Product Description

The Vietnam War, America's longest -- and in some ways most devastating -- conflict, changed the course of a generation and left millions wondering, "Why?" Here, in the first-ever collection of poetry from both sides of the war, Vietnamese and American poets use their art to ponder this haunting question. Chronologically arranged to mirror the progression of the war, From Both Sides Now brings together a wide variety of opposing views, with poetry by American and Vietnamese soldiers, orphans, widows, priests, monks, political figures, and antiwar protesters. In addition to including extraordinary works from well-known poets such as Bruce Weigl, Margaret Atwood, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Robert Bly, Allen Ginsberg, Grace Paley, Philip Levine, and W. S. Merwin, editor Phillip Mahony has scoured the globe to find amazing and, in some cases, never-before-published poetry by North and South Vietnamese soldiers and poets and the first postwar generation of Vietnamese-Americans. Together the words of these poets cohere to a modern, many-voiced epic about the most important event in recent American history. Poignant and accessible, the poems collected here will leave an indelible impact on all readers -- not only poetry lovers but everyone who lived through, and those who want to learn about, the Vietnam War. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

an ecletic yet wide-ranging poetry anthology from "both side
Mahony has done what no one before him was able to do--get a "big publisher" in this case Scribners and Simon & Schuster to publish a Vietnam War Poetry Anthology in both a hardcover and paper edition andmake it available to a variety of markets.Except for W.D. Ehrhart who gotAvon to print an early anthology in l985--which was promptly"dumped" , no American publisher has touched the subject ofVietnam War poetry. Now we have Mahony's From Both Sides Now with itsmulti-faceted approach and a pretty sharp intro by its editor.A fine textfor classroom use since it affords a view of veterans from both sides, aswell as other more well-known poets including Sharon Olds and PhilipLevine,etc.The anthology is well-organized, and in some cases especiallypoignant since it presents poems by poets whose work is not known to theAmerican public. This is an extremely accessible book, rich with the realloss and melancholia of our longest war.

Excellent collection of poetry
This book was exciting in two ways. One, the poetry was wonderful, combing poets who are quite famous with poets who are published here for the first time. Second, it recreated the Vietnam experience in a way I hadn'texperienced in years. I especially enjoyed reading the dozens of poems inthis book that were written by young Vietnamese-Amercan and Amerasianpoets. ... Read more

Product Description
This expanded edition of Postwar Polish Poetry (which was originally published in 1965) presents 125 poems by 25 poets, including Czeslaw Milosz and other Polish poets living outside Poland.The stress of the anthology is on poetry written after 1956, the year when the lifting of censorship and the berakdown of doctrines provoked and explosion of new schools and talents.The victory of Solidarity in August 1980 once again opened new vistas for a short time; the coup of December closed that chapter. It is too early yet to predict the impact these events will have on the future of Polish poetry. ... Read more

Product Description
The twentieth edition of The Best American poetry series celebrates the rich and fertile landscape of American poetry. Renowned poet Heather McHugh loves words and the unexpected places they take you; her own poetry elevates wordplay to a species of metaphysical wit. For this year's anthology McHugh has culled a spectacular group of poems reflecting her passion for language, her acumen, and her vivacious humor.

From the thousands of poems published or posted in one year, McHugh has chosen seventy-five that fully engage the reader while illustrating the formal and tonal diversity of American poetry. With new work by established poets such as Louise Glück, Robert Hass, and Richard Wilbur, The Best American Poetry 2007 also features such younger talents as Ben Lerner, Meghan O'Rourke, Brian Turner, and Matthea Harvey.

