Poetry Books

Excellent comparative collection of the earlier and later editions, plus Specimen Days and other prose by Whitman not available in one collection. The binding is the best and the pages will last for a looong time.

As the author of "Of Life Immense: The Prophetic Vision of Walt Whitman," I have many copies of "Leaves of Grass," along with many other books about Walt Whitman. The "Library of America Edition" is very well done, beautiful to read and wonderful to hold. Justin Kaplan"s commentary is insightful and his selection of Whitman's prose provides the reader with significant understanding of Whitman's life. If you have only one book by and about Walt Whitman, this may well be the book you should have.

I picked up this book in the Spring of 1990 while browsing in a bookstore. I'm no student of poetry, in fact I only purchased it because I randomly flipped it open and was enamored with the passage I found. I learned that the passage is from "Song of Myself" and have read both that epic poem and the entire collection through dozens of times.

I didn't know exactly what I had purchased that day. But over time find that turning to Whitman's poetry and prose has been a source of comfort. I find myself in his writings, and find that his messages apply clearly in the present day. This volume is a pretty hefty way to start with Whitman--you get everything from the start. If you choose to buy it, I suggest randomly exploring it--stopping here and there to read a poem. I spent weeks exploring that way, only later did I read everything from start to finish. The simplicity of the writing and the clarity of meaning is remarkable.

The Library of America edition is--in itself--beautiful. Well bound, fine paper, still in excellent condition after 15 years of use. When reading it, it is impossible not to appreciate the caliber of it's manufacture: the choice of paper, inks, typefaces, binding, etc. contribute to pleasurable experience. I have a small number of other Library of America volumes, and each is exquisitely assembled and a joy to read. They are not inexpensive, but I'd argue that they are most definitely worth every penny.

Exuberant, sensual (without ever being pornographic), hedonistic, Whitman is one of a kind and truly American. It's difficult to explain why I enjoy Whitman's work so much. I guess it's because he is at peace with himself and enjoys people, life, and the American ideal so much! I read it and enjoyed Whitman in high school. Now, I read a little at a time taking in the words and the images his describes.

Beethoven killed classical style. It kind of ends with him. He was soooo good that he was impossible to follow. Others had to go in other directions.

But Whitman invents modern poetry. And with his Beethoven intensity and skill ought to have killed it, with his "Leaves of Grass". But poets are hardier than musicians, I suppose. You need a Whitman scale to rate poets. Really excellent gets a W0.5 (from 0 to 1). Like that.

But so does Whitman himself. His first real work was called "Leaves of Grass". His second was called "Leaves of Grass". His third, "Leaves of Grass"...

He kept improving his older stuff and adding on. It got bigger and bigger and bigger. Historically, you may want an older version. But this one is the mother load.

AND .... this is the big and .... it has the best preface of any book ever written. Period. No contest. He wrote this in his later years and the preface is a work of its own. Magnificent. This book makes me blue in that I could never rise to this level of speech and thought given infinite resources and tutoring. So it stands there like a continent. Explore it.

I was helping my 11 year old son with his Boy Scout reading merit badge. He needed to read different types of books and was adamant about hating poetry. We went to the library and found this book. Twenty-one poems and paintings, each about a different, specific insect. All the way home he was "Mom, listen to this one. Mom, you've got to see this picture. Mom, look at the way the poem is written in the shape of the insect!!!" We quickly shared it with two older sisters and two younger brothers. We loved the poems and artwork so much we immediately ordered our own copy. The poems are witty, humorous, include words to raise your childs vocabulary, and they are just plain FUN!

Insectopedia is a delight! I found myself reading these poems aloud to my class during silent reading time. They thought the poems were funny too. The book is perfect for all ages, even adults!

We just love reading Insectlopedia! My 6 year old daughter andmy 5 year old son both think it is a great read. Ethan & Alissalike the poem about the Whirligig Beetles the best.

This is a book of poems about insects. The poems are great; their content is funny and rhythmic. Through the poems we learn about the various insects. Some have very creative text formatting such as the inchworm; the text is shaped like a humped-up inchworm. The illustrations are very creative collages that are unique compared to most other children's books.

