A Modest Proposal for the Reform of Poetry Magazine.

January. Henry Gould issue. Every January would feature the work of a lesser known, but deserving poet. Preserving cultural memory.

February. Poetry Comics! edited by Gary Sullivan. There has never been a comic in Poetry, ttbomk.

March. Academic Poetry issue, edited by W.S. DiPiero and Robert Pinsky. We leave room for the old "Poetry" magazine, but only once a year.

April. Language and Post-Language Poetry issue, edited by Lyn Hejinian.

May. Visual and Sound Poetry.

June. Poets under the age of 12.

July. Translations.

August. Amateur poetry. Ditties from Church Newsletters!

September. Bad poems by famous poets. (The APR issue! )

October. Song lyrics.

November. Minor Poets of the New York School.

December. Prose: reviews, exchanges, etc...

Notice that at least 3 issues are reserved for bad poetry, so lovers of the bad should be appeased. We've quarantined the academic school into one issue, added more visual and auditory appeal, tipped the balance away from prose. This formula also allows the reader to break out of the usual rotation of Pinsky, Collins, Charles Wright, Citno, DiPiero, Sandra Gilbert, Merwin, Pinsky, Hass, Collins, DiPiero, Ashbery, Citino, DiPiero, Bidart, Pinsky...

You may think my approach is too gimmicky, but I am perfectly serious. The magazine has plenty money so the logistics shouldn't be too hard to handle. We can pay someone to scour the church newsletters in search of amateur poetry, fly Gary into Chicago to edit the Comix issue.