Around Des Moines

There were several points of interest at the April 22nd meeting of the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) Commission. First, the date of the meeting as listed on DART’s website is April 29th, not the 22nd. In addition, in keeping with tradition, the agenda of the meeting was not posted to the organization’s website prior to the meeting. Also as usual, of all the media, commissioners, staff, and members of the public in attendance, I was the only person riding the bus from the meeting. The number of media in attendance was much higher than I have seen in the past, though.

Some very important topics that included decisions with financial consequences were discussed. Recent accidents led to a discussion of an updated safety action plan. The approval at last month’s meeting of fare increases led to a discussion on the OTT monthly pass for low-income riders. Waukee’s city council’s action to reverse its decision to join DART led to a discussion on revising the authority’s funding formula. There was also an update on the downtown shuttle and regular departmental reports.

The high visibility accidents of recent months that injured pedestrians and damaged cars attracted the attention of much local media. Far more telling, in my opinion, was the discussion on OTT passes. As discussed in the report of the March 25th DART Commission meeting, OTT stands for Opportunities Through Transit and the program subsidizes monthly passes for ultra low-income riders. Applications are available at community centers in Des Moines and the passes are available to qualifying Polk County residents. Funding for OTT comes from the City of Des Moines, Polk County, and DART. In the March 25th report, I reported incorrectly the source of Polk County funds for OTT. In the county budget there is a line item for paratransit. However, the county recently used about $7,000 of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money to help pay for DART drivers. Under current terms, the Polk County funds contribute $2.50 per OTT pass. The county’s contribution to the program has not increased for several years.

DART handles administration of the OTT program and covers the approximately $33,000 annual administrative cost. In addition, DART contributes over $90,000 to the program by direct subsidy of the monthly pass. The issue before the commission in April was to decide if the pass should rise to $21, as initially approved at the March 25th meeting, or if it should keep the charge at $17. Currently approximately 433 people use OTT passes and 25 people are on a waiting list. The commission was presented the options of raising the subsidized fare to $21 and not dropping any current pass holders or of retaining the $17 rate and reducing pass availability by over 100. Ultimately the Commission chose to keep the rate at $17, not to drop anybody, and somehow to find the extra $3,000 per month that will be required in subsidies when new DART fares take effect on June 1, 2008.

After the meeting I asked DART General Manager Brad Miller how he would have decided which 127 OTT pass holders would be dropped had that been the Commission’s choice. He did not have an answer. Although, during the meeting Miller said, “people come and go regularly on this.” That turnover occurs because an OTT pass recipient is dropped if he or she fails to buy a pass in three consecutive months. Des Moines City Manager Rick Clark, participating as an alternate for Des Moines City Councilor and DART Commissioner Christine Hensley, expressed concern about a long waiting list if such a list was not ranked by need.

Miller said that the City of West Des Moines uses $35,000 from its CDBG to buy annual passes for low-income residents. Thus, residents of that city who qualify and apply can ride DART for free. Applications are processed on a first come-first served basis.

DART Development Officer Brian Litchfield said that for every $1 increase in the OTT monthly pass, 30 people could be removed from the waiting list. However, given the low incomes of OTT recipients, commissioners and staff were extremely concerned about requiring recipients to pay any additional money.

Litchfield reported to the commission that the Davis Brown Law Firm and Mercy Medical Center have joined the Unlimited Access program. In addition, DART and the City of Des Moines are in talks to include the city in this program that allows free rides for people associated with participating companies or institutions. Commission Chairman Skip Conkling said that Mercy had been a proponent of Sunday service because many of its employees ride the bus to work.

Information on other components of the April 22nd DART Commission meeting will be reported on in Part 2.

M.R. Field writes about local issues for AroundDesMoines.com. 

Today, April 22, 2008, is Equal Pay Day. This date symbolizes how far into 2008 women must work, on average, to earn as much pay as men earned in 2007. Started by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996, Equal Pay Day is held each year on a Tuesday to symbolize how far into each week women must work to earn as much as men were paid the previous week. Equal Pay Day is an echo of Tax Freedom Day, which is a registered trademark of the Tax Foundation.

