Poems Books

Investigative poetry at its most compelling..............Mr. Sanders portrayal of A.G. and his work left me mourning for such a great loss. I found a new friend, but lost him to the soup of time at the end of a too, too short a tour of A.G.'s life. Mr. Sanders work is as compelling as it is compassionate about the times, the art, the friendships and the glue that kept them all together....in the realm of Ginzap. Again, Mr. Sanders tells it like no other has........Read his other stuff!!!

Ed Sanders is the child of the Beat poets and visionaries. In this book he celebrates the greatest of them all - Allen Ginsberg. The genius of this book is that Sanders may have invented a totally new genre of writing - the poetic documentary. Poetry is not read but experienced, thus going through this book is like being immersed in the sights and sounds of Ginsberg's life from the 1920s to the 1990s. Therefore, this book comes off as more potent, more immediate and more intense than reading a "straight" biography, often coloured by the interpretive lens of the biographer. This is a book that returns Ginsberg to us once more - the rebel, the madman, the Good Samaritan and the poet.

Sanders has perfected a unique style of narrative poetry. This book tells the story of Ginsberg's life as a private citizen and as a public figure, but it also chronicles his development as a poet. For those daunted by the Collected or even the Selected Poems, Sanders usefully points out what he thinks are Ginsberg's best poems as he goes along. Although I did not intend to when I sat down with it, I ended up reading it straight through to the end. A very moving ending it was, too.

If you are a lover of poetry, buy this book. I you are not yet a lover of poetry, buy this book to become one.

Lawrence Raab's poems are lit from the inside with magic. They are poems to be read again, revisited like good friends.

After you've gifted yourself with this book, buy his others--they're all this good.

When I teach poems to my 9th graders, I always give them a taste of Lawrence Raab's poetry because, as I tell them, "he captures the lyric beauty of our media-saturated culture" (it's fun to say this to 14-year-olds--they just kind of stare blankly at these sort of statements). And when I read "Attack of the Crab Monsters" aloud to them, some of them laugh, some of them (figuratively) scratch their heads, and some of them keep doodling obliviously in their notebooks, but then I read it aloud again and most of them begin to realize that poetry isn't all intricate puzzles, or frilly romances, or political statement...poetry is what you make it.

This new collection by Raab reveals a poet who has mastered his voice, and it's a voice that is poignant, witty, and profound. Raab's poetry tends to focus on the small, perhaps overlooked, details of life, like the dreams of his young daughter, the inexplicable joy of a dog, or the reminiscence of childhood fantasies.

Poems like "Great Art" or "Another Argument About the Impossible" deal with the artistic process itself. They comment on the thinking that occurs between the lines, behind the paint, and in so doing, quietly reveal an essential truth about life: we could have done things differently, but the other choices wouldn't have made things better, just...different.

I highly recommend THE PROBABLE WORLD to anyone who likes to think deeply about the small things in life.

Simply put: This book is excellent.

T.Byron is my brother, and I can honestly say he's "the real thing." I can't seem to keep a copy of this book at my house. Guests leaf through it and want to borrow it. I know I'm biased, but I have to say from my heart that Byron has written some really truly beautiful poetry.

Every poem in this book has depth. The many layers come to life with each new reading. It's a sensitive, insightful peek into the human condition. When I read it, I easily get lost in the lush heavenly imagery, and ultimately feel transformed by the revelation offered so freely from his dear, loving (forgiving) soul.

Byron is and always will be one of the most influential and beloved teachers in my life. Through this book of poetry, our daily spiritual conversations, and his many other artistic creations, he leads me toward God. For this, I am eternally grateful.

I can't wait for his next volume. I'll have to order some extras for company...

Byron's poems range from beautiful clarity in his early works to the mystical, almost eerie in his later ones. I have seen his paintings online and find them well matched by the poems, symbolically. Images stand out: dark birds, angels' wings, rain at night. The other-worldly quality of the collection is a challenge and a pleasure to the reader.

