From 2010-2016 I designed the literary magazine for Northern Virginia Community College, The Northern Virginia Review. The poetry was a hodgepodge — narratives in paragraph form; single-line stuff sort of thrown on the page; random musings, etc. No rhyme, meter or captivating wordplay (imo) in any of it. Nothing like the old-school poetry I used to love. I asked the editor if there was any defining or distinguishing feature to modern-day poetry and he told me “No, not really.” He said it quizzically, as if I was clueless about contemporary poetry. Which was true enough.

I think that’s probably why I was so pleased to see this poem in The New Yorker last week. It captures the political culture of aging lefty boomers with a mix of resignation and low-energy defiance — something I could relate to. And, as one of the slightly tilted myself, I thought it was pretty brilliant.

©Ilya Kaminsky