Poems Books

These other reviewers say it more eloquently. But I agree. I read an interview with Tory Dent in which she spoke of the line, the exercise of trying out different lengths of line. Her "Whitman-length" line developed into a great vehicle for her own intelligent, cinematic-scope passion. The words seem crammed onto the page, and yet, as with Anne Carson's Glass Essay, you find yourself fifteen pages along, wondering at the richness, and the breadth of expression and quite without any sense of harsh density.

Tory Dent is one of the great poets of America. She has continued a new and dazzling poetry of dissent, which combines critical and lyrical and political elements. Like a true "performance artist," like Ann Hamilton, her poetry activates a complex narrative with historical reverberations. Her long poem on her "Quarantine" shows the heartbreaking honesty and anger of this wonderful poet. Each of her poems is as electrifying as a sculpture of abjection by Kiki Smith, whose wild talent most resembles Dent's We see in these poems the body of woman presented in all abjection and also as a triumph above fragility. In my lifetime, I have never seen such a startling poetry of ultimacy and its contents. It is a poetry to be placewd next to the architecrtural masques of the late John Hejduk, who had a like intensity and utter seriousness. The poetry of our time is too often whimsical, false and cheap, and made for consumption. Dent's poetry, like the best of Anna Swir the Polish baroque poet, is a revelation for her generation. It does not use confession unwisely; it does not refuse to name the poignant wounds, betrayals and loyalties. This is a poet who demands our truest attention and deserves it. I recommend her work without reservations.

This is a tremendous book of poetry that's already won one major prize and I read in the New York Times last week that it is nominated for the upcoming National Critics Circle Award. I have to admit I was completely stunned by it and think very, very highly of this book. More than any other poet that comes out of the "New York School" started by Frank O'Hara and continued by all sorts of interesting writers like John Ashbery, Ann Lauterbach and so forth, this is far and away the most powerful writer of the bunch. In large part this is because of her subject matter: focused on life and death issues rather than somewhat cosmetic aesthetic concerns, and with a much greater emotional range that what I've seen come out of experimental American poets before. Wow! The book is like wandering around in a huge, incredibly graphic and detailed dream, and its imagery is absolutely wonderful. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested at all in contemporary poetry. All best to Tory Dent, wherever you are!

The poems in Birkbeck's book are enchanting; they are like colourful little fables, sometimes bitingly caustic, sometimes playfully goofy. These poems, most of them short and sparing in words, are the literary equivalent of hieroglyphs. They seem to cover a lot of territory in brief patches. It is very hard to determine this poet's voice, however-- is it sad, mad or bad? or maybe it's all three, seperately or ensemble. Birkbeck is both a lost and a found soul. Read on!

Shortly after John Birkbeck came out with "Longitudes," he has set out another collection of poems titled "Homeless at Home." Birkbeck seems to be picking up speed and regailing the literary world with still more of his grim but fanciful but exhillarating poems, which are short but succinct. In fact, it seems that a lot of them are really stanzas of one long poem. He seems to be making fun of the Passing Parade, and at others, prancing along at the head of it. A gripping read, this book, and must be read!

John Birkbeck reminds me of the old addage that has it, "Show me a funny man and I'll show you an angry one." Birkbeck's poetry seems to have a lot of rage beneath the surface, yet without malice. It is a rage to see life as it is and as it could be. I once met Birkbeck at a conference, and had a chance to talk to him over dinner. He is one of the funniest people I've ever met, even when speaking of horrific things. The poems in "Homeless At Home" remind me much of that memorable dinner so many years ago. I highly recommend this latest work of John Birkbeck.

Short and sweet this time--this is a gasser. Kirby has long been a literary favorite, but this is the collection that puts him on the map with Dunn, Collins, and Hirschfield. Normally, I try not to judge poetry collections by their awards, but in this case, the National Book Award should be a no-brainer (in fact, it has recently been nominated). If you love literary poetry that isn't short on soul, give this a run. If you hate poetry, this should be the first book you read--it might just come from the top ropes like Jimmy "Super-fly" Snooka, finish with a right cracking aesthetic elbow to the noggin.

