I haven’t reviewed it yet because I haven’t been able to bear the thought of reading his story. Otherwise I’m ready to go.

Am I the only person in the world who finds reading Darin Cozzens horribly wearying?

I also think the poems in this issue are very effective and affecting. (If you don’t mind, I’ll pick up where you left off and breeze through the poetry section.) This was my first experience with Javen Tanner (I’ve been trying to hunt down a copy of Curses for Your Sake because of it) and he has become one of my favorite poets because of the way he uses language to viscerally engage his subject and his readers (to make us listen viscerally) and because he speaks so clearly the language of his human experience. I’ve always been moved by the story of the moving of the water and Tanner’s “Bethesda” deepened my appreciation for that moment when the afflicted bodies wrestle with themselves to find healing and peace in the spring.

The corporeality of his verse also comes through in “My Mother Says I’m Buried in the Wasatch Mountains” as the speaker explores, in vivid imagery that points to the Atonement, death and the renewal of life in the relationship between a mother and her miscarried child.

Relationships seem to be a common theme in all of this issue’s poetry. Stacy Moisant’s “You Taught Me White” is a brief exploration of life and language, of the power of a name, and “Your Hands” follows the speaker’s body as a lover’s hands trace its curves into the erotic “truth [we] create with [our] fingertips.” Susan Elizabeth Howe’s “Coming to Birth”, as you mention, delves into the aching spirits have to be joined with bodies of flesh and blood, to cross the “watery” threshold into the proving processes and relationships of embodiment.

Carolyn Howard Johnson’s “Prevailing Winds” is a poignant illustration of the way nuclear winds can ravage a person–their body and their blood. And then there’s Lance Larsen who never fails to delight with his explorations of the parent-child relationship and the human connection with the natural world. Finally, Jim Papworth expresses a similar sentiment in “Death: Aspen” as the speaker wrestles with the memory of a lover? a wife? that is brought to him in the objects he engages with in the natural world.

All in all, I found the poems published here great examples of the skill and courage Mormon poets have as they engage their craft and write about and from their varied experiences with mortality.

I also need to point out an error in that issue. The stories represented are the winners of the 2006 contest, not the 2007 contest. It was an inadvertent typo that reflected how embarassingly far behind Irreantum had fallen. But by the end of 2008, we should be on track.

And for you fiction lovers, you have a bonanza coming your way. Scott will be publishing his issue soon (the last I heard it will be going to press in a week or so) and my double issue will come out in November. Here is a sneak peak of the fiction you’ll see in November:

-Darin Cozzens “Reap in Mercy”
-Jack Harrell “Calling & Election”
-Arianne Cope “Saltwater”
-William Morris “Speculations: Trees”
-Mark Brown “Cause”
-Bruce Jorgensen “This Afternoon”
-Kristin Carson “Gypsy Holiday”

Yes, SEVEN stories. Count ‘em. And one of them is William’s. I predict that Darin Cozzens will once again fail to disappoint, and the other stories are full of surprises and all kinds of literary goodness. There’s some excellent poetry and great essays and reviews, too. So if you haven’t subscribed, now is the time to do it.

Irreantum will stay on schedule from here on out and publish the best fiction and poetry and creative nonfiction and critical essays if I continue to have anything to say about it. I can promise you that.

I’m with you, William. What I want from Irreatum is fiction, and it’s utter failure in that regard is why I let my membership lapse. I keep trying to renew my AML membership (and thus subscription), but I’m having a hard time renewing my faith — and that must come first.

I hope the comments that follow mine will offer the buildup I need.