This a a cycle of poems which resists summary or quotation
of a few lines as they are whole and irreducible and if
reducible to anything perhaps to a season, let it be an
Autumn of inwardness and an Autumn pervaded by the presence
of ghosts and 'ghost' is a key word for the author but the
ghosts are not threatening--rather they are shadows of things
past ,present and to come ,of seasons just beyond Autumn of
realities felt but not at hand. We feel the ghostly as promising
a season coming in which the overlapping visionary and factual
realities merge into a newly unified vision and that a
season beyond Autumn but neither Winter nor Spring nor
Summer. Kelly loves Blake and Li Po but it is more as
presence or ghost that they are here than as influence
for the poems are deeply personal and I give them the full
five stars to point up that they are real poetry
important in aspiration and in acheivment and worth anyone's
attention.

When I first heard Eamon Grennan read his poetry and speak on Lannan Literary videos, I was stunned by his intensity and brilliance. I longed to see the poems on the page, and am not disappointed to see his workings of the 10-line, no-title form he's created.

Nature and humanity are interdependent in Grennan's poetry. Nature illuminates, soothes, counsels, and guides the way. Opening "The Quick of It" at random, I find a favorite:

"Not the fierce fragility/Birds are: robins, waxwings, starlins that cluster along eaves or swirl about/The slate and copper rooftops, or gather in bare beech and sycamore branches/Whose last leaves drift in the no-wind and land so soft on water they cause no/Circles, are tiny boats fraught with light: not solid things but, like your breath,/Desperately there--warm,no words in it, nothing to build on or be sheltered by." (p. 35)

Reading Grennan's work is akin to decoding Buddhist scripture. It's all here. Grennan presents us with illustrated images of impermanence--that the world is not the solid one we think it is; that it is futile to grasp on to what is essentially ungraspable. But, not unknowable, if we grant this essentialized knowing first.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

The Quick Of It is an anthology of poems by poet, essayist, translator, and Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize winner Eamon Grennan. Each poem is without a title and stretches precisely ten lines; explores its subject with acute, alert attention to detail. Creatures of nature are a recurring theme in this reflective, sometimes dark, sometimes wistful, always moving verse. So I keep saving the bees taken unawares by glass, / Shrouding their music in a bundled dishclothtill I shake / It outside and they float off over the fuchsia hedge. // So the moths that flutter up from curtain folds and out / Of the sleeves of old sweaters are fingersnapped at / To become Ash Wednesday stains on my handskin. // So the snail is lifted from the sand, laid on wet grass, / And so the yellow car in my dream is stalked till it turns / To a lean woman in suede leaning in to me. So who / Handles all this? Lays all of it out? Keeps the reckoning?

The Quick of It is an absolutely beautiful book. Eamon Grennan has found a striking balance between sonics, imagery and narrative. So that his poems "take us there," and in our reading of his work we forget ourselves.

It's a struggle to type an excerpt considering how well the poems work in their wholeness. Readers finds themselves reacting not to a single line or phrase but to the poems in their entirety -- I can't think of a much rarer occurrence in poetry. The poems are like miniature paintings, and yet we are taken in by just how full and lush they are.

In The Quick of It the physical world not only comes alive, it smiles back, full and fantastic and frightful.

I have not read a book of poetry this good in many months.

DISCERNMENT. . . NOT DOCTRINE

The poet W. S. Merwin lives in Hawaii. In these poems, he applies his craft to the ancient island culture whose own language has all but disappeared. The poet is aware of cultural destruction inherent in the continuing Western occupation of the islands. Merwin suggests that even the use of the English language is an act of violence in this setting. The importation of alien symbols seems an unwarranted intrusion. But what else can an English-speaking Western poet do? One must use the tools of the conqueror, which are also one's own and one's only tools. The other tools are broken.

when they start to use your language
do they say what you say
who are they in your words . . .

When they are converted to your gods
do they know who they are praying to
do you know who is praying
("Conqueror" p. 62)

Many of the things the words were about
no longer exist
the noun for standing in mist by a
haunted tree
the verb for I.
("Losing a Language" p. 67)

Merwin insists upon the connection between power and language. Because peoples disappear from history, "dictionaries are fall of graves" (p. 30).

Survivors, Merwin suggests, having lost their language, have also lost the will to live.

The children will not repeat
the phrases their parents speak
somebody has persuaded them
that it is better to say everything
differently
so that they can be admired somewhere
farther and farther away
("Losing a Language" p. 67)

The connection between power and words is like the connection between life and memory. One does not live well but can only hope to "manage" (p. 15) when the connection is severed. And the losses affect both the conquered and the conquerors.

