern.

	POETRY
		Christopher Buckley Michael Burkard Jeff Friedman Ross Gay Jack Gilbert Linda Gregg Jane Hirshfield Tony Hoagland Joan Larkin Dorianne Laux Jan Heller Levi Anne Marie Macari Ed Ochester Alicia Ostriker Kathleen Peirce Peter Richards Ira Sadoff Jean Valentine Arthur Vogelsang Judith Vollmer Anne Waldman Peter Waldor Michael Waters

	Essay
		"The Final Vocabulary of Gerald Stern" by David Rigsbee.
	Book Review
		"Save the Last Dance" by Gerald Stern—Book Review, by David Rigsbee.

Michael Waters

			Michael Waters's recent books include Darling Vulgarity (BOA Editions, 2006), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems (BOA Editions, 2001), as well as the new edition of Contemporary American Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). He teaches at Monmouth University and in the Drew University M.F.A. Program, and lives in Ocean, NJ.

Geoffroy Tory
—in his words

The letter A has its legs apart
In the manner of a man's legs and feet
As he strides along.
The letter's crossbar
Covers the man's genital organ
To denote that modesty and chastity
Are required in those engravers
Who seek admission to good letter forms,
Among which A is the entrance gate.

On the morning of the Epiphany,
Having had my fill of sleep and rest,
And my stomach having digested
Its joyful meal,
in the year 1523,
I took to imagining in my bed,
Turning the wheel of memory, thinking
Of a thousand little fantasies—
Of a certain antique letter
That I had once designed.