issue 108 www.versewisconsin.org April 2012 Verse WISCONSIN Founded by linda Aschbrenner AS FREE VERSE 1998 VERSE DRAMA VERSE DRAMA VERSE DRAMA PROSE FEATURES DRAMATIC POETRY & FERMAT’S LAST THEOREM “Is a brief, random, one- or two- generation explosion of verse plays BY AMIT MAJMUDAR impossible? The visual fixation of modern audiences—audience implies OUR EXPANDING DRAMAVERSE audition, hearing; perhaps we should call BY WENDY VARDAMAN & GREER DUBOIS them viewers—makes it unlikely. The technological shift, from nearly bare stage to richly detailed screen, makes it even “Verse drama isn’t just important more unlikely. The emphasis among most because Shakespeare did it. Poetry is poets on “lyric” poetry doesn’t help.” drama’s native language. Performance is poetry’s native state. Besides our —Amit Majmudar broad and deeply held belief in the VERSE DRAMA power of poetry and drama, singly and VERSE DRAMA in unison, to activate the imagination and to help us to make meaning, a POETRY BY JAMES BABBS ; ALESSANDRA belief also critical to hip hop, there are BAVA ; GUY R. BEINING ; MICHAEL a host of practical, artistic contributions BELONGIE ; CAROL BERG ; STEPHEN BETT that drama can make to poetry.” ; LORNA KNOWLES BLAKE ; CAROLINE —Wendy Vardaman & Greer DuBois COLLINS ; ELIZABETH COOK ; BRUCE DETHLEFSEN ; KARL ELDER ; R. VIRGIL ELLIS ; ANNA M. EVANS ; WILLIAM FORD ; CAROL LYNN GRELLAS ; DAVID GROSS VERSE DRAMAS BY CAROL DORF & ; JERRY HAUSER ; KARLA HUSTON ; ; AUTUMN STEPHENS KEVIN DRZAKOWSKI LAWRENCE KESSENICH ; DON KIMBALL; ; ; AMIT MAJMUDAR CHARLOTTE MICHAEL KRIESEL ; BARBARA LIGHTNER ; MANDEL ANGELA ALAIMO O’DONNELL ; EMILIE LINDEMANN ; SANDY LINDOW ; MONICA RAYMOND ; DAVID YEZZI ; ; JAMES SCANNELL MCCORMICK ; JAMES B. NICOLA ; RON RIEKKI ; JENNA RINDO VERSE DRAMA ; LOU ROACH ; G.A. SAINDON ; TERRY SAVOIE ; ROBERT SCHULER ; JO SIMONS ; THOMAS R. SMITH ; JEANINE STEVENS VERSE DRAMA VERSE ; NANCY TAKACS ; PHILIDRAMA P VENZKE ; VERSE $8 ? Editors’ Notes ? THANKS TO THESE DONORS! This issue of Verse Wisconsin includes a number of drama/poetry crossovers by poets, playwrights, performance artists, and hybrids of those categories. Interesting to note is the fact that most of these UP TO $100 DANIEL BACHHUBER pieces were labeled by their authors, probably to help their readers and audiences identify what they MARY JO BALISTRERI are. Of the poetic dramas featured in the issue, both in print and online, some are in process; some MICHAEL BELONGIE unpublished and, as yet, unstaged; some have been performed but unprinted; some have had a staged B. J. BEST DAVID BLACKEY reading, but not a full staging; some were written to be performed as a dramatic reading; others as a full, EMERY CAMPBELL large-scale production. All, however, were written with the intention of being performed, not only read. KOSROF CHANTIKIAN JANE EWENS RUSSELL GARDNER, JR. Visit the online issue for more, with audio of some of the works in print, plus video of other recent SARAH GILBERT productions and commentary on them: The Latina Monologues, a collaborative effort by Latina poets LUCY ROSE JOHNS MARTHA KAPLAN in Milwaukee and beyond, has gone through several seasons and revisions, and has its roots in poets CLAIRE KEYES theater, the choreopoem, and Spoken Word. Angela Trudell Vásquez discusses her involvement in this JUDY KOLOSSO project online. The Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker, a delightfully entertaining, wise, and topical JACKIE LANGETIEG CJ MUCHHALA bit of “Fakespeare” was assembled by its author, Doug Reed (with some liberal borrowings from ANVIL O’MALLEY Shakespeare), and rehearsed in a matter of months, then performed to completely sold-out houses in NANCY PETULLA ESTER PRUDLO two different Madison venues August-September and November, 2011. Another online example of CHARLES RIES poetry drama comes from the unique UW-Madison program, “First Wave,” which provides scholarships LOU ROACH and mentoring to students who work seriously at the craft of Spoken Word and Hip Hop while at the JEAN C. ROSS THOMAS R. SMITH university. Finally, two dance poems—collaborations between Milwaukee poet Susan Firer and different LEN TEWS choreographers—raise the question: do words and movement in front of an audience create a poetry STEVE AND JEAN TOMASKO drama? You will also find our themed section of poems, “Mask and Monlogue,” online. These poems, JOHN WALSER ED WERSTEIN written in various personae, or incorporating speech (both dialogue and monologue), represent other MARILYN WINDAU drama-poetry intersections, and you’ll find further comments by us online regarding this piece of VW $100-499 108. ANONYMOUS CHARLES HUGHES Two prose essays comment further on the idea of verse drama: what it is, why it’s significant, where you TIMOTHY WALSH MARY