Wormwood Review

For my fiftieth birthday
I bought myself a full run
of Wormwood Review,
the little magazine that
started in the 1960's and
put out 144 issues of poetry
for nearly forty years.

I have many poet friends in
America who talk about
when they had a poem published in
WR and how much the late
editor Marvin Malone meant to them.

Charles Bukowski said that
this was the best U.S.
poetry magazine and that it was
run by a
no bullshit editor.

One of my good friends said in
a letter: As you know, in
purchasing that full run of
Wormwoods you acquired the
best single repository of
American poetry from the
second half of the twentieth
century.

Today in the mail I received the
box from America.

144 issues filled with poetry.

Is it too early to retire?