This is my favorite book of poetry because it is literate, funny, and most important of all, accessible. In general, I'm not a fan of poetry. But Kirby makes it addicting and enjoyable and even sometimes laugh out loud funny. Worth every penny. Highly recommended.

I am not familiar with David Kirby's other works but I soon will be - nor have I encountered his style of writing that blends narrative story telling with poetic sensibilities. I feel as if I have discovered a new art form and a way of seeing the world that is colored with insight and whimsy - My Dead Dad is a great example: child like imagination with grown-up introspection. Thanks David Kirby!

This was a textbook I had in AP English in high school twenty-something years ago, and it is the only high school textbook of which I remember the title-- it was that memorable. A Great book. This textbook both defined and expanded the world of poetry for me, and I hope to again get a copy of it. Until I can find it again somewhere, I will have to be content with with some of the samples of poetry that I can still remember from outstanding book.

John Ciardi's How Does a Poem Mean? is an intriguing, unorthodox, and surprisingly effective introduction to poetry. He argues that the question: "What Does a Poem Mean?" is too often a self-destroying approach that results in paraphrasing and misses the point of poetry. A poem is to be experienced, not simply interpreted. Unlike prose, a poem is primarily a performance.

How does a poem build itself into a form out of images, ideas, and rhythms? How do these elements become the meaning? How are they inseparable from the meaning? John Ciardi's remarkable textbook answers these questions, makes enjoyable reading, and is a five star introduction to poetry.

This text, published by Houghton Mifflin, was adopted by many colleges in the 1960s and 1970s. Inexpensive, used, soft cover copies are still fairly easy to find.

The eight chapters are titled How Does a Poem Mean?, A Burble Through the Tulgey Wood, By Rippling Pools, The Words of Poetry, The Sympathetic Contract, The Image and the Poem, The Poem in Motion, and The Poem in Countermotion.

I encountered many familiar poems as well as others new to me. Among the latter, I list several to illustrate the wide range of Ciardi's selections (and to remind me to return to these poets): The Listeners (Walter De la Mare), Mr. Flood's Party (Edwin Arlington Robinson), The Death of a Hired Hand (Robert Frost), Burning Love Letters (Howard Moss), Snake (D. H. Lawrence), Blue Girls (John Crowe Ransom), Medusa (Louise Bogan), A Subterranean City (Thomas Lovell Beddoes), and What the Sonnet Is (Eugene Lee Hamilton).

Also, I especially enjoyed three closely related poems: Departmental (Frost), Heaven (Rupert Brooke), and A Deep Discussion (Richard Moore).

Like most collections of poetry, How Does a Poem Mean? is best enjoyed if read in a leisurely fashion over several months. The overall time commitment may be substantial, but John Ciardi's fascinating text will reward your efforts. Take your time. Enjoy yourself. Remember, poetry is to be experienced, not simply analyzed. Cheers.

This book was a text book for me as I wandered, wonderingly, into the world of freshman college English Lit. in 1960. It has made th cut on all of the 27 "moves to new digs" that I have made since then. It is now like an old friend--treasured, respected, loved. I am sorry it is out of print because my copy is held together with tape and cannot last too much longer. It is written with such an obvious love for the subject matter (the poem) that one is caught up in that love and swept along with it. Yet, the writing is simple, clear, and constructive. It is an introduction to poetry for an adult of any age. For me, it was, and is--priceless.

Award-winning poet Myrna Stone presents How Else to Love the World, an anthology of original free-verse poetry in forms ranging from stanzas to stream-of-consciousness near- prose. At times sensual in its celebration of desire, at times burning with ambition and vivacious joy, at times revealing the darker side of yielding to impulses, How Else to Love the World is a most deliciously nuanced offering from cover to cover. "Yes": Flatterer, / little arbiter / of assent / and admission, you cross our lips / with a sycophantic lisp / that Eve heard first / from the mouth / of the trickster, / that maw of tongue / and jaw, of japery / and spleen, into which / she looked just once / perceiving nothing / of consequence.

It is essential for anyone who is literate and human to experience these poems. It is easy to say what these poems are not. They are not "confessional"; this poet does not burden us with the intensity of her own emotions triggered by the common or unusual thrills and horrors of living. Myrna Stone's poems are not obscure; she does not torture her reader with poems whose meaning, if any, is buried beneath fragments or constructions of language that do not communicate.

