Dear Reader,

If you're like me, you probably feel almost guilty for reading this. I mean, there is a war going on. Bombs are dropping, soldiers and civilians are being killed, and governments are vying for power. Shouldn't you be reading the New York Times or something? Instead of reading policy analysis and military strategy, you are reading poems, essays, and short fiction by teenagers. What is the deal with your priorities?

I like to think it's a sign that your priorities are stable and straight. It's almost silly how in particular times all our priorities and means of action change. If writing is what you do for the world, you should continue to do it in a time of war, not suddenly shift to politics. One is not a higher calling than the other, but one is truer than the other. Sometimes an opportunity or obligation comes along, and we need to rise to the occasion, but for most of us most of the time, we must persevere, even if it seems suddenly less important.

"Sometimes I feel ashamed that I've written so few poems on political themes, on the causes that agitate me. But then I remind myself that to choose to live as a poet in the modern superstate is in itself a political action," former U.S. Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz writes in the introduction to his Collected Poems. We are not about to begin publishing piles of "war poems" or overtly political stories. Rather, our response to the war is simply to continue doing what we do.

At the same time, we mourn the death of Michael Kelly, the editor at large of The Atlantic Monthly (my favorite magazine currently in print) and former editor of The New Republic, also a fine periodical. He died April 3 while reporting from the 3rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in Iraq.
As always, we welcome your thoughts, questions, and ideas.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Daniel Klotz
Redactor in Chief
Frodo's Notebook
dan@frodosnotebook.com