The Note

The Note

I was born, raised, and have spent all of my life, minus a few weeks here and there, in the United States. Not to be a downer, but one of the themes of the last 10 years of my life has been a loss of faith in a number of institutions, including many found in Washington, D.C.  And my own state capitol.  And maybe yours.  I won't go any further, because I don't think this is a place to be political.

You know that thing when something that you've always known sort of takes you by surprise?  I've been having that experience thinking about the United States of America.  It's a country with 50 states and I haven't come close to visiting all of them and I doubt I will.  But, think about it.  50 states.  Fifty governors, 50 legislatures, 50 Supreme Courts, 50 official state birds.  50 constellations of sports teams. All 50 with local favorite varieties of food:  Pizza and barbecue and...well...pizza and barbecue.  Some of the people who live in the USA even have accents which give you an excellent shot of guessing what state they live in.  It's amazing when you think about it.

I think because it's getting easier for me to imagine a future in which there is no United States of America, I'm trying to focus a bit on the beauty in these United States.  Now, most of you are poets and so you know when I talk about beauty, I don't really mean the lovely beaches and mountains and cities and farms and such.  I'm wanting to think about the lovely things in America, but also the tragic, ugly, and weird, which is part of the beauty of it all.

A few issues back, I did The Note on the names of the States.  I decided then I wanted to curate some poems and stories that had these State names as titles.  The call for submissions was pretty successful. In fact, I accepted so much good work that I'm releasing this issue in 2 parts.  (I also turned down a hell of a lot of good work.)  My sincere thanks to all who submitted.   This is part 1.  Part 2 will come to you in a week or so.   

I've been delighted by some surprises and even some mysteries in the submissions.  Guess which state had the most poems submitted with its name as the title?  Easily, New Mexico.  Never been there, but I'd like to make it some day.  I'll bet I'll get a feel for why so many poems came in called "New Mexico."  

So, here's part I of Issue 43:  The United States of America.  Thanks to fiction editor F. John Sharp and to our staff of readers, Doug Draime, Howie Good, Vivian Faith Prescott, Eric Burke, and Scot Siegel.

Enjoy.

Dale

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