Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Do we find the poetry that we need or do the poems find us? Why does one open the January 2013 issue of Poetry to Matthew Nienow’s “Ode to the Steam Box” and say, “Oh, yes. I’ve just seen a steam box. I want to read this. This is a poem about something in my life. How marvelous!”

I read the poem on the day after my family and I visited the site on San Diego Bay where a replica of Juan Cabrillo’s San Salvador is being constructed. A large steam box on site allows the shipwrights to form the woods that are used for the new San Salvador.

Blessings on the poets who draw from these tender moments of our everyday lives.