POETRY & INTERPETATION: ABOUT THAT SNOWY NIGHT edited by Stephen Spignesi, Andy Rausch, and Keith Lansdale

Rarely do artists interpret a work of art in the same way. It may be deeper, but like like any viewer of art, it serves as a aesthetic Rorschach test with thier . The only difference, those takes are often applied into art they create. Stephen Spignesi, Keith Lansdale, and Andy Rausch explore that idea by editing the most unique anthology of 2024, About That Snowy Evening.

The anthology asks writers to pick a poem and use is it as inspiration for a story. They publish the poem before the story, giving us a reference of the influence. The story is then followed by a short piece by the author on the effect the poem had on them.

The poems picked by multiple authors prove to be most interesting. The collection begins with two takes on Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Tyson Blue focuses on the will of the narrator in with a hitman story "Promises To Keep". It contains one of the best endings in the anthology. Terrill Lankford uses his jaundice Hollywood eye on the poem and plays on the arduous journey of "The Miles". Three authors tackle Shelly's Ozymandias. "In Virtue", Enne applies the strange land aspect of the poem. Bev Vincent uses it as basis for a gothic tale while Keith Lansdale finds a way to apply it to an entertaining, funny office thriller. Chris Miller dives into the descent into madness Edgar Allan Poe created in The Raven while R.J. Montgomery gives Lenore more agency in her feminist riff on it Both Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop Death and Frost's Fire and Ice get more than one admired as well. They all allow an intriguing compare and contrast through each way the writers approach these poems to make something of their own.

Two of Walt Whitman's works drew two different authors. T. Fox Durham uses When I Heard the Learn's Astronomer to debate micro versus macro views of life and the world with the relationship of two scientists in "Silence At The Stars". Kari L. Button finds a less rousing interpretation of O'Captain! My Captain, showing the drudgery and damnation of war in "The March".

The other two editors also contribute stories. Stephen Spignesi fuses the art world, a Paul Simon song and The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock for "You Can Call Me Al". Andy Rausch creates a yuletide caper out of A Visit From St. Nicholas (a.k.a. T'was The Night Before Christmas) , reminding me of Donald Westlake's Dortmunder series.

Poets from Shakespeare to D.H. Lawrence also get their props, told in an array of genres and tones. If they have anything in common, it is a shared feeling of humanity. About That Snowy Evening celebrates the power of an enduring poem and the range of effects creates another creators. At least that's my interpretation.

-rev iew by Scott Montgomery