Best of the Web 2009: Elise Paschen and VPR

Congratulations to Dzanc Books on the July publication of Best of the Web 2009, their annual print anthology of the finest literary works appearing in online literary journals. Also, I am pleased to report that Valparaiso Poetry Review is once again represented in the series with Elise Paschen’s “Hive,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2008-2009 issue (Volume X, Number 1) alongside other poems by Paschen and an interview with her. Paschen’s poem was selected for Best of the Web 2009 from among many hundreds of nominations across the entire spectrum of online magazines eligible for consideration.

This year’s anthology was guest edited by Lee K. Abbott. Nathan Leslie is the Best of the Web series editor at Dzanc Books. To mark the release of the 2009 volume, Dzanc Books is currently conducting a promotional sales price for both this issue and last year’s edition, which also included work from Valparaiso Poetry Review—“Prophet Township” by Jared Carter and “Walking an Old Woman into the Sea” by Frannie Lindsay. I recommend both anthology collections for readers who wish to view the kind of fine material that is now appearing in online literary journals.

To repeat an important point I have made before, I value all the poems and depend on all the poets in Valparaiso Poetry Review. Yet, I welcome the admirable efforts of the anthology’s editors to bring attention to the growing number of excellent works being published in online journals.

In fact, as I noted in a recent “One Poet’s Notes” post, “Online Literary Journals: Coming of Age,” I believe such attention informs readers and encourages writers to view online journals with increasing respect. Also, I am pleased when an opportunity arises for one of VPR’s splendid poets to reach a larger audience and find the greater recognition she deserves through inclusion in the anthology. Again, I congratulate Elise Paschen on the selection of her wonderful poem for this honor, and I offer it below as a preview of the very good work one will find in Best of the Web 2009:

HIVE
—For Stephen


Tucked in a cleft of arm you hunt
for milk. Roseate. Areola.

I circumnavigate the signs
pictured on your pajamas. Arrows

point east and west; a violet hive;
bear: tail end up in honey-pot.

Cars drone outside. I comb back tufts
of hair. We burrow in these chintz

pillows, sink deeply down in sofa.
For now, we are a pair spied on

by animals. (A rabbit pokes
its ear, antennae-like, from under

cushions.) I’ve read “during the summer
honey flow, worker bees will travel

55,000 miles to gather
nectar to make one pound of honey.”

A foot kicks off its sock. You sip,
roaming many miles, honey-seeker.

Days tumble. I would like to buzz
into the orchid of your ear.


—Elise Paschen