When I was studying at Brandeis University in 1991 I was lucky enough to find a writing class taught by the poet Olga Broumas. I was exposed to some brilliant poets like W.S. Merwin and Li-Young Lee. I was hungry to read new writing and found, on the shelves of Booksmith in Coolidge Corner, The Quarterly, edited by Gordon Lish. I sent a few poems in for consideration and received them all back with a handwritten note attached to a stack of them that said, “Not good.” Mr. Lish did offer to publish one of the six poems I submitted. He would include “Love” in the next issue if I would agree to replace one word as he had marked in red pen. Of course, I agreed to the edit. Here are scans from issue 24, Winter 1992:
