Poetry Magazine for May

Sometimes when I run out of time to get to the library I resort to my subscription to Poetry and this is one of those times! What I love about being able to review this magazine is that you can also check out parts of it at their site, whose link I provided below:
http://www.poetrymagazine.org/

Luckily, they have a link to a poem I enjoyed titled “Photo (Op/tative) Synthesis” by Liz Waldner. The stanzas seem to break into two subjects, the idea of photosynthesis according to plants but utilizing it in regards to human relationships. She mentions the natural world yet you know she is speaking of sensuality between people, herself and another. Lines such as “with a growing and specific gravity/about –it hopes--/ to be undone like a bud,” are an example. Being able to tie unlike things from the title at the top of the poem all the way to the ending line are admirable in my eyes. I hope you’ll check out the poem which is available on the site so that you can enjoy it also.

If you already have a subscription or are able to buy a copy at the book-store, there are several other poems I enjoyed. One of them is: “I Imagine My Father’s Death” by Bryan D. Dietrich. In a sense, you could take this to be a biblical reference because lines such as “My father’s death is bigger/than a planet, bigger than the gravity/wells worlds make…” but I personally assume this is about Dietrich’s own father. There is a void that has been left behind as a result, a personal one. A clue to that for me are lines in the beginning “It is bigger than a Ford/Escort, than a Zeppelin, black and vast/and slow moving, oozing over an Oklahoma/arena.” References to moments and places that mean something to the author and the loved one, then expanding out to planets, the universe… I enjoy this poem because I imagine it would be how I felt if my own father passed away, which I certainly hope isn’t for countless years to come. This poem is good at bringing you in without overwhelming you with despair and sometimes you want a poem that touches you without also rattling you too much. You are left feeling the void and the power of loss but also the sense that all is not lost, there are still ways to reach out to the void and perhaps even cross it.

I hope you are able to enjoy Poetry magazine where you are and I thank you for reading. Please stop by tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…