Dear Editor,
Treemont Retirement Community has a poetry study group that meets every week. We have studied individual poets and their works, processed every word of An Introduction to Poetry, worked our way through The Best Poems of the English Language, and read Garrison Keillor’s collections. So naturally I felt that a subscription to Poetry would provide the group with some stimulating discussion.
As it turns out, we cannot make head or tail out of your selected “poems.” We agree that there is no rhyme and very little reason—only phrases, snatches of words or thoughts in random order, with very little cohesion. The poems are neither enjoyable nor enlightening.
We feel that we are giving Poetry a fair trial, but are dismayed to think that this magazine represents the best of modern poetry.
Alice Pillsbury
Houston, Texas
The editor responds:
We’re grateful to the Treemont Retirement Community for their interest in Poetry. We decided to ask some of the members to discuss the poems in the current issue with us on our monthly podcast, which can be found at poetrymagazine.org. We hope other readers will listen in and let us know their responses.
The Editor
from Poetry Magazine