These poems are rich, brilliant, wise, engrossing, educational, thrilling, deeply satisfying, Every line in every poem is a surprise at the same time that it is absolutely appropriate in its place. Ms. Stone's command of her language is absolute, and absolutely pleasing to see and hear. Her vocabulary is huge, her range of knowledge no less so.

I can't present a favorite poem or favorite line: this is a stanza chosen literally at random:

Here Bruegel offers us
grain as allegory, as a rich
bullion load of light under
a sapphirine, Netherlandish sky,

and the next continues

his clever corruscation
he sets burning on hillsides

and proceeds. Trust me, this level of intensity does not diminish anywhere in the book. The language throughout is this rich, the perceptions this sharp, and their communication. Here are a few more phrases, again chosen at random: "...who is filling up, like these rooms /with music, from the inside out," "a ransom's weight of welted fox," "or unctuously unclothed," and "brains empty as clapperless bells." In the context of their poems, in the context of this book, these lines dazzle a first reading, and after several readings.

The lines from the stanza above come from the third section of the book, which are responses to works of art, ekphrastic poems. The second section relates various aspects of lives' endings, but characteristically in totally original ways. The first section, in which the poet warms up, loosens her muscles as it were, holds meditations on words, for example, "Incarnadine," "Yes," "Maybe," and relates straightforwardly, but characteristically with great originality, thoughts on cows, wild onions, a young man's forthcoming marriage, late love, and, as a surprise, an address "To the Men I Never Slept With," the only poem in the book where "I" appears.

Ms. Stone is a master craftsperson, as I've said. Fans of form will find a triolet clearly labeled, and will easily recognize at least one sonnet, a villanelle, and a pantoum.

Just when you think Myrna Stone can't write poems any better, her new
book HOW ELSE TO LOVE THE WORLD puts that notion to rest.Her keen sense
of form, unlike so many poets of that style who are cold as ice,launches
her poems of wit, intelligence and eroticism--the precision always human
and often beautiful.This book is a must for your Myrna Stone collection.
If you haven't started your collecting, by all means do so, now--it will
be one of your best investments.Let Myrna have the last word:here's her
title poem:

How Else to Love the World


How else to love the world but rise
each morning from the bed of your making

into the addle and dross the hours devise.
How else to love the world but to rise

as though order is the ardor that drives
this life between waking and waking.

How else to love the world but to rise
each morning from the bed of your making.

This collect of Native American poetry is excellent. Joy Harjo relates her experience in a way that is accessable and meaningful. Mrs. Harjo is a poet that needs to be read and read again to explore her depth. We discussed several of her poems in a Great Books book club.

I have followed Harjo's poetry (and recorded music) for many years, ever since I saw her on PBS reading from "She Had Some Horses". This volume contains selections from her available books: "She Had Some Horses", "Secrets from the Center of the World", "In Mad Love and War", "The Woman Who Fell from the Sky" and "A Map to the Next World". As is frequently the case, the selections for this book are not precisely the poems I would have chosen. It does include the most powerful poems, for example "She Had Some Horses" with it's pounding litany rhythms, "Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century" which is the title track of her cd, "The Creation Story" with its exquisite line "I never had the words / to carry a friend from her death / to the stars / correctly." Somewhat to my surprise, the poems from Secrets from the Center of the World which fit the photographs so precisely in their original context, also succeed as poetry only in this volume (although I'd still recommend the original).

New to me in this volume are the poems from her early chapbooks "The Last Song" and "What Moon Drove Me to This?" as well as new poems from 1999-2001. The chapbook poems are interesting as the beginning of Harjo's development as a poet as well as being interesting poems in their own right .."Four Horse Songs" and "I Am a Dangerous Woman" stand out. In the new material, "Morning Prayers" has memorable lines "the nothingness / is vast and stunning, / brims with details ..." as does "Faith" with "I might miss / The feet of god / Disguised as trees."

Harjo's poetry is strongly political - a Native peoples voice angry at the European invaders/immigrants. More importantly, her voice is one seeking a way to live well in contemporary society where living well requires memory of a time we lived with greater respect for our environment, greater responsibility for our network of relatives.

