Poetry Books

I found this book by chance while browsing amazon.com; complete chance. What luck, what amazing luck! This is truly the most useful book in existence for any poet young or old, amateur or professional. Not only is the list of publishers ENORMOUS but the book provides you with inside contact information as well as what type of poetry each publisher wants, all organized so it's easily located in the book. There's also an excellent brief section on etiquette when submitting and other formal things that give you an inside track on the editor. No poet can live without this book. Buy it now, it's WELL worth the price!!

I use this book to send submissions of my poetry to various magazines. The biggest help has been in introducing me to magazines that are not available at your average bookstore. The other thing is that I had no idea of the format of a submission before I first picked this book up. I have at least gotten read a couple of times, even if I did get rejection slips. Don't let this book scare you. There's so much information here that it's a little overwhelming. I have the 2001, but I would recommend buying the latest edition. You might even want to wait and buy the 2003. Also, hang in there. Being a poet in 2002 is a little difficult I know.

This book is an indispensable resource for both the beginning and the established poet. It is simply packed with ways to make your voice heard. 100% updated every year, you cannot go wrong with this bbook.

Poets faithfully depend on Poet's Market for their #1 reference. Market guidelines by the thousands are readily available. As an editor of a literary magazine, I can tell you candidly, that its greatest advantages for the poet of 2000 are Poet's Market inclusion of: the subject index, poetry websites, publications that accept e-mail submissions, and chapbook publishers. Poet's Market 2000 gives the poet a bona fide chance at publication.

There's too much competition for a poet and not enough time to waste knocking at the wrong door with the improper product. You've got to click on the advantage...be at the right place at the right time. I always suggest studying Poet's Market to my contributors. Submission procedures and needs change...stay in tune with a fresh copy of Poet's Market.

It's not often you find a book that will become an heirloom - but this one will. It is an amazing combination of entertainment and education that you and your child will enjoy for many years. The way that it explains the fundamental qualitites that make us human in a continuous rhyme that's fun to read is extraordinary. Kids and the adults that read it with them will forever be enriched by this book. I would recommend it for kids of all ages.

Theresa McKeown has so beautifully written a book for children to let THEM know just how special they are.
As an adult, I was immediately taken back to my childhood. I so wish this book had been available to me
when I was a child. The twenty-six illustrations which accompany each letter of the alphabet are just
exceptional. "The ABC's of Being Me" may be for children -- however, parents and adults will enjoy reading
this book as well.

I thought this was going to just be a book about learning the ABC's and was thrilled to discover it's so much more! It's really about celebrating how wonderful it is to be who you and all the great qualities that are a part of every person. You will never get tired of reading this.

A beautiful and inspiring book that teaches children the magic of who they are and the wonders of the world that they live in. Full of great teachings and written with pizazz and joy. A real keeper!

Patrice

I think that this book perfectly balances what I need to teach along with what keeps children involved and stimulated in the classroom. The beautiful illustrations alongside of the exceptional writing is exactly the kind of literature I look forward to sharing with my students. It is a perfect book to use for a drama type reading, especially for ESL (English as a Second Language)students. Teachers can use this as a great tool for such a purpose. This book does not take the reader for granted, choosing instead to respect their innate intelligence. I look forward to more of the same from the author. I hope that she'll touch on some new subjects in the future such as science, math or even social studies. Either way, I look forward to including this great book in my everyday curriculum.

When I leave San Quentin's death row, and I feel I am not qualified to carry the lessons I've learned, the truth I have seen, I read Asha's words and find strength. Her words are a gift to all of us, words I find myself reading again and again. Thank you, Asha. May you find continued courage to speak.

one line in the title poem for Audre Lorde: " "you left me there with / your head raised and still dreadlocked walking/ toward the beginnings of your death"

one poem: 4:15 a.m./ a jailhouse luv story: "in this institution that is rank with the bizarre & vicious oder of/ annihilation,/ we have only ourselves to hold up as light and possibility/ and i hold you up & i hold you in as/people tell me i am crazy,/loving you across barbed wire & time/ but i believe in our love because you struggle with me"

OK next poem your turn to pick.... as you can tell I love this poet.