I began reading this when my first son was 2 years old and he loved the poems then and he loves them now. Neither of my children are otherwise very interested in reading about insects but this book captures their interest and they laugh hysterically at some of these poems. After reading these they have found some of the more unusual insects such as the walking stick outdoors and called it to my attention. We've owned the book for 3 years, every once in a while my now-5 year old will find it and get excitedly proclaim "we haven't read this in a long time" and begs me to read it again (and again and again).

Some of the insects featured are the inchworm, tick, walking stick, praying mantis, monarch butterfly, daddy long legs spider and army ants.

The poems are so much fun I don't mind reading the entire book two or three times in a row. A fun book to read to young children. This is good reading for just plain fun or to introduce poetry or to enhance learning about insects and nature.

Another in the series by this talented author/artist, Insectlopedia is a great adventure for adult and child alike. Children are encouraged to learn about the natural world in a series of poems and illustrations that are engaging, humorous and informative. Florian writes charming verse that informs, but even better, when read aloud, the tongue-twisting alliteration stimulates curiosity and laughter.

"Mosquitoes are thin.
Mosquitoes are rude.
They feast on your skin
For take-out food."

Insectlopedia is fun for beginning readers, certainly a bonus in engaging their interest in words and images. The nonsense menu includes: the dragonfly, the daddy longlegs, the inchworm, the walkingstick, the giant waterbug, the termite, the locusts and the ticks.

As for "The Praying Mantis":
"A caterpillar,
Moth
Or bee-
I swallow them
Religiously."

Luan Gaines/2005.

Ben Lerner is fantastic at what he does and not only is his material fresh, but his approach at poetry is quite miraculous. Each time I sit down to write a poem, I think of his collection and how it inspired me to become more creative and flexible with my voice. This is a must-read. -->Ben Lerner<-- is way cool...A true artist and genius in his gift.

This book signals that Copper Canyon has turned an important corner. Formerly more concerned with publishing established poets than with discovering new ones, Copper Canyon has now produced the most impressive debut collection I've read in twenty years.

Lerner's sonnets are authentic explorations in an old form. Jargons and cliches combine with the poet's plain observations to illuminate a far-ranging curiosity...and a modern assimilating heart.

While Lerner's work has much in common with L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing--an interest in the materiality of language, in postmodern theory, in visual art, and so on--it also has the discursive precision of a more traditional poet--Auden, for example. The Lichtenberg Figures is one of those rare books in which beautiful and playful linguistic surfaces coexist with moments of sincerity.

In the 1998 Hal Hartley movie Henry Fool a perverted garbageman writes a poem that becomes the "best selling poem of all time," eventually earning him the Nobel Prize. Ben Lerner is not a garbageman, but he holds a degree in Political Theory from Brown University, which is close enough to the script that he ought to be in line for recognition by the Swedish Academy. Lichtenberg is a sonnet sequence chloroformed by the lies and swindles of the English language circa 2004. I adore this book. I adorate it.

Check out some of its lines:

What am I the antecedent of?
When I shave I feel like a Russian.
When I drink I'm the last Jew in Kansas.
I sit in my hammock and whittle my rebus.
I feel disease spread through me like a theaory.
I take a sip from Death's black daiquiri.

...

O slender spadix projecting from a narrow spathe,

you are thinner than spaghetti but not as thin as vermicelli.
You are the first and last indigenous Nintendo.

In Life Lines, Anthony Edey draws upon his experiences with Parkinson's Disease and Cancer to craft a poetry which is both serious and hilarious at the same time. Enhanced with line drawn illustrations by Iris Edey and a section of black & white photographs, the poetry comprising this slender volume is as unique as it is memorable. The Final Cure: I hear that I ought to tart smoking,/Just try a medicinal pack./Inhale all the nice levadopa/My little gray cells seem to lack.//I hear that the feeling-good factor/Is just what I'm missing of late./A packet of Gaulloise should fix it,/I'd happily asphyxiate.//It's really a strange contradiction/That smoking could see this thing off./Instead of a long life of shaking/I'd die nice and slow of a cough!//On balance it seems quite apparent,/The treatment is worse than the cure./Through Parkinson's may not be perfect,/It's better than smoking, for sure.

