The Maynard
Fall 2019

Introduction

Orange Tree, Alentejo
by Maryka Gillis

Welcome, dear readers, to the Fall 2019 issue of The Maynard. It’s come quickly, hasn’t it? Fall, we mean. New York School poet (and inspiration-in-part for The Maynard) Frank O’Hara mused in his “Poem [“The eager note on my door said, ‘Call me,’”],” “it was autumn by the time I got around the corner.” Whether you feel ambushed by the changing seasons, comforted by its leaf-tones and nutty, fecund scents, or off-kilter by fall’s “odd uneven time,” as Sylvia Plath referred to it in her Journals, we trust you’ll enjoy the variety of poems featured in Vol 12, No. 2 of The Maynard.

For this issue, the four-person editorial team read over 1200 poems. This record number of submissions is largely due to TM’s enhanced social media presence—building community and sharing our commitment to weird and wonderful poetic forms and voices. Our social media dynamo Colleen Webber, along with behind-the-scenes help from our jack-of-all-poem-trades Jami Macarty, knock their creative minds together and spark things anew on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you haven’t already, check out their regular posts showcasing The Maynard’s past and present. This month, we roll out #TMprompts. Drop by on Saturdays to get your prompt, then off to the poem race you go!

We are very pleased that among the submissions for the Fall issue we received, there were many poems from past contributors. This made for some tough choices in order to arrive at the 24 voices featured herein. A delicate process, we balanced between recognising familiar poets’ exciting work, and our drive to promote new and underrepresented voices. We worked to bring you poems that we find contain urgency, addressing themes that are particularly important right now, some odd-ball pieces that bust up narrative’s logic, and others meticulously crafted to play with formal patterns. To arrive at the first round, our quartet of three editors and one (fabulous!) editorial intern each selected a “wish list” of 24 voices. Collated, the four lists made up our working shortlist. The next step involved three editors (Nick, Jami, and Ram) rereading all of the poems on the shortlist and proposing another 24-strong wish list. There were happy agreements—those poets and poems we all knew were making it into the issue—and surprising variances—poems each of us thought warranted publication but lacked support from others. The beauty of the process was revealed in the concessions and eventual conclusions, resulting in the poems that make up the current issue.

There are 34 poems from 24 poets in the issue. Enhancing the reading experience, 28 poems are accompanied by audio recordings. This issue’s cover features “Orange Tree, Alentejo” by multi-talented Maryka Gillis. Her poem “After Dreams” was published in our Spring 2019 issue. Her original batik painting is an apt image for the featured poems: singular, hopeful, connected. Powerful subversive undercurrents flow and reach in Isabelle Ortner’s “Cherry Orchard.” Justin Runge’s tonally dissonant, “In the Orchard,” buds and branches out, while being rooted in visions of earthly spirituality. David Morgan O’Connor’s “{steeple-chase},” “{grave-tending},” and “{declining dessert}” form a triptych on familial intimacy and genetic inheritances, both meditative and reflexive.

Other poems in the issue are more explicitly political, such as Janet Youngdahl’s “Border Song: Within the Paper Spiral of Wasps,” and Meredith Quartermain’s “Powered by English” and “Y Pronounced EE,” addressing language-based power dynamics. The issue includes subtler, but no less moving poems, such as Matthew Schmidt’s “The ice was coming nicely” and Lauren Camp’s “Untidy Ending,” which prod relationships with language’s vital, yet pesky stick. Katie Berger’s almost surreal work invites us to consider the world’s rich oddities and complexities, and “Clouds” by Max Heinegg is poetry’s way of trying to understand it.

Of course, we could gush on and on about the special attributes of each poem in our Fall 2019 issue, but allow us to release you to read and listen for yourselves.

To the meeting of your eyes and ears with the poems from The Maynard’s Fall 2019 issue!

Nick Hauck, Jami Macarty, & Ram Randhawa, editors
w/Colleen Webber, editorial Intern
The Editorial Team, Fall 2019 issue
The Maynard