I stumbled across Bendele during an Amazon.com search for new poets and ordered this book as a gift based only on the reviews. I feel SO lucky to have found it. Bendele writes raw, powerful, honest poetry that causes the reader to draw in a deep, sudden breath time and time again as each poem surprises and enlightens. Bendele says the things that need to be said, and she does it so well that her message is unforgettable and undeniable.

And the best thing? You may be reading her poetry silently to yourself, but it reads like it's being spoken aloud to a packed auditorium. As a reader you get the sense that you're on the edge of something big and brilliant - the end of denial, and the acknowledgment of survival and hope in a painful and unjust world.

Please, Ms. Bendele, more, more, more!

Asha Bandele is the Maya Angelou of my generation. I have read this book over a hundred times and have bought numerous copies for my friends (both men and women). Asha blesses each page with her truth and ability to express it so fluently. She gives back to all that are reaching out for a positive yet realistic voice.

Asha Bandele has a way with words. As always she calls us to dissect ourselves. To dig away at the surface in order to reach the core. Her words of poetry float over each page, and is able to attack the mind and force us to think. She is able to deliver and articulate what we think but so often afraid to say. She is the voice of my generation. A voice demanding to be heard.

"Afroetry is educational and motivational. This interesting book of poetry sparks deep reflection and inspiration."

"It is a wonderful compilation of afrocentric poetry that touches on interesting subject matter that will encourage and uplift, while providing thoughts for readers to ponder."

"Linda Mayfield-Hayes brilliantly utilizes poetic expressions to enlighten readers. Presenting a gentle reminder to all the significant contributions of African Americans."

Afroetry is a wonderfully satisfying collection of poetry by Linda Mayfield-Hayes. In compiling this impressive opus, Hayes has attempted to shed light on the various aspects of Black history & culture that are often ignored by the media and in classrooms, and, after reading even a portion of what she has to share, you'll thank her for her commendable efforts.

As of late, discussions regarding race relations have too often been reduced to the back-and-forth slinging of hackneyed clichés and over-simplified characterizations; in Afroetry, Hayes takes a refreshing dive into real (often uncomfortable) honesty, invoking the reconciliation that can only come through indulgence in real truth. Consider her take on the N-word in her poem, "Nigger":

They call me nigger
I was made in God's image
They blasphemy God.


And this passage from "Modern Day Slave":

Private companies also profit
Off the sweat of prisoners backs
The majority of these inmates
Just happen to be male blacks;


Rather than recycle rhetoric or quote statistics, Hayes aims straight for the heart of racial conflict in America, and does so quite effectively.

Of course, no treatise on Black culture would be complete without a proper sense of history, and Hayes provides numerous historical gems regarding African-American lore, including tales of the Tulsa race riot of 1921, the achievements of Farrah Gray, and even a secret female member of the famed Buffalo Soldiers. She also waxes philosophic on six year-old Ruby Bridges's experiences in integrating Franz Elementary School in "From The Mouth Of A Babe":

President Eisenhower ordered Federal Marshals
To escort her to and from school each day
As she bravely faced the threatening white mob
This is what she would silently pray:

"Please God, try to forgive these people
Because even if they say those bad things
They don't know what they're doing;


To build on its historical commentary, Hayes's collection is also rife with educational nuggets framing the current state of race relations in America. Nowhere else is this more telling than in her stinging rebuke of corporate America in "Unfairness Of Working In America":

"You're an excellent worker" they tell me
"You're really top of the class
But I'm afraid regarding that promotion
We'll simply just have to pass";


She goes on to suggest that entrepreneurship is the best path to take if true economic equality is ever to be attained - and one can hardly fault her in that assessment.

Afroetry comes in at just over 50 pages, but in its brevity is a profundity that many books twice its size often lack. Hayes has compiled a masterpiece of poetic cultural treasures that beckon to be discovered - don't miss your chance to be enriched.

Cathay Williams, Black Wall Street, the attainment of knowledge of self, the elimination of a slave mentality, the Middle Passage, the N-word, a holistic diet - Linda Mayfield-Hayes covers it all in her rhythmic Afroetry. Purposeful, educational and very easy-to-read, Afroetry would make an excellent collection for anyone's library.

Linda Hayes gets two thumbs up for daring to talk about Black History through poetry and from her own perspective. In this short, but deep collection, she introduces readers to many facets of Black History. This collection will poetically speak to you about people like Ruby Bridges, Cathay Williams, and Farrah Gray, a young black man who became a millionaire at the age of 14.

