June 22

Trouble by Melissa Stein

Julie: This poem takes a while to get going. It starts prettily enough, but doesn't come into its own until better than halfway through. I seem to have a thing for incantations, repetition. It's all that Catholic upbringing bubbling up, I expect.

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The evolving landscape by Bob Hicok

Julie: It's interesting how these things fall in patterns. This poem goes with, and goes against, the Stein poem. Not pretty. Tough and vigorous, with the sort of observation that is both obsessive and important, no matter how gruesome. I've become quite a fan of Bob Hicok.

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Everything Everything by Dean Gorman

Julie: And another. This is immediate, taking risks and paying off admirably. Unlike yesterday's poem, the lineation feels anything but arbitrary here, the meaning gets pushed through deftly. And how creepy is it that I like poems about dead things? I apologize.