Tax Freedom Day represents the day, on average, when Americans have worked long enough to pay their taxes for the year. The Tax Foundation also includes information on how many days Americans work to earn money to spend money on clothing, recreation, food, and other items. In 2008, Tax Freedom Day falls on April 23rd. According to the Tax Foundation 2008’s day arrives three days earlier than in 2007 due to economic stimulus checks and a slowing economy.

The 2007 Supreme Court decision against Lilly Ledbetter offers a stark reminder of the long-term damage lower wages earned by women have over the course of their lifetimes. Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for pay discrimination but the Court ruled that the discrimination occurred too many years ago for the suit to be valid. Yet, many women do not discover pay discrepancies until years after the first act. After a decade of raises, bonuses, and cost of living adjustments based on a percentage of pay, that first pay check gap will grow dramatically. Add in calculations for lost contributions to retirement funds and spare cash to invest and the wealth gap also grows.

Imagine a man makes $25 per calendar quarter but a woman makes only $20 and both started their jobs in January 1995. By December 1995, the man would have $100 but the woman would not have $100 until March 1996. By December 1996, the man would have another $100 but the woman would have to wait until June 1997 for hers. By the end of 2005, the man would have $1,100. The woman will still be working for that amount until December 2008. In real world terms, a man making $40,000 a year, which is close to the median Iowa income, would have $112,000 more than a woman making $32,000 a year over the course of the 14 years from January 1995 to December 2008. That difference creates a significant impact on the type of house that could be bought, the type of business that could be started, and the type of recreation that could be enjoyed.

Instead of recognizing Equal Pay Day in April, I favor a September date. I find it much more powerful to tell men around the autumnal equinox that they can have the rest of the year off with pay but the women must keep working through December. We also need to discuss the greater gender gap in part-time pay.

M.R. Field has written on women’s economic issues for several years. 

The main agenda item for the April 15, 2008, meeting of the Des Moines Public Schools School Board was student achievement data. Superintendent Dr. Nancy Sebring stressed that the April report was a breakdown of data from the February 19, 2008, monitoring report related to graduation ends. Several public speakers and board members asked what was meant by being proficient and what caused persistent discrepancies of achievement between subcategories.

Ultimately, the questions left unanswered were what could the school board do to affect change and what result should that change have. This was the theme when Board Member Jonathan Narcisse talked about the recently adopted 2009 budget and the lack of attention given to librarians in it. Board Member Jeanette Woods immediately challenged Narcisse by asking him what proposals he made during the budget discussions to shift funding to allow for more librarians.

Even when there are decades worth of data on particular items, such as reading and math scores as rated by the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), there were questions raised about the value of that data. During public comments, Alan Young, president of the Des Moines Education Association, said that the ITBS measurements from 50 years ago do not necessarily have value as guides for what will help students in the 21st century.

Sebring said that some wild fluctuations in the data for specific subcategories are due to the small number of individuals included in that subcategory. For example, there was a one-year dramatic increase in reading and math scores for the Native American population. Several board members also questioned the worth of standard tests versus teacher assessments of students’ skills when English language learners (ELL students) might have the knowledge but not the English language capacity to do well on the tests. Board President Dick Murphy offered the example of an English word that might have six meanings but an ELL student might only have learned three of them. (Note: I would be more likely to question the ELL challenge as being one of thinking in English versus another native language. This is the same challenge students with dyslexia face. The students must read the test question, interpret it, answer it, and interpret their answer back to English.)

Subcategories include gifted students as well as those coming from low-income households and different racial/ethnic groups. (Note: At a December 10, 2007, Human Rights Day event, Cyndi Chen, director of the Iowa Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders noted that the Asian community is represented by people from many different countries with many different cultures. This includeds Japan with its emphasis on education but it also includes countries in which education for girls is considered unnecessary. In the DMPS data, students from both of those cultures are lumped together) Board President Murphy wondered how well racial/ethnic minority students not included in the free or reduced price lunch program were doing compared to similarly wealthy Caucasians.

The Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) for 11th grade reading and math show a decrease for both males and females from the 2001-2002 school year to the 2006-2007 year. There was an increase for participation in the ACT tests used in college admission decisions, though. A significant part of this increase came from the decision to make the test available to students who could not afford the test-taking fee and to hold the tests at the schools. Board Member Woods voiced concern that students who did not go to college could still earn a respectable and profitable leaving in the trades.

