Jeff Worley: “One reason I write poems is because, as the saying goes, ‘One life is not enough.’ Poets are allowed to—required to, really—invent other selves to tell stories that may or may not be autobiographical. Thanks in part to a late-night scotch or two, I take that thought a step further with the poem in this issue. The web introduced me to other Jeff Worleys whom I decided to meet imaginatively. I invited us all to a party. I hope the reader has as much fun there as we did.” (web)
Jeff Worley: “Since my retirement from the University of Kentucky, I’ve been teaching poetry classes at Lexington’s downtown Carnegie Center. A few months back, I brought in a few examples of the poem of instruction or the ‘how-to’ poem. One point I made was that no matter how bad a writing slump you’re in, you can always share some expertise with the reader and have some fun by writing this type of poem. A longtime fan of Billy Collins’s poetry, I went home that evening and did my own assignment. I’ve always admired his ability to write accessible, conversational poems that, through a rhetorical flash here and there, or clever turn of phrase, elevate the poems into the slightly rarified air of poetry. I tried to capture that ‘feel’ in this poem of tribute.” (web)
Jeff Worley: “Readers are sometimes curious about just how autobiographical a poem is. My folksinger poem is, unfortunately, a faithful rendition of what happened on this evening. The poem is set near the beginning of my three-year stint (grad school) as a folksinger in Wichita, something I did because I thought I knew how to play guitar (I didn’t), and I thought my playing music on stage would attract impressionable young women (it didn’t). But at least a few of these experiences have become fodder for poems.” (web)
Jeff Worley: “My fellow Kansan Bill Stafford was one of my earliest influences as I began to try to make my way as a poet, and after I met him at the University of Cincinnati in 1984, we corresponded fairly regularly. I think Bill would like this little poem, and I’m happy to have him ‘introduce’ it in an epigraph.”