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      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
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      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions
    • Contemporary Indian English Poetry ISSUE XXII November 2015
    • Best of The Enchanting Verses 2012
    • Bulletins

​Issue XXV August 2017

​(Silver Jubilee Edition)

​Poetry from U.S.A.


 edited by Elena Karina Byrne

PictureThomas Lux (Enchanting Poet ISSUE XXV)
THOMAS LUX, THE MILKMAN’S SON
by Stuart Dischell
​

    A few weeks after Thomas Lux’s death, I found a pamphlet of his poems Pym Randall Press published called Massachusetts: Ten Poems (1981). When Tom gave it to me he signed it: “12 weeks pal, 12 weeks of half-howling” and it is dated December 10, 1981--Tom’s birthday, though I did not know it at the time. It is a fitting metaphor for our friendship that Tom would give me a gift on his birthday without revealing this fact. He was 35 and I was 27. We had become friends when he came to Boston once a week to teach the Graduate Poetry Workshop at Boston University where I was a lecturer. I loved his work before we met and admired the poems in Sunday (a book named by the way for the horse he rode on his family’s farm when he was a child) and Memory’s Hand Grenade (Memory’s Hand Job in his delightful lexicon of Houghton Mifflin being the Muffler, Cleveland State being Cheapland State, etc). 

    The first night we hung out, we met up with Franz Wright who Tom had taught at Oberlin at the Bow and Arrow in Cambridge, a true dive bar but in the Harvard Square tradition. I remember walking past the bouncer who worked the door and him shouting after us, “hey Mick Jagger, it’s Mick Jagger, man.” I could see for a minute what he saw: Tom’s smile had the bite of mischief, being “mis-chee-vi-ous” he pronounced it, and he had the confidence and bearing of a true, naturally cool person who of course did not realize how cool he was. I did. I was amazed by his poems and thrilled by his friendship, which became as close as a brother’s, as caring and non-judgmental.
 
    One of my favorites of Tom’s poems, “The Milkman and His Son” leads off both Massachusetts: Ten Poems (1981) and the full-length collection Half-Promised Land. Though other poems may be greater candidates for his poetic canon, it was written during the period in which his work was moving from surrealism to finding transformation in the quirky human daily round. And in each new poem of this era, his heart was growing larger. Tom was a great poet of spiritual, historical, and political works—and also brilliant at detailing the inner life of the American family. His childhood experiences on the family farm sustained him and his work throughout his life.

The Milkman and His Son

For a year he’d collect
the milk bottles—those cracked,
chipped, or with the label’s blue
scene of a farm

fading. In winter
they’d load the boxes on a sled
and drag them to the dump

which was lovely then: a white sheet
drawn up, like a joke, over
the face of a sleeper.
As they lob the bottles in

the son begs a trick
and the milkman obliges: tossing
one bottle in a high arc
he shatters it in mid-air

with another. One thousand
astonished splints of glass
falling . . . Again
and again, and damned
if that milkman,

that easy slinger
on the dump’s edge (as the drifted
junk tips its hats

of snow) damned if he didn’t
hit almost half! Not bad.
Along with gentleness,

and the sane bewilderment
of understanding nothing cruel,
it was a thing he did best.


Read Thomas Lux's Poems here

​

Introduction

Accompanied by the erotic, the physical dominion of our senses, by urgency in precipitous circumstance and political surprise, a constantly changing language is one of our essential tools for seeing. Artist Ann Hamilton describes, in her own work, “how the act of speaking and learning another language is an embodied act… an act of empathy.” We’ve seen before, during historical times of strife, when arts and culture are devalued, how poets enter a critical period of renewal, reinvention, and rebellion.

    The diversity and true range of poetic voices in this issue reinforces the idea (common since the triumph of the avant garde in the 20th century) that poetry's power still proves itself in resistance to mere "formula." In adjuratory terms, these fresh accelerants of juxtaposition and metaphor make us "think outside the box," as these poets do. Whether it’s the reader’s unforgettable move from the body’s “suchness” (Lynne Thompson), that “chair with/ the wing span upright,” (Juan Felipe Herrera) “some sunlight resizing the room,” (Kelli Anne Noftle) toward our perspective-inevitable “vanishing point,” (Kathy Fagan) “like a voice/ opening,” (Phillip B. Williams) out over “say somewheres upcountry,” (Atsuro Riley), or aloft in the “stairway’s echo. The thunder’s fuss,” (Jennifer Militello) in the “pre-decision darkness,” (Matthew Zapruder) “[n]ot unlike providence,” (David St John) or the mind, in “unholy distribution,” (Amy Newlove Schroeder) in pursuit of what we want from the ordinary and extraordinary messy exchange, embracing both despair and peace from it… To borrow a phrase from André Breton, I find myself entering a “Delirium of absolute presence” as I read them and so, this USA Jubilee edition succeeds in creating a beautiful unpredictability.

