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Go to: Adult Fiction | Adult Mystery | Nonfiction | Poetry | View All | View Recent | John Ashbery
|  | A Worldly Country (2007)
I've always thought John Ashbery to be a challenging poet, as evasive and idiosyncratic as Emily Dickinson or Wallace Stevens. Like these two predecessors, the formal structure of his poems evocatively frames his often ironic, always discursive, language: "So it often happens that the time we turn around in / soon becomes the shoal our pathetic skiff will run aground in. / And just as waves are anchored to the bottom of the sea / we must reach the shallows before God sets us free." A strong follow-up to his National Book Award-nominated Where Shall I Wander. | | WPL Call No: 811 Ashbery, J.
Reviewer: Brian Myers (May 2007)  Leave a comment | View comments (0)
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| Garrison Keillor
|  | Good Poems (2002)
This is my favorite collection of poetry. Garrison Keillor,host of the NPR radio show,"A Prairie Home Companion", selected poems that are easy for all to understand and identify with. Many of the poets and poetry include classic poets such as Dickinson, Frost, Shakespeare and poets that may be less well known, but are contemporary greats, such as Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, James Wright, and many others. These poems address emotions and ideas that we all can relate to. With over 400 pages of great (not merely good) poems, you can't go wrong with this collection! | | WPL Call No: 808.81GO
Reviewer: Susan Kaplan-Toch (December 2006) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Gary Snyder
|  | Danger on Peaks (2005)
The title of Gary Snyder's most recent collection is taken from the last line of the poem "For Carole" and refers not only to the dangers of mountain climbing but also to the intrepid nature of the wisdom-seeking life. The poems here are written in a rich variety of forms - including a section of haibun ("haiku plus prose") - but each is structured in the simple, taut and finely-crafted style for which Snyder is known. This collection (his first volume of original poetry to be published since 1983) was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. Sadly, Snyder's wife Carole Koda (for whom the book was dedicated) lost her battle with cancer just a few months after it was published. | | WPL Call No: 811 Snyder, G.
Reviewer: Brian Myers (November 2006) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Wang Wei
|  | Selected Poems of Wang Wei (2006)
Wang Wei (c. 701-761), is considered one of the greatest poets in China's long literary history, and the foremost representative of the Ch'an (Zen) tradition during the T'ang Dynasty, which drew little distinction between artistic pursuit (painting, poetry, music) and spiritual practice. Of the 400 or so poems which can be directly attributed to him, this collection presents 80 which are among his most famous and are among the most representative of his spare, tranquil, imagistic style ("No one seen. Among empty mountains, / hints of drifting voice, faint, no more. / Entering these deep woods, late sunlight / flares on green moss again, and rises.") Wei's continuing influence (Ezra Pound, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, and Anne Waldman are among his 20th century admirers and translators) is a testament to the perfection of his craft, and translator David Hinton's introductory essay richly informs our understanding of the distant historical and cultural context in which these poems were composed. | | WPL Call No: 895.1 Wang, W. pb
Reviewer: Brian Myers (September 2006) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Donald Hall
|  | White Apples and the Taste of Stone (2006)
The publication of Donald Hall's most comprehensive collection of selected poems to date coincides with his appointment this year as the U.S. Poet Laureate. Readers who admire Robert Frost or Ted Kooser will treasure this collection, which encompasses the work of more than 50 years. Those familiar with his late elegiac poems will find much to admire as well, including several poems that appear here for the first time in book form. | | WPL Call No: 811 Hall, D.
Reviewer: Brian Myers (June 2006) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Robert Creeley
|  | On Earth (2006)
This posthumous title is an unpolished but still radiant jewel of a collection, and it is regrettable that Creeley passed away before its completion. Many of the poems are profoundly elegiac in tone ("When I Think," "Mediterranean I & II,") and several are addressed to deceased friends such as Paul Blackburn, Ed Dorn, and John Wieners. Predominantly short and deceptively simple, each poem touches upon some aspect of age, memory, language, or temporality. Also included is an essay, "Reflections upon Whitman in Age," which examines the late poetry of Walt Whitman. | | WPL Call No: 811 Creeley, R.
Reviewer: Brian Myers (April 2006) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Ted Berrigan
|  | The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan (2005)
Almost twenty years in the making,
this volume represents the most
complete collection of Berrigan's
poetry yet published (after a
relatively slim 142-page "Selected
Poems" from 1994). One of the most
important New York poets of the 1960s
and 1970s (he died at 48 in 1983),
Berrigan collaborated with and exerted influence upon key
poets and artists around the Lower
East Side: Joe Brainard, John Giorno,
Bernadette Mayer, Ron Padgett and Anne
Waldman. Although Berrigan was widely known for his "open field" verse, this broad collection brings together many of his earliest and later unpublished poems and demonstrates his mastery
of the conversational style ("It's 2
a.m. at Anne & Lewis's which is where
it's at / On St. Mark's Place hash and
Angel Hairs on our minds") and his
Whitmanesque ebullience ("Here you can
see for miles & miles & miles / Be
born again daily, die nightly for a
change of style / Hear clearly here;
see with affection; bleakly cultivate
compassion . . . "). Highly
recommended. | | WPL Call No: 811 Berrigan, T.
Reviewer: Brian Myers (February 2006) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Billy Collins
|  | The Trouble With Poetry: and Other Poems (2005)
This former U.S. poet laureate is one of our most popular poets. His poetry is accessible because his poems are not
difficult to read, and because they are
witty, mischievous, funny, and sweet.
The poems in this collection are about
simple pleasures and daily routines.
Read his poetry and enjoy! | | WPL Call No: 811 Collins, B.
Reviewer: Susan Kaplan-Toch (January 2006) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Ange Mlinko
|  | Starred Wire (2005)
Artfully combining references to cultural ephemera with dream-like evocations and playfully experimental rhetorical constructions, Ange Mlinko achieves effects that are among the most stunning and original in poetry today. This collection, a National Poetry Series winner, is just Mlinko's second (after her 1999 debut "Matinees").
Fans of John Ashbery will particularly appreciate this challenging and innovative young poet. | | WPL Call No: 811 Mlinko, A. pb
Reviewer: Brian Myers (December 2005) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
| Kenneth Koch
|  | Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch (2005)
This collection of poems by Koch (1925-
2002) reinforces his stature as one of the wittiest and most entertaining and erudite poets of his generation. A charter member of the famed New York School (which included Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Barbara Guest) of which Koch was probably the least known, his poetry is easily the most accessible. This collection is highly recommended to even the most hesitant poetry readers. | | WPL Call No: 811 Koch
Reviewer: Brian Myers (December 2005) Leave a comment | View comments (0) |
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