If only you had written our language
we would have remembered how you
died . . .

you would have survived
as we do

we might have believed
in a homeland
("The Lost Originals" p. 68)

Merwin wants to write in the new language he is discovering ("Witness," p. 65), but he appears to know that he cannot. The old language is alien, and all the words have been used "for other things" (p. 5).
Nevertheless, the poet continues to believe in the possibility of personal integrity.

There is a sturdy stubbornness in this man, who has been writing good, resilient verses for many decades and who believes in new beginnings in new places.

we thought we were younger
through all those ages of knowing
nothing
and there you are . . .
now we have only the age that is left
to be together. . .
for the rest of our lives
("Before Us" p. 30)

Merwin asks if there can be personal harmony in the midst of cultural dissonance. Merwin is not a romantic poet, whose lesser calling smoothes out the roughness of every day. Nor is he narrowly ideological, which would limit the appreciation of his work to soon forgotten times and places. Merwin is focused on perception, not doctrine. When the experience rings true, the perception rings true. The application of words to experience demands attention and offers comfort.

You are going for a long time
and nobody knows what to expect

we are trying to learn
not to accompany gifts with advice

or to suppose we can protect you
from being changed . . .

("For the departure of a stepson" p. 54)


This review has been published in a collection of reviews and articles, That's What I'm Talking About (Nativa 2008). THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

Images of nature no where nearly cover the symbolism Merwin's poems have. Figurative phrases can be found through out. The mind longs to read them again in their extended absence.

W. S. Merwin is clearly a major figure in American poetry. His work, emphasizing nature, memory, plants, the forest, is thought-provoking, insightful, and delightful. If you buy only one book of poetry this year, buy this one. Everyone we have shared the book with has become absolutely enchanted- a true masterpiece.

I am really enjoying reading this to my children. It's a wonderful collection of poems and verse, some classics, some lesser known, covering a broad range of subjects (seasons, weather, children, animals...). Many are really cute, clever and funny, and many are beautifully written with evocative imagery. It's a great way to show children the power of language and words, and, like the best cartoons, it's a pleasure to share the experience.

My six-year-old son begs me to read from this collection every evening--and he asks for poems by name. He asked for Tiger, Tiger (William Blake), and we have also shared Walt Whitman, Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein, Emily Dickinson, among others. The reason I bought this book is that it has an incredible selection (more than 400 poems) at a great price. (list @$13.). My son howls with laughter, and recites lines back to me. While his four-year old brother does not share this infatuation, I find this to be a marvelous collection for someone just learning to read and understand how words work.

I bought this collection for my nephew's children, and almost kept it myself. It is a total of 384 pages including the table of contents and indexes. It has poems by a wide range of English and American writers. Like all collections, the editor had to pick and choose. There is nothing by Robert Service, for example, but she has included poems by some lesser known writers. The editor has included short notes about the poets, many of whom died young, e.g., Emily Bronte at 30, Robert Burns at 37, Joyce Kilmer at 32 (at the Second Battle of the Marne), Edgar Allan Poe at 40, etc.

The poetry ranges from Poe's "The Raven" to Kilmer's "Trees" and Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith," among others. It includes many poems that are well known, intermixed with many that are lesser known. The choices are not always the ones I personally would have chosen, but tastes vary from reader to reader. In some cases the editor has included a full poem where most readers are only familiar with a single verse.

Unterecker's "Reader's Guide," a vade mecum for the apprentice
or seasoned reader, informs and instructs. As commentary or teaching tool, it advances a concise, systematic way to interpret the ideas, literary devices, images, symbols, and occult motifs that permeate Yeats's poetry, a thematic
analysis that connects one poem with another and reveals the visionary design at the center of Yeats's work. From the allegorical quest in "The Wanderings of Oisin" to the meditative panorama of "Under Ben Bulben," Unterecker explicates the motifs of Yeats's evolving mythology of a unified self.

In terms of understanding the writings of WB Yeats, this book is a must. It provides insights into otherwised missed subtleties that allows for a greater appreciation of the work of a great artist. (I use the diction of great artist because this truely describes his work). Anyway, this book is well written and recommended by myself.

