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October 2002

The oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world.

This issue is sold out.
  • Diane Ackerman
  • Dick Allen
  • John Ashbery
  • Marvin Bell
  • Wendell Berry
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Image of poetry magazine cover October/November 2002 90th anniversary
From this Issue
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Writing in the Afterlife

      By Billy Collins
      I imagined the atmosphere would be clear,
      shot with pristine light,
      not this sulphurous haze,
      the air ionized as before a thunderstorm.

      Many have pictured a river here,
      but no one mentioned all the boats,
      their benches crowded with...

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine I Have Been a Stranger in a Strange Land

      By Rita Dove
      It wasn't bliss. What was bliss
      but the ordinary life? She'd spend hours
      in patter, moving through whole days
      touching, sniffing, tasting . . . exquisite
      housekeeping in a charmed world.
      And yet there was...

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine A Momentary Longing to Hear Sad Advice from One Long Dead

      By Kenneth Koch
      Who was my teacher at Harvard. Did not wear overcoat
      Saying to me as we walked across the Yard
      Cold brittle autumn is you should be wearing overcoat. I said
      You are not wearing overcoat. He said,
      You should do...

      Read More

Table of Contents

Poetry
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