### May Featured Poet: Phil Montenegro It’s too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that classics – whether canonical poems or architectural heritage sites – are and ever will be unchanging. Phil Montenegro’s two poems about Madrid in our May issue remind us that even Old World monuments are periodically reshaped by human actions and natural events. Phil’s passion for Madrid stems from three years’ residence there. He relocated to the region after undergraduate studies in painting and creative writing at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and an internship at Copper Canyon Press. Phil earned a master’s degree in bilingual and multicultural education from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, and developed, in his words, “a fascination with the art and culture of Spain.” Prior publications include the *LETTERS Journal* of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, *Nixes Mate Review*, *Caliban Online*, *The Tower Journal*, *Otoliths*, *Ayris Magazine*, and *Tidepools*, in which his poem “Eleven A.M.” was the 50th edition poetry contest winner.