The Summer 2019 issue of Third Wednesday is out now, and it is again full of the depth and variety for which it is known.

I was delighted by the elegantly icy concrete (or shaped) poem by Northfield’s own Rob Hardy titled “Icicles,” and I was intrigued by a four-sonnet sequence by Jennifer A. McGowan, the feature poet for this issue who is based in the U.K.

And–because I had submitted to their third “One-Sentence Poetry Contest”–I was especially interested to read the winning entries. My submission did not win, but I would not have written it without the impetus of the contest. It sprang from a childhood memory, discussing Shakespeare, very briefly, with my computer-scientist father. I was honored that Third Wednesday included it in their group of “considerable merit.”

As I have come to expect, this issue has me thinking outside my usual boxes about poetry, prose, and images. Just to share a bit of that, here are some of my favorite classic poems–quite different poets, subjects, moods, and diction–that I am now viewing through the lens of one-sentence construction–why didn’t I notice this aspect before?

“The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens

“The New Dog” by Linda Pastan

“The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams (shorter than some modern tweets)

“Bright star, would I were steadfast…” by John Keats (a bravura one-sentence performance arcing out over the fourteen lines of a Shakespearean sonnet!)

Now, I suspect, I will look for that single full-stop–in terms of sense and punctuation–as I read the work of others. I know that I shall be consciously considering the limits of the sentence as I construct new poems.

Do you have a favorite one-sentence poem? If so, please let me know! If not, do consider trying your hand at one this summer!

Happy summer reading!

Happy Summer writing!