New Letters, Volume 69 Number 1

New Letters, Volume 69 Number 1

E S S A Y S

6 / Editor's Commentary: On Being A Managing Editor, Robert Stewart
27 / Introduction: The Drawings of Laurie Lipton, Janet Burroway
75 / A brief history of hair:, Alyce Miller

F I C T I O N

11 / Family, Frances Sherwood
31 / Bobbing, Helen Barolini
57 / The Birthday, Harry Mark Petrakis
89 / Say When, Roderick Townley
101 / Pine Cones, Scott Ely
119 / Handel's Father, Bill Oliver
139 / Mistrals, Stephen Ausherman
167 / The Bombing of Tripoli, William McCauley

P O E T R Y

41 / Christmas 2001, Tim Seibles
44 / Five Poems, Nance Van Winckel
49 / What the Body Knows, Alison Townsend
52 / Two Poems, Eric Pankey
93 / Hostage, Roberta Swann
95 / The Black Hole, David Ray
96 / In a Season of Absence, Maryfrances Wagner
97 / Some Boys are Born to Wander, Walt McDonald
98 / At Sybaris, Francis Blessington
99 / Spring Fires in Livingston Parish, Alison Pelegrin
148 / Three Poems, Regan Good
154 / The Bar Mitzvah, Alex Horne
155 / The Letter Walter Bargen
156 / The Skeleton of Roaring Camp Might be a Woman, David Citino
157 / Georgia, Susan Whitmore
158 / Water, Greg Field
160 / On the Undying Political Influence of Frank O'Hara, Saul Bennett
163 / The Swing, Miriam Poeter-Miller
164 / The Race, Kurt Brown

A R T W O R K

Laurie Lipton, drawings, front cover, pages 5, 10, 25, 26, 30, 39, 40, 56, 74, 100, 118, 138, 147, 162, 166. (Introductory essay by Janet Burroway, page 27.)
Roger Pfingston, photographic portfolio, pages 81-88.
Kathrin Perutz, photograph, "One Year Later," page 94.
175 / Notes On Contributors
180 / New Programs: New Letters on the Air
181 / Visitors' Log: The New Letters Guest Book
182 / Celebrations: News From Our Authors

S T A F F

Editor: Robert Stewart

Editorial Advisor: James McKinley

Administrative Director: Betsy Beasley

Assistant Managing Editor: Aleatha Ezra

Producer, New Letters on the Air: Angela Elam

Assistant Producer: Leslie Koffler

Readers: Thomas Russell, Karen Subach

Student Staff: Jason Holmes, Adam Kraft, Jannie Morrison, Amy Thomas

Past Editors: Alexander Cappon, David Ray, James McKinley

New Letters website: umkc.edu/newletters. Webmaster: Joe Short

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NEW LETTERS (ISSN 0146-4930)

VOLUME 69 NUMBER 1

Electronic edition published by Cultural Heritage Langauge Technologies and funded by the National Science Foundation International Digital Library Program. This text has been proofread to a high degree of accuracy. It was converted to electronic form using typesetters source files.

Two Poems (Eric Pankey)

Previous Findings

Between the pathway's stones, the scent of thyme - dusty, dry as quartz crushed
Is kicked up with your daily coming and going.
Sometimes when you go away
The motets of the crickets ring wrong, clipped songs of ache and ache.
I drop two equal objects from a height, but fail to replicate all previous findings.
I wait at the door with the dog, the wind through the screen no longer thyme-edged.

I take liberties with the truth toward accuracy, toward the experience of,
Rather than the description of the field of view.
I measure the validity of each thesis
By the catenary curve of kite string snagged between the holly and Bradford pear.
Given a form one works against it within it. I cannot unknot the dream-logic to cross over.
The sheaves lean in upon themselves, a makeshift windbreak, where you wait, sheltered.

Even at night the sky was too large to map; still we found a place to rest in your twin bed.
When we went out for a drink in Oxford, Iowa, we walked past the Alibi
And around the corner to Mary and Eldon's, then walking home at midnight
We looked to the blurred pyramids of corn by the tracks, the tiny stitches of Orion's belt,
The one streetlight reflected on a neighbor's snow shovel to find our way back.

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