Editor's Notes

This is a notable year for Lincoln and it is fitting to praise and honor the 16th president. The Manayunk Art Center (MAC) hosted a 200th Anniversary Celebration of Abraham Lincoln Highlighting the 16th President and His Words on Sunday, February 8. This event was held in conjunction with the tributes to Lincoln in this issue. Lincoln is not only considered the greatest American president, but he also was a very skilled prose stylist who wrote some of the finest speeches in American history. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has become the model for the public oration.

Since the MAC Humanities series has a very definite commitment to poets, it is interesting to note that Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book A Team of Rivals stated that Lincoln is the only poet-president. There is more information about this in my article on Lincoln in this issue. Lincoln's favorite readings were the Bible, Shakespeare and poetry. It is no coincidence that Lincoln was assassinated in the theatre because Lincoln enjoyed theatre and spent much time there enjoying performances, especially Shakespeare. By the way, if I can make a suggestion, read Doris Kearns Goodwin's book. It is a masterpiece of synthesis into the life of Lincoln and his rivals and Lincoln's adept steadiness in staying focused on the larger mission of preserving the union. Kearns points out Lincoln's magnanimity which is a remarkable tribute to Lincoln's fortitude and self-worth in handling the vicissitudes of governing in the Civil War. Robert Zaller's article, Lincoln the Writer, offers an exceptional insight into Lincoln's keen mind and his words which Zaller states have wings of fire. After I read portions of Zaller's article at the MAC on February 8, many in the audience applauded and acknowledged Zaller's scholarship. The SVJ is indeed fortunate to have a writer of Zaller's acumen as one of the frequent contributors to the journal.

On the theme of the civil war, Joe Hoagie Hauser contributes an article titled Brother Against Brother: The American Civil War Dramatized On Screen. Readers interested in the Civil War will appreciate the film history in this reflective piece. Hauser knows how to find the frames. Also, Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation is on the cover; one can find more information about the background history of this statue by reading the Mike Cohen article, Abraham Lincoln, Pen in Hand. Cohen appreciates Lincoln, the poet-president.

Now is a time to more formally welcome as poetry editor, Bill Wunder, because this is the first time that he has selected the poems for the issue. Wunder wrote the highly regarded poetry volume, Pointing at the Moon, which contains a number of his fine poems about his Vietnam experiences. One of the first changes that Wunder implemented was that instead of having a staff of assistant editors, he has one assistant reader, Camille Norvaisas. Another major change is that Wunder accepts poetry submissions online at svjpoet_at_yahoo.com. Readers will have a chance to see a change in perspective in the poems selected for this issue. Each poetry editor (and the SVJ has had four poetry editors since its inception in 1990) brings their own sensibility to the process and that in part reflects a change in the taste of the poetry editor, the range of contacts of the poetry editor and the online submission process, which certainly makes it more convenient for contributors to submit work. One can see that some new voices are featured in this issue. Most notably I am thinking of the poems of the area-wide voices of Terry Culleton, Teresa Leo, Lorraine Lins, Hayden Saunier, and Patrick Carrington.

Kelley White has moved back to her roots in New Hampshire and I am delighted to select Kelley White as the featured poet in this issue. I want to particularly point out that her book, A Gifford Offering, is one of the best examples of a successful chapbook because the book has an integrity in form and subject highlighting village scenes of life in Gifford in the nineteenth century New England. One is reminded of The Spoon River Anthology. A sample of poems from A Gifford Offering is included along with a number of other Kelley White poems.

Anna Evans is a formalist ambassador, and readers can check out this connection in her article Forming a Formalist, A Memoir with Verse Asides. Evans also is an editor of several formalist journals. She makes us understand why form works for her and the issue includes a number of her poems. Her article is a very useful introduction for those who want to work with form. Hopefully at some point Evans might even give a formal writing workshop at the MAC.

In previous issues, we have used an alphabetical arrangement for the order of the poems, but for this issue we have shifted to an arrangement in which the reader can better appreciate the connectedness of the poems. I can hardly think of a better way to begin an issue of the SVJ than to include Terry Culleton's poem "Bone" for the metaphor of the dog chewing the bone and the writer working at his craft. Another image that rips across the page is the ending to Terry Culleton's poem "The Pacification of Villages" is "That little girl / running naked up Highway 1 / from Trang Bang in a costume of flames." There are several more Vietnam-connected poems including Culleton's "World Without End" and Teresa Leo's litany "One-Night Stand, Saigon, Vietnam" with its many effective repetitions of "because." A particularly interesting poem because of the manner of its presentation is "Snapshot Two Dec 6, 2008" by Shelley Grabel because of how it frames a situation based on the individuals in the snapshot whereby the girl on the left and the boy on the right become someone who the reader might identify within his or her own background. I find the framework of the poem an ingenious way to set up a tableau and connect to more than the personal.

One notices too among the first half of the poems that there is a definite sea and water connection. I found this particularly evident in the poem "Death of a Blue Fish" by Lorraine Lins. One sees the image of the fisherman and one feels the sorrow of the observer in the poem. Certainly a touching poem about death in nature. The poem "Neshaminy" with its connection to the Lenni Lenape Indians also has its echoes.

Fran Metzman continues on as fiction editor, a position she took on when I first became the editor of the SVJ in 2001. Here are some capsule glimpses into the stories in the issue. Shawn Proctor's gripping story "The Zymurgist," explores the way we isolate ourselves over time and how loneliness can drive us to risk that safety to experience intimacy. Susan Tepper's story, "What About Love" is one woman's discovery of what life is really about, after her own life bottomed out. In Elaine Winer's story "Dark Side," a young mother runs away from husband and baby the same week the world is seeing the dark side of the moon for first time and finds the hard loneliness of outer space parallels her new life.

Michael Delfo Forni wrote a humorous article "Selling Cars: An Insider's Sordid Story," on selling cars from the dealer's point of view revealing how often the buyer is a schmuck. This represents what it used to be like in buying a car, although one suspects the car-selling industry has changed quite a bit. This is Forni's first time being published.

Billy Thompson submitted his essay "American Shed" in May of last year. Thompson uses his neighbor's tool shed as a fitting metaphor for what Barack Obama might bring to the country and how President Obama has come now to represent that guy who might be able to help to bring about the "Change We Can Believe In." It is an interesting parallel. What I found particularly interesting here is that Thompson wrote this in the spring before Obama was the actual Democratic Party candidate. Today Obama in many ways has come to represent that fixer-upper of this country. The connection between Thompson's neighbor's shed and Obama's White House is insightful. In my article on Lincoln, I note the 70-year cycle in crises in American history from Lincoln and the Civil War to Roosevelt and the Great Depression to Obama and this interregnum that we have no word for, yet. We know this is a time of recession and turmoil. And, the task goes on for the writer, the journal and America.