It is profound, inspiring experience to read this collection. These writings are courageous and life-affirming.

Before starting, allow me to mention the fact that I am reviewing solely the poem "Howl" in Howl and Other Poems.

I read "Howl" this summer as a 16 year old and was absolutely stunned and amazed. As far as enjoying the poem I was entirely too confused by it the first time I read it to actually enjoy it; so let me start by giving the reader of this and prospective buyer of Howl and other Poems the advice to read "Howl" several times before forming a concrete opinion about it. To best describe it shortly, "Howl" is the story of a man that has been through and survived and recognized the horrors of the post war 1940's and the 1950's. "Howl" shows the oppression that people faced during this era and gives a ghastly description of the government and institutions in general at this time. The main strength of Ginsberg's poem is to expand the mind of the reader, even if that means confusing the reader. Take for example the stanza:
who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue, amid blasts of leaden verse & the tanked-up clatter of the iron regiments of fashion & the nitroglycerine shrieks of the fairies of advertising & the mustard gas of sinister intelligent editors, or were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality,
This is an absolutely mind boggling sentence. It attacks the areas of fashion and advertising and the powers of editors in newspapers. Stanzas like that are why I enjoy this poem, it is a critique of the time that Ginsberg lived in and allows one to see parallels in the current day and age.

Howl was written over the course of 1955-1956, and is truly a product of its time. This was the beginning of the beat generation, with other writers such as Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey. "Howl" reflects the post war era in which Ginsberg lived; an era of, as he believes, governmental oppression and assimilation. These thoughts are best conveyed in the stanzas discussing mental institutions and how they try to force a disease that may not actually be a disease out of you. Ginsberg also critiques the everlasting effects of a 1950's mental institution with lines such as "I'm with you in Rockland where 50 more shocks will never return your soul to its body again from its pilgrimage to a cross in the void" and "(who were) returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, and tears, and fingers, to the visible madman doom of the wards of the madtowns of the East". Along with Ginsberg's encounters with people in the post-war era and his personal experiences of mental institutionalization and the oppression he faced for being homosexual, drugs contributed much to Ginsberg's poem. Howl would not have come into existence without many of the drugs that started the new mindset of the beat generation such as Peyote, LSD, and DMT. Howl was a product of its own culture and it began and shaped much of the following beatnik era.

I do not consider "Howl" to have weaknesses as a peace of literature, but there are certain times where the reader is often confused by what Ginsberg is saying. Much of this is not so much because of the prosody of the poem but because so many of the ideas in an individual stanza are disconnected that it confuses the reader. For me, one of the stanzas that was so disconnected that it was confusing reads "who distributed Supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square weeping and undressing while the sirens of Los Alamos wailed them down, and wailed down Wall, and the Staten Island ferry also wailed". The prospective reader must be prepared to allow the images that Ginsberg provides in "Howl" give them a new way of thinking rather than try and dissect its every stanza. I very much recommend reading "Howl"; it changed my outlook on the world.

It is a shame that this annotated edition of one of the great beat/modern poems is out of print. I strongly suggest you get this book while it is still available at the used bookshops.
Ginsberg claimed to have written this work spontaneously, but this work shows the poem was written over a period of time, and edited. Maybe he was only referring to the first draft! It really doesn't matter,but looking at the drafts does give one insight into how Ginsberg created the poem(s) and the development of a classic.

I reread this little book before attempting to review it. I remembered that it was a mad mantra of transcendent power from the heart of hell, but I didn't remember how nondated it was. This work is fresher and more relevant than 99% of what passes for poetry today. How can something last nearly 50 years without going stale or becoming trite? How can it be even more real now? Maybe it is because Ginsberg ripped it live, screaming, and bleeding from a place beyond time and beyond space. He tore it from the living bowels of MOLOCH itself and showed it to HIM. After all, what does divine madness know of time?

This poem is transcendence itself. It demonstrates that when you plunge into the deepest pit of hell it either kills you, or perhaps it burns out your insides so that you become a soulless zombie, OR you transcend it and rise howling to become a Mad Poet Saint who can truely encompass the Sacred in the Profane.

