SmokeLong Weekly From 'The Game of Surrounding' by Ian Sanquist, January 23, 2012 There's a story poets like to tell, or a shaggy dog joke, that Whitman, when he was young, was visited by a man from the future. This was before he'd written "Song of Myself," but the person telling the story is never sure how long before. The man who comes from the future tells Whitman he's read everything by him, he tells Whitman that he doesn't know it yet, but he's going to be the father of American poetry, maybe even the father of America itself. He tells him never to fear if he seems about to contradict himself, never to stop, never to second-guess, he tells Walt Whitman that he came from the future, and that it was nothing but cities moving forever outward, and there were roads to everywhere, and sometimes you had to cry, but sometimes you had to yell, and sometimes you just had to hit one of those roads—or all of those roads—without a backward glance, the future, Walt, it's really not so different from what you've seen already. Read more. SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Thirty-Four (December 19, 2011): Batman #12 by Barr Bielinski «» The Normal Thing by Mickey Laurence Cohen «» Gray Dogs by Chauna Craig «» Xenoliths by Joseph Gross «» The Fifth Way of Wearing Vermillion by Kathleen Hellen «» Out of Many by Anne Hensley «» Bus Driver by Alex Higley «» Zong by Emily-Jo Hopson «» The Worst Shark Attack Ever by Trevor Houser «» A Disagreement between Gentleman Hunters by Geoff Kronik «» Squall by Susan Rukeyser «» Master of the Art of Longrange Tenpins by Fortunato Salazar «» One Truth by Curtis Smith «» Running by R.S. Thomas «» The Freeze by Virgie Townsend «» Broken Bow by Lex Williford «» Interviews: Barr Bielinski «» Mickey Laurence Cohen «» Chauna Craig «» Joseph Gross «» Kathleen Hellen «» Anne Hensley «» Alex Higley «» Emily-Jo Hopson «» Trevor Houser «» Geoff Kronik «» Susan Rukeyser «» Curtis Smith «» R.S. Thomas «» Virgie Townsend «» Lex Williford «» Cover Art "Warhol's Appropriated Soup" by Marty Ison «» Letter From the Editor SmokeLong Feature Smoking with Justin Chen January 27, 2012 This is part of an intermittent series of interviews with the artists who illustrate the wonderful stories we publish. Read more. Interested in subscribing to SmokeLong's weekly newsletter? Click here. An email should be created. Send it as is, and you'll be subscribed. If the link does not work for you, send an email to imailsrv@smokelong.com with Subscribe slq-info in the body of the email (no subject is necessary). You'll receive updates detailing the release of new issues, new reading periods, contests, etc. We do not make our mail list available to anyone else.