Friday, January 11, 2013

Poetry Foundation Farewells Leader - in verse


Roses r red, violets r blu/Poetry's honchos r bidding adieu

Posted by Deanna Isaacs on 01.07.13 - Chicago Reader


Christian Wiman
  • Christian Wiman
Christian Wiman
Is off to Yale
After a decade
At Poetry


As editor,
He couldn't fail:


Circulation
Up times three.


With Lilly cash
He made it pretty
Ran more prose
For every ditty


Two national prizes
Were his reward,
And now he rises—
Could he have been bored


With ink-stained fingers
And volumes of verse?
Reading crap like this,
Did he think he was cursed?

No fear.


A higher calling
Takes him come June
From Poetry's coop
To God's own spoon


The School of Divinity.
He'll teach and write
Inspired by
A bright new light


That joy and grief
And then belief
Invested when
They found him here.


And while he goes,
So goes John Barr
Retiring prez
And po'try czar


Which leaves
The Open Door ajar.

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