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The Canary – 2003

2003

Jeannine Hall Gailey

This issue of Canary, a new poetry journal with high production values featuring a completely black cover with only “Canary” and “2” visible, displays the talents of poets diverse as Thomas Lux and Olena Kalytiak Davis. Poems, which range from highly experimental to traditional forms, occasionally include visual media such as illustrations, plain lines, or even, an autograph of a pop culture icon, as in “Poem with Erik Estrada Autograph.” As a representative sample, here are some evocative lines (lines breaks and stanza breaks condensed for the interests of space in this column) from Michael Dumanis’ “West Des Moines”:

This issue of Canary, a new poetry journal with high production values featuring a completely black cover with only “Canary” and “2” visible, displays the talents of poets diverse as Thomas Lux and Olena Kalytiak Davis. Poems, which range from highly experimental to traditional forms, occasionally include visual media such as illustrations, plain lines, or even, an autograph of a pop culture icon, as in “Poem with Erik Estrada Autograph.” As a representative sample, here are some evocative lines (lines breaks and stanza breaks condensed for the interests of space in this column) from Michael Dumanis’ “West Des Moines”:

“She asked me whether / she could cling to me // on the Impaler, / no, the Tilt-a-Whirl, // at the next Church / of Wounded Jesus carnival. // I wanted to live for / an infinite while // on the outskirts of Troy / at the dawnbreak of siege, // where I could conduct / reenactments // of meeting her / in my spare time.”

A feeling of youthful energy, newness, and eccentricity pervade the poems here. [Canary River, P.O. Box 51210, Eugene, OR 97405. Single issue $10.00. http://thecanary.org ]  – JHG

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