LARRY VÉLEZ (1945–): A writer and poet, he currently lives and works in Washington, D.C.
JOHN A. WILLIAMS (1925–): A novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet, Williams was a leading figure of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and '70s. His works include the novels The Man Who Cried I Am, Click Song, and Clifford's Blues; the libretto for the opera Vanqui; and the poetry collection Safari West, for which he won the American Book Award.
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883–1963): Winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Williams practiced medicine in Rutherford, New Jersey. His collections include Selected Poems and The Broken Span.
JAMES WRIGHT (1927–80): Highly regarded American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. His work includes To a Blossoming Pear Tree and This Journey.
AL ZOLYNAS (1945–): Austrian-born poet, naturalized in the United States in 1965, who has taught in universities across the country. His work has been anthologized in several collections. He currently lives in San Diego, California, with his wife.
Acknowledgments
The editors would like to thank their families, colleagues, and friends: in particular, our gifted editor, Amy Einhorn, her assistant, James Schiff, our dream agent, Miriam Altshuler, and her assistant, Sara McGhee, former editor and current friend and reader, Molly Chehak, permissions' dude, Fred Courtwright, inspirational poets Carolyn Creedon and Marie Ponsot, the ever-brilliant and beautiful Ericka Souter, and as always, Andrew Carroll of the American Poetry and Literacy Project.
We'd also like to thank our friends at Georgetown University: Leona Fisher, Dennis Williams, Norma Tilden, Pamela Fox, Maureen Corrigan, David Gewater, Ricardo Ortiz, and Lalitha Gopalan. Thanks also to Sue, John, and Garry Clifford, all the little Cliffords, Shelly Nelson, Barbara Lanphier, Colleen O'Connor, Lisa Ling, Renee Blaloch, Jean Ash, and Politics and Prose Bookstore. Special thanks to all of our friends in Las Vegas, New Mexico: Kak, Wid, Linda, Keith, Jean and Jim, and the staff at the Plaza Hotel.
Mary also extends gratitude to Bob and Kathy Heider, the obstetrics nursing staff at Martha Jefferson Hospital, Betsy Collins and the MJH prenatal exercise gang, magic babysitter Lauren Wencel, the Cville Winter Moms, and the remarkable, life-saving Cathy Quick. She also thanks siblings James Theodore Esselman and Julie Esselman Tomz, for steadfast support. And giddy gratitude to her husband, Greg, who drives her crazy-happy with love and laughter every day.
Elizabeth thanks Larry and reminds him that, so far, we have “by our wills survived to keep the jeweled prize always at our finger tips.”
About the Editors
MARY D. ESSELMAN is a teacher and writer. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband and son.
ELIZABETH ASH VÉLEZ is director of the Community Scholars Program at Georgetown University, where she also teaches women's studies and nonfiction writing.
Margaret Atwood, “Variations on the Word Sleep,” from Selected Poems II: Poems Selected and New 1976–1986 (New York: Houghton Mifflin). Copyright 1987 by Margaret Atwood. Reprinted with the permission of Houghton Mifflin Company and Oxford University Press Canada. All rights reserved.
Bhartrhari, “In Former Days We'd Both Agree,” from Poems from the Sanskrit, translated by John Brough, Penguin Books, 1968.
Kate Bingham, “Because my mother and father…,” and “Sex,” from Cohabitation. Copyright 1998 by Kate Bingham. Reprinted with the permission of Seren Books.
Elizabeth Bishop, “It Is Marvellous,” from The Complete Poems 1926–1979. Copyright 1965 by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC.
Louise Bogan, “Knowledge,” from The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923–1968. Copyright 1977 by Louise Bogan. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC.
Carolyn Creedon, “Just a Sestina to You, Honey, Letting You Know What an Interesting Thing Happened to Me While You Were at Home Rubbing Your Wife's Back,” reprinted with permission of the author.
E. E. Cummings, “i carry your heart with me,” from Complete Poems 1904–1962, edited by George J. Firmage. Copyright 1926, 1954, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright 1985 by George James Firmage. Reprinted with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Silvia Curbelo, “Garden Party,” from The American Poetry Review, 32, no. 4 (July/August 2003). Copyright 2003 by Silvia Curbelo. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Mark Doty, “To the Engraver of My Skin,” from Source: Poems. Copyright 2001 by Mark Doty. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Gavin Ewart, “Ending,” from The Collected Ewart, 1933–1980 (London: Hutchinson, 1980). Reprinted with the permission of M. A. Ewart.