Graced with McHugh's fascinating introduction, the anthology includes the ever-popular notes and comments section in which the contributors write about their work. Series editor David Lehman's engaging foreword limns the necessity of poetry. The Best American Poetry 2007 is an exciting addition to a series committed to covering the American poetry scene and delivering great poems to a broad audience.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

a few pleasures
To Heather McHugh's credit, she's up front in her introduction about what criteria and biases she brings to her selections of the "best" in American Poetry.But that doesn't save the collection from being eminently disappointing.As many others have noted, this is a series of poems that play with sounds (I know, that sounds redundant)--but then it's not much more than that.The formula seems to be: 1) sing some sounds to yourself; 2) when they take the shape of words, write them down; 3) make big margins; 4) publish poem in BAP 2007.("I met the Duck and Duckess of Windsor," Frederick Seidel writes in a typical line from the book.)Some of this is quirky and fun, but after a while it grows tedious and even makes you wonder how original any of this material is if it all sounds so much the same.Each year's collection requires an entire reading to find the gems, but this edition requires much more work than usual.Ultimately it's worth it--there's three or four poems that will please you--but the series editors really need to be more responsible about what they call the book.Granted we will never solve the formula for "best," but "Poems Heather Likes" would be much more accurate.

Horrible
I don't need to say anything else.Wish I could get my money and time back.

Surface and depth
I assisted a stoneworker once in the construction of a foundation. From a large pile of stones he was adept at quickly finding those which the wall required, the shape of substance equal to the shape of absence, soon filled. He said it was largely a matter of having scanned the available material and letting his unconscious mind direct him to a conscious, and mostly correct, choice. Of course, in using language, we do something similar, swiftly rummaging through the word hoard for the thing we wish to say, hoping it will be solid, and something to build on. Heather McHugh delves into thematter itself, its interstices, gaps, and echoes, and into the material of what we mean, and are often unconscious of. The effect can be disquieting, calling the solid into question, shaking the foundation. Attention and alertness are required to read her work, and they are also the reward.The fort in comfort falls, and sometimes, in the landscape that was blocked, the delight of uncertainty and insecurity is revealed, if we are willing to stand it.
So I think McHugh selected poems for the Best American Poetry 2007 with something like this in mind. Are all of them best, or even better? Probably not. Some require more unraveling than I have patience for, some are indulgent, others seek to dazzle but tend to dizzy. That said, I have found the best way to read the book is here and there, now and then, to let accidents have their way with me. "Only surfaces interest me," writes Amit Majmudar in one of my favorite poems. "What depths I sound I sound by accident". But accidents, I think McHugh would agree, and the apparently random, favor the awakened mind.

Some poems are interesting.Most are dull.
There are a few poems in this book that are worth reading-- Milton Kessler's "Comma of God," for example-- but most of them are forgettable or nauseating.Some of the poems are so irritating or inept (or both) that you'll want to shove the book into the shredder.More irritating than the poems, though, is the section that contains the contributors' comments.Here's a sample by Thomas Fink: "By entertaining varied perspectives on interpersonal and intergroup conflict and by disrupting continuity between successive sentences, 'Yinglish Strophes IX,' I hope, foregrounds heterogeneous linguistic elements rather than an individual 'voiceprint.'"

If that's your thing, go buy this book.

Truly unimpressive
I was incredibly disappointed in this work.The selection of poems as "best" in America in 2007 was stunning in its mediocrity, and even outright poverty.If these are truly the best poems in America, we really are in trouble.I have never written a review before but this terrible book just made me want to cry out in protest. ... Read more

Product Description

Maybe you've heard before that poetry is magic, and it made you roll your eyes, but I believe it's true. Poetry matters. At the most important moments, when everyone else is silent, poetry rises to speak.

I wrote this book to help you write poems and to give practical ideas for making your poems sound the way you want them to sound. We're not going to smash poems up into the tiniest pieces. This book is about writing poetry, not analyzing it. I want this book to help you have more wonderful. moments in the poetry you write. I want you to feel the power of poetry. it's my hope that through this book you will discover lots of ways to make your poems shine, sing, soar...

Customer Reviews (6)

roses are red....
I bought this for my 9 yr old daughter who loves writing poetry...Weird I know, but she has seemed to enjoy reading this to get ideas and proper forms...

Inspiring book will make you want to write poetry even if you haven't ever done that
As usual, Ralph Fletcher makes you itch to put pencil to paper and write, write, write.

Great for older kids and adults
I really enjoyed the details in this book about from where poetry stems.I loved the idea of just watching the wolrd around you and seeing if a poem somes to you. It does!My only concern is the book uses language that would be too difficult for the average 5th-6th grader to understand.I like that poems from kids are included, but this book seems more appropriate for a teacher to reach and intergrate into his/her curriculum.

