"For a Row of Laurel Shrubs"
by David Wagoner
Poetry
Volume CLXXI, Number 1
Eighty-Fifth Anniversary
Special Double Issue
October-November 1997
Online Bookstore Listing
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David Wagoner's
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many publications include ten novels and sixteen books of poetry, the most recent of which, Walt Whitman Bathing, appeared from Illinois in 1996. The winner of the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize in 1991, he is a professor of English at the University of Washington.
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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."
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Senior Editor: Stephen Young
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Author bio and Poetry description are Copyright © 1997 by The Modern Poetry Association.
All rights reserved.
Poetry Daily / Amazon.com
Books and cassettes available by David Wagoner:
Walt Whitman Bathing: Poems — Paperback
David Wagoner: The Escape Artist/Readings — Audio Cassette
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