We think that the book is a real light that shines on the fundamental questions of life that many of us manage to ignore.

Life Lines, especially the poem about Sam, made us think again about what is important in our own lives.

Edey captures his feelings and shares his personal revelations with wit and humility as he goes through his acceptance of the diseases that have attacked his body....the art work that accompanies each poem was lovingly brought to life by his wife, a gifted artist. The book is a joy to read and upon which to reflect.

Anthony Edey has written a wonderful book to be appreciated by all, but particularly by those facing serious illness. The book shares humor and sensitivity, and demonstrates how keeping a positive perspective has allowed him to find hope for the future and cherish the simple blessings of everyday life. Parkinson's disease and cancer are tough challenges for anyone. The lesson Anthony teaches with this book is that they can readily be faced with the best medicines: positive thoughts, the love and support of friends and family, a fighting attitude and humor. Bravo, and thank you, Anthony!

Life Lines was meant as a double-entendre by Edey -- "life lines" as throwing them out to save someone drowning in adversity, and lines by the words used by this man who charismatically wrote about his experiences in being treated for skin cancer and Parkinson's Disease. We've heard actor Michael J. Fox talk publicly about his life with PD, and like Fox, Edey provides a service to those who read his words. In Life Lines, Edey takes a "that's life" attitude with his health issues, and makes us chuckle in the face of reality.

Robert Lowell's poetry is praised for its technical brilliance, metrical complexity, and verbal ambiguity. In an earlier review of Lowell's Lord Weary's Castle (awarded Pulitzer Prize of Poetry in 1947) I compared reading his poetry to studying mathematics, too advanced mathematics.

Furthermore, I am often uncomfortable with Lowell's disaffection, mistrust, and anger (one critic calls it apocalyptic rage) evident both in his criticism of contemporary society, and in his confessional topics such as marital difficulties, drinking problems, and mental illness. And yet I keep coming back to Lowell's work to savor his remarkable command of language.

Life Studies, a blend of prose and poetry, is more explicitly personal than his earlier work. The prose section, titled 91 Revere Street, is quite exceptional, not simply for its dispassionate candor, but for its literary excellence. Lowell is almost brutal in his depiction of himself as a boy, offering no excuses for his insensitivity toward others. He is no less severe with his parents. Lowell's portraits of his grandparents, aunts, and uncles were equally candid, but more sympathetic.

Lowell reserves his later difficulties, including struggles with mental illness, for his poetry. Waking in the Blue, a haunting picture of fellow patients in a mental hospital, is immediately followed by an unsettling description of Lowell's return to his family, Home After Three Months Away. Soft Wood, dedicated to Harriet Winslow, who "was more to me than my mother", is deeply moving. Other family poems - like Dunbarton, Grandparents, and Sailing Home from Rapallo - have a poignant beauty. I also liked Beyond the Alps, the first poem in Life Studies, which reappears with an additional stanza as one of the last poems in For the Union Dead.

For the Union Dead has a broader span, addressing social issues and historical subjects, as well as confessional topics, and is thus more similar to Lord Weary's Castle. Hawthorne, Jonathan Edwards in Western Massachusetts, Water, The Old Flame, and the title poem, For the Union Dead offer a good sampling of this work.

The quality of a writer for us , it seems to me, is often defined by how much of ourselves we are willing to put into knowing their work. I read the poems in this collection, but am not tempted to reread them. They make sense and tell of Lowell's childhood, his relation to his father, his meditation on the way he first met his first wife and the way they have grown distant through the years, his sense of his grandfather's grandness as he takes him with him on a local tour, his friendships with other writers. I can read the poems and feel their meaning and sense quite clearly. This to my mind raises them above much poetic language which in many modern poetry writers does not have a context or a sense. Lowell does often tell a small story in his poem.
But there is for me , anyway, a certain absence of music , a certain lack of those kind of memorable lines I find in my beloved poets.
Reading other reviews of Lowell's poetry I see others see more in his work, feel it deeper than I do. They are the truer readers.

