Diner – Spring/Summer 2005

Diner‘s editors endeavor to “support diverse voices that speak across boundaries of time and place.” Toward that end, this issue’s offers “features” of two poets who couldn’t be more different from each other: “Blue Plate Special #1” is Sandra Kohler, and “Blue Plate Special #2” is Michael Casey. The menu also includes 40 other dishes…I mean…poets. Diner‘s editors endeavor to “support diverse voices that speak across boundaries of time and place.” Toward that end, this issue’s offers “features” of two poets who couldn’t be more different from each other: “Blue Plate Special #1” is Sandra Kohler, and “Blue Plate Special #2” is Michael Casey. The menu also includes 40 other dishes…I mean…poets. (I like the diner concept because poetry is, of course, sustenance.) Kohler’s poems are preceded by a brief essay from editor Eve Rifkah. Casey’s poems are framed by an interview with editor Michael Milligan. Kohlerh’s poems are personal narratives, yearning and intimate, her tone is earnest, nature imagery predominates. Casey’s are small character studies, pointed and political. His language is blunt, his tone slanted, a sort of mock innocence. These poems focus on “office” themes. Variety is the spice of life, they say, and this meal has many unique and distinct courses—the poems that accompany the Blue Plate Specials are as different from each other as Kohler’s and Casey’s. Highlights for me are poems by J. Patrick Lewis and Jacquelyn Pope. Pope’s work cleanses the palate, reminding us that that spare, self-contained flavors are as important and as interesting as dense and explosive ones. [www.spokenword.to./Diner]