...the bounty of [this] anthology reminded me of Christ's generosity in feeding the five thousand. Christ took real substances-a little bread, two small fish-and he created from them...food that nourished the people and made it possible for them to return to their lives both physically and spiritually renewed. Poets take matter (language, emotion, thought, experience) and make of that matter a new creation, a work of art that did not exist before the poet organized it, a work that has the potential (each poet hopes) to nourish-to make readers see what they did not see before, to offer insight, to create empathy, to provoke thought, or to express beauty, soundness, depth. To offer abundance in place of scarcity.
-from the forward by Susan Elizabeth Howe