Several reasons for the discrepancies in achievement were stated by board members, district staff, and public speakers. These included the mobility of students between specific schools and school districts, family history that may or may not emphasize the importance of a scholastic education, parents who need to work long hours, and even students whose work interferes with their ability to get to school on time. District staff reported on programs that have been implemented to help counter some of these problems. These include a grant that follows last year’s 7th grade classes in certain schools through the next few years to help introduce them to opportunities, such as college, that they might not otherwise experience. There is also the 9th grade academy that works with students to keep them attending school and improving their studies.

(Note: I was disturbed by a comment Sebring made that some of the achievement data was collected and summarized for the Des Moines Register. It seems to me as though the Register should be doing its own data analysis if it is to be an independent monitor of the school district. In contrast, district staff ignores me when I make basic inquiries for clarifications for readers of AroundDesMoines.com.)

M.R. Field covers school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com. 

Tuesday, April 22nd is Earth Day but area business districts are hoping to celebrate this weekend. Earth Day in the Junction will be held on Sunday, April 20, 2008, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There will be opportunities to run a race, to walk through Brown Woods, and to drive a hybrid car. Historic Valley Junction in West Des Moines has additional information on a special website and in the organization’s April newsletter. I could not find a similar listing of events for the Saturday, April 19th, Spring in the Village. Individual stores are arranging their own events in the East Village, centered around Locust Street between East 3rd and East 7th Streets.

An earthquake in Illinois at about 4:37 a.m. on April 18th, registering 5.4 on the Richter scale, started the celebrations. Iowans living along streams and rivers, particularly in the southeast quarter of the state, are hoping that recent rains don’t flood out the earth around their homes and farms. With sunshine and 70 degree temperatures forecast for Sunday, hopefully everyone will have an opportunity just to enjoy the pleasure of spring flowers and fresh air.

The Botanical Center (909 Robert D. Ray Drive) will offer free admission all day on Tuesday, April 22nd. On Sunday, the 20th, Director of Orangutan Research Dr. Rob Shumaker at the Great Ape Trust will talk about apes in the wild at 1:30 p.m. Cost is $4 for adults. On Saturday, the 19th, the Iowa Bonsai Association will hold its annual show at the Botanical Center from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. At 1:00 p.m. the owners of Butterfliz of Iowa will give a presentation on building a backyard butterfly habitat.

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle is the motto for limiting landfills. Reduce your packaging (e.g., buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of prepackaged ones at the grocery store. Reuse products you buy or find (e.g., a non-Iowa friend has an old lobster-shipping crate serving as a coffee table). Recycle what you can’t reduce or reuse. Recycling comes last in this trio because it requires energy and water to sort, to clean, and to reshape recycled products. If you have an old item that you think could be recycled into money from an antique dealer, the Terrace Hill Society is holding its annual Treasures in the Attic event on Sunday, the 20th. For $5 per item, you can have an appraisal made on your antiques. The time is from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at West End Architectural Salvage, located in a renovated 1913 grocers warehouse at 9th and Cherry Streets.

If you prefer to look at the sky rather than the Earth, this Friday’s topic at the spring astronomical series at the Drake Municipal Observatory is “Gravity is the Key.”

The Drake Relays start off with street painting on the 19th and a parade on the 20th. This is the 99th year of the Relays.

DART buses can get you to and from most of these events.

M.R. Field encourages organizations and performers to send news about their upcoming events to events@AroundDesMoines.com. 

Leave the state for a week and it is hard to get re-focussed on the General Assembly upon the return to Iowa, particularly as the session is nearing its end. In an attempt to catch up on events that happened while I was gone, I flipped through the newscasts of local television stations and made a lethargic attempt to look online at old articles in the state’s newspapers. Just as tulips grew a bit taller but did not bud while I was gone, there seems to have been little movement in the state’s government. Eventually I settled on the tried and true resource of the General Assembly’s website to find out what happened in the past week.

On Wednesday, April 9, 2008, the legislature sent 33 bills to the governor. These future laws aim to make changes in funding for natural resources, protection for certain actions of good will, rules for governmental financing, information provided to victims of sexual assault, and policies for local school districts.