I found AFROETRY to be an easy and exciting read. I enjoyed and was inspired by poems like "DNA: DestiNation Africa," "It Takes a Village," "Second Class Citizens," and "Oklahoma Bombing." This book explores various areas of Black History from African symbols to African traditions and the importance of knowing the truth about history. This author's words are inviting and will cause readers to want to learn more.

AFROETRY is a great read for those who need to be inspired and those who want to be exposed to just a little bit more. But for the Black History lovers and book collectors, the sentiments in this book will stir you up inside and cause you to want to explore. It's obvious that Linda Hayes is passionate about Black History; most importantly, she makes a brave effort to poetically reach back and educate others. Get this book today, not just during Black History Month!

This is an excellent book of poetry. It consists of a variety of poetic forms and styles that are easy to understand, such as acrostic, rhyming couplets, narrative, quatrain, and freeform. The essence of the poems serves as a teaching tool or a memory refresher, depending on one's knowledge of African-American history. Some of the poems have a sense of humor while being very serious at the same time. For instance, the rhyming couplets and message in "It Takes a Village" are outstanding. "Anger Management" really sends an awesome message regarding the existing conflicts in different areas between African-American youth.

There are other ingenious poems in the book, such as, the bombing of the "Black Wall Street" in Oklahoma, which is really an eye opener for everyone (Oklahoma Bombing). "Watch What You Eat" is really a poem to live by because of the medical ailments affecting African-Americans. The Book of Leviticus as stated in the poem has some comprehensive solutions. Linda's faith in God really shines through in this awesome book. The poem "African Burial Ground" in New York is just incredible. I visited the site several years ago and it was just a moving experience. I could write a dissertation on this excellent book; however, one must read it for oneself and feel the humbling experience. I could not put the book down once I started reading until I read the last poem, which linked some of the songs of the unforgettable Luther Vandross into a very thoughtful piece. What a great way to end a book with an awesome and uplifting poem. This book is very poignant and has a positive experience awaiting you. Get your copy today and don't delay. There is an exciting experience awaiting you in the wonderful words of Afroetry!

This book was given to me by a friend; I had her search everywhere for it. Upon a few days after receiving it, I knew her search had not been in vain. This is a marvelous book of poetry with some interesting aspects on life, love and the like.

The poetry in "Ain't I A Woman" presents a wide range of experience and emotion. This is not a book of pretty poems. It is a series of moans, cries and hurrahs from the heart. Jenny Joseph's wonderful "Warning" ("When I am an old woman I shall wear purple")suggests from page one that here will be poems with attitude. They do not disappoint. I like this book very much.

This is one of the best anthologies of poetry I've ever found. The purpose: Bring together words from women of all cultures, all ages, all corners of the world. Here are young women, old women, fat women, starving women, lives touched by peace, war, spiritual joy, physical abuse, passion, motherhood, loss. There are beautiful, haunting words here. There are cold, hard, brutal images here. If you're a woman who complains about feminists, please read this book and try to understand what women have had to go through so that you could be where you are today: free to complain. If only to have a copy of Sojourner Truth's immortal "Ain't I a Woman?" speech from 1852, this book would be worth the price. Read this book for the incredible messages here. You will be moved.

Ain't I a Woman was not a surprise to me. It is full of beautiful works of art. This book is full of voices of many different women, with different lives, different backgrounds but from their voices you can feel their strength and each voice in that book can add to your self-esteem and make you feel stronger about yourself as a women with every poem. Although some poems are not as powerful as others, their messages are still there: "I lived, I saw, I loved, I struggled, I died, but most importantly I felt, felt what life was like and from my words you might learn how it really is to be a woman". This book should be read by anyone who has time get lost in its poetry. I personally read a piece of the book everyday at work and I am glad that I made the time. There are many different writers in this book and I recommend reading different works from those authors as well.

