Wearing the traditional Statue of Liberty green and very prominent crown, Barbara Elovic began the evening by reading Emma Lazarus's famous "The New Colossus" (1883), the first poem in Heliotrope's Fall 2002 issue. The poem, we know, is carved into the pedestal of Liberty herself.

Readers included Laurel Blossom (Heliotrope's new fourth editor), Patricia Spears Jones, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Claudia Carlson, Martha Rhodes, Michael T. Young, and Myra Shapiro.

This issue concludes with a humor section, 'The Funnies,' or, as the Editors say in their Preface:  "Some year we've had in New York. . . . We could all use a laugh." The section is inspired by Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia, who read the Sunday comics on the radio during the Depression.

This post-9/11 aura still hovers over us. In Michael T. Young's "Zero Knowledge," a memorable love poem full of meaningful circles, we can't ignore the 'Ground' that comes to mind, nor "the cloudy day of raindrops exploding."

I particularly enjoyed Claudia Carlson's dramatic monologue, "The Dwarf's Lament" ("We miss our Snow . . ."), Jeanne Marie Beaumont's "Concerning The Details of Her Dress," Donald Lev's "Say No More" (not read that night, but source of the 'irreversible fire'), and Laurel Blossom's "How Much Would I Cry" ("Give up, the weather is working for me now').

Lots of weather, and sleep, and world-cracking, and irreversible fire in this issue.

Heliotrope is worth your attention. And worth sending your work to. But if you do, follow the submission guidelines and put your name on every page.

For more details, visit the magazine's website at heliopoems.com

—NJ