POETRY MAGAZINE'S GRAND SLAM

The announcement that Ruth Lilly, last direct heir to the drug company fortune, is leaving Poetry more than $100 million has rocked the subsistence-level poetry community. Will the newly rich Poetry (circulation 12,000) become a megamedia monster, gobbling up other little magazines like hors d'oeuvres at a cocktail party? Will we see instead of a thousand flowers blooming but one school of poetry dominate? Eliotian? Postmodern? Compulsory villanelles? Will Poetry flex its biceps on the newsstands, with pics of sexy poets on its cover, gossip and personality stories and fan coverage of stars of New York slams, along the lines of Rolling Stone? Somehow we doubt it. Editor Joseph Parisi seems a level-headed fellow. "It's a huge responsibility, as I'm realizing every day more and more," he said. Despite her wealth, Lilly couldn't get any of the poems she kept submitting to Poetry accepted, yet she's leaving them the $100 million anyway. What a great reward for editorial integrity! Priceless.

WEARING THE GREEN

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