Poetry Magazine

Poetry Magazine

July/August 2010

Poems by Anne Stevenson, Sandra Simonds, Anthony Madrid, Elizabeth Arnold, Connie Voisine; a libretto by Robert Pinsky; prose by Iain McGilchrist, Lynda Barry, John Wooden, and Ange Mlinko; reviews by Michael Dirda and Jason Guriel; letters.

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JULY PODCAST

Poetry Magazine Podcast Each month the editors of Poetry magazine talk about the issue. Listen here to the most recent episode.
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Meat Wants Sweet
Poetry from Robert P. Baird, Wilmer Mills, Connie Voisine, Sandra Simonds, plus a libretto by Robert Pinsky, and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist on poetry and the brain.

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DISCUSSION GUIDE

Guide Interested in discovering other ways to approach a poem? Have a look at our discussion guide for the April 2010 issue.

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Current Issue

Peter Campion More from this issue »

Featured Poem

Dandelions

Peter Campion


After the cling of roots and then the “pock”
when they gave way
                                     the recoil up the hand
               was a small shock
of emptiness beginning to expand.

Milk frothing from the stems. Leaves inky green
and spiked.
                      Like blissed-out childhood play
              turned mean
they snarled in tangled curls on our driveway.

It happens still. That desolating falling
shudder inside
                            and then our neighborhood
                seems only sprawling
loops...like the patterns eaten on driftwood:

even the home where I grew up (its smell
of lingering
                      wood-smoke and bacon grease)
             seems just a shell
of lathe and paper. But this strange release

follows: this tinge like silver and I feel
the pull of dirt
                            again, sense mist uncurling
               to reveal
no architecture hidden behind the world

except the stories that we make unfolding:
as if our sole real power
                                                    were the power
             of children holding
this flower that is a weed that is a flower. . . .

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John Wooden

Featured Prose

The Great Scorer

By John Wooden

At UCLA, where I was head coach of men’s varsity basketball for twenty-seven years, poetry was one of my favorite teaching tools. READ MORE »

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