Volume 2

Winnowing a hundred manuscripts and a thousand poems would be tedious work if the grain were not ripe and fine. As a new editor sifting through the stack of brown envelopes I was delighted to discover how much good poetry is being written in and around Worcester. Let us hope that by encouraging and publishing talented poets of all ages, sexes, and races we will not have to discover their talent after they are gone. The city would be richer today if Charles Olson, Elizabeth Bishop, and Stanley Kunitz had not left when they did. Let us hope that we will not sell our wheat to Russia only to buy it back when we get hungry.

The poetry published in this issue of the WORCESTER REVIEW was submitted to the Second Annual Poetry Contest sponsored by the WORCESTER COUNTY POETRY ASSOCIATION. The eight poets who begin the magazine, including the still mysteriously anonymous author of the first two poems, were contest finalists. The prose published here was contributed by poets who read for the Worcester Poetry Festival in 1972 and 1973, and is reprinted with permission from the flyers announcing their readings.

The poetry festival, the annual contest, and the WORCESTER REVIEW are only three facets of the work being done by the Association. A more recent project, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, involves placing local and nationally-known poets in area public schools. The next issue of the REVIEW will report on this program through poems from participating students, comments from the poets, and discussion of the implications of including creative arts in the school curriculum. Look for it in June.

— John Rosenwald