"Definition of Stranger"
Listen to Idra Novey read this poem.
Person not a member of a group. A visitor, guest, or the breast that brushes your arm on the subway. Person with whom you've had no acquaintance but who's taken your rocking chair from the curbside and curls up in it and closes her eyes. Person in line behind you now, waiting for a glass of water, or of whiskey, of elixir. Person logging online at the same second from the Home Depot in Lima. Or in search of the Dalai Lama. Person not privy or party to a decision, edict, et cetera, but who's eaten from the same fork at the pizzeria and kissed your wilder sister on New Year's. Person assigned to feed the tiger at the zoo where you slipped your hand ********************** once into the palm of somebody else's father.
Idra Novey received a P.E.N. Translation Fund Award for her book of translations of Brazilian poet Paulo Henriques Britto, The Clean Shirt of It. Her first book of poems received the Kinereth Gensler Award from Alice James and will be published in fall 2008. She teaches at Columbia University.
For Slate's poetry submission guidelines, click spacerhereyeshyperlinkPoetry SubmissionsSlate reads new poems from Oct. 1 to April 30. Manuscripts sent between May 1 and Sept. 30 will not be considered.To submit poems: Send, as a single attached document, up to three poems of no more than 50 lines each to editors@slatepoems.com. Use the poet's name for the subject line of the e-mail and for the title of the attachment. We prefer Word documents (.doc or .docx) to PDFs.Please include a brief, professional cover letter, including publication history, in the body of your email. Please limit submissions to one per poet per annual reading period. Simultaneous submissions are OK. Slate no longer accepts poetry submissions by mail. The email address editors@slatepoems.com is for poetry submissions only (or to notify editors of acceptance elsewhere of a poem under consideration at Slate). Other inquiries, etc., will not be addressed.10000false220061444537PMWednesdayJanJanuary161/4/2006 9:45:37 PM63271989937000000020061444537PMWednesdayJanJanuary161/4/2006 9:45:37 PM632719899370000000.Clickhere to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.Click here for an archive of "Poet's Choice" columns from the Washington Post.