New Poetry Stuff I Get in the Mail: American Poetry Review

I received a new issue of American Poetry Review in the mail while I was moving. I started reading it last week and am half-way through. 

I've had the magazine for a full year now it's time to decide whether or not to resubscribe. I subscribed as a benefit to joining the Poetry Society of America for a year at $45. PSA offered 20% off the subscription price of APR or a handful of other literary journals.

I think I'll continue another year. I like the essays and the variety of poetry styles in every issue, although I do see a recurring batch of authors appearing over and over, which is an odd thing to notice in only six issues.

I am rethinking rejoining PSA. Aside from the bookmarks they send me, most of the benefits involve events in New York City. A subscription to APR is only $25 a year. I might instead just subscribe to another journal on their list, like The Boston Review, which is quite affordable as well. Both of these subscriptions would be less in total than a yearly PSA membership. It's a good organization. I loved the subway posters they did when I lived in New York City area in the 1990s; but I'm not able to make good use of my membership being here in New Mexico.

Anyway, in the current issue of APR, I enjoyed Lucie Brock-Broido's riffs on fame in the poems "Fame Rabies" and "Dove, Abiding." There's an interesting overview of Denise Levertov in honor of a new collected book coming out. I liked Robin Becker's "In Montefiore Cemetery," the end of "Wearing Mother's High School Ring" and the "Late June Owl" poem.  The essay "Judging Eichmann" is one of those essays in APR like that one about Americans and their obsessions with cars…you know it has something to do with conceptualizing ideas as a poet but they refrain from overtly giving you the connection. So for a moment the essay feels like a non sequitur.

I've just finished the Kazim Ali poems and interview (which goes into language poetry's ideas and how that served or didn't serve his coming out as a gay Muslim man). This interview was followed by two poems by actor James Franco about Hollywood and LA…which were very good and I resisted the urge to hate him because he's famous, randomly well-paid, and has written at least two good poems for a forthcoming book on Graywolf Press.