As the poet/doctor William Carlos Williams said long ago, the calling for the poet is the same as that for the doctor: to diagnose and to heal. Not all poetry, of course, but an important body of poetry, seeks to examine “symptoms”—in the individual, in the social body—and thereby arrive at the sense of the un-ease, the “disease.”
In many different ways, the poems chosen for this issue of About Place Journal seek to diagnose and/or to heal. They address the abundant issues we face going into this election—issues of justice, freedom, decency, health, environmental preservation, peace—and they offer ways to counteract hatred and destruction. They engage with a question Robert Hass asks in a poem, “A Sunset,” recently published in The New Yorker, regarding the relationship between “the experience of beauty” and “our moral sense.”
What a rich selection of poetry to choose from, for this issue of About Place Journal, “Shaping Destiny.” We were sorry we could not accept many more of the thoughtful, provocative poems we received, but are delighted with the range, diversity, and passion reflected in the work of the forty-five poets included here. Indeed, the destiny of the country will be profoundly influenced by this election, and therefore the destiny of our lives. We encourage you to read these poems in all their variety, to take whatever form of action is yours to take in these days leading up to election, and most of all: TO VOTE.
Our thanks to our fellow editors Pam Uschuk and Richard Cambridge; to the marvelous interns Kate Sutter and Elizabeth Coleman; to Michael McDermott, chief editor and director of the Black Earth Institute; and to Jesse Hughes, who knows the answer to every question and by means of whose patience and expertise this issue has come together.
Ann Fisher-Wirth and Jacqueline Johnson, Poetry Editors and Senior Fellows
