Due to construction I have been slacking, but not so with Solace in So Many Words contributors.
Kathleen Kirk has four poems, “Daughter of Midas,” “Children Again,” “Goldfinches,” and “Mythology” in Glasschord Magazine (volume 27). I hadn’t heard of this online magazine before but the website explains, “Glasschord Magazine was founded by a community of emerging artists as an open forum for creative expression. Each monthly issue explores a single theme from a variety of contemporary perspectives. The project invites open participation, whether as a contributor or viewer.” The literary editor is Daniel James McCabe and the magazine is seeking submissions.
Have you ever visited the website Your Daily Poem? It’s a great site featuring great poems, a new one each day. October featured three Solace in So Many Words contributors.
Susan Mahan’s poem “Milk Pitcher” appeared on Your Daily Poem (10/10/12), and after you read it, you will see that pitcher and hold it in your mind.
Constance Vogel Adamkiewicz’s poem “Amish Quilt and Bake Sale” appeared on Your Daily Poem (10/14/12), which starts with these lines: “With a white dove hand / she plucks my dollar bill for her shoo-fly pie. / Her chicory blue eyes glance at my beads, /then shy away. / Nearby on a bench a black bonnet perches, /a crow watching.”
Donna Hilbert’s “Queens” appeared on Your Daily Poem (10/3012) and starts this way: “I loved the flat sassy / bodies of my paper dolls: / movie queens, / hands on hips, / lips in a frozen pout, / glamour pusses / in tab-on fur capes.” I had paper dolls with elaborate dresses and this poem brought them back to mind.
Also, we are awaiting the publication of Donna’s latest book The Congress of Luminous Bodies, which is forthcoming from Aortic Books — I will keep you posted.
Celebrating a new book is Kerry Langan. It’s called Live Your Life and Other Stories and is published by Wising Up Press. The launch party is next week in Oberlin, Ohio. Here’s how the book is described: “In her second book of stories Kerry Langan explores, through characters drawn from academe and the wider world, the myths that unconsciously shape our behavior and our sense of possibility. . . We recognize ourselves in these characters; they cause us to wince and to laugh, and to wonder what myths we may be blindly living by—and what surprises await us if we open our eyes.” CONGRATS Kerry.
University of Iowa Press announced an upcoming title that pays tribute to Philip Levine. 
Due out next spring, Coming Close will feature forty essays on Philip Levine by poets including Edward Hirsch, Sharon Olds, Larry Levis, Nick Flynn, David St. John and many others. Here’s a excerpt of an excerpt of the The Introduction by Jane Mead: “. . . within this category of poet-teacher, when it comes to changing lives, Philip Levine, by all accounts, has surpassed all probability. Gathered here are a handful of essays that speak of his (not always immediately appreciated) honesty, his commitment to poetry and to his students, his humor, and his generosity. These essays are love letters—thank-you notes for some of the great gifts.”
I just received my copy of Lummox. Don’t you just love the name? It’s the name of a journal out of California recently reincarnated by RD Armstrong. I am happy to say my poem “Commiseration” is in it. I must admit I have not read all of the perfect-bound 235-page behemoth but what I have read, I have enjoyed. With its theme being “The Favorite Poems Issue” Lummox features poetry selected by guest editors as well as poems that were independently submitted. Friend to Solace in So Many Words poet and publisher Doug Holder picked some of his favorite poems by writers from the Boston area, and he chose Solace in So Many Words contributor Dan Sklar’s “A Time of Horses.” Dan’s poem is humorous and makes you think. Thanks to RD Armstrong for including my work.
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