Unterecker's "Reader's Guide," a vade mecum for the novice or seasoned reader, informs and instructs. As commentary or teaching tool, it advances a concise, systematic way to interpret the ideas, literary devices, images, symbols, and occult motifs that permeate Yeats's poetry, a thematic analysis that connects one poem with another and reveals the visionary design at the center of Yeats's work. From the allegorical quest in "The Wanderings of Oisin" to the meditative panorama of "Under Ben Bulben," Unterecker explicates the motifs of Yeats's evolving mythology of a unified self.

Mona Lisa Saloy, formerly of New Orleans, tells a story of growing up in segregated New Orleans in her book of poetry, Red Beans and Ricely Yours. This is a slim volume packed with the flavors, sights and sounds of the author's beloved native city. Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Saloy, a former professor at Dillard University previously resided in the Bay Area of California and recently won the Oakland Pen Award for poetry.

Written in sections with titles like Shotgun Life, Red Beans and Ricely Creole Quarters and Black Creole Love, the book yields poems that pay homage to her light, bright Creole father (My Creole Daddy) and her jet black mother (My Mother's the Daughter of a Slave), the real native foods and a way of life that are now far away memories, maybe gone forever. She humorously tells how she came by her name in Nat King Cole Babies and Black Mona Lisas and waxes philosophically about Catholic School in Parochial Product.

There is a glossary of terms at the end of the book as she uses a lot of Creole/French words and phrases and Louisiana language that is foreign to the rest of the U.S. You can taste the galait (fried bread) and beignets, smell the aroma of chicory coffee and visualize the Second Line parades as you take a journey through the Seventh Ward in an hour or less. Highly recommended even for those who do not normally read poetry.

Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub

Having met the author and experienced her loving heart, I discovered reading her work opened her loving heart to me, and enabled me to experience the humor, pathos, and everyday life of a remarkable community. I had to buy the book to share my experience with others.

Excellent collection for a Louisianaian or someone missing the Creole Culture of the state. Also, an easy trip for anyone -- learn the aspects of the Creoles in their Native Habitat.

Poetry. Young elementary through teens. No illustrations.

Latino writers tell who they are and what they dream through poems written in English and Spanish.

There are dozens of poignant poems, each written in Spanish and English. I used these in my writing program, and even with parents on back to school night. Parents and 7th grade Latino students responded and the activity spawned a deeply thoughtful dialogue. Highly recommended.

As a latina born and raised in Mexico with a gringo father and now in the U.S. I found many of the poems to be an accurate reflection of being bicultural and the many directions it pulls you in.

I found the book (along with discussion questions and activities for classroom use) at: http://www.colorincolorado.org/inclass/books_month_oct05.php

Corey Marks's work provides great aestetic and intellectual pleasure. The deceptive clarity of these poems guides the reader through the maze beneath the surface with a gentle and passionate hand. The book has aspects of the growth of the young man and of the artist, and we want to know both, though the voice and talent are already mature, able to negotiate authority and uncertainty. Marks's knowledge of music and art enrich these poems that are comfortable in urban and natural surroundings. There is a spiritual quest that pervades the work, as well, and Marks does not shy away from the larger questions of existence and purpose, while the poems remain appealingly tethered to evocative image and subtle narration. The only disappointment of this book comes when it ends.

At the heart of this great book is the heart of a pure poet. Marks writes with respect for his work and subject, bravely stepping out of the way of his words so they can stand on their own. Unlike most young poets, Marks writes with humility, yet without apology: in a time when our poetry follows at the heels of our confused culture, Marks steps away to name and clarify his place in it. Renunciation is good poetry from a writer with a good heart.

Wow! my creative writing instructor suggested I buy this book and she knew what she was talking about. Philip Levine selected it for the National Poetry Series and, unlike so many contest winners, this one deserved the prize. Marks' book is a real accomplishment for a first book; most third books aren't this good! At the book's center is the kind of poem all poets wish they could write, the moving homage "For Keats, After Keats." And there's the long title poem, a kind of spiritual meditation which contains subtle echoes of George Herbert. These poems are resonant, dense, formally adept, and full of exploding passions. Get this book!