In my part of the world, it's just past midnight and now May 1. But the day is not yet done in California, so I feel completely legal entering one more post for National Poetry Month. The new issue of Red River Review has just gone online, and I encourage you to pay this resurrected online literary magazine a visit. Red River Review started publishing exclusively online in 1999--the pioneer days of online literary journals--and has always been dedicated to poetry. From 1999 to 2007, it published 34 issues.
The journal went on a prolonged "vacation" from 2007 to 2010, when poet Michelle Hartmann stepped in as editor. Have you ever met a true poet who is a genuine extrovert? You have, if you've met Michelle. I'll never forget a "gaggle" of us poets taking a group photo after a reading. We were all competing to be on the back row--until Michelle stepped in and told us to stop being ninnies and line up and take our pictures. And she was genuinely nice about telling us.
Michelle has done a marvelous job with Red River Review's second life. The May 2011 issue has 55 poems included. The Review will soon introduce "feature poets" and give the reader a more in-depth look at their work. Born in North Texas, the Review now publishes work from around the world. Hartmann writes:
"This issue is a trip around the world, from the streets of Alexander Motyl’s New York to a walk "By the Wichita River" by Ysabel de la Rosa, and then to a walk in the Australian rain in "no one notices he weeps" by Ian C. Smith. This is how poets speak to each other. These messages sent by journal or post evoke an answering picture in words that has to make its own journey into the world."
My poem "By the Wichita River Between Seasons" is number 46 in the May issue's line-up, and it is in great company. So, let Red River Review carry you forward from this latest national poetry month into the year ahead, with its bounty of word, thought, and verse.
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