This book obtains its title from Sojourner Truth's incomparable speech in 1851, and for the most part is brilliant and moving. My main complaint is that it focuses on the physical (sex, childbirth, etc.) so much that it could be classified as erotic poetry instead of a full exploration of womanhood. However, look for amazing cultural and chronological diversity in authors, and refreshing humor in poems like "Sho nuff." The development of the book is thematic, according to stages of life by also by subject. Series show different visions of famous women such as Jezebel, Cleopatra, and Medusa, which ends with a hilarious conversation between Medusa and Eve. The poems in this collection really strike - not everyone will like everything, but I'm sure everyone will find SOMETHING in here that really gets their attention. My personal favorite is "Witch." There are dozens of poems in here, enough to make the book seem very long, but since no poem is longer than two pages, I garantee you won't get bored.

What a charming, wise, heartwarming, insightful book of poems. This writer's attention to craft, his gifted voice, will inspire all readers. An important and powerful, warm and beautiful book.

The range of these poems is astounding, and they gain power with rereading. The poems mourning the loss of the author's family members to illness as well as the loss of friends to AIDS are a moving and artistic revival of the elegiac form. And yet there is humor, as well, attention to nature. Few poetry books stretch all the way from exploration of language a la Language School formats, (with a deliberate nod to Frank O'Hara, New York School poet prototype) to the unjustly maligned "emotion recollected in tranquility," but this books does, and does it right. An exemplar for contemporary writers and students of poetics.

William Reichard is a master of intense, passionate, articulate, lyrical language cased in lyrical verse and imagery. An Alchemy In The Bones is a superb anthology introducing a major talent to an appreciative audience. Without Translation: With sewn lips he speaks/in a dazzling code that I cannot translate./But the body has other mouths from which to speak,/and these, I do comprehend:/How the blade of the should has a tongue,/and speaks./How the abdomen, sweetly heaving, has a tongue,/and speaks./I wish I had a key, the proper code to unlock/the door to his desire,/a dictionary to decipher the distance/which my mind cannot span,/but my dry heart, my lips, my clumsy instinct,/can.

Poems that chart a journey of linking the self to a shifting community. Lyric, sensitive, ironic poems that take us through the rooms of the heart.

This book is a testimony to the transformative power of art, using language and imagery to alchemize the gold out of the tragedies of our lives. It is indispensable for all libraries, big and small, public and private.

Timeless, classic children's literature. In a time where plastic people like Hannah Montana and Brittany Spears reign, Dennis Lee is refreshing. He is witty, he is Canadian and he is cool. I read this to a grade two class, and they learned their favourite verses by heart on their own initiative. It's also intelligent enough to appeal to adults -up there with Rocky and Bullwinkle! Love this book!

I still have my copy of this book from when I was a kid (copywrite 1974). This book rocked, and I had to dig it up to start reading to my nephews. best ever = on tuesdays I polish my uncle. I still remembered 90% of the words, and I probably hadn't heard it since 1981 or 2!

This was actually my sister's book when we were growing up - but I remember absolutely loving it back then. Now that I have a son, I bought it to read with him. Although he is only 2, he loves the rhythm of the poems and the wacky pictures. His favourite is "Windshield Wipers". A fabulous book for parents to share with their children!

I would recommend this book to anyone. It is fun and fantastic, the illustrations are terrific, and the poems resonate well with children and adults.

The Alligator Pie series filled my childhood with fun and whimsy. I'm pregnant now and I want to buy a whole new collection so that my child will remember "Peter was a pilot, who flew a jumbo jet, who crashed in Lake Ontario and got his bottom wet." Silly and fun.

My daughters love these poems and I enjoy reading them as well. It isn't the standard sugar sweet or non-sensical material that usually passes for childrens' books.

Althought the age group listed for this book is 9-12, I first learned of it from a preschooler in my classroom. The girl who shared the book does not have a sister, lives with both parents in an upperclass neighborhood, and would seem to have little in common with Essie or Amber. And yet, this story reached her, she connected immediately with the strengths and longings of both children. She wants to BE these children, for their strength and humanity. What a great way to begin to bridge the socioeconomic gap! Other children from very diverse backgrounds in my class were also immediately drawn to the poetry of warmth, hope, caring, friendship amidst troubling circumstances.

