COMMENTS on the LUMMOX JOURNAL

Todd Moore has been a regular contributor to the Lummox Journal since 1997.  His essays on the power of the word and its value in this age of liars   and spin-doctors have served to inspire countless readers.

He's also one bad-assed poet!

Lummox [Journal] is one of those mags which is entirely unique in its concerns regarding poetry and poets and the ongoing mystery of the creative process.  And that process is almost always different for each and every poet.  I don't know of another poetry mag in the country & this is a big country --- which takes the look at this mystery the way Lummox does.  Of course, there are the high poetry/art mags like Parnassus and the American Poetry Review that provide a venue for these ideas --- but have you ever tried slogging thru an APR essay.  It's pretty much like trying to swim in quicksand.  More than likely you'll fall asleep somewhere in the middle of one of those pieces.

What I like abt Lummox is its openness, its balls out approach to what poetry is really abt.  And it doesn't wrap itself up in tons of theory.  It really isn't so much abt theory as it is abt the visceral origins of where poetry comes from.  The origins of the fire and the water and the speed and the vision of the thing itself.  If Lummox is anything, this is really what it is.

Also, Lummox is not one of those mags you read and then toss.  I always seem to keep coming across issues that I find myself reading again, they are that good.  As for the future, Lummox is sure to be one of the important keys to this generation's poetry scene.  And I know, that many of the prose and poetry features will continue to be read for a very long time to come.  As will LAST CALL, and the craft interviews which appear as centerpieces for many issues.  While some of the interviews aren't as long as the PARIS REVIEW interviews, I believe they provide an equally valuable look at what small press poets are currently doing.  In my opinion, the real energy and the important work of poetry is taking place mainly in the small press arena.

So, amigo, I just want to take some time to thank you for letting me be a part of the first ten years of Lummox.  And may the big L continue for some time to come.

Todd Moore