Editor's Note

The Cortland Review
Editor's Note

On our cover, TCR presents John Blee's "Verger de Belfort," from his "Orchard Suite," begun in 2007, the origin of which is connected to Rilke's Vergers, where Blee read, "Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night." Welcome to Issue 77.

"The concept of transformation and the way Rilke worked it into his poetry," says Blee, "stays with my paintings. Color is for me the expressive aspect of painting. It determines a specific voice. My color is found within the process of painting." Time is an element, too, in Blee's work. "Often they are painted over months and that enables a space within them to develop." More than a few poets, I suspect, have taken inspiration from Blee.

Blee, who lives and works in Washington, DC, spent half his childhood in India and Pakistan. He studied with Helen Frankenthaler and his work has been shown in galleries in Washington, DC, New York and Boston, as well as Paris, Moscow and New Delhi.

The poets of Issue 77 are Simon Anton Diego, Jason Barry, Grady Chambers, Charles Coté, Rebecca Foust, Brian Francis, Jeremy Gregerson, Rob Jackson, Perry T Janes, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Jayne Marek, Jane Medved, Alex Miller, Wynne Morrison, Trent Nutting, Terry Savoie, Eva Skrande, Christopher Soden and Matthew Ulland. Here, too, is the fiction of Mel King and Nicolas Poynter, David Rigsbee's book review of Chana Bloch's final book, and the essays of Tony Hoagland and Contributing Editor, Chard deNiord.

Thank you from all the TCR staff, past and present, for caring about what we do and for your kind comments about how we do it.

Cheers!
Ginger Murchison Editor in Chief