That's a good feeling. After 26 years of writing poetry and over 20 awards for my literary and community leadership work, this is actually the very first time one of my pieces has been accepted by them. I'd have to go back through the archives to see if any other Lao American poets have been published with them so far, but I feel pretty confident in saying I'm among the first to appear in the journal.
To put it into some additional context for my non-poet readers: Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry magazine is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Harriet Monroe's "Open Door" policy, set forth in Volume I of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry's mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach. As you can imagine, it gets a bit competitive.
It's also particularly gratifying to see this poem accepted because its experimental nature had made it somewhat difficult for it to find a home even among speculative literary and Asian American journals for several years. But you'll see what's going on with this poem later this Summer.
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