Poems Books

I got this book as a xmas gift from my mom. She picked it out from my wishlist. I've studied much Latin, but I completely skipped over Catullus as an undergrad. That's why, I put a Bilingual edition on my wish list rather than just an English translation. I wanted to get a real feel for the actual poetry.
I'm not very familiar with Catullus and I honestly thought that there would be more romantic love poems throughout the book. I think that it was a good thing that there were more 'vulgar' poems in the book because they left a strong impression and because they made those rare instances of romantic poetry stand out more brilliantly. Personally, my favorite poem was about Catullus thinking about his home. It really resonated with me because I have travelled so much.
I think that this is an excellent intermediate level Latin book and that if you haven't acquainted yourself with Catullus, this is the method to do so!
kittie

I am a Latin student studying for the AP Latin Lit Exam and I bought this book because it had every Catullus poem in English and in Latin. The translations are very close to the original latin, while also capturing the spirit of the poems. Peter Green is a great translator and there is a great glossary of places and names as well as copious notes on the poems themselves. Highly recommended!

I have enjoyed sharing the translation of Cat. 63 with my AP students, and the complete text of Cat. 64 (after they read the Ariadne episode in Latin). It's very easy to glance across the page at the Latin and get at least some sense of it; since what we're reading in translation is in addition to the AP syllabus, this seems appropriate. The translator's notes on 63 and 64 are also worth reading, in my opinion. Using this book has allowed me a better way to make my students at least somewhat familiar with the long poems of Catullus.

Dr. Frederick Harper's Poems on Love and Life contains some of the most sublimely romantic thoughts of love, self-discovery, and expression of happiness. It teaches how to recognize and improve the conditions of life. As such, it is a magnet that offers tender moments and develops personal empowerment and gentle consolation to the heart. Reading this book is an exercise in hope. Poems on Love and Life can change the way you live your life. I am planning to buy copies for family, friends, loved ones, and associates!

Manzetta L. Jackson, Ph.D.
Professional Counselor
Jackson & Associates, Inc.
Toledo, OH

This book, Poems on Love and Life, contains a very comprehensive look at love and life's situations. The author's writing style is sensitive, thoughtful, and sincere. Many of the poems, have gained national acclaim and recognition-- one example is "A Wedding Pledge". Dr. Harper is a truly gifted poet.

Frances Yvonne Hicks

As my first poem book in 1985, Poems on Love and Life was read weekly on radio for 15 years and sold in more than 26 bookstores in Washington, DC alone. Readers who wrote and met me rated Poems on Love and Life at the highest level or, in other words, equivalent to Amazon.com's 5 rating. I am honored and blessed to report that this book is now in its second printing with thousands in print. Thanks to all.

Frederick Douglas Harper, Ph.D.

Poems to Live By is not a feel-good or sappy book, and it doesn't aim to solve your problems with a few rhyming phrases. Instead, this book is an accompaniment to difficult times, be it "Death and Rememberance," "Fear and Suffering," "Affirmations and Rejoicings," "Warning and Instructions," "War and Rumors of War," or "Meditations and Conversations." This is a handy reference book for anyone who looks to provide solace to others through poetry.

Murray's book become famous after 9/11/2001. She published the collection after overwhelming response to her poem "Survivors-Found," which she read on National Public Radio the week after the terrorist attacks. This book is timeless, however, and will provide comfort and inspiration for generations to come. Murray has collected international and award-winning voices to create a nourishing spiritual guide.

When I saw this book at the bookstore, my first thought was Oh no, is this a book reacting to the events of September 11th? I picked it up and sure enough, it was published after September 11, but after reading the introduction I decided to buy the book. The editor has always loved poetry and for years has saved poems that were important to her in a binder labeled "Poems to Live By." She includes, at the end of the introduction, a poem she wrote a few days after the attack on the World Trade Center. She says "It was clearly an occasional poem, admittedly not a great poem." Besides this poem, there is only one other that might have been written in recent months, and this is "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski, which appeared in the New Yorker's first issue after September 11, and which alone is worth buying this book for.

These are not feel-good poems that give easy comfort. Instead, you will find here companionship in another person's way of seeing the mixture of suffering and happiness that is always around us. The book is nicely divided into sections, each title giving a hint of how the poems in that section look at uncertainty: Death and Remembrance, Fear and Suffering, Affirmations and Rejoicings, Warnings and Instructions, War and Rumors of War, and Meditations and Conversations. Mostly these are 20th century poets, many of them contemporary poets writing today (such as Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Gerald Stern, Yusef Komunyakaa, Jane Hirschfield, and Seamus Heaney).

