PoetryRepairShop - Contemporary International Poetry
online since 1997
repair your mind ... read more poetry
JH. Dificult to explain why, in the editing process, I place comparable or contrasting poems together. What links one poem to another? It is more or less a momentary flare of intellect or a smoldering ash of whim. As editor, I read and re-read a poem to gain new insight, see new problems of content, style, or form. One poet does X better than another does Y or both are equally good at X…
...and I learn from changes and exchanges between poets, poems, and readings: learn how and why a poem works this way or that. I would argue that no poem in PoetryRepairShop can be read the same way twice by a serious reader. Yet, even the naïve reader who seeks one self reflected in the poem will find a variety of selves to wear. Try one on; try another; then try the first in some new way. Enjoy the world as it ought to be - full of poetry. JH