The January 2011 issue of Poetry features a collection of essays by writers, artists and scientists "on their experience of poetry." From the essay by Madeleine Avirov:
Anne Carson said that “the poet is someone who feasts at the same table as other people. But at a certain point he feels a lack. He is provoked by a perception of absence within what others regard as a full and satisfactory present.” I am a painter, but this same lack drives me out into the morning dark.
Avirov, “A Mind of Winter,” 2010, Oil on canvas; 48 x 48 in.
My copy of the January issue arrived in the mail last week while I was on vacation for the holidays. It was such a luxury, and indulgence, to be able to sit down with the issue for a whole morning instead of in bits and pieces between the rest of life which is how it normally goes. I read all the poems and the six essays in one sitting, which I think is a first, and as a result engaged with the work on a deeper, less distracted level. If only that were my usual experience.
The print issue included not only a color reproduction of Avirov's painting above, but also two full-color visual poems by Joel Lipman. This was a welcome surprise when turning those pages. Among the non-visual poems, I particularly liked "This Landscape Before Me" and "Galah's Skull" by Sarah Holland-Batt, who is an Australian poet.