A book for beginners
Here's what I didn't like: the personal approach to poetry writting, using as examples personal anecdotes at the beginning of some chapters; the use of bad poems written by students instead of poems written by great poets; the superficial approach to poetry writting.
This is a book suitable for the very beginners. It wont satisfy poetry readers as well as poets.
Sorry... that's what I think!

This is a Great Book for learning how to write poetry!
Hi, I really enjoyed reading Ralph Fletcher's book "Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the inside out." He gives lots of good examples. He has interviews with two other poets in the book for ideas on poetry. He makes poetry interesting and fun to learn! I also enjoyed his poetry! ... Read more

Product Description
5 1/2 X 8 1/2 In, 128 Pp, Pencil < Drawings Throughout, Includes Anthology < of Children's Poetry, Ages 7 To 12 < People Love To Express Themselves < Through Poetry By Can't Always Find A < Way To Voice Their Feelings and < Experiences. Practical and Explorative < In Tone, This Wonderful Resource Offers < Natural Methods To Connect Landscape and < Language--To Make Words Truly Convey < Emotions. This Is A Book That Makes < Writing Nature Poetry Not Only Possible < But Natural. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good for poets of any age.
I bought this small book years ago, in the bookstore of a museum. I was impressed with it and bought copies for my children - and my old parents. It's one of those perfect books, transcending it's own aims. It can help anyone - not just children - see more and write better. And for kids, it's an inspiration and a lot of fun. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

An Integration of the Outer and Inner Landscape
"Being lazy in the meadow.
it is like placing my head
on a pillow of wind, rivers,
and dreams." ~Ben Burns, Age 8

Writing poetry can be an intensely personal and satisfying experience and while many poets draw on an inner well of experience, this book addresses the poems we write that are inspired by nature. Lorraine Ferra has divided this book up into wonderful chapters that are easy to read and are beautifully illustrated by Diane Boardman.

The chapters include:

Poetry Field Trips
Building a Nature Wordscape
Keeping a nature Journal
Wandering, Noticing, and Writing
Finding a Companion in Nature
Creating a Landscape
Becoming Your Surroundings
Colors in the Natural World
Dreaming Up a Place
Nature in Your Hand
Rhythms in the World and in Words
Growing a Poem Naturally

The chapter on Dreaming up a Place sounded familiar to me since I'm always wishing to revisit places I've been or imagining new ones I'd love to visit if they existed. Lorraine Ferra then asks questions about a sample poem to encourage an understanding and then gives suggestions for writing a poem about your own imaginary world.

"Find a favorite spot outside and sit quietly for a while. A tree would be good to dream in, or you could lie on our back and wonder about the cloud shapes and colors drifting high above you. Wherever you choose to be, allow what is actually there- sounds, smells, tastes, textures, sights - to carry you to an imaginary place." ~ pg. 88

Poems that appear in this book include titles like: In a Snowy Field, Walking in Winter, Thunder, Dandelion, Storm, Shadows, Bees, Inside the Woods, Autumn and A Story in the Snow. What makes these poems so interesting is that they are written by children and you can see the world through a different perspective.

NIGHT

Night swallows the sunlight
and devours the day
It lingers across the plains
cradling the moon and stars
in its hands.

~Richie Browder, Age 8

Lately I realized you could be as inspired by a DVD from Australia as being outdoors in Australia. When reading this book you may want to also expand your world knowledge by viewing nature footage from a variety of countries. I found that this book and watching shows about nature and foreign landscapes enhanced the experience.

A Crow Doesn't Need a Shadow is perfect for teachers or for parents to give to their children. Even adults will enjoy seeing the world in a new way as you integrate the inner and outer landscapes to create magical thoughts.