Robert Lowell is a giant in American poetry. He is pretty much unanimously considered one of the best of his generation. This book combines two of his volumes of poetry. One of those volumes is his masterpiece Life Studies--the reason why he is a giant in American poetry. This is his seminal work. No matter how you look at it, this is an important book of poetry. And an excellent book of poetry. Most of the poems are good and there are several phenomenal poems within. Life Studies alone belongs on any serious poetry connoisseur's shelf. Also in this book is arguably Lowell's second best collection (only Lord Weary's Castle might be better) For the Union Dead, which contains another masterpiece, "For the Union Dead" (and a favorite of mine "Hawthorne"). This is a book that poetry lovers of all kinds should have.

Lowell is of the vanguard of American twentieth century poets, a man who created many brilliant works other than the two joined in this volume. In such poems in Life Studies as Beyond the Alps and A Mad Negro Soldier Confined in Munich, as well as his portraits of various friends and family, we discover a man capable of both acid humor and outright sadness. However, in Life Studies, these excellent poems are overshadowed by the towering biographical essay 91 Revere Street. In this touching memoir, Lowell describes distant, illustrious relatives, Amy Lowell being a famous but ostracized example, friendships wrecked in childhood, disquietude over a girlfriend who soils herself in class (in his embarrassment, Lowell sits in it), his formative years on the periphery of polite, conservative Bostonian society, and his fathers coarse, difficult superiors and buddies that cropped up in the father's job with the Navy. Though his poems here are outstanding, an uncomfortable question arises when one considers this essay: Would Lowell have been better off to employ his time as a prose stylist, not a poet?

For the Union Dead validates Lowell's decision to declare poetry his mode of expression. Poems such as the dolorous My Last Evening with Uncle Devereaux Winslow and Terminal Days at Beverly Farm expose a man groping for hope after the deaths of close relatives; Waking in the Blue and Myopia: A night explore, respectively, Lowell's mental illness and attendant three month hospitalization, and a night of insomnia that becomes a maelstrom of tortured reflections and half-hewn thoughts; The Drinker explores alcoholism as a product of foiled love, with a question as to whether pathology or sheer carelessness and love of idleness is the underlying shibboleth. Water, the poem that stoked my love for Lowell, uses a maritime theme to express sorrow over a lost love. Beyond the Alps, from Life Studies, is reprised here with an elided stanza reinserted at the behest of coeval John Berryman.

Lowell is one of those poets so gifted, so erudite, so steeped in classical literature, it's hard to grasp that, as he explains it, he was "less rather than more bookish than most children." Much of the isolation evinced in Lowell's poetry, as well as the restlessness of his life, both as youth and adult, are radiantly eviscerated in these two collections.

I read this poem again on Martin Luther King Day, a fitting day for this poem, a tribute to the Union dead of the Civil War and a particular remembrance of the black soldiers who wore the uniform of the Union-- particularly of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment (made famous to non-Civil War students by the movie Glory several years ago).

The 54th Massachusetts was the first black regiment to march from the North to fight the Confederacy. These men were quite brave knowing that in battle they would likely get little or no quarter, and if captured they would most assuredly be sent south back to slavery. These men had much to prove, what with years of racism from North and South to be broken and defeated by their bravery and sacrifices-- not to mention the Confederate army that they would later face on the battlefield. They would win ever-lasting fame for their courage during their doomed assault on Fort Wagner at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, July, 1863. The attack would be a night assault on this heavily guarded fort. The fighting would be intense and the 54th would not be successful. Their white colonel, Robert Gould Shaw would be killed, and almost half the regiment would be lost. The first Medal of Honor for a black man would be earned there.

