“The guests had come to escape troubles . . .” writes Robert Haynes in his timely poem that opens this issue. Indeed, troubles are everywhere around us in this Summer of 2024. Fractured politics, religious strife, demonization of “the others” among us, armed conflicts, ethnic cleansing, environmental degradation, corporate greed, Covid and bird flu—on and on ad infinitum. There’s no escaping them this side of a cloister’s walls, and I’d argue not even there. As a writer and editor, however, I have always believed that the Arts, and poetry in particular, by embracing the entire spectrum of humanity—including all our worst instincts and fears—can provide, as Robert Frost said, “a clarification of life” and “a momentary stay against confusion.” Not an escape then, far from it, but a means to cope and perhaps find a way forward.
In an essay from 35 years ago, I wrote that “literary editing is at best a balance between disinterested judgment and an indulgence of personal tastes.” I still hold to that belief. As guest editor for this issue of Hole in the Head Review, I looked for poems that engaged me from beginning to end, that wielded language and form in accomplished ways, that startled, challenged, amused, made me laugh out loud, that even gave me a twinge of jealousy (Gee, I wish I could write like that!)—poems that always left me wanting to share my enthusiasm for them with you, Dear Readers. My thanks to Editor Bill Schulz for allowing me this privilege.
—Richard Foerster