Introduction
There is a hope to poetry. There is a hope that arises in poetry, arises as each word in the poem
becomes active anew. Something other than habit occurs in the poem. While in everyday life language
can become subservient to utility, can be spoken thoughtlessly, said in inattention—the poem asks us to
attend to language, to let language amaze. The word does not follow its routine. And as the word does
not follow its routine, in the poem, we readers are thrown from our own routines and follow the
venturing word, listening to how, this time, it sings, listening to now, uniquely now, it speaks of the
world.
The poem opens to possibility. It opens to a possibility greater than the brief flash of linguistic
novelty. Language shapes our encounter with the world. By breaking the old habits of language, by
seeing language reborn, the poem opens us linguistic creatures to the possibility of new relationships
with the world.
The poetry of this issue of Interim delivers on the hope that is a hallmark of poetry, even the
poetry of despair. This issue especially highlights selections from the finalist manuscripts of our sixth
annual book contest, including two winning manuscripts: The Test Site Poetry Series Winner, The Long
Now Conditions Permit by Jami Macarty, and the Betsy Joiner Flanagan Award winner, A Grain of Sand in
Lambeth by Geoffrey Babbitt.
—from
Andrew S. Nicholson, Associate Editor