They marched down Beacon Street, with the Massachusetts State House on one side and Boston Common on the other - off to war, off to death and glory on a twin mission; to fight for the Union and show the world that they were equal in ability to whites. Directly across the street from the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street there now stands the brilliant monument by Augustus St. Gaudens, forever commemorating the 54th, the first black regiment and their white commander Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

This monument on Beacon Hill is one of the finest monuments of any kind in the United States. As a tribute to Shaw and the 54th it is unparalleled in the physical world; but in the emotional world, the world of poetry, Robert Lowell comes quite close. Lowell brilliantly describes the monument to the 54th and works it into the life of Boston that foremost of abolition cities of the North. Standing before the 54th monument on Beacon Hill, as the crowds walk swiftly by and the traffic speeds along past the State House, one can almost hear the men breath as they are forever frozen in bronze on their march south to battle. There are few monuments in bronze as lifelike as this one: it is an incredible tribute to the 54th and their commander and adorns the city of Boston as fittingly as the obelisk at Bunker Hill or the colonial historical sites of Adams, Revere, Hancock, and several miles to the west, Lexington and Concord.

Lowell's "For the Union Dead" is a successful poem on so many levels and succeeds completely where Tate's "Ode to the Confederate Dead" so totally fails. It unifies time and place, and brings context and permanence where everything seems to be shifting and changing. As a tribute to the 54th and the Union dead of the Civil War its elements run as deep as the waters off the coast of Boston seen from the top of Beacon Hill so long ago when the skyscrapers didn't block the view.

Having started his education at Harvard, Lowell transfered to Kenyon College to study under John Crowe Ransom another of Vanderbilt's Fugitives, like Allen Tate and Donald Davidson. It is an astounding thing that the two greatest Civil War poems of modern times ("Lee in the Mountains" and "For the Union Dead") and the worst ("Ode to the Confederate Dead") should be written by poets with Nashville connections. Lowell went on to graduate school to study under Robert Penn Warren, another Vanderbilt "Fugitive".

St. Gaudens placed a Latin inscription on the monument, the motto of the Society of the Cincinnati (a society of Revolutionary War officers started by George Washington and Henry Knox): "Relinquit Omnia Servare Rem Publicam". The translation is: "He left behind everything to save the Republic". Lowell opened his poem with this Latin phrase but changed the singular "he" to "they" in the Latin so that his poem would refer to all the men of the 54th not just its white commander, Robert Gould Shaw, to read: "Relinquunt Omnia Servare Rem Publicam".

"For the Union Dead" was published in 1964 during the height of the Civil Rights movement. Active in Civil Rights efforts, it is perfectly understandable that Lowell should have written this poem of unity and appreciation with concern, too, that the past should be remembered and its lessons learned. The battlefield of Fort Wagner had been by then reclaimed by the sea at Charleston Harbor and the monument to the 54th had fallen into disrepair. In fact, it was during this time that the St. Gaudens monument had been removed and stored in a crate to prevent damage from "shaking" from the construction of the underground Boston Commons parking garage. So, the battleground is gone, and Shaw's monunument is gone (but only temporarily), and history fades while "progress" continues speedily obliterating the memory of those that have come before.

"The stone statues of the abstract Union Soldier
grow slimmer and younger each year-
wasp-waisted, they doze over muskets
and muse through their sideburns . . ."

Lowell's brilliant poem is his way of retaining the past and ensuring that important historical memory is not lost forever. The men of the 54th Massachusetts, black and white, were leaders in bringing an end to slavery and establishing equality under the law for blacks in America. The story of their bravery and sacrifice is important to understanding American history and the Civil War. These men demonstrated with their actions and their blood that they were equals and merited equal positions in American society. As Americans North and South we ought to continue to embrace their memory and appreciate the many challenges that they overcame and the lessons that they taught us with their sacrifices at Fort Wagner and elsewhere.

We can look back to the 54th Massachusetts as a standard bearer in the struggle for Civil Rights in America. In the 1980s, my husband was privileged to be part of an effort to restore the St. Gaudens monument to its original beauty and power. Lowell's poem is a tribute to this beautiful work of art, and the men of the 54th Massachusetts who so inspired it. It is our duty a to remember our past, appreciate and commemorate our war dead, and learn those lessons that they underscored for later generations with their lives.

