Senior Scholastic Magazine

[Sad Eyed Lady]

I have spent time off and on for many years looking for one specific issue of a magazine with no luck. It is a Senior Scholastic magazine for the school year 1968-1969. This particular issue featured black poets and there is a poem in that issue that haunts me still. I don't know the name of it, or the poet's name, I can recall a few lines and the general gist of it but when googling the lines I have come up with nothing. I have even visited a university library and looked in archives to find this issue missing! I have contacted Senior Scholastic, (some time ago now), and received no response. This is just a desperate cry for help in case anyone out there should have this issue! Sorry, I may have even posted on here sometime in the past. :(

[CathyA]

What kind of topic does the poem have?

(Actually, I got all excited, thinking there was a scholastic magazine out there for seniors ....like older people to keep their minds sharp. I was all set to subscribe!) :)

[Sad Eyed Lady]

What kind of topic does the poem have?

(Actually, I got all excited, thinking there was a scholastic magazine out there for seniors ....like older people to keep their minds sharp. I was all set to subscribe!) :)

LOL! Seniors as in high school! The poem deals with the topic of the race riots in Detroit during the last 1960's. Two people are facing each other, (over a bayonet I believe), one involved in the riot, the other a national guardsman. Somehow the poem leads you into the idea that they had been friends at one time in a war setting because the lines say something along the line of "like there was never that other war" (Vietnam, I assume given the time frame). And, the ending is what I keep hearing in my head "and, like someone late for a date, I smiled and raised my hands". Now, that is as accurate as I can be at 40+ year memory!

[CathyA]

Sorry I can't help you Sad Eyed Lady. I searched for awhile and thought I was getting close, but couldn't find anything. Seems like you'll eventually find it, with all that is available on the internet.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

Sorry I can't help you Sad Eyed Lady. I searched for awhile and thought I was getting close, but couldn't find anything. Seems like you'll eventually find it, with all that is available on the internet.

Thanks for your attempts anyway - I hope you are right and some day I will stumble upon it.

[JaneV2.0]

Talk to a reference librarian. If anyone can find it, they should be able to.

[Gardenarian]

Yes, I agree with JaneV2.0. I am a reference librarian and when I worked in a public library I would often get requests like this, and was able to fill them through our Interlibrary Loan program. Your tax dollars at work!

[nswef]

There's a book on Amazon that is called A Gathering of Poets, this poem might be it, but I cannot get the words up...Changing Places by Susan A. Carlsen http://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Poets-Maggie-Anderson/dp/0873384687

[nswef]

There's a book on Amazon that is called A Gathering of Poets, this poem might be it, but I cannot get the words up...Changing Places by Susan A. Carlsen http://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Poets-Maggie-Anderson/dp/0873384687

[iris lily]

I have spent time off and on for many years looking for one specific issue of a magazine with no luck. It is a Senior Scholastic magazine for the school year 1968-1969. This particular issue featured black poets and there is a poem in that issue that haunts me still. I don't know the name of it, or the poet's name, I can recall a few lines and the general gist of it but when googling the lines I have come up with nothing. I have even visited a university library and looked in archives to find this issue missing! I have contacted Senior Scholastic, (some time ago now), and received no response. This is just a desperate cry for help in case anyone out there should have this issue! Sorry, I may have even posted on here sometime in the past. :(

Given the magic of the web, reference librarians are fairly useless these days. You yourself can access their once-secret and hidden information such as thing called Worldcat that lists all titles owned by a lotta libraries in the United States and elsewhere.

Here is Worldcat:

http://www.worldcat.org/libraries

and when I poked around there I saw long runs of Senior Scholastic including years from 1968-1969 at several libraries in microfilm. Perhaps one of those libraries is near you. (edite to add: I see that you already looked for paper copies. It's somewhat safe to assume that the microfilm version has ALL issues on it, has no missing issues.)

Perhaps you could find a library that might lend their microfilm copy, allowing you to use it at your home library to search for the poem. A FEW libraries may lend their microfilm copies although most do not.

And you can always request a photocopy of the poem using a library system's interlibrary loan service if you can be fairly specific as to the issue number and give some lines from the poem so that the searcher can identify it.

edited to add: by possibly lending microfilm to you I meant use your home library's interlibrary loan service.

[Gardenarian]

"Given the magic of the web, reference librarians are fairly useless these days."

I have several thousand students here who would beg to differ!

In addition, many libraries (most colleges and universities and many public libraries as well) will not work directly with those who do not have a library card for that particular institution.

[iris lily]

"Given the magic of the web, reference librarians are fairly useless these days."

I have several thousand students here who would beg to differ!

Oh I know, it was said with a bit of a wink.

The OP may be able to get what she wants using her home Library's interlibrary loan service as you mentioned, but it may take some persistence. I edited my answer to make it clear I was suggesting using interlibrary loan.

[iris lily]

OP, I sent to you RM.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

There's a book on Amazon that is called A Gathering of Poets, this poem might be it, but I cannot get the words up...Changing Places by Susan A. Carlsen http://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Poets-Maggie-Anderson/dp/0873384687
Thank you nswef - I feel like we are getting close! This sounds promising. I looked at the book although I could not get to the actual poem itself, and the time frame is right. It was published in 1970. If I cannot get the actual poem I will ask our library to send for this book through inter-library loan. Thanks again!!!!!!!!!

[jennipurrr]

My local university library appears to have all the back issues in the education library...do you have a college with a school of education nearby? You could use the tool Iris Lilly posted to see if they have copies also.