On Gold-Trimmed Thunder
NVR just published a tribute to Jane Greer on what happened to be Mary Oliver's birthday. PLUS: Online poetry event Sunday 9/14 @ 7pm ET
Hello, readers! If you follow me on other social media platforms or subscribe to New Verse Review: A Journal of Lyric and Narrative Poetry you probably noticed that the project I have been working on since July just launched yesterday.
This was a labor of love and I think turned out well, if I do say so myself. I had many things going on while putting this mini-issue together. I was in the middle of co-leading a Catherine Project class on Geoffrey Hill’s Tenebrae, starting my Philosophy of Art & Beauty class with James Matthew Wilson, and getting my kids ready for school (homeschooling one child for the first time and transitioning another to a new special education placement). Despite the hectic nature of life it was made easier by the fact I was working with incredibly professional writers. My unending gratitude goes out to Mike Aquilina, Maryann Corbett, Boris Dralyuk, Anthony Esolen, Sam Hazo, Mike Juster, Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, J.C. Scharl, Dan Sheehan, Sally Thomas, Norann Voll, Gail White, Ryan Wilson, and Marly Youmans for their creativity and support as we put this issue together. I also can’t thank Steve Knepper enough for all his behind the scene’s work, especially with creating the PDF document and the Zoom account.
Ah, yes the Zoom account. We need it because we have decided to do a live reading to launch this issue.
In order to celebrate this mini-issue New Verse Review is hosting
a live Zoom reading on Sunday, September 14, 2025 at 7pm.
Please join us for the launch of this special edition!
About the Tribute
I received the news that Jane Greer had passed away via X.com from a number of Catholic bloggers. I immediately texted Steve Knepper who was launching the Summer 2026 issue of NVR that morning. Very casually I had proposed publishing a tribute to Jane, and he enthusiastically endorsed it — which made me realize right then that *I* was going to be editor. Doh!
Steve suggested that I approach people who knew Jane instead of doing an open call because I might find myself with too many submissions. Everything fell into place when I spoke with Mike Aquilina who gave me the core group of names to contact and from them it was a daisy chain of connections.
I was not going to submit my own poem because my writing process usually takes months, but Jane was always on my mind, including the argument we had over Mary Oliver’s poetry. Being very particular in what she considered poetry, Jane disagreed with me in a way that took me aback (but as you can read in the tribute, this was her nature and I was just not used to it at the time). While I was putting together the issue I picked up Mary Oliver’s Devotions and started reading her earlier work. In her poem “Shadows” Oliver writes about “the gold-trimmed thunder” and I loved it so much I decided to write a poem that started with it. This led to the first stanza of my poem “In the Northern Kingdom”":
The gold-trimmed thunder cracks the summer sky.
I miss the jagged streak but catch the flash
Glazing the glass of the farmhouse windowpane.
The rest of the poem is an account of the day I found out about Jane’s death while my family was on vacation in Vermont in July. When Steve saw the draft he encouraged me to put it among the contributors, and if it weren’t for him you probably would never have seen this poem. I stayed true to metrical form with my blank verse tercets, and that should satisfy Jane in her heavenly abode. Perhaps she won’t care that that the release date of this issue is Mary Oliver’s birthday.
One of the blessings of this project is that it created opportunities for me to tell some of the writers I’ve followed for years how much I appreciate them and their work. It also introduced me to new people who create with the same love and passion as Jane.
For instance, take this picture of the little doggo looking back at us in this picture. It was taken by Norann Voll, a writer and photographer. I asked for permission to use one of her photos for NVR’s issue, but she gave me this one too, and I felt it was too beautiful not to share. You can follow her on visually engaging Substack.
I must run off to see Matthew Buckley Smith read inside of Robert Frost’s old barn shortly, but I wanted to make sure that all my readers knew about this issue that honors Jane Greer’s work and the upcoming reading on Sunday which is a mere 3 days away! If you can make it please let me know!
Pax et Bonum,
Zina
Your poem is lovely. A fitting tribute.