New Poem in Epoch

 I have a new poem in Epoch, a literary journal out of Cornell University. This poem is available only through print copies of the journal (not online). Usually I don't post my poems that appear only in print journals, as it would be best to encourage prospective readers to buy a copy of the journal, to support the journal that has supported my work by publishing it. That has been my policy, but I am wondering if it's an efficacious personal policy, as no one has ever told me that they have bought a copy of a journal to just read my poem.

So, if anyone reads this blog (and why would they? nobody reads blogs anymore) and has an opinion on the matter, let me know what you think. Would you, or do you, post poems that appear only in print journals and are not available online? 

Meanwhile, this time I am posting the poem that appears in Epoch, to see how it feels, to see what happens. 

Winnowed 

I want to want to be good.
I want to want to be used by God. 

That one degree of separation— 

 jellyfish wish: to be 

a bell the color of water 

 submerged, held by the water 

it holds yet 

never becoming the water. 

 This asymptotic ache, this spat-out 

lukewarmness, this inside-out hairshirt— 

a wavering, this oneness with wind. 

Like Saint Augustine, like Jonah not yet swallowed— 

I wish I wished to rise 

from this hammock to herald, 

to summon, to be someone 

else.                       Windfall apples.

What's Neat on the Net

Cool things on the internet:

1. The entire Harvard Classics series online. We had two bookshelves devoted to this series in our home when I was growing up. It went with the oldest sister when she got married. Now all of us can have it, without dedicating the physical space (sort of want to say to my older sister, nyah nyah na nyah nyah....)

2. Cornell University's natural sound archive--largest in the world--online. Listen to loons, wolves, rain forest ambient sound, almost any natural sound you can think of.

3. My good friend Tracy Slater recently got a book deal with Putnam for her memoir about life as an American woman married to a Japanese man, going through infertility treatments in Japan, along with all the other adjustment one has to make to live abroad. She blogs about it at The Good Shufu.

4. A great interview with poet Sarah J. Sloat, poet and expat in Germany, about chapbooks and homesickness, at Laura Madeline Wiseman's blog. I'm a big fan of Sloat's poetry, and of chapbooks, and a fellow sufferer of homesickness, so if you've an interest in any of those topics, be sure to check out the interview.

5. And from Mental Floss, a list of 17 vowel-free words (or should we say vowel-less?--I once witnessed a debate over the use of childless vs. childfree and now always think of the options and their implications) you can use in boardgames such as Scrabble and Words With Friends. Thanks to my sister Janee for alerting me to this useful list.

6. An interview with poet Eric Pankey at the Milkweed Editions blog, about his new book Trace. At the bottom of the interview is a link where you can read quite a selection of poems from the new book, out from Milkweed Editions this year. From the interviews: "I see poems as speculative spaces and, in such a place, I find myself free to be full of questions, full of doubt."