November 1, 2013

This Machine opens the curtains. Our annual poetry issue celebrates the spoken word, taking poetry off the shelf and delivering it directly to the people. It also announces the launch of our latest anthology, Poetry to the People, which features poets musing on Middle America, most of them from here. The book officially launches Nov. 7, but you can pre-order now. See what else is inside:

VERSES WITH VOICES: Abby Wendle, This Land audio producer and guest editor of this issue, explains why she gave poetry to the people.

POETRY IS NOT DEAD: Poetry is potent. Use only where truth is desired, advises Oklahoma Poet Laureate Nathan Brown.

RALLYING THE RHYMES: Where some see poetry, Shaun Perkins, founder of the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry, sees machine.

THE WAY TO RAINY MOUNTAIN: An excerpt from N. Scott Momaday’s book about Kiowa oral tradition finds play in poetry.

POETRY: Read work by poets like Kaylin Haught, Markham Johnson, Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, Maria Damon, Rochelle Hurt, and John Colburn. (To hear these and other poems read by the people, go to thislandpress.com/p2p.)

ORIGINAL OKIE: Kaylin Haught lives in Grove, in a house older than the state that’s abbreviated on her mail. She’s the author of the poem “God Says Yes To me.”