On Tuesday, April 8th, Gov. Chet Culver signed 16 bills. These new laws include such exciting rules as the per diem compensation for directors of the Iowa soybean association board, a requirement for the Department of Transportation to study the acceptance of electronic payments at its customer service sites, and issuance of non-resident turkey and deer hunting licenses to people who have severe physical disabilities or a terminal disease. Some of the bills signed on Tuesday were among the 16 bills sent to the governor on Monday, April 7th.

Looking at the April 10th Senate Journal, I discovered that several appointments made by the governor were confirmed. These included members of the Commission on the Status of African-Amerians, the State Board of Education, the Interior Design Examining Board, the Real Estate Commission, and the Renewal Fuels and Coproducts Advisory Committee. If anyone wants to read the conference committee’s compromise on the Smokefree Air Act, it can be found in the April 8th House Journal. The vote to accept the conference committee report was 52-48. The vote to pass the compromise bill was 54-45.

Much happened at the statehouse during Week 13 of the session. How lives will be changed because of those many actions remains to be seen.

M.R. Field writes for AroundDesMoines.com.

The Pajama Game is a musical comedy based on the book, 7-1/2 Cents, by Dubuque native Richard Bissell. It was performed at the Des Moines Playhouse in 1967 and returns in its current production after winning the 2006 Tony Award for best Broadway revival. This is not a show with a complex plot or challenging characters. Instead, it is the type of show to attend if you want to hum some of the score while waiting in the bathroom during intermission.

A few people sitting behind me at the Saturday, April 12, 2008, performance snickered several times during the first act. While I did not appreciate the distraction, I agreed with their reaction. There are numerous similarities between a 1950’s factory as presented in the musical and modern day work places. However, there are also many significant changes, not least being the power of unions. An updated version of the play would be more likely to hold the attention of audience members younger than 40. One song in particular, “Steam Heat,” offers a good example of changes time has brought. While I have lived in numerous places warmed with steam heat and know what it is like to have radiators, years of central air heating reduced my emotional reaction to the song.

The premise of The Pajama Game is simple. There is a new male superintendent at the Sleep Tite pajama factory in Cedar Rapids. He has an encounter with the female head of the union’s grievance committee. Sparks fly, conflict erupts, all turns out perfectly. Boy gets girl and gets the union a 7-1/2 cents raise that lets the workers live like royalty, or so they dream.

Alison Shafer’s choreography was the first thing that I admired about this production of the musical. It offered an energetic coordination of moving bodies and objects in “Racing With the Clock” and a playful pas de deux in “Her Is.” After I stopped trying to think of the show in terms of a story and started looking at it only as a series of musical entertainment, I began to enjoy the singing, too. Susan M. Grozier (Gladys), Craig Peterson (Sid Sorokin), and Jim Benda (Hines) had choice roles and all deserved them. Andrea Markowsi (Babe Williams) gave a decent performance but she seemed to be trying too hard to get the chorus correct in “There Once Was a Man (I Love You More).” Yet she got the shouting in “I’m Not At All in Love” just right. She also had the misfortune of a small microphone problem at the start of another song. Lenny Houts (Prez) deserves mention for his acting and for the puppy dog steps in “Her Is.”

The entire cast earned the plentiful applause. The scenic design and most of the costumes complemented the story well. The lighting could have been much better. The musical was directed by John W. Viars. Viars is executive director of the Playhouse and was a member of the 1967 cast of The Pajama Game.

M.R. Field reviews arts for AroundDesMonies.com. 

One way to wake up after spending time in a stuffy airplane cabin is to step out into a chilly Iowa night with icy pellets hitting exposed skin. Such was my experience late yesterday. Then this morning I woke up to snow on the ground in Des Moines!

When I left New York in early afternoon there were a few sprinkles of rain and a nippy breeze. But there were also magnolias blooming along with daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths. When I went outside in Des Moines this morning I noticed a few more inches of growth on plants, some new shoots above ground, and still only a few buds on trees. Some people may choose the size of Des Moines over that of New York, but for me there are many other factors to consider, such as when flowers bloom.

It was for a new but traditional revenue-generating endeavor that I was in New York for the past several days. With daytime hours unavailable for sightseeing, I found I was unable to visit most museums and was too tired to attend literary readings in the evenings.

I was able to step into the George Gustave Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian. This is in the old Customs Building near the southern tip of Manhattan. The current installations are James Luna’s “Emendatio” and a group show, “Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North Pacific Coast.” Perhaps because I had been expecting more historical education and not modern artistic interpretation, I was disappointed in the exhibitions. One of my new colleagues said he thinks the New York portion of the NMAI is geared more towards school children than adults.

