Sometimes, we get an appetite for narrative. Of course, narrative remains popular among the kinds of poems we publish, but there is no blueprint for a Citron poem. Sometimes our acceptances are quirky, contemporary; some acceptances use ekphrasis for inspiration. Some pay homage to form. Some are syntactically vibrant on the page. Sometimes, what we’ve accepted (in preparation for the next issue) alerts us to consider an informal theme, which is unplanned. All poems contain tension. We are grateful for each submission we receive.

The Spring 2017 poems do narrative well. They capture people you have never met and never will and make you care about them. Like a pristine photograph, they slice off a piece of time, taking you to Weston, Massachusetts or Havana, Cuba in these poems — keeping you in someone’s bedroom or the woods in others. These poems made us care. These poems made us reflect on our lives and consider changes. A few words come to mind as I review our picks: prison, clearing, wistful, finally, syncopation, contentment, elusive, and continuum.

The poets, Sergio Ortiz, Maria Terrone, Jennifer Van Alstyne, and Bruce Isaacson, have earned the right to tell their stories without my prefacing their work. We hope that you will read their poems and other creative selections in this issue. We hope that your spring is bursting with stories.

Sincerely,

Eric Steineger
Senior Poetry Editor
The Citron Review