March 2024
POETRY Foundation Magazine – March 2024, Volume 223, Number 5
Best Poem of the Issue: Beth Ann Fennelly - The Last Hummingbird of Summer
Overall issue rating: 3.8/5
Comment: Thank you to POETRY for upgrading to color images.
Adrian Matejka
Editor’s Note (Rating 4.5/5)
Comment: I am a middle-aged white male born and raised in generic suburbia. What I love about POETRY Magazine is that I am exposed to writing that is counter intuitive to the morals and principles I absorbed from others and adopted as my own. Perhaps only rivaled by photography, poetry is the most important tool for social change available to people of all cultures, races, education levels, and economic statuses. When I read a piece as poignant and carefully worded as the Editor’s Note by Adrian Matejka, it challenges my beliefs of what is true about the reality of American society. I am thankful that POETRY Magazine allows me to have a window into the lives, feelings, and problems of people I would be otherwise unaware. When I first started reading and writing poetry, I considered POETRY Magazine to be “woke” to a point of being unreadable. I have since changed this stance and have embraced social justice poetry; however, social justice poetry is a double-edged sword and I worry that POETRY Magazine is alienating readers by publishing poorly written, low-quality poems simply because they incorporate social justice vocabulary. I will go into this point in greater detail as I review individual poems, but for now I will simply say that there is a glaring difference within this month’s issue between Salima Rivera’s poetry and Tomas Q. Morin’s poetry. Salima Rivera’s poetry is brilliantly planned, and she uses clever vocabulary to show the reader how her social gripes affect her life; conversely, Morin’s poem feels like a first draft that took about five minutes to write. This is objectively bad writing. Morin mentions that his mother is Mexican and that his football coach was a racist white man, and suddenly his weak poem is published in POETRY Magazine. Again, I happily embrace poetic ideas that I am uncomfortable or unfamiliar with, but I think POETRY Magazine has a very serious problem with publishing bad poetry that accomplishes little more than checking boxes from a list of social justice keywords. Social justice poetry absolutely deserves to be the tip of the spear regarding content that is published at POETRY Magazine, but I worry that it comes at the expense of excluding brilliant poetry submissions of other styles.
Petra Kuppers
Starship Somatics: An Invitation (Rating4.5/5)
Note: Starship Somatics is a video poem which is only available in the POETRY Magazine app.
Comment: It is admirable that Petra Kuppers had the creativity and desire to build a video poem. The video itself added very little to the strength of the poem. The woman floating in the water is interesting, but it is just a looped clip which was a disappointing realization. The author’s voice is beautiful. One of the most important lessons that critical poetry reading has taught me is that there is a difference between subjectively disliking a poem and objectively bad writing. It is important to examine poetry simultaneously through subjective and objective lenses. I can vehemently dislike a poem yet also give it a high rating. In my subjective opinion, despite being a well-written poem with beautiful audio, the video itself was pointless.
Beth Ann Fennelly
The Last Hummingbird of Summer (Rating 5/5)
Jason Adam Sheets
Lime Tree (Rating 1/5)
Comment: Too existential, too short. If there is meaning to this poem, it is completely lost on me. I think it is fair to say objectively that this is not good writing.
A True Dimension of Nothingness (Rating 1/5)
Comment: Oddly, the March issue follows the brilliance of Beth Ann Fennelly with the amateur, elementary, existentialist nonsense of Jason Adam Sheets. I am baffled why this was selected to be published. You can open your Kindle and read free poetry from brand new authors that is stronger than this selection.
Marosa di Giorgio, tr. By Sarah Maria Medina
“Mama said ‘wedding crowns’” (Rating 3.5/5)
“The bats arrived” (Rating 3.5/5)
“When I was six years old” (Rating 3.5/5)
Sarah Barber
Vinegar (Rating 5/5)
Comment: An incredible poem about the feeling of unreturned love. This poem wins honorable mention for the best of March 2024.
Danielle Vogel
Drifts (Rating 3.9/5)
Comment: The tide rolls in and out, and the formatting of the lines looks like rising then receding waves. This trope and formatting have been done to death, but the poetry is well-written, nonetheless. Art doesn’t have to be new or groundbreaking to be brilliant. “Drifts” is safe writing, but it undoubtedly refreshing.
Alison C. Rollins
A Bell is a Bearer of Time (Rating 4.5/5)
The Loophole of Retreat, or The Love Below, as Above (Rating 4.5/5)
Comment: The formatting is interesting and adds to the enjoyment of both poems.
Julien Strong
He Had a Terrible Childhood (Rating 4.5/5)
Garbage Man (Rating 4.5/5)
Isabel Galleymore
Forever, It Appears (Rating 1/5)
Release (Rating 1/5)
Of All Things (Rating 5/5)
Comment: I’m not sure what happened with the first two poems by Isabel Galleymore, but “Of All Things” is spectacular. and is the most creative poem of March 2024.
Yuri Andrukhovych, tr by John Hennessy & Ostap Kin
From “Letters to Ukraine” (Rating 4/5)
Comment: I didn’t find this piece particularly poetic, but it’s interesting writing regardless. It was an interesting window into Russian and Ukranian culture. The poem is bit long winded and also suffers from being overly existential at times.
C.L. O’Dell
Sweethearts (Rating 5/5)
Comment: At face value, “Sweethearts” is a simple poem, but it stirred up complex emotions and memories of inside jokes, hiding in corners at parties, and skipping out unacceptably early while laughing all the way home.
JT Lachausse
It’s Crude (Rating 2.5/5)
Bent Arrow (Rating 2.5/5)
Lawrence Joseph
In the Land of Milk and Honey (Rating 2.5/5)
And That Language (Rating 2.5/5)
Anais Deal-Marquez
Arrivals (Rating 2.5/5)
Tayi Tibble
Lil Mermaidz (Rating: 4/5)
Comment: A haunting poem that I initially disliked but find myself reminiscing about.
Tomas Q. Morin
Stunt Double (Rating 1/5)
Comment: As I previously mentioned in my review of the Editor’s Note, Stunt Double by Tomas Q. Morin is not good poetry, but it checks the obligatory boxes of woke vocabulary required for publication in POETRY Magazine. This poem is a prime example of the problems that plague the selection process at POETRY Magazine month after month.
Nome Emeka Patrick
Smile (Rating 1/5)
Late Night (Rating 1/5)
Comment: Nome Emeka Patrick is a lesson in how to get published in POETRY Magazine with zero effort: just smash all of the woke tropes and keywords into a single, hateful poem.
Mandy Moe Pwint Tu
Savage, or Thoughts on Reincarnation (Rating 1/5)
Comment: I suspect that this is ChatGPT poetry.
Amber Adams
Residuary (Rating 1/5)
Salima Rivera: A Chicago Rican Poet (Rating 5/5)
Comment: Salima Rivera’s work speaks for itself. It is brilliant in every sense; clever formatting, extensive vocabulary, showing without telling, meaningful social justice messages, and a loving mother. Her daughter’s piece is also excellent. POETRY does a wonderful job with these comprehensive collections of poetry that include images and input from family, friends, and contemporaries. The inclusion of Salima Rivera’s fried chicken recipe was also really cool. This is why I subscribe to POETRY.