Letter from the Editor

Readers, writers, artisans of the broken line, this issue introduces a new occasional feature: Black Tie: Formal Affair, which will survey poems in traditional form that maintain their contemporariness and (that word-in-miniature so rarely trusted to stand alone) vim.  He who thinks he doesn’t like pantoums should read Anne Silver’s. And so should She who.

Then—to ascend for a moment the scale of importance—this issue re-introduces our former managing editor, now more managerial than ever and our new GMBGW (in this acronym, remember, the the is silent—indeed, speechless), Larry Colker. 

Assistant Editor Liz Gonzalez, poet of earth and air, fire and good one-pot meals, water—both icy and cool—offers a new In Review. One of the L.A. literary monde’s sharpest thinkers penned, keyboarded, this one, Catherine Daly. 

Elsewhere in these imaginary Web realm pages, Denis Mair, The Quiet Man, tells of a misunderstanding involving a type of woman once termed mad, then hysterical, then psychotic, then dysfunctional, but who nowadays we’d recognize as just another person on the usual panoply of medications.  The Reader must proceed through a good deal of quietness, though, before coming to that part. And amid the blathering going on the world over, don’t we need bit of quiet?  

Terrific poems by John Allman and William Trowbridge bolster my discussion of “edge” and what it is we think we mean when we throw that word around as if we know what the hell we’re talking about.

Visual Cues continues to blur slightly, pleasingly, the line between two arts. Jackie Tchakalian kindly lent Speechless a painting to accompany her poem.

Those prone to anxiety, those wary of what’s next, may now be comforted.  Sneak Previews heralds a lush unfolding of poems from Sholeh Wolpé and Deborah Landau—books coming soon.  Suddenly the future looks good, or at least better.

Finally, is there anywhere else suspended in the Web realm a thing where poet professors reveal to the lay public select aspects of the mysterious workshop process? I think not.  For this issue Charles Harper Webb, he-who-knows-his-own-mind, describes his workshop method and the aim behind it, with student poems that benefit from his input. 

And there’s more, so much more. 

Suzanne Lummis

Summer 2004

Speechless Spring 2007
Copyright © 2007 Published by Tebot Bach