Denver Quarterly

Received the latest Denver Quarterly today. It has some knockout poems from Crystal Curry, Anthony Hawley (one of my favorite P(r)etty Sonnets of his), Andrea Rexilius and Samuel Amadon. Amadon knocks both of his two poems out of the park with the final lines. The final couplet of "A Uselessness of Amadons" is

fit what wanted like birds outside
surgical in how they hide the night.

This is an ideal couplet. It creates its own sense without needing the connection to the rest of the poem, though it also makes a kind of linear sense in context. Even without syntactic set up "fit what wanted like birds outside" is a stunning line. Then the iambs closing the last line join with the rhyme to make this a great last line based solely on the sound & rhythm.

His second poem, "Photography Doesn't Exist," ends with this line:

Where's a tomato garden? I'll bury one.

Hell yeah. Maybe Sam's been feeling his Shakespearian sonnets or something, but I feel like he brings these poems in for abruptly jarring yet perfectly satisfying endings.