Gary Fincke has published fourteen poetry collections, including ones that have won what is now the Wheeler Prize (Ohio State), the Arkansas Poetry prize, and the Wheelbarrow Press Poetry Prize (Michigan State). His newest collection For Now, We Have Been Spared will be published in 2025 by Slant Books. He grew up in Pittsburgh and founded and directed for several decades a creative writing program at Susquehanna University.

Prelude

Prelude One night, when you are to readYour poems after a womanWho performs in a beretJauntily angled and a scarfTrailing fringe to her knees, you’reEmbarrassed enough to ponderFeigning illness, every wordYou are about to read becomeAs pretentious as her voiceLifted at the close of each lineAlready dense with inflections. As the half-filled room, formerlyA small …

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