Sit and read these poems to feel what it means to be in this world. There is such a wide range of subject matter in this book, that there is probably a poem here to help you through any dark night you might find yourself in. But these 60 poems are one person's choice and any collection like this is only a beginning. The editor suggests that if you find any of these poems useful, you copy them out by hand and put them in a binder. I would take that suggestion a step further. Start your own binder, of poems you discover yourself.

This is a great book, with brilliant choices. Some of these poems feel like exactly what I needed to read right now and I bought copies for lots of friends, too. Joan Murray has a great ear -- her picks are superb: I love the Billy Collins, the Stephen Spender, the Jane Kenyon, John Berryman, Muriel Rukeyser -- The book also introduced me to Jennifer Michael Hecht's poetry. I bought her book, The Next Ancient World and all I can say is, BUY IT -- she will rock your world and if it is already rocking -- well get this book and Hecht's book...and see what happens.

I checked this anthology out at the library and decided I needed my own copy. I had been out of practice at reading good poetry and really loved so many of the poems in this book. It is a good middle ground for people who enjoy good poetry but are sometimes overwhelmed by denser, more complicated poems. I would recommend "Good Poems" for the starter and "An Invitation to Poetry" for the more advanced reader.

Even more than the many fine poems cited in this wonderful anthology, I enjoyed the eloquent responses by everyday Americans as to why they responded in certain ways to their favorite poems. These stories are almost as moving as the actual poems and there are dozens of terrific poems, both the familiar and the unexpectedly novel. If you only read the comments, you'd be a richer person, but to read the comments along with the poems, now that's an experience. If this book were required in English classes around the country, maybe kids wouldn't resent poetry units so much!

I am absolutely blown away by the quality of this anthology! Absolutely blown away. Organized by the people behind the Favorite Poem Project ... this beautiful book strikes the perfect poetic balance; the poems here have depth and meaning, but they are never impenetrable and are always a joy to read aloud.

The mainstays are all here: Shakespeare, Dickinson, Whitman, Keats, Frost, etc., but the book often presents their lesser-known works (such as a terrific Langston Hughes piece called "Life is Fine" that I'd somehow missed). There are also more obscure poets; May Swenson, Derek Walcott, and many international writers. But what makes this book truly unique is the commentary printed above most of the poems sent in by people of all ages and professions.

Students, teachers, doctors, writers; they talk about their favorite poems with great love and a sense of awe. Their passion is infectious. I plan to buy this book, but instead of sitting on my bookshelf like my other poetry books it will go in my backpack to be with me wherever I go, for anytime I need a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended.
GRADE: A

A few quick notes: HV has put together a superb anthology/teaching tool here. She's learned and yet accessible. Includes classics and new poems.
Also includes margin notes defining odd words used by Keats and others.
Full of definitions and examples for poetry terms.
Comprehensive and insightful!!! Great fun to browse through or to
deeply study.

There may be something ominous to potential, non-student readers in the fact that this is a "textbook". What a bizarre thing! "Text" book. How is it different from a book? Well, it's a form of book that is meant to be taken very, very seriously because it is "required reading" for a required course and because it will help the worthy achieve mightily in the "standardized testing" they will have to take to prove themselves. Like most books, a "text" book has words in it, i.e. a text. We assumed that. The tautologous term "text" seems to have been added by some utterly pretentious, youth- despising pedant who wanted to quell and trample upon whatever inner happiness a kid may have felt at the propect of learning something new. A textbook about poetry is perhaps an oxymoron. Is there a standardized test for stirring of the soul or the soaring heart?

This is an excellent "book" book on poetry and art in general. In fact, it's one of my favorite books, and I've read alot. As soon as I finished it, I started at the beginning again. Except for the proposed questions for discussion or homework, there are very few "textbook" concessions. There is no talking down. It is intelligent and honest from beginning to end. In fact, having known many college age students in recent years nearly all of whom had the attention spans of mosquitoes, I wondered how far any would get in this book. It's too intelligent to serve as a modern textbook really.

But for people who love poetry, have hope invested in poetry, it's great. If you want to understand the basic elements of poetry, how it works, what it does that is diffeent from other arts, there can be no finer work.

Just as Browning read Johnson's Dictionary in preparation for a career as a poet, so I would imagine young poets and poetry lovers will in future read Professor Vendler.

Helen Vendler has an extraordinary ability to see clearly the basis of a poem, working back through the words, rhythms, intonations,and references to the pre-verbal experience the poet had that required expression. She has an intuitive intelligence that is oddly contagious. Sensing her remarkable ability to listen, one's own power to listen is enhanced: I too can puzzle back to the heart of this song and this experience. Our personal experience has a deep commonality. In other words, you can, after a while, learn the art of "close reading". It's a how-to book. And it's quite exciting, in a way, like suddenly being able to ride a bike on your own.

