Letter from Poetry Magazine

Letter to the Editor

Originally Published: September 01, 2010

Dear Editor,

Anna Kamienska wrote that “poetry is a foretaste of truth.” Wisdom plus a prediction! I began to highlight the first installment with my yellow marker but soon realized that I was soaking each page. No smoke and mirrors here. She shines a light, but not in our eyes. As she would put it, “Confusion is not creative.” Thank you, Poetry, for this gift, and thank you, Clare Cavanagh, for your translation.

Neal Whitman is professor emeritus at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He was an early advocate for supplementing the science of medicine with literary, performing, and visual arts. In transition into retirement, he began writing general poetry in 2005, adding haiku in 2008 and tanka in 2011. Whitman’s poems are widely published in journals and anthologies and his work has been recognized...

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