When I started my Stanford Ph.D. in 2010, I did so during a moment of extraordinary flux. I’d just become a father—a week away from classes was my “paternity leave”—and I was about to publish my first book of poems. After years of leading seminars, I was suddenly enrolled in them. The transition wasn’t going well. Then Virginia Ramos came along and invited me to join Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism, & Translation. I wanted to write all three of the genres listed in the journal’s title—I always write out Mantis’s full title—so I immediately agreed.

That is how, from issues 11 to 14, I found myself serving as Mantis’s Poetry Editor. I’ve Virginia to thank for that. She gave me purpose, and more than a little validation, at a time when I needed both. I’m equally thankful to all the poets who trusted me to edit and introduce their work. I loved writing those Mantis introductions, and I’ve still got a stack of Mantis in my living room here in West Central Indiana. Mantis’s birthday gives me the chance to revisit those poems—still beautiful—and to think about where they’ve travelled since.

Not long ago, on a trip back to the Bay Area, I bought a copy of Ben Doller’s Fauxhawk (2015) at Pegasus Books. Mantis, I hadn’t realized, would make an appearance too. There was “Hello” (Issue 11), with some whimsical additions. I won’t “spoil” Ben’s revised poem—please check out Fauxhawk for that!—but I’d like his “Hello” to double as my “hello,” sent with warmth and good cheer and the hope that, for twenty more issues, we’ll still have Mantis publishing new poetry, criticism, and translation.

Derek’s Selection:

Ben Doller - Hello