Read this poem, and the others like America, A Supermarket in California, Sunflower Sutra, Wild Orphan, and In Back of the Real. It's almost frightening how relevant to daily life it is. If you didn't know it, you would never guess that it was written in the 50's. Of course Ginsberg does invoke, holy eternity in time holy the clocks in space the fourth dimension, in the Footnote. Maybe that's why it's timeless. As Cassady used to say, we know time, yes, we know time....

I wish I would have been there for that first public reading in San Fran with Kerouac running around the audience passing the wine jug. On all the planes, the Gods themselves must have jumped back in shock as a flaming monkeywrench of living poetry was jammed through the spokes of the great quivering meat wheel of conception....

If you have the slightest interest in poetry, I can't imagine a single reason why you wouldn't enjoy this book. Matthew Rohrer is clearly one of the great rising stars in modern American poetry, and this collection is an excellent introduction to his mastery, skill, and clever wit. I once attended a reading of his at the Brroklyn Museum of Art, and was impressed because he was such a nice, modest young man. He was clearly talented and full of ideas, yet also the kind of guy you would want to hang out with at the office and talk to over a couple of beers.

You will not regret buying this book. Poetry should be a vital part of everyday life, and Matthew Rohrer should be a vital part of everyone's poetry collection.

Funny thing happened on a train between Cali and NY, that being I met my wife who was getting drunk on can beer in the window seat directly across me, I had my eyes on her the WHOLE time, what with her almost satanically green green eyes and beautosity, anyway I asked Would you like one more beer I am going to the liquor car before it closes? she said No no thank you, if I drink any more I wont be able to enjoy this book! What are you reading I say she say I am reading this AMAZING book of poems Hammock in the Maloikas by Matt Rorer and I didn't really want to hear about it because I don't love poetry and anyhow I wanted her to put book away and get to know me, anyway the rest of the story you can imagine we made love in her windowseat Amtrak styled that night and I kept opening my eye and seeing that freaking book of poems there on the pulldown tray with his picture staring at me, now we are married and live in Cali and I read the book actually a coupla weeks ago and it is really good I mean freakin scary, real odd and spoons are going nuts in there! Punk rock too, I am sure he was (is? I don't know, Joella [my wife] herd from somebody he died) a real punk rocker when he was young man. Well that's all for now I cant write to well thanks, Kirm Horvo

Reminds one of Romanian poetry, Simic, wry Greek myths where trees and walls come to life. Thankfully inventive, but not posturing in verbal bilge, this volume has lovely metaphors wired to each poem, metaphors that accrue to a sense of completion. Masculine, quirky but sensible, these poems are full of kinetic surprises, and lasting feeling.

The author is a former elementary school teacher and it shows. She really knows what makes children's imaginations. She addresses their dreams, anxieties and curiosity with this collection of poems ranging from the humorous ("I Want My Teacher Fired!") to the comforting ("My Pet Died").

Every school library should own this book, but it's especially wonderful for a parent and child to share together.

This is a charming and witty book which is being enjoyed by the kids and the kids at heart in our home. The poems are, by turns, funny and touching and the rich illustrations add so much to the experience. This is a book which is sure to be handed down to the next generation of readers in our family as a treasured possession. We look forward to the next book from this poet and illustrator!

Thalia Marakas is the next Shel Silverstein! A truly DELIGHTFUL collection of poetry for the young and the young at heart. You will find this beautiful book filled with poems that spark your memories of childhood, poems that offer oppurtunities to teach our children about LIFE and poems to just make you SMILE! The BEAUTIFULLY COLORED illustsrations are SUPERB! You a sure to fall in love with WILSON!

I can identify with the author, I lost my mother last year. The book offers hope for a brighter day. It makes me remember the unique relationship I had with my mother, who I also spoke to everyday. Looking forward to the author's next work.

What a outstanding work. I had the priviledge of meeting the author. What a great person. Such a gifted talent

WOW!!! So much inspiration for such a great price. This is truely the best poetry book that I have ever read. Every women should own at least one copy (maybe even 2, because if you lend it out it's so good that you probably won't get it back)....