I have long admired this peerless anthology of fun and humorous poems, and am just thrilled that a poem I wrote last fall — to exorcise feelings of sadness over our cancelled Amtrack trip to the east (to visit colleges, to see friends, to revisit Kripalu, and at last to see Emily Dickinson’s house, Edith Wharton’s house, and Amy Clampitt’s house) — is included in this issue of LIGHT.

I always love this online journal, and in this issue (coming just in time to leaven the election season) I am especially wowed by three of the poems of the featured poet, Marilyn Taylor: “Always Questions” (riffs on Emily Dickinson), “First Day in London”, and “Sonnet in Defense of the Much-maligned Spondee”.  Taylor is a Wisconsin poet who has served as Poet Laureate for the City of Milwaukee and for the State of Wisconsin, and she currently teaches in various places, including through Lawrence University in Appleton Light also includes a light-hearted but astute appreciation of Taylor’s work by Barbara Crooker, as well as dozens of clever and sprightly poems by others. Marvelous and inventive language! Do give this issue a look.

And if you enjoy my own poem, “Consolation”, please take a look at the masterful original that inspired it. Here is a link to the text of  Billy Collins’s poem.  And here is a lovely reading of the poem by Melody Hopkins, complete with a slide show to illustrate the poem.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (“Ba”) Daffodil–gift from Sally–near our front sidewalk

ENJOY!  Leslie