Louise Glück, “C eremony” and “Telemachus ' Detachment,” from Meadowlands. Copyright 1996 by Louise Glück. “Earthly Love,” from Vita Nova. Copyright 1999 by Louise Glück. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Donald Hall, “The Hunkering,” from The New Yorker (October 27, 2003), and “Valentine.” Copyright 2003 by Donald Hall. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Jane Hirshfield, “Three Times My Life Has Opened” and “Broken-Off Twig Budding Out in the Path,” from The Lives of the Heart. Copyright 1997 by Jane Hirshfield. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Sam Holtzapple, “Terminal,” with permission of the author.
Marie Howe, “Marriag e,” from The N ew Yorker. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Langston Hughes, “When Sue Wears Red,” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel. Copyright 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Jane Kenyon, “Biscuit,” from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Copyright 1996 by Jane Kenyon. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Etheridge Knight, “A Love Poem,” from Poems from Prison. Copyright 1968 by Etheridge Knight. Reprinted with the permission of Broadside Press.
Kim Konopka, “I Want.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Philip Larkin, “Versde Sociéte” and “Talking in Bed,” from The Collected Poems, edited by Anthony Thwaite. Copyright 1988 by the Estate of Philip Larkin. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC, and Faber & Faber, Ltd.
James Laughlin, “I Want to Breathe,” from The Love Poems of James Laughlin. Copyright 1986 by James Laughlin. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Dorianne Laux, “The Shipfitter's Wife,” from Smoke. Copyright 2000 by Dorianne Laux. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.
Li-Young Lee, “From Blossoms,” from Rose. Copyright 1986 by Li-Young Lee. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.
Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, “The More You Ruv Someone,” from Avenue Q, with permission of the authors.
Katharyn Howd Machan, “Hazel Tells LaVerne.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Katherine Mansfield, “Camomile Tea,” from Poems. Copyright 1924 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Charlotte Matthews, “Lucy,” with permission of the author.
Mark McMorris, “Elegy for Love.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Pablo Neruda, One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII, from The Essential Neruda, translated by Mark Eisner. Copyright 2004 by Mark Eisner. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. “Girls,” from The Captain's Verses, translated by Donald D. Walsh. Copyright 1972 by Pablo Neruda and Donald D. Walsh. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Frank O'Hara, “Animals,” from The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara. Copyright 1964 by Frank O'Hara. Reprinted with the permission of City Lights Books.
Dorothy Parker, “Surprise,” from The Portable Dorothy Parker, Introduction by Brenden Gill. Copyright 1928 and renewed 1956 by Dorothy Parker. Reprinted with the permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.
Linda Pastan, “An Early Afterlife,” from An Early Afterlife. Copyright 1995 by Linda Pastan. Reprinted with the permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
János Pilinszky, “Relationship,” translated from the Hungarian by Peter Jay, from the collection Crater, tr. Peter Jay, Anvil Press Poetry, 1978.
Sylvia Plath, “The Rival,” from The Collected Poems, edited by Ted Hughes. Copyright 1981 by Ted Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., and Faber & Faber, Ltd.
Jacques Prévert, “Alicante,” translated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from Selections from Paroles. Copyright 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted with the permission of City Lights Books.
Rumi, “Last Night You Left Me and Slept,” from Like This, translated by Coleman Barks (Athens, Georgia: Maypop Books, 1990). Copyright 1990 by Coleman Barks. Reprinted with the permission of the translator.
Eleanor Stanford, “On a Line by Petrarch,” with permission of the author.
Wallace Stevens, “Life Is Motion,” from Collected Poems. Copyright 1923, 1951, 1954 by Wallace Stevens. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Elizabeth Ash Vélez, “Apex Plumbing” and “Cardinal Points.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Larry Vélez, “Appetizers.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
John A. Williams, “Kids,” from Safari West (Montreal: Hochelaga Press, 1998). Copyright 1998 by John A. Williams. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
William Carlos Williams, “Nantucket” and “This Is Just to Say,” from The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume I, 1909–1939, edited by Christopher MacGowan. Copyright 1938 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. “The Ivy Crown,” from The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume II, 1939 – 1962, edited by Christopher MacGowan. Copyright 1953 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. All reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
James Wright, “The Journey” and “Mary Bly,” from Above the River: The Complete Poems. Copyright 1957 by James Wright. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Al Zolynas, “The Zen of Housework,” from The New Physics. Copyright 1979 by Al Zolynas. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.
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