Adults have strong feelings when it comes to picture books. They sometimes believe that this form of literature serves one single purpose. To help kids learn how to read. While an incredibly worthwhile goal (don't get me wrong), allow me to point out that pictures books are hardly so limited. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Vera B. Williams' picture/poetry book, "Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart". Ms. Williams has tackled serious subjects in her books before ("A Chair For My Mother" anyone?) but this is the first time, to my memory, that she has tackled the very serious subject of a father's incarceration. There are probably millions of children in America with mothers or fathers in jail. This book may ease their burden just a bit.

Amber and Essie are two sisters that act just the way you'd expect them to. Amber is younger and tends to clutch her purple teddy bear Wilson to her for support. Essie is a little older and is in charge of watching her younger sibling. Their mother is usually away from the girls, earning a living while their father serves his jail term for check forgery. There isn't a lot to eat at home and the girls are constantly moving between sitters, but they know how to make life bearable. The book is cut into twenty-eight small poems that describe the story of the two girls. Some of these are funny like, "Whoops", where the girls jump up and down on the bed until it (inevitably) collapses. Some of them are sad like, "Conversations Under the Bed". In this poem Amber is crying and asking Wilson to tell her that her Daddy isn't really bad. "Daddy couldn't really be bad because he's my daddy". If that doesn't make you sniffle a little then you're made of stronger stuff than I. And some of the poems in the book are both funny AND sad. "There Stood Amber With Her Braids at Her Feet", is your typical humorous girls-trying-to-cut-their-own hair poem. But it ends with the stanzas, "Only I had to cut them off/ Amber said/ to send to Daddy/ so he'll be sure to remember me/ I had to".

"Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart" has a happy ending (Daddy comes home after having finished his time and everyone's overjoyed) so don't worry about that. I think Vera B. Williams really should be commended for not only tackling the subject of jailed parents, but also the day to day trials of poverty. You can tell that the girls' mom is making due, but just barely. There are whole stories suggested in these little poems above and beyond what's written here. Now normally, I have to admit, I don't care too much for Vera B. Williams's illustrations. But the pictures in this book are perfect. They're all done in pencil, some colored, some not. Sometimes they're detailed and sometimes they're just the barest of outlines. The book comes with a "photo album" of the characters that kids will enjoy pawing through after reading the story. I think that if you've a child that can handle a little reality, this book is a more than appropriate companion. It tackles difficult grown-up problems in a manner that is not only understandable to children, but meaningful as well. Consider pairing it with the similar, "Visiting Day", if you want another picture book on this topic.

This is a touching story of two sisters who are dealing with a tramatic event that had a significant effect on their lives. The art work is enhances the story and is great in it's own right. After I bought this book, I couldn't wait to share it with my own sister and other close friends who I knew would love it too.

This book contains poetry, and as a general rule I don't like poetry (unless it's funny, and stars that charming man from Nantucket!) However, I made an exception for this book because it's just so GOOD! It's not that rhyming sort of poetry, but a gentle, flowing sort that's even more poetic, which tells a story in separate, glorious little parts.

I'm not ashamed to admit, I was so touched by the courage and strength of Amber and Essie in the face of adversity, and their sisterly love for one another, that I cried like a baby when I read this. It's a beautiful story! Yes, sometimes life is hard, and isn't fair. But these kids have a way of coping that's both innocent and wise at the same time. Truly joyous and inspiring!

Matthew Zapruder is the kind of poet you want to crack open over a beer far from home. Take the time to relish the imagery in this great collection, to let yourself walk the path of Zapruder's memories, to laugh at the outrageous (yet oh-so-right) nuggets of truth contained here. After soaking in a few of these poems you soon learn that you're in the confident hands of a searcher...and his way is open to anyone who wants to join him. Thanks, Matthew...for everything! I'm looking forward to "The Pajamaist!"

Matthew Zapruder, American Linden (Tupelo, 2002)

One of the drawbacks of having rooms full of books waiting for you to read them (and it's even worse if you have a library card and wide-ranging tastes) is that once in a while you hear good things about a book right after it comes out, put it on the list of "hmm, I should read that some day," and then promptly forget about it for three years. This is exactly what happened to me with Figments guitarist Matthew Zapruder's American Linden, and I'm kicking myself for not having just gone out and found a copy as soon as I heard good press about it.

Zapruder's work is the kind of stuff you read simply for the pleasure of hearing the words flow by in your head.

