The new issue of the Beloit Poetry Journal includes my long commissioned review of Christina Hutchins's recent collection Tender the Maker. As I say in the review, I had never heard of this book before; I chose it because I liked the title. The book turned out to be wonderful--filled with rich, patient language and considerable historical and emotional depth; a pleasure to discover.

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Last night, as I was making dinner for myself, I started leaking tears again, in the same sudden yet slow-faucet way I was crying during the spring and early summer. Nothing in particular is wrong . . . I'm think it's just a case of too many feelings. Work will probably dry them up.

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I hear no one like him. All at once I am pierced
by his darkening voice, carried on the streaming air.

--Rainer Maria Rilke, "The Sixth Elegy"