The Mid-America Poetry Review,
Robert C. Jones, Editor
Volume I, Number 3: Winter 2000-2001
The Mid-America Poetry Review has as its primary focus poets from middle America, as you might expect. However, it includes poetry by writers from all over the United States. The poetry is all free verse, lyrical and narrative, and usually less than a page in length.
The poems in Mid-America Poetry Review are highly accessible, and are often pastoral or rural in theme. For example, these lines from "Winter Horse" by Tama Baldwin:
For the black horse
standing in the field of snow
the whole world is still
a wilderness. A million
square miles
of barbed wire design -
the grid to lure god
back in -
The Review also has a heavy emphasis on poems about our relationship to the natural world. As can be seen in these lines from "Mutation" by Carol Hamilton:
All below me, rocks prop up
this house, rocks that fracture,
fall in chunks, glow
with sandy, rosy hues alight
in early sun.
In addition to poetry, the journal provides several pages noting new publications, writing markets, and contest listings. I have read several issues of The Mid-America Poetry Review and find the publication to be consistent, engaging, and worth of re-reading.
You can find out more about The Mid-America Poetry Review at the magazine's web site, http://www.midamericapress.org/review/. Individual copies of the Review are $6.00. The Review is affiliated with The Mid-America Press, which publishes full-length collections of poetry by poets from mid-American states.