"Two months after marching through Boston,
half the regiment was dead;
at the dedication,
William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe."

This is one of the finest poems of the 20th century and stands with "Lee in the Mountains" as one of the two great modern poems of the Civil War.

I had the great fortune to be one of the contributing authors of this award-winning anthology. Never have I been given such an incredible gift. This picture of the journey of women is inspiring, empowering and endearing. I've read it over many times and whether I am reading about "shoulders" that can take it all or the challenge of raising children, I see myself and applaud my growth. A must read for all women, of all ages.

As a contributor to this powerfully written anthology about the lessons learned from living by women of color, I was not only honored to be a part of this work, but humbled by the raw honesty of each story. The healing nature of each story, brings with it a balm for the broken-hearted and wounded spirit, while allowing those of us who have triumphed "through it all" to celebrate together! "Life's Spices" gives women the permission to speak, to no longer live in silence and to embrace a circle of women that allows us to stand strong.

Sometimes you pick-up a book and wonder from the title if there is really anything inside the cover that will interest you. Such was my experience with a book titled "Life's Spices From Seasoned Sistahs: A collection of life stories from mature women of color". The title gave me no insight on why a 61-year-old white man might enjoy reading this anthology of stories from women. What a most pleasant surprise awaited me once I opened it and began pouring over the pages and discovering that people are people regardless of gender or race.

Editor Vicki Ward did an excellent job of pulling diverse people and backgrounds into a mix that makes exploring between the covers a real joy. This book is not just for women of color; it is for all readers. I found inspiration from the life experiences shared in this book and feel that wisdom was gained by my reading it. There are not many books that you can say that about any more.

I fully recommend this book for all readers. It gets the American Authors Association's top book rating of FIVE STARS. It also gets my personal recommendation.

LIFE'S SPICES FROM SEASONED SISTAHS, edited by Vicki Ward, is a wonderful collection of short stories, essays, and poems by mature women of all races. The collection is divided into the following themes: Sistahs' Joys and Struggle with Family, Sistahs' Joys...Life's Pain, Love, Humility, and Other Spices that Flavor Relationships, Mothers Use Love, Forgiveness, Compassion, Wisdom..., Seasonings for Self-Esteem, Sistahs' Survivin' and Working It Out, Death Can Be an Awakening, and The Spirit...Always Present.

Within each theme are related stories of joy, pain, happiness, and sorrow. As each woman puts pen to paper to tell their account, as no one else can, you will find them captivating and filled with wisdom. Each poem is also overflowing with strength and weakness and finally some with acceptance of the hand the authors' have been dealt and the power to forge ahead.

The editor has done an outstanding job selecting the contributors to tell their stories along with providing interesting author biographies and resources for women in all States and some provinces. The writing is exemplary and each narrative is distinct. The tantalizing epigraph and forward provide the how and the why. This collection can serve as an excellent gift for a special woman in your life and once read, can serve as a great conversation piece. We are more alike than we believe but at the same time different in our experiences and responses. Nonetheless, women are the corner stone of the world, as these stories will demonstrate.

Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

Life's Spices From Seasoned Sistahs, is a collection of stories by different women from all walks of life. From African American, to Asian, to Mexican women, all of the sistahs have a story to tell. Each piece is uplifting, wisdom-filled, and presented with just enough seasoning to add to life's gumbo of joys, sorrows, and heartbreaks.

I found this book to be an excellent read. Each woman shared experiences that helped to mold them into strong, proud and wise women. In most cases, the stories were no longer than two are three pages, but each was packed with lessons to aid the reader in this journey we call life.

If you are into nonfiction and enjoy reading how people triumph over life's snares, you'll love Life's Spices From Seasoned Sistahs.