"Where I inspect myself
for a black and white cat
who hides my sluggishness from inspectors.
His name is Joselito."
("Park Slope")

There is a great deal of depth and definition to Zapruder's word choices; so many of these poems work so well that it's extremely difficult to find fault with a single word. (One wonders how much of this was workshopped or criticized by outside sources; one suspects the answer is "none of it.") It's work that says its piece and gets out, though you'll likely be left pondering what, exactly, that piece might be.

In an age where it seems anyone with a connection to other media are pumping out books of poetry to no end (viz. recent howlingly bad collections by Jimmy Stewart, Jimmy Carter, Jewel, Ally Sheedy, etc. etc. ad nauseam), it's nice to find someone who can work this well in both genres. Highly recommended. **** ½

This book has undeniable power and is in no way soft. Misreading it as soft or non-threatening only reveals one's abject cynicism. These poems delve deeply and honestly right into the center of the speaker's heart and for that reason are often painful, sometimes lighthearted, and always honest. This is a book by the genuine article writing real poems.

Matthew Zapruder's American Linden is a sometimes surreal, often funny, always genuinely expressed book of linguistic constellations. He mentions Spanish and Greek and logic, Tagalog and tunes and melody, birdsong and currencies, and he writes "I am guilty of secret constellations." Yet these constellations are not altogether secret, but rather playfully at play, put into motion like a wonderful mobile alternately inducing delight, clash, harmony, distracted thoughtfulness, etc. The pieces of the mobile, dangling as if from thin metal ligatures, are clouds and golems, farms and days, foreign currency and flowers and breasts and noon, and they assemble and reassemble in shifting clustered galaxies that I thoroughly enjoyed gazing at, stumbling across, chuckling over.

It is a book made of inventive and continuous, quirky and comedic, unrolling threads of metaphor, many surprising but sensible as the cat whose "mother was a sofa, a whole/ neighborhood of comfort, support,/ understanding..." In this, and in many creative reversals and convergences, he causes elements to flow into one another, creating an odd, complex, (but not dissonant or off-putting) amalgam of yet almost intuitive experience-"when that ten AM birdfeeder skylight/ perfectly lifted/ from morning hour/ halted a moment beyond my fingertips/ to perch half still/ and three quarters in motion/ a sketch of a hummingbird..." He understands the magician's and the comedian's craft of the set up, the teasing of expectation, the timing of delivery, the slip into an unforeseen magnificence of surprise. But here it is without the magician's grandiloquent drama- this is a book and a craft and a language not caught up with or in itself but rather generous, comic, and sometimes, idiosyncratically resplendent.

Writing about poetry is ludicrous, especially when the poems are written by Matthew Zapruder. The poems in AMERICAN LINDEN are intensely personal, not only in style of placing words on paper, but also in the spectum of ideas that flow through his brain. Many of these gems are about the actual attempt to write poems - aborted starts, frustrated beginnings. But when this poet sets foot outside and allows his kaleidoscopic gaze to pause on barns, birds, memories, imaginings, then his mastery of form and communication sets sail and the results are fresh and scintillating.
It is ludicrous to write about poetry....this poet distills beyond essence ideas that only tap at our imagination. "I try to be a good hillside/my eyesight salty and clear,/and hold still all night. /..../ All the next hours will be empty shelves./ Until I'm a storm,/ and only a flower knows me." I suppose one has to say something in a review: Read these please.

This anthology is another one of Bloom's fantastic encyclopediac projects. He and his assistant Sam Zuba selected nine- hundred poems of two - hundred poets to represent the work of more than three - hundred years of American poetry.
While the first part of the work deals with devotional poetry Bloom's heart is with the Emersonian revolution, and its greatest poet, Whitman. The traditional categories are cast aside and the American cosmic religion goes forth into the world containing universes. This anthology too contains universes in which poets of diverse religious traditions have their say. It also contains a very strong, some might say , too strong representation of naysayers or those who are not ordinarily associated with conventional religion at all. David Gates in his 'Newsweek' review notes.
" His poets include Christians, Jews and Muslims, as well as all the whatevers; he also has American Indian songs and chants and African-American spirituals. "The Criteria of Political Correctness," he writes, "I dismiss with weary contempt." Go ahead and laugh, but I'll bet the Great Enjoyer really does enjoy it all."
Marilynn Robinson however finds that this all- encompassingness raises a certain problem.
"Given all this, Harold Bloom's introduction to American Religious Poems seems at odds with its content. He takes the view that there is a sui generis American religion which bears no relation to religion elsewhere and which is obdurately simpleminded. Yet most American poets who are held in high regard are represented here, and there is a preponderance of modern and contemporary poetry. In other words, aside from the rather perfunctory selection of early writing and a few songs and hymns that seem to have been chosen for their familiarity rather than for their interest as poetry, most of the work collected here is thoughtful and sophisticated by any standard. Much of it would seem "religious" only in a context that encouraged the reader to consider it in this light. Yet in this light it is indeed religious."
It seems to me that while Bloom might be easily open to criticism on his conception of what Religion is he cannot really be faulted for his great passion for and understanding of Poetry. In fact it is far to say Poetry is Bloom's Religion. And therefore the enthusiasm and love he brings to reading it, and this especially in regard to Whitman and Dickinson, works as pervasive spirit in the volume as a whole.
Morever there is so much fine work in this anthology each and every reader will be able to find in it poetry which sustains and inspires.

American Religious Poems is a collection of classic American religious poems by an immense variety of authors, covering all stages of America's history and spiritual legacy. Notes, an index, a source list, and an invaluable Reader's Guide complement the poems themselves, which have been carefully selected for their intergenerational appeal. A worthy cross-section of American faith through the centuries as expressed in poetic literature, from classical narrative poems to spirituals and anonymous hymns. "God": I followed and breathed in silence. / What of its task is beheld? / My feeding thee has lent all / Which broke the current thread breeze / That kept the sprout of pregnant seas / Of weathered promising call. / The filling shades he only changes, / Tells the logos, its unearned dew / Not to feed, as if from cages, / His cloak that perfumes fragrant hew; / What of all the bulging mountains, / Sordid earth and rotting clays? / If then sense is suction fountains, / That same thought is but its ways.

The Library of America is a non-profit organization aimed at preserving Americas literary heritage.

Simply stated these books are spectacular, not only in their literary content but in binding as well. You won't find a nicer book.

The content itself is a must for anyone who considers themselves "literate".

Here under one cover is a poetry lover's gold mine --over 900 poems, by over 200 poets, about all things religious. Bloom and Zuba have defined religion very broadly both in terms of faith traditions and subject matter, the skeptical and the unconventional included, the result being poems and poets that reflect the diverse and plural religious perspectives in American history, including Native American, African American, Buddhist, Sufi, Deist, Jewish, Unitarian, Protestant, Catholic and dozens more. The poems are arranged chronologically, beginning with the 1640 Bay Psalm Book (the first book printed in the colonies) and ending with Brett Foster (b. 1973) of Wheaton College. After the 900-plus poems there are 14 American Indian Songs and Chants, then 14 Spirituals and Anonymous Hymns (eg, "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" and "Free at Last"). A reader's guide to religious terms, an name index of poets, and an index of poem titles and first lines complete the volume. I was disappointed in Bloom's "introduction," which was little more than a short, technical essay on Walt Whitman ("our prime shaman of American religion") and Emily Dickinson ("Whitman's only possible rival in American poetry"). A broader treatment would have served a general readership better. Nor is there any introduction to the poets or their poems, save their date of birth. Still, this is a literary treasure trove, and I was sorry I had to return it to the public library; between its two covers there is enough poetry for a lifetime of meditation and reflection.

You know you'll be getting a slightly idiosyncratic choice of poets and poems with gnostic Harold Bloom as the chief editor. There are poets included who would be a bit surprised to hear themselves considered "religious," so you get early Merwin only, and Mark Strand, James Merrill (spiritual, kinda, but not 'religious'). Only one poem each from Mary Oliver, Gjertrude Schnakenberg, and Jorie Graham, while several from John Ashberry. On the other hand, several poets included I've never heard of--one of the reasons I buy anthologies, to be exposed to new voices. It is a book with great surprises as well, not just limited in scope to the old predictable chestnuts. The real reason I didn't give it a five stars is the physical book itself--ridiculously wasted attempt at a slip cover (cheap, flimsy, faux marbling) and odd graphic of a fountain pen in gold on an off white cover...just not what I expect from the publisher, especially at the cost.