January 25, 2007

Home Planet News -- all the news you need

I've just received the latest issue of Home Planet News & reading it reminded me of how important this modest, newsprint zine is to the modern poetry scene. HPN was founded in 1979 by Donald Lev and Enid Dame & is still edited by Donald after Enid's passing. The current issue is Number 56, Winter 2007 & contains its usual eclectic mix of poets and reviews of poetry books by poets. This issue also has two themed sections, "Poems on Holidays" and "Men at War". Donald has included my poem, "What Passover Has Taught Me" in the Holiday section. And I want to point out Enid Dame's "Holiday Poem" as one of my favorites of all time. At the noon peace vigil in Albany, we handed out a flyer the week before Christmas with excerpts from this poem, and I read it as my "muse" at the start of the Third Thursday open mic in December.

I won't list everyone, but some of my favorite poets & people include Alan Catlin, Will Nixon, Roberta Gould, Matthew J. Spireng, Shirley Powell, Robert Milby, Joan McNernery, A.D. Winans, Amy Ouzoonian, Peter Lamborn Wilson, George Wallace, Donald (of course) – phew! You need to find out everyone who is in it, so go get a copy. You can sometimes find copies for free, particularly where Donald is reading, either as a feature or at an open mic (like the Colony Cafe in Woodstock). Or, better yet, send him $4.00:
Home Planet News, P.O. Box 455, High Falls, NY 12440. Tell him I sent you.
--DWx

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