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1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

In our prose series this week, we present "Here As I Am," a review of The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by David Ferry, by Drew Swinger, from Salamander, Issue #45:

"The Aeneid—that 10,000-line, 2,000-year-old epic poem in twelve books singing imperial Rome’s mythic origins in the travails and triumph of one man, Aeneas, Trojan hero second only to Hector; that touchstone of Western culture T. S. Eliot once called “the classic of all Europe”; that capstone of high school Latin. Even if you have never read it, you probably know of the Trojan Horse and to beware of Greeks bearing gifts. For many, poets and scholars alike, translating the Aeneid represents a culmination of effort and height of achievement. Ferry himself, who has already translated to much acclaim Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics, has now completely traced the arc of Virgil’s career from writer of lyrics and didactic verse to epic poet in the mode of Virgil’s great predecessor, Homer."

Look for it here...

Enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller

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2. Sponsor Messages

 Vermont College of Fine Arts MFAs in Writing
Vermont College of Fine Arts offers a traditinal low-residency MFA in Writing program—now celebrating its 35th year—along with a residential MFA in Writing & Publishing program.

 Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference
Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, June 1-7, 2018—Specializing in the literary translation of poetry and prose. Award-winning translators Kazim Ali, Susan Bernofsky, Mónica de la Torre, Bill Johnston, and Sora Kim-Russellwill offer introductory and advanced workshops along with an inspiring schedule of readings and lectures all in the heart of Vermont’s Green Mountains. See application details at
www.middlebury.edu/blwc/bltc.

 MFA in Poetry at Texas State University
The MFA in Poetry at Texas State University offers students the opportunity to work closely with distinguished faculty such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Cyrus Cassells, Cecily Parks, Kathleen Peirce, Roger Jones, and Steve Wilson. Students also learn from internationally known visiting poets, and develop their craft in a supportive and naturally beautiful setting, just 30 minutes from Austin. Assistantships and scholarships are available. The application deadline is January 15th. Please visit our website to learn more, or email us at mfinearts@txstate.edu with any questions.

 

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3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• Rebecca Foust introduces "Are You in the Room with Me Now?" by Maw Shein Win. (Women's Voices for Change)
• Kate Kellaway profiles Danez Smith. (The Guardian)
• Craig Morgan Teicher notes ten most anticipated collections by mid-career poets for 2018. (NPR)
• Don Paterson on Rebecca Watts's PN Review "takedown of Hollie McNish and the spoken-word poetry scene." (The Guardian)
• An obituary for Ursula K. Le Guin,88. (NPR)
• Aysegul Savas on living in the same square in Paris with the poet Anne Atik. (Paris Review Daily) Andrew McCulloch introduces John Greening's "Dover." (The Times Literary Supplement)
• An obituary for Nicanor Parra, 103. (The Washington Post)
• And more...

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4. New Arrivals

These new arrivals are available for purchase via Poetry Daily/Amazon.com.

• The Ghosts of Monticello: A Recitatif, Carmen Gillespie (Stillhouse Press)
• Still Mill: Poems, Stories & Songs of Making Paper in Bucksport, Maine, 1930-2014, Patricia Smith Ranzoni (North Country Press)
• Night Unto Night, Martha Collins (Milkweed Editions)
• Day Unto Day, Martha Collins (Milkweed Editions)
• Gloved Against Blood, Cindy Veach (CavanKerry Press)
• Lovely, Lesléa Newman (Headmistress Press)
• Wild Is the Wind, Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Wild Roses, Jan Minich (Mayapple Press)
• Distant Music, John Palen (Mayapple Press)
• Trazas de mapas, trazas de sangre / Map Traces, Blood Traces, Eugenia Toledo / tr. Carolyne Wright (Mayapple Press)
• Sonic Peace, Kiriu Minashita tr/ Eric E. Hyett and Spencer Thurlow (Phoneme Media)
• Bird Years, Dicko King (Mayapple Press)
• Kissing the Bee, Lara Gularte (The Bitter Oleander Press)
• Selected Poems, Katharyn Howd Machan (FutureCycle Press)
• Red Clay Journal, Harold Whit Williams (FutureCycle Press)

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5. This Week’s Featured Poets

The work of the following poets will appear as Today's Poem on the days indicated:

Monday -Esteban Rodríguez
Tuesday - Albert Goldbarth
Wednesday -Beverley Bie Brahic
Thursday - Josh Myers
Friday - Ian Parks
Saturday -Hilary S. Jacqmin
Sunday -Brandon Krieg

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6. Featured Poets January 22, 2018 - January 28, 2018

These and other past featured poets may be found in our archive:

Monday - Leyman Pérez / tr. Katherine M. Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez
Tuesday - Richard Robbins
Wednesday - Sarah Blackman
Thursday - Mark Roper
Friday - Robert Gibb
Saturday - Rachael Hegarty
Sunday - Dick Allen

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7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

These poems will be retired from our archive during the coming week.

Safiya Sinclair, "Woman, 26, Remains Optimistic as Body Turns to Stone"
Esteban Rodríguez, "La Pulga"
Dean Young, "My Process"
Mark Jarman, "The Heronry"
Afaa Michael Weaver, "Spirit Boxing"
Kiki Petrosino, "Nursery"
Andrea Jurjević, "Threshold"

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8. Poem From Last Year

Spirit Boxing

It is the tightness in the gut when the load 
is heavy enough to knock me over backward, 
turn me back on my heel until my ankle cracks

and I holler out Jesus, this Jesus of Joe Gans 
setting up for the next punch while taking in 
one that just made his soul wobble, the grunt

I make when the shift is young, my body 
a heavy meat on bones, conveyors not wired 
for compassion, trucks on deadlines, uncaring

pressure of a nation waiting to be washed, made 
clean, me looking into the eye of something like 
death, and I look up, throwing fifty-pound boxes,

Jesus now John Henry pounding visions of what 
work is, the wish for black life to crumble, snap 
under all it is given, these three souls of spirit,

hands like hammers, a hammer like the word 
made holy, word echoing a scripture from inside 
the wise mind that knows men cannot be makers,

that in making we want to break each other, 
ache moving us to refuse to surrender to time 
in factories, catacombs feeding on the spirit.

 

Afaa Michael Weaver
Spirit Boxing
University of Pittsburgh Press

Copyright © 2017 by Afaa Michael Weaver
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission