WINTRY, BUT NOT WINTER-Y

John Bloomberg-Rissman initiated the project "1,000 VIEWS OF GIRL SINGING" rooted in one of my poems "The Secret Life of An Angel". I was honored to see so many participants re-do or re-work or take some impetus from that poem -- in part because I moiself was never satisfied with it. So I also tried to work the original, and came up with "ANTI-WINTER: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF AN ANGEL", now part of Fiera Lingue's in-progress WINTER issue (it's in progress but has some fine contributors and contributions -- check out the link now, why not?)!

Thanks to editor Anny Ballardini for always being open to my work.

The poem on Fiera Lingue is not going to be my last take on my original poem -- part of the problem is time: I'm so past that time when I wrote the original poem and so I have to find a doorway to it now that keeps me alive to it....meanwhile, the contributions of so many others are so much more effective than mine, e.g. THIS.

One thing that this whole exercise proves is that looking at a poem in another way than "bad" vs "good" is as valid a path to creating a larger poetry experience than what may be limited by authorial intention.

Anyway, the poem on Fiera Lingue is what it is (and I do like my Jamaican accent coming up in its punchline), but also will serve as a means for taking me closer to what likely will be my last Word on this poem -- which will appear in the anthology that John is editing, and which I think will be published by U.K.'s Leafe Press (that's a teaser for the anthology!). THANKS again, John...and to all the participants. Cheers.