They Say This is the second of three retrospective anthologies to honor work from the pages of Poetry East. The first volume, The Last Believer in Words , an anthology of poems in translation, was published in 1998. The third volume, to be published in 2000, will be devoted to contemporary American poetry.

They Say This 
Editing his collection provides an opportunity
to thank hese poets for their vital contribution
to American poetry. This anthology,
while an occasion for celebration,
also reminds us of friends lost along the way—
poets who gave their lives to poetry,
poets who knew there is a penalty
if one is to speak as a poet.
In our period of “free speech,”
the moral and political vision of
Muriel Rukeyeser, Thomas McGrath, and Denise Levetrov
will be missed. We dedicate this collection
to the odyssey of their lives and the dignity of their poetry.

— Richard Jones