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Poetry Magazine

Poetry Magazine

November 2009

Poems by James Schuyler; a portfolio of new work by 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellows Eric Ekstrand, Chloë Honum, Joseph Spece, Jeffrey Schultz, and Malachi Black; translations of Gottfried Benn by Michael Hofmann; “The Poet Takes a Walk” featuring Peter Cole, Kay Ryan, W.S. Di Piero, and others.

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NOVEMBER PODCAST

Each month the editors of Poetry magazine talk about the issue. Listen here to the most recent episode.
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Poetry Takes a Walk
New poems from James Schuyler, new translations of Gottfried Benn, plus Peter Cole on walking in Jerusalem.

MORE EPISODES »

DISCUSSION GUIDE

Guide Interested in discovering other ways to approach a poem? Have a look at our discussion guide for the September 2009 issue.

DISCUSSION GUIDES AND OTHER LEARNING RESOURCES »

Current Issue

Featured Poem

Among Elks

Joseph Spece

Woke in the brume,

lilacs like turf stars.

The late fawn

standing in his syrups;

bucks down the swale

chewing sedge.

We move south

to slopes of sleeping poppy,

past the white alder,

bending heads to scent

of calx—in natural dark

a man tries his hand

at belonging. He

with greave of hide, a born

hood, lay with three

spikes in the clay, green

peak in the breeze.

He whose breathing

wrongs the still.

You stir now to mend,

to redress?

To be one of us, after all this?

Featured Prose

Marin County, Sort Of

By Kay Ryan

This is actually an abstract walk, one I’m making up, a generalized walk based on what I like. I have usually done this on a bicycle, but I was asked to write about a walk, so I’ll walk. I’m walking along a road, not a busy road, a country road, but one where people do occasionally have things blow out of the back of their truck or their car window or even where people conceivably have littered. In any case, there are scraps of things here and there along the roadside. Bits of things, fragments of color and print, broken shapes, fading pink receipts. READ MORE »