"The Wooden Toy"
by Charles Simic
Poetry
Volume CLXXI, Number 1
Eighty-Fifth Anniversary
Special Double Issue
October-November 1997
Online Bookstore Listing
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Charles Simic's
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new book of prose from the University of Michigan Press is called Orphan Factory. Walking the Black Cat, his latest book of poems, appeared in 1996.
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Poetry,
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founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, is published monthly by the Modern
Poetry Association. Joseph Parisi, its editor, explained its editorial philosophy in the 75th
anniversary issue of the magazine, published in 1987:
"POETRY continues in service to poetry ... by trying to represent, as Stephen
Spender has said 'the best, and simply the best' poems being written today.
"Literary editors are often asked about the selection policies of their publications. An editor
of POETRY must reply that this magazine has no 'policy,' if by that is meant a list of
aesthetic, philosophical, or political prescriptions or a set of preconceived notions as to which
subjects and styles are worthy. If pressed, an editor here will show an inquirer the Open
Door — that is, Harriet
Monroe's welcome in the first volume of POETRY:
The Open Door will be the policy of this magazine — may the great poet we are
looking for never find it shut, or half-shut, against his ample genius! To this end the
editors hope to keep free of entangling alliances with any single class or school. They
desire to print the best English verse which is being written today, regardless of
where, by whom, or under what theory of art it is written. Nor will the magazine
promise to limit its editorial comments to one set of opinions.
"This attitude holds and the invitation it implies still stands. In recent years, the number of
poems received at these offices has reached upwards of 60,000 [now 80,000] annually. As always,
the quality of
the work, not its source, is what POETRY editors look for."
Today's News and Features
Poetry
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EDITED by JOSEPH PARISI
Senior Editor: Stephen Young
Business and Projects Manager: Helen Lothrop Klaviter
Assitant Editors: Drew Swinger, Chad Gayle
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Author bio and Poetry description are Copyright © 1997 by The Modern Poetry Association.
All rights reserved.
Poetry Daily / Amazon.com
Selected books available by Charles Simic:
Jackstraws — Paperback
Selected Early Poems — Paperback
A Fly in the Soup: Memoirs — Hardcover
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