Note from the Editor-in-Chief
After I first read “Other Lives and Dimensions and Finally a Love Poem,” I read it again. Then, after reading it six hundred times, I was certain it was my favorite poem of all time and I wanted to read everything Bob had written, and I’ve come close. His voice took me prisoner, and I am more than happy to remain captive to the wonder he instills in each poem.
Soon enough I discovered he is the master of the love poem. I love how his poems wander without ever forgetting where home is. I love, too, how he captures solitude — how we’re alone in the world, yet together in our aloneness. Through his classic humor, he invites us to confront our existential queries head-on, reminding us that despite the weight of our individual burdens, we are bound together by the shared experience of being human. Language is playdough in his hands. Really, his imagination knows no bounds, inviting us to embrace the absurdity and beauty (and even ugliness) of the world around us.
As a young boy from a middle-class business-oriented family, I had no business coming to poetry, no reason to believe I could do multiple degrees in arts, or move away from my family home. But Bob’s poems made me believe. I moved half-way around the world (from New Delhi to Blacksburg, Virginia) so I could be near Bob Hicok. Since then, he has taught me how to drive, to change door-knobs, showerheads, play tennis, racquetball, and write poems, of course. Even after a year I still can’t believe I’m lucky to be his first reader, have dinner with him often, and watch him play with my daughter.
This is the most personal testament I have for the power of poetry to move things, to change the world. Bob’s poems have changed—and continue to change—my world in tangible ways.
We recently decided to ask him if he’d do a sort of monthly column for ONLY POEMS and, ever so shy, he said: sure. We will publish at least one new poem and one previously published poem every month.
I write poems because I want to make someone feel the same way Bob’s poems make me feel—full of wonder, beauty, joy, and innocence. Each of his poems take me to a place beyond suffering. I’ve said this before but wish to say it again: I believe it’d be easier for Sisyphus to roll his boulder up and down the hill if I was reading Bob’s poems to him.
Through his work, I hope you find the same joy, reflection, and inspiration that I do. Bob Hicok’s poetry is a reminder that in every moment—no matter how small or mundane—there is the potential for beauty, laughter, transformation, and deep human connection.
May your heart be a lantern,