The taste of water is a delight in New York and I enjoyed every sip. There was no musty taste of decayed leaves nor was there need to filter out excess ntirogen and other farm runoffs.

The number of people gathered on the train from the airport and at Penn Station was a shock at first. It took me only a couple days to forget about the crowds, though. They do not exist everywhere in the city nor at all times. Even the lack of large trees alongside most streets was not missed as I became reacquainted with the numerous parks and other places to enjoy nature. There’s not really any place in Iowa to use as a comparison for the New York crowds. The Iowa state fair may have sufficient people in one space at one time, but I don’t recall the moments of privacy that can be found in a city park nor the congestion of bodies at subway stops.

The flight attendant on the trip back to Des Moines had a two-day layover here. This is her first visit to the city and she was looking forward to doing some shopping. I wish her a fun stay in Iowa.

M.R. Field writes for AroundDesMoines.com. 

There are plenty of activities for this weekend so put off doing your taxes until Monday night. Or, reward yourself with a new piece of art, an ice cream cone, or a night under the stars for finishing the pesky paperwork early.

As part of the Des Moines Public Library’s AVID series, George Guidall will talk about his experiences narrating and recording audio books. The event is at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 10th, at the Central Library.

Valley Junction’s spring Gallery Night is on Friday, the 11th., from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eleven galleries, plus other shops and restaurants, will be open.

This is the last weekend for Sarah, Plan and Tall at the Des Moines Playhouse. Friday at 7:00 p.m., Saturday at 1:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:00 and at 4:00 p.m. Adult tickets are $15.00. The Pajama Game opens at the Playhouse on Friday, April 11th.

For stargazers, Drake University’s spring series at the Drake Municipal Observatory (Observatory Lane off of Polk Boulevard in Des Moines) is on Friday, the 11th, at 8:00 p.m. This week’s topic is Stars That Are Not Stable. On Saturday, the 12th, the Des Moines Astronomical Society will offer tips on stargazing at 8:00 p.m. at the Ashton Observatory (Hwy. F-17, off of Hwy. 330, west of Baxter).

Ritual Cafe (13th between Grand and Locust) has performers scheduled Thursday through Saturday: Julie Loyd at 7:00 p.m. on the 10th, Nikki Lunden at 8:00 on the 11th, and Big John Burns at 8:00 p.m. on the 12th.

Java Joe’s CoffeeHouse (4th Street between Walnut and Court) offers a family game night and ice cream social on Thursday the 10th. The ice cream costs $2.50 per scoop and is provided by KaleidoScoops Ice Cream & More of Ankeny. On Sunday, the 13th, Pastor John Colyer will host an open forum on “The Bible,” from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

A recommendation for QWIKSAND comes from a reader. The group will play at the House of Bricks (525 East Grand) on April 10th at 7:00 p.m. Because of the locale, this performance is age restricted (21 or older). There is a $5 charge. According to a February 28th press release, the band was in Los Angeles filming the pilot for a reality TV show.

Conversations with a group of people last week made it very clear that this is the season for new puppies and kittens. If you want to help make sure they have good and healthy lives, consider volunteering with the Animal Rescue League of Iowa. ARL has a volunteer orientation the second Saturday of every month. One is scheduled for April 12th. These events are held from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at 5452 NE 22nd Street in Des Moines. Volunteers are important for providing services to animals, including making sure dogs are walked. No pre-registration is required for the orientation.

If you do nothing else, take a walk, look at the flowers, imagine a canopy of leaves overhead, and wave to your neighbors.

M.R. Field encourages organizations and performers to send news about their upcoming events to events@AroundDesMoines.com. 

A special meeting of the Des Moines Public Schools School Board was called for the purpose of holding a public hearing on the 2008-2009 district budget. At the request of Board President Dick Murphy during the April 1st meeting of the school board, and with the agreement of other board members, the April 8, 2008, meeting will also include a discussion regarding extension of the staff policy on inappropriate use of the district’s computer system, particularly its mail network, to members of the school board. Neither of the topics on the agenda should generate new information or reveal new perspectives.