    My first professor Thomas Lux, in his poem “An Horation Notion,” writes that you make the thing you love “because someone else loved it / enough to make you love it”–– and here, each poet, enlivening the act of writing, generates within me a relentless desire, a sense of poignant engagement and reciprocity. What passionate respect of life, time’s measure in motion through spirit, what forms of fire, plant, animal, livelihood, what tantrum of love, lives between us when we read each other? This is one small conscious place where the act of knowing opens past all outside noise, cruelty, and past intolerance until we are no longer “strangers.” 
​
​

Elena Karina Byrne
Guest Editor - ISSUE XXV

​

​

PictureLynne Thompson
Lynne Thompson 
(Editor's Choice ISSUE XXV)

Winner of  2017 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Prize, the Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize in 2016, and a Master Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles for 2015-16, poet Lynne Thompson is the author of Start With a Small Guitar and Beg No Pardon, winner of the Perugia Book Award and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award.  Recent work appears or is forthcoming in Ecotone, Prairie Schooner, African American Review, Crab Creek Review, and, Poetry, among others. 

​
​

Read his Lynne's poems here



All Poets & Poems ​ ​ ​

Stuart Dischell (photo by Sophie Kandaouroff)
Quincy Troupe (photo by Rohan Preston)
Juan Felipe Herrera
Kaveh Akbar
Ilya Kaminsky
Kim Dower
Cathy Colman
Victoria Chang
Angie Estes
Andrew Wessels
Phillip B. Williams (Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths)
Charles Harper Webb
Gail Wronsky
Tony Barnstone 
Brendan Constantine
Vievee Francis
Jennifer S. Cheng
Sebastian Matthews
Ira Sadoff
Kim Addonizio
M. L. Williams
Mariano Zaro
Rusty Morrison
Martha Rhodes
Laure-Anne Bosselaar
Ralph Angel
Molly Bendall
Noah Blaustein
Sarah Maclay
Gabriel Meyer
Travis Wayne Denton
Sholeh Wolpé
Srikanth Reddy
Dana Levin
Amy Newlove Schroeder
Atsuro Riley
Christopher Merrill
Jennifer Militello
Candace Pearson
Holaday Mason
James Meetze
Constance Merritt
David Lehman
Jane Wong
Hélène Cardona
Douglas Kearney (Photo by Rafael Hernandez)
William Wadsworth
Kathy Fagan
Richard Garcia
Kelli Anne Noftle
Matthew Zapruder (Photo by B.A. Van Sise )
Ramón García
Terrance Hayes
David St. John (Photo by Stephanie Diani)
Meg Day
Jawanza Dumisani
Laurel Ann Bogen
Sawnie Morris
John FitzGerald
Don Share
Katie Farris
Suzanne Lummis
Karen Kevorkian
Mark Irwin
Sarah Vap
Kurt Brown (1944-2013)
Jeffrey McDaniel
Lynnell Major Edwards
Bill Mohr
Brian Kim Stefans
Maureen Alsop
Elena Karina Byrne (Editor ISSUE XV)

Translations

Francesc Parcerisas translated by Cyrus Cassells
José Carlos Becerra translated by Forrest Gander

Essays & Interviews

From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
In conversation: Cathyrn Colman and Elena Karina Byrne
Beautiful Rush by Marc Vincenz The Blood of Wilderness Reviewed by Hélène Cardona
Life in Suspension by Hélène Cardona Reviewed by John Domini
The Philosopher Savant by Rustin Larson Reviewed by Hélène Cardona

Archives

Interviews
Issue XXII November 2015
Issue XXIII August 2016
Research Series on Sylvia Plath
Research Series on Tagore
International Translation Project

The Magazine

Editorial Board
Guest Editors
Collaboration with Stremež
Media Focus
Copyright Notice
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The Enchanting Verses Literary Review © 2008-2018    ISSN 0974-3057 Published from India. Printed by The Enchanting Verses Poetry Press. International Collaborative Partner: Stremež Literary magazine (1952), supported by the Ministry of culture of the Republic of Macedonia and published by National Institution - Cultural Centre "Marko Cepenkov" – Prilep.


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    • Issue Archives >
      • 2008 ISSUES >
        • ISSUE-I March 2008
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      • ISSUE-XVIII April 2013
      • ISSUE XIX November 2013
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      • ISSUE XX May 2014
    • 2015 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXI February 2015
      • Contemporary Indian English Poetry ISSUE XXII November 2015
    • 2016 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIII August 2016
      • Poetry From Ireland ISSUE XXIV December 2016
    • 2017 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXV August 2017
      • ISSUE XXVI December 2017
    • 2018 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXVII July 2018
      • ISSUE XXVIII November 2018
    • 2019 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIX July 2019
  • Honours
    • Honour Archives >
      • 2008
      • 2009
    • 2010
    • 2011
    • 2012
    • 2013
    • 2014
    • 2015
    • 2016
    • 2017
    • 2018
  • Collaborations
    • Macedonian Collaboration
    • Collaboration with Dutch Foundation for Literature
  • Interviews
  • Prose on Poetry and Poets
    • 2010-2013 >
      • Sylvia Plath by Dr. Nidhi Mehta >
        • Chapter-1(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-2(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-3(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-4(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-5(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-6(Sylvia Plath)
      • Prose Poems of Tagore by Dr. Bina Biswas >
        • Chapter-1(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-2(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-3(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-4(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-5(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-6(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-7(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-8(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-9(Rabindranath Tagore)
      • Kazi Nazrul Islam by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh >
        • Chapter 1(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 2(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 3(Nazrul Islam)
      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 2(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 3(Kabir's Poetry)
      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions
    • Contemporary Indian English Poetry ISSUE XXII November 2015
    • Best of The Enchanting Verses 2012
    • Bulletins