Note 1: This teacher’s description of Keesha’s House (novel for teens composed of sestinas and sonnets) is intriguing; adding it to my library list.

Note 2: I haven’t gotten past the masthead page in the April 2011 print issue of O Magazine, but I was tickled to see various staff members’ names linked to their answers to “Who Is Your Favorite Poet?” Quite a range (and, if I’m not mistaken, all 20th-21st century folk except for Kabir) — in addition to Milosz, Neruda, Angelou, Hughes, and other perennials, there’s also mention of Harryette Mullen and Matthea Harvey.

Note 3: I don’t agree with the thrust of David Orr’s critique of the issue in the March 27 New York Times Book Review, but one of his complaints — “roughly a fifth of the coverage is devoted to Mary Oliver, about whose poetry one can only say that no animals appear to have been harmed in the making of it” — made me laugh. (For the record, I personally like Oliver’s work — and the guest editor of the issue was Maria Shriver, who listed Oliver as her favorite poet. But I know of at least one other member of the collective who will concur with Orr, and God knows I’m guilty myself often enough of wanting something to be what I want rather than what it is… *wry smile*)