T. RHYTHM KNIGHT
APOOO BookClub

Like Warm Honey is an amazing book, I have already read it twice from cover to cover! This is THE book to read if you need strength, encouragement and hope. Every poem will touch your heart in some way; the author does a great job illustrating situations that most of us can relate to. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.

Like Warm Honey touched my heart and soul and brought tears to my eyes. I felt the growth of the author as I read her poems. I could look back in my life and relate to some of her life experiences. Great Job! Consuella!

Ms. Raynor really connects to her readers. The love that she has for her family is evident in every selection. I was able to relate to many of the selections on love and spirituality. She will inspire you.

This book touches deep down in your soul and pulls out the joy and pain of life, love it.

This book touched me, there is no book out there thats goo from start to finish. I have read it three times already and plan on reading it again very soon. I cant wait until she writes another I'll be first in line.

"Little Savage" is that rare specimen of contemporary poetry; it is a debut collection by a young poet who has already mastered her craft and not only takes her writing seriously but has something serious to say with her writing.

Her poetry utilizes Ancient Greek Myth, classical music, and occasional glimpses of the young poet's childhood to construct an elegantly haunted house where a ghostly echo for the truth of recollection howls. From my perspective not one poem in the entirety of this 67 page incantation strikes a false note, no pun intended.

Most awards given to youthful/aspiring poets nowadays are given out of desperation for new material, the ceremonial backscratching between the old and young that must go in the arts for them to continue existing,
and the desire for critical blurbs in which more accomplished poets can flex their verbal muscles with false praise. Emily Fragos is a violin found in a haystack of twisted musical cords, you might say. Exciting, energetic and haunting work.

What is most remarkable about Emily Fragos' poetry is the clear emotional throughline in each poem. Fragos guides the reader into a field of feeling that unfolds with increasing intensity. For example,

With a stick I drew stick faces in the hardened
ground, touching my people
with the long, cold finger,
rubbing the lines so they turned to crust
and weathered away like the oak
outside my window.
(Solstice)

The poems explore a variety of emotional registers, from contemplative to jaunty, but whatever the mood, they are transportation to a unique world of sensibility offering glimplses of paintings by Velasquez, Vermeer, Brueghel, the music of Gould, Callas, Scarlatti, the whimsy of personified of Sorrow & the quotidian sublimity of an overdue library book or a cat show. All thngs become magical in Fragos' hands.

Emily Fragos is our ambassador from the world of close, close attention being paid. Too often we rush by the best and worst of our human-ness, which is where the really interesting stuff is hidden. Poems like these remind us of what poetry is for--every line is under intense psychic pressure, there is not a shred of sentimentality, and not a word is wasted. "Severe" is not usually a word used as praise, but here it is very apt. "Little Savage" is wonderful.

Emily Fragos has long had a kind of underground fame in New York City. Finally her first collection has arrived... and it fulfills every expectation: artful, revealing, soulful, and full of empathy and passion. This is what happens when a heart that cares about the broken things of the world pumps ink onto the page. No stylish chicanery or pyrotechnics. Not fanciful spelling or self indulgence. Just heartful revelation and empathy for the world. In a world where posers fill shelves, Fragos is the real thing: From "Host," my favorite poem: "There are two worlds I know of: the vast illumined and the place where I am. I need the other the way a virus needs a host...And my body inhabited suffers and wonders: Whose hands are these? Whose hair?" A book of top drawer poems by a top drawer poet.

Emily Fragos' wonderous "Little Savage" is the best argument I've ever read not to rush out a first book. It's clearly the work of a poet who's honed her ideas and art over time. The poems arrive as perfectly polished as stones shaped by a river.

This is a wonderful poetry book as is all of Douglas Florian's books. It actually reminds you of how wonderful poetry can be and how it can be easy to share with students. This book teaches about many types of lizards, frogs and you guessed it, Polliwogs! A wonderful book of poetry even for those who claim to dislike it.

The poems are gross enough for my 5 year old son with illustrations cool enough for my 6 year old daughter and language clever enough for their 40+ yo English teacher mom.

