I should have known. When poets get worked up, they’re apt to start rhyming. From the loose whirling words of Matt Nash’s “Standing Shallow” to the strict metronome of Shawn Sanders’ lovely “More than Thought”, we’ve got it all, folks. There's even a brand new French poem from Amber O'Reilly of Yellowknife. It’s a trochee smorgasbord, an internal rhyme buffet, and I highly encourage you to chow down.

Or should I? Maybe once you start, you won’t be able to stop. This issue is about obsession, after all. And it seems that sometimes, what can make you the most obsessed is not that which is free to gorge on, but rather that which you will never even taste. “More than Thought” is a yearning ballad, and Suzanne Helen James’ straightforward “My obsessive unexploitation of the Free Verse” discusses her inability to leave the boundaries of language. The use of rhyme in these poems creates that same binding feeling around the heart, that same pang of hunger…

Oh, I can’t resist. I’ll get out the forks, spoons, the good china, change the tablecloth. Dig in.

Amy Carlberg
English Editor, Re:verse E-zine
www.youngpoets.ca/ezine
reverse@youngpoets.ca