Summer in the northern hemisphere is a thing of the past again. Autumn has arrived
and with it the fifth issue of The Cortland Review. Much has happened since our
last issue: TCR contributor Mark Jarman has won the 1998 Lenore Marshall Prize from The
Academy of American Poets. John Kinsella has been appointed editor of Stand (UK).
New Directions has issued the love poems of James Laughlin. Knopf has issued W.S. Merwin's
The Folding Cliffs, an epic narrative poem which Merwin has spent years writing. Our
interview for this issue is with poet Neal Bowers. We feature 4 new poems from him in real
audio. As well, poets John Kinsella, R.T. Smith, Louis Armand, Michael Rothenberg,
Daniella Gioseffi, and John Drury all present poems set in European cities..
I will close this editor's note with a quote from the late poet Ted Hughes:
Then your molten face, your molten eyes
And your exclamations, your flinging arms
Your scattering tears
As if I had come back from the dead
Against every possibility, against
Every negative but your own prayer
To your own gods.
from Birthday Letters
by Ted Hughes
Issue Five is dedicated to the immortal and lasting memory of Ted Hughes, who has died
of cancer in England, at the age of 68.
—J.M. Spalding
November 1998 |
