Ice Cream Poems: reflections on life with ice cream

Ice cream ice cream who wants ice cream? Hundreds of poets not only said a resounding yes but wrote about it. And from those hundreds I accepted the 125 poems you will find here from 27 different states plus Australia France Iraq Spain and Tunisia. The poems are as various as the flavors of ice cream: long poems short poems and in addition to traditional free-verse narratives and lyrics: experimental poems poems in forms such as sestinas sapphics sonnets prose poems. When I accepted the job of editing I wondered if Id be bored by so many poems about ice cream; I wondered whether there would be hundreds of poems about The Good Humor Man or Dairy Queen. But I neednt have worried I was never bored. The Good Humor Man and Dairy Queen poems were there of course but I was amazed by the wide variety of subjects: light humorous poems sweet poems lusty poems dark poems poems about childhood memories a poem about Obamas first date and a poem with Paul Newman in it. I am pleased with this final collection of ice cream poems. I think readers will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed reading and selecting them. --Patricia Fargnoli Editor author of Hallowed (Tupelo Press 2017)