Infiltration ─ An Anthology of Innovative Poetry from the Hudson River Valley

In|Filtration is an anthology of contemporary Hudson Valley poetry by poets who work in an innovative vein-poets whose work is either original formally or that uses given poetic forms in new ways: old bottle/new wine; new bottle/old wine; and, sometimes, new bottle/new wine. Much of the poetry here is directly or indirectly in conversation with national and international movements directed toward more exploratory uses of the medium-work that goes beyond the explorer's map into uncharted territories-places where the map tatters in the explorer's pocket and another world begins. Like explorers we have sought to map the current currents of radical poetics in the Hudson Valley. There is truly an enormous wealth of poetic activity in our region, and we therefore must recognize that such an exploration cannot be comprehensive: what is here is that to which we were led in our explorations-a further mapping of our poetic kin. (Note that before we are editors we are poets ourselves, so this book is also a form of echolocation, a way for us to find out where we are.) What we take to be the salient characteristic of this region are more thoroughly addressed in our essay A Hudson Valley Salt Line at the end of the anthology, where we develop the geological, human and cultural histories of the Hudson Valley as they dovetail with its poetries. We provide there the rational for the title in|Filtration with particular reference to the Hudson River's salt line, which becomes the essay's key trope. We also give a more detailed explanation for our selection process and how we define the Hudson Valley sample area.