Information on the proposed budget has been presented by district staff at several board meetings. A copy of the budget is available on the district’s website and was published, as required by law, in a newspaper of general circulation. The paper of publication is the Des Moines Register. A practical problem arises with legal reliance upon that publication because a significant part of the district’s population does not read the paper, or at least does not read the printed version. One of the people who worked on the public forums held by the school board last summer said that a survey the group conducted revealed only 53% of the population gets information about the schools from the Register. That leaves 47% who do not get information from the Register. Moreover, I did not hear any indication about the accuracy or completeness of information about the school district that the newspaper-reading 53% of the population holds. When I looked at the budget, as provided at a school board meeting, I noted a few typographical errors and some minor oddities but nothing of great significance.

The school board wanted restoration of academic-related positions that had been cut a few years ago during a time of constrained budgets. The proposed budget will provide for a principal at every school except the Walnut Street elementary school. That particular school is new and does not yet have a full set of classes from kindergarten through sixth grade.

Running a quick Internet-based search on school budgets in general, I came across an article from 2005 written by Karl Bruhn, a former director for market development of the National Association of Music Merchants. This is a basic primer on becoming involved in the budgetary process. Bruhn notes that from 1982 to 1986, “the number of students playing in [California] school orchestras [was reduced] by 50 percent….” He goes on to observe that “[t]he public outcry was weak.” Bruhn urged people who wanted music education to return to the California schools to start talking with school board members early in the budget process. By the time public hearings are held, it is too late for more than minor changes.

Based on observations of similar board discussions and on common industry practice, I expect the policy proposal for board member usage of district e-mail to be passed. There may be lots of talking before that vote, though.

M.R. Field covers the school board meetings for AroundDesMoines.com but is unable to attend this one. 

In 1996 the Academy of American Poets declared April to be National Poetry Month. Five years earlier the Des Moines National Poetry Festival began. While the former is gaining attention, the latter has reduced its reach.

Poetry is life. It can swoop in with the speed of haiku, linger with the rhymes of a limerick, or inspire through the structure of of a sonnet. It can target the mind, the soul, or the heart. It can heal and it can cut; it is emotions.

For 2008, the Des Moines National Poetry Festival features a presentation by Li-Young Lee in Drake University’s Writers and Critics Series at Sheslow Auditorium (2507 University) at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30th. Another event in the series will be held on Tuesday, April 8th at 7:30 p.m. in the university’s Cowles Library Reading Room (2725 University). Erica Anzalone, who teaches fiction and poetry workshops, and novelist Fred Arroyo, an assistant professor in English, will read and discuss their work. Both events are free.

The Des Moines National Poetry Festival used to stage a three-day event. The festival has not been held since 2006, a major loss for Des Moines. I was able to attend only one event and that was a panel discussion during the 2005 program. The panel included then-U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, former laureate Billy Collins, Native American poet Joy Harjo, and Swan Scythe Press founder Sandra McPherson.

The panel discussion was informative. I discovered that Collins liked structure in his poems, while a turn of phrase attracted McPherson. Kooser, a native of Ames, unintentionally demonstrated how poetry differs from prose. He made reference to an old, brown suitcase and the audience let out a soft sigh, each with its own memory. Then Kooser started to describe the suitcase, and the audience grunted. The cracked leather and musty smell suddenly came from somebody else’s life, not from each person’s own dreams and experiences. Harjo was my personal favorite because of her topics and the flow of her words.

Charles Simic is the current poet laureate of the United States. His eighteenth book of poetry, That Little Something, was published earlier this year by Harcourt Trade Publishers. A description of the Simic and his work was found on the publisher’s website: “…the superb poet of the vaguely ominous sound and the disturbing, potentially significant image, moves closer to the dark heart of history and human behavior.”

More poetry books can be found in the Spring titles from the University of Iowa Press. I have been a fan of university presses for quite some time and came across the interesting titles of the University of Iowa Press while editing Leading Voices: Iowa. Poetry books in the press’s 2008 list include, G. Matthew Jenkins’ Poetic Obligation: Ethics in Experimental American Poetry after 1945, James E. von der Heydt’s At the Brink of Infinity: Poetic Humility in Boundless American Space, and Women Poets on Mentorship Efforts and Affections, edited by Arielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker.

M.R. Field designs notecards and other communication pieces based on haikus.