My two-year-old son is a *huge* reptile fan, and he loves this book. The playful language is wonderful, and it's an inspiring way to talk and think about different types of animals. It's one of those books that *I* love reading, too!

This is a book of poems about various reptiles and amphibians. The poems are great; their content is funny and rhythmic. Through the poems we learn about the various animals. The illustrations are very creative collages that are unique compared to most other children's books.

The poems are short and to the point, and his illustrations are extremely creative.

This would make a great read aloud during a unit on poetry or reptiles and anphibians.

This delightful book of strange things and clever rhymes is a joy to read. The rhymes are imaginative, instructive, silly and alliterative. This gem is appealing on many levels: the light-hearted poetry, the colorful, whimsical illustrations and nature's gallery of fascinating creatures to stimulate youthful curiosity.

With a granddaughter in the first grade, I am always looking for books that offer attractive illustrations, but also incorporate ideas that lead to an appreciation of words. After reading each poem/page, my granddaughter was soon clamoring to read the rhymes herself: "But did you know that alligators/ Sometimes swallow second graders?"

Suddenly, each page is her favorite, like "The Iguana": "I wouldn't wanna/ Be an iguana_" We choose from the skink, the gecko, the cobra, the Komodo dragon, the box turtle and even the polliwog: "We polliwoggle./ We polliwiggle./ We shake in lakes/ Make wakes/And wriggle." By the time we reach "The Bullfrog", she has lowered her voice to copy the croaking bullfrog. This book is a delight to share with a child, an occasion for tongue-twisting rhymes and giggles. The highest praise I can offer is that I have ordered more of Florian's exceptional work. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Dwight, please give us another 20 years of words.

dwight yoakam has always been my favorite rockabilly, and he will always be. this is a great book and yes a must have. love the lyrics, even knowing i have the lyrics already on his cd's i still love the book a worth haveing if youre a fan of dwight yoakam's. worth every penny. a happy fan

I have every CD Dwight Yokham has ever put out, plus ever video clip he sings on CMT, and I would love nothing better to come to the States to hear him sing live in concert, as I have recently discovered I am terminally ill and there is no cure or treatment for my disease, as it so rare. I will keep on watching CMT to get as much as Dwight Yokahm as I can before this dreadful disease claims me, and then when I get to heaven I am going to ask God to put CMT on in heaven, so I can still listen to him up there. I am 46, happily married with 2 children, Tamara who is 26 and simon who is 24 and getting married on Easter Sunday next year, and hopefully, I will still be around until then.

Monica Sprott

Dwight Yoakam does not write complex lyrics. What he writes are lyrics of deep emotion and unsurpassed longing. Without the twang-and-swing of his honky-tonk melodies, these songs are reduced to their bared bones, stripped and displayed in all their anguish and despair. From the straightforward "It won't hurt when I fall down from this barstool; it won't hurt when I stumble in the street; it won't hurt 'cause this whiskey eases misery; but even whiskey cannot ease your hurting me" to the more thought-provoking "Don't look inside, don't look there, 'cause you might find yourself somewhere, walking around lost and alone, without one clue that it's a long way home" Dwight speaks to the heart and the mind, and to deeper emotions.

"Twelve Years of Words" is printed as a simple, straightforward book of poetry, introduced with Dwight's eloquent, thoughtful prose. It is true that anyone who has the CDs already has the lyrics, printed on each CD insert. But there is a beauty in this presentation, all of his poems gathered together into one slim little volume without the music. I'm very much hoping that, in time, there will be "Twenty Years of Words" and it will be updated as he continues to write those simple, elegant, words.

I saw this book in the public library, and I knew I had to have a copy of my own. Yoakam was reared in Columbus, Ohio, where I live, and I think he is the freshest talent in music in any genre. His lyrics are simple and direct and tell wonderful stories; it's as if he can look into everyone else's hearts when it comes to differing emotions. I am a fan of this man's music, and he's a great actor, too. I appreciate that he has not sold himself to pop music like other country stars -- but then again, I don't consider him a country star. He's carved a niche of his own. Bless you, Dwight, and your mom (she still lives here!).