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Letter From the Editor Sarah Zale As writers we learn and strive for a snake dance. We
touch the truth, run our fingers along its sinuous belly, excite our
readers with a fleeting glimpse of its scales or fangs, its alien beauty
and the possibilities and dangers it represents. Nothing is more
important than this dance . . . I must confess: First and foremost, I am a poet. I read everything with a poet’s eye. I also must confess: I live with no shame for this fact. Walter Mosley, the critically-acclaimed fiction writer, said at the summer Port Townsend residency: "Take a poetry workshop. You need to study poetry to be a good fiction writer. You will learn everything about writing except story & plot." The key to identifying quality writing is to look for its use of poetic tools, i.e. a skilled use of the tools of the craft. Poets and what I, in good humor, call in-the-closet poets did all the hard work of close reading the submissions and offering their comments before a further close study and discussion by myself, Karen Terrey (VT), and Lisa Liken (WA). Putting together a literary journal is no easy task. I wish I could shake the hands of Poetry Editor Theresa Edwards (VT), Prose Editor Kristina Moriconi (VT), and Drama Editor Tom Leger (VT), and every member of their staffs. I will do so to every Port Townsend staff member at the residency. A special thanks to Jennifer Rumford for her help with the Critical Commentary submissions and production, as well as her invaluable advice as Alumni Advisor. The quality of work in this second issue of Pitkin Review peers other fine journals—surpasses many. The staff chose work for publication based on its potential to compete in the "real" world. In the September 2006 issue of Poetry Magazine, John Barr, President of the Poetry Foundation, wrote: "American poetry is ready for something new because our poets have been writing in the same way for a long time now. There is fatigue, something stagnant about the poetry being written today." We wished this issue to say: "You’re wrong, Mr. Barr," and we succeeded. We looked for fresh, new voices in all the genres: words on stage performing Mosley’s "snake dance." Barr also wrote: "Will the next Walt Whitman be an MFA graduate? Somehow it seems hard to imagine." You’re wrong, Mr. Barr. Each poem in this publication is different, unique in its perspective, powerful with emotion, intelligent in its use of poetic tools. I laugh at the delightful voice that carries Susan King’s "Sunday Morning," happily lose myself within the subtle blue imagery of Marcia McCusker’s "Blue," gasp for air in Julie Bouwsma’s "Hours In," cry with the ironic list of "insane" perceptions in Lisa Liken’s "A Course in Insanity," and cringe at every image in "Disassembly Directions." Discover for yourself the power in the rest of the poems. The prose: I call the four pieces creative nonfiction. For each piece is creative nonfiction, in my book, and according to writer Bret Lott. He writes: This is the proactive element of creative nonfiction, and the final element of my essai to define creative writing: our responsibility as human beings to answer for and to our lives ... to see order in chaos... But if we are rigorous enough, fearless enough, and humble enough to attempt this responsibility, this way of seeing—for creative nonfiction, like fiction, like poetry, is simply and complexly a way of seeing—the rewards we will reap will be great: we will understand. To understand, and nothing more, and that is everything. May I say that I love Carolyn Nur Wistrand’s "Even the Dirt Bleeds Down Here" for the playwright’s sense of poetry? Her skill with language is essential; it is a key factor, as well, in Eric Johnke’s "Bad Sex." Ah, the other two plays, as well, must not be missed. Imagine a dialogue-free screenplay as in the case of Dana Biscotti Myskowski’s "Playing House." How can I not be taken by a poet as a main character? This piece allows me pure escape into my own imagination—lovely.
What a pleasure to be so in love with all the pieces in this issue of the Pitkin Review. On behalf of myself, the staff and the writers, I say, Enjoy, enjoy. It has been a labor of love. Sarah Zale
Entry to Memory’s Vault on Artillery Hill, overlooking the Port Townsend
campus and parade field and beaches of Fort Worden State Park. Kiosk
sculptures by California artist Dick Turner, with engraved poems by Sam
Hamill. Photo by Wanda Petersen. |
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Lastly, I am awed by the intelligent observations of the
writers of critical commentary. It is no wonder that Theresa Edwards’ skill as
an editor evinces itself in her writing. Karen McDonald’s commentary on The
Immense Journey has particular meaning for me since it is the work that made
me realize in high school how poetry can be found in all genres of writing.
Loren Eisley is truly a nature poet even as he writes prose.