Dear Editor,
W.S. Di Piero’s poems in the October 2009 issue are among the very few to stick with me in my reading of contemporary poetry. “The Ash Bringer” will haunt my mind for a very long time.
Kudos also to Kevin Young for “The Mission.” The following lines should be the envy of any poet wanting to display wisdom:
I have come to know
sorrow’s
not noun
but verb, something
that, unlike living,
by doing right
you do less of.
However, I must quibble about one item: why the use of the ampersand in this poem? It adds nothing and, amid the gentle power of Young’s lines, is irritating.