What stands out though, in particular, in “Poems About Music” are the pieces that bear personal stories about music. In Kate M. Wells’s “Duet.” we trace the nuanced life of a woman and her violin from childhood through old age. In Marilyn Johnston’s “Their Song,” we experience the pain of a Vietnam War soldier playing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” over and over again in his tent, still hopeful his recent bride will send letters (which never come), intensified by the tolerance and empathy of fellow soldiers who won’t complain about the repetitive tune.

Poems in the issue that that turn music on its head through wordplay are fun, such as “What We Thought We Heard” by Jan Haag, offering an array of misheard lyrics. My favorite among them is “I’ve got two chickens to paralyze.” A pastiche of Joni Mitchell lyrics woven seamlessly into a poem take place in Diane Elayne Dees’s “For Joni.” While music is often hard to capture in words, it becomes clear through a comparison of different smells to music in Diana Cole’s “On the Scent of a Tune.” And what could be a more dramatic opening to the issue than a poem that pinpoints the sound of the universe “…a D flat fifty-seven octaves below middle C” in Michael T. Coolen’s “After the Big Bang.”

“The Poeming Pigeon: Poems About Music” offers a wide and enjoyable variety of voices that capture poetic snapshots of experiences with music from nearly every genre, and can serve as inspiration for poets like me who care to write verse about music, as well.