WEHNER might find it. We leave you to explore the various ways that the verse dramas in this issue use poetry and what kinds of poetry, mixing them sometimes within a drama to create an effect. And we invite you to $500-999 add verse drama, however you define it, to the kinds of submissions Verse Wisconsin will now consider RICHARD ROE on a regular basis. OVER $1000 WISCONSIN FELLOWSHIP OF POETS Thanks to Greer DuBois and Melissa Lindstrum for volunteer proofreading help. Lingering errors are, of course, the responsibility of VW’s editors. Verse wisconsin appears tri-quarterly. Please consider a subscription for Contact us: [email protected]. your local library, high school, senior center, or other institution. Yes! I’d like to: © Verse Wisconsin 2012 Subscribe (4 issues): ($25 regular, or $18 student) School: Give a gift subscription ($25) Make a donation $ Co-Editors Get on the email list for news Advertise Review books Sarah Busse Wendy Vardaman Volunteer (e.g., proofreading, mailing, distribution, fundraising, publicity) Advisory Board Name Linda Aschbrenner B. J. Best Address Cathryn Cofell Ron Czerwien City Email Tom Erickson Fabu State Zip Phone David Graham Angela Rydell For Subscription: Renewal New Subscription Gift Subscription Madison, WI. Inc., Printers, by Thysse Printed Marilyn L. Taylor Mail to (checks payable to Verse Wisconsin): Verse wisconsin Begin subscription with: P. O. Box 620216 Current Issue Middleton, WI 53562-0216 Next Issue [email protected] of Member Council of Literary Magazines & Presses 2 Verse wisconsin #108 April 2012 Books Received May-August 2011 Seth Abramson, Northerners, New Issues, Western Michigan U, 2011 Ellen Wade Beals, Ed., Solace, in So Many Words, Weighed Words, 2011 Richard Broderick, Rain Dance, Parallel Press, 2011 Lynn Domina, Framed in Silence, Main Street Rag, 2011 Moira Egan and Clarinda Harriss, Eds., Hot Sonnets, Entasis Press, 2011 Fabu, Journey to Wisconsin: African American Life in Haiku, Parallel Press, 2011 Richard Fein, The Required Accompanying Cover Letter, Parallel Press, 2011 Jessica Goodfellow, The Insomniac’s Weather Report, Three Candles Press, 2011 Shelly L. Hall, Alum, Popcorn Press, 2011 Scott King, Ed., Perfect Dragonfly, A Commonplace Book of Poems Celebrating a Decade & a Half of Printing & Publishing at Red Dragonfly Press, Red Dragonfly Press, 2011 Kim Nelson, Woman’s Evolution, Finishing Line Press, 2011 Thomas R. Smith, Wisconsin Spring, Poems and an Essay, Lost Music Press, 2011 Bianca Spriggs, How Swallowtails Become Dragons, Accents Publishing, 2011 Jeanine Stevens, Caught in Clouds, Finishing Line Press, 2011 Matthew Stolte, D10J11Po (Visual Poetry), eMTeVisPub #5, 2011 Jeanie Tomasko, Sharp as Want, Art by Sharon Auberle, Little Eagle Press, 2011 Marly Youmans, The Throne of Psyche, Mercer University Press, 2011 Submission guidelines can be found at versewisconsin.org. Please send us a review copy of your recently published book or chapbook! Join us on Facebook for announcements & news. Books Reviewed & Noted Online Advertise (Single Issue Rates) Bruce Dethlefsen, Unexpected Shiny Things,Cowfeather Press, 2011, by Julie L. Moore Business card $35 Moira Egan and Clarinda Harriss, Eds., Hot Sonnets, Entasis 1/4 page $75 Press, 2011, by Moira Richards Dave Etter, Dandelions, Red Dragonfly Press, 2010, by Lou 1/2 page $125 Roach Full page $200 Jean Feraca, I Hear Voices, A Memoir of Love, Death, and the Radio, Terrace Books (UW Press), 2011, by Linda Aschbrenner Jessica Goodfellow, The Insomniac’s Weather Report, Three Candles Press, 2011, by Athena Kildegaard MISSION STATEMENT Sarah Gorham, Bad Daughter, Four Way Books, 2011, by Charles Byrne Steve Healey, 10 Mississippi, Coffee House Press, 2010, by Verse Wisconsin publishes poetry and serves the community of poets in Melissa J. Lindstrum Wisconsin and beyond. In fulfilling our mission we: Scott King, Ed., Perfect Dragonfly, A Commonplace Book of Poems Celebrating a Decade & a Half of Printing & • showcase the excellence and diversity of poetry rooted in or related to Wisconsin Publishing at Red Dragonfly Press, Red Dragonfly Press, • connect Wisconsin's poets to each other and to the larger literary world 2011, by Linda Aschbrenner • foster critical conversations about poetry Amit Majmudar, Heaven and Earth, Story Line Press, 2011, by • build and invigorate the audience for poetry Zara Raab Linda Back McKay, The Next Best Thing, Nodin Press, 2011, by Lou Roach Kim Nelson, Woman’s Evolution, Finishing Line Press, 2011, by Zara Raab Margot Peters, Lorine Niedecker, A Poet’s Life, UW Press, Books Received September-December 2011 2011, by Linda Aschbrenner Publisher & author links available online Zara Raab, Swimming the Eel, David Robert Books, 2011, by Athena Kildegaard Edwin Romond,