Finally, of course, it is a book about life. Poetry only exists as a communicative tool for interpreting the raw material, precious raw material, of life. One says Well, I'm alive so what do I need it for? Well, because we're not alive, we're semi-alive, brutally familiar with a very small part of life. So this being a book about great poetry addresses the great questions of life itself.

Ms. Vendler is by far the most exciting and intelligent poetry critic of today. Her understanding of poets, particularly of their mature works, is thorough, thrilling, and refreshingly insightful. Read anything she's written on Robert Lowell, Wallace Stevens, Seamus Heaney, and Czeslaw Milosz and you will find, through her clarity, new reasons to fall in love with these magnificent poets.

I highly recommend two other books by Ms. Vendler: Part of Nature, Part of Us & The Music of What Happens. Though I am no longer a student, I continue to read these books to shreds. She does for poetry what Ms. Ingrid Rowland does for Art History. Experience Ms. Vendler for yourself, and while you're at it, get an online subscription of NYRB and you can read all the articles she's written for this brilliant magazine.

Kentucky has passionate and proud people. Mary Ellen Goble Preece just happens to be one of those passionate, proud people. With her crisp style of writing great detail, she captured emotion.

Some of the poems in this great book left trails of happy tears and wonderful memories, while others made me feel sad inside when I read them. The wonderful prayers gave a feeling of joy for promises that some day God may fulfill.

One poem in particular helped me to recall wonderful memories of my childhood. I loved the way the mud felt as it oozed up between my toes as I stomped each puddle dry. I also remember knocking apples from a tree in my daddy's orchard and picking up only the juicy looking ones. But catching fire flies was one of my favorite memories. Yes, "Remembering Yesterday" brought those days back to me. It's as though that poem was written just for me and put a good feeling of pure joy deep down in my heart. Even though those days are gone now, each time I read that wonderful book, I go back to an innocent, happier, more carefree time where things went at a slower pace. Not like this fast-paced, hurry up and wait continuance of today.

Another poem that made my heart bleed for all those little ones that have suffered through violence and mental cruelty was, "Little Children". Sorrow flowed just like tears from each line. My heart was touched in many ways through, POEMS, PRAYERS AND PROMISES OF AN APPALACHIAN WOMAN. The tiny light in my window of life seems so much brighter now.

We all have a place within our hearts where a foundation begins sparking a desire to share. Mary Ellen Goble Preeces' book called "Poems, Prayers and Promises of an Appalachian Woman" begins at the foundation of small town hospitality. This collection of Poems, Prayers and Promises will draw you to a closer look at the heart of the author and show her deep love for God. Taking you through tragedy time and time again and into the shelter of our Heavenly Father. "A Yearning" brought me to tears from the pure beauty it expressed showing very clearly those memories of our loved ones last eternally. Mary Ellen Goble Preece writings show great ability to display imagery within her words, which will give you that wonderful sense of experiencing each and being placed within the situation. This book contains countless reminders of Gods unfailing love and promise that `He will never leave us of forsake us" I have enjoyed reading this beautiful collection.
Reviewed by Colleen Smith/Entangled Within The Nature of Things/Ancient Mirrored Dreams

Mary Ellen Preece, Author of "In This Valley I Grew" has given me the manuscript of her new book "Poems, Prayers, and Promises, of An Appalachian Woman." to read and review.

Mary Ellen Preece shows herself to be a real woman of faith in her new book, "Poems, Prayers and Promises of An Appalachian Woman." Her inspirational country style, describes her love of God during trials and tribulations. In her poems she shows that God has walked those miles with her and brought her through to a place where she has found her true self--a woman who puts God first in all things. Her faith lives in her poetry and her poetry lives through her faith. I have not read her first book as of yet, but am looking forward to and I know it will be just as good as Poems, Prayers, and Promises of An Appalachian Woman.
I recommend this book to all who love poetry in the spiritual sense. Mary Ellen brings out the simple things in life and makes them poetic and wonderful to the ears.

I am honored to know such a woman and to call her friend.

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.

Linda Pastan does it again.... gathers us in to evereyday experiences and emotions. In reading her life, we find ours.

Wonderful poetry! Linda Pastan writes with skill, sensitivity, and a simplicity of style that is not simplistic but subtle. One of my favorite poets.

Excellent book of poetry. I just discovered Linda Pastan and really like her. Service was also excellent. So far, I can count on Amazon!