On Scanning a Magazine’s
Table of Contents
The names are there, the same ones I have seen
for years and years. They are a welcome sight.
Among them there are old old friends who mean,
or meant, a lot. I’m glad they are all right,
still at this game we’ve all been at for years.
It’s cheering to be part of what we do,
and to bear witness when their work appears
and celebrate as if this all were new.
Of course, it’s not. We’re all well down that road
we chose—or thought we chose—long years ago.
We’ll likely never meet again. That load
we shouldered then is heavier. Although
we’re only names now, we are comrades still.
We have this bond we share, and always will.
Bruce Bennett is the author of ten books of poetry and more than thirty chapbooks. His second new and selected, Just Another Day in Just Our Town: Poems 2000-2016 (Orchises Press, 2017), was published in 2017. His most recent chapbook is a collection of ekphrastic poems, Images into Words, a collaboration with poet Jim Crenner, published by the Dove Block Project in Geneva, NY. He co-founded and was an editor of both Field and Ploughshares. From 1973-2014 he taught at Wells College and is now Emeritus Professor. In 2012 he was awarded a Pushcart Prize. His poetry website is https://justanotherdayinjustourtown.com