~The Rebecca Review

Doesn't inspire
Well, darn.This book reads like a supplemental text for a poetry-writing unit.It will help a child fulfill a classroom requirement, but that's about it.You've got a kid writing poetry, but not reading it to anyone else -- there's no sense of audience at all.It's merely poetry as self-expression, rather than poetry as communication with another person.The child poetry used as examples is all free verse and isn't something you'd want to read for itself.And there's no mention that a body of poetry exists and might be worth reading for inspiration or even the pure joy of masters at work.In this book, there are only children doing assignments.The little line drawings are sweet though, and more interaction between words and pictures would have been helpful.Unfortunately, this book didn't make me want to write poetry, read poetry, OR go out into nature. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

I LOVE THIS ONE!
I cannot think of a better way to introduce the poetry of William Butler Yeats than this small volume.The selection is excellent and of interest you the young reader.The commentary is quite relevant as are the pictures which accompany it.I find that often now, our young people go all the way through the early grades in school and many of them have never heard of Yeats,much less read his poetry.This was the sort of stuff my generation and the generation before it grew up on and cut our teeth on.I do not feel I am any worse for the wear.I am fearful that we are bringing up an entire generation (rightfully or wrong, although I feel it is the later) of young folks who will have no appreciation to this great art form and will miss a lot.This book helps.This entire series helps, as a matter of fact and I certainly recommend you add this one and the others to your library.Actually, it is rather fun reading these with the young folk and then talking about them.Not only do you get to enjoy the work your self and perhaps bring back some great memories, but you have the opportunity to interact with your child or student.It is actually rather surprising what some of the kids come up with.I read these to my grandchildren and to the kids in my classes at school.For the most part, when I really get to discussing the work with them, they enjoy it.Recommend this one highly. ... Read more

Product Description
Suffused with pain and power, Minnie Bruce Pratt's poetry is as evocative as the swamps and streets of the American south as it is of the emotional lives of those too often forced into the margins of society.Vivid, lush, and intensely honest, these poems capture the rough edges of the world and force us to pay attention.

The Dirt She Ate features thirteen new poems as well as selections from Minnie Bruce Pratt's previous collections of poetry - The Sound of One Fork (1981); We Say We Love Each Other (1985); Crime Against Nature (1990), winner of the Lamont Poetry Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and Walking Back Up Depot Street, ForeWord Magazine's Gay/Lesbian Book of the Year and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Weather Central
Ted Kooser's poetry is lovely."Sparklers" on page 79 is abeautifully spare poem that really spoke to me.

another fine collection by kooser
Although I didn't think this collection was quite as good as Delights & Shadows or his Selected Poems, Weather Central is a fine collection of poems. I recommend "Four Secretaries", "In Passing", "A Statue of the Unknown Soldier", and "Weather Central." The poems seem to be a bit longer than what he usually writes, though the rest of Kooser's characteristics are here. He still is plainspoken. He is still a simple poet. He's still a poet everyone can love.

Poet Laureate of Nebraska
After reading Weather Central it is easy to understand why Ted Kooser is sometimes called the poet laureate of Nebraska.He writes with eloquence of barn owls, potatoes, spider eggs, sparklers, baseball and the prairie so that they matter to the reader wherever they might live.These poems do not rely on obscure references, contorted images, or pretension.They are powerful because we see that our own lives are poems that are being created each day.With 20/20 vision Kooser puts them on the page for us. ... Read more

Product Description
Poet, novelist, scholar, translator, playwright, and teacher, William Packard has known every side of a writer's life. As founder and editor of The New York Quarterly, a national magazine devoted to the craft of poetry, he reads some 50,000 poems each year-most of them sadly deficient in sound, metrics, form, voice, and quality. This book is written to help poets address the central concerns of their craft and art.

Lively, inspiring, opinionated, and sometimes curmudgeonly, The Art of Poetry Writing covers a broad range of topics, both technical and personal, that all poets need to consider:

-Poetic devices and diction
-Verse forms and free verse
-Rhyme and metrics
-Creative vision and revision
-The benefits and problems of workshops and writing classes
-30 writing challenges to develop form and style and technique
-When to seek publication-and when not to
-What to read while writing
-The life of the poet, including keeping a journal, giving readings, applying for grants, and more.

Remarks by and excerpts from the work of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Dickinson, Yeats, Auden, Stevens, Moore, Thomas, Ginsberg, Sexton, Plath, Dickey, Bukowski, Ashbery, and dozens of other poets make this an essential companion for students, teachers and anyone who writes or reads poetry.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Writing Bible
This book was everything I could have wanted; it is comprehensive in its listing of genres, forms, poetry devices and history, and has some good psychological pointers about the writer's life and the need