Langston Hughes:
Rosmarie Waldrop:
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James Tate:
Wilma Stockenström (tr. from Afrikaans by Johann de Lange):
Cynthia Cruz:
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Yes, Jonathan, your poem museum idea is lovely. And in that museum, in the room where these 4 poems are hung, the Hughes-Waldrop-Tate-Cruz room, it would be so cool to just sit on a museum bench and stare for a long time at each, or wander around the room aimlessly looking from poem to poem, feeling close to them and at the same time mystified. There are some Sharpener dispatches that feel like it will be weeks, or years before some or all of the poems open up to me. Today's feels like that.
I feel like there should be a museum of these curations in some grand city, off the beaten track of other great museums, where we could wander from room to room. This newsletter works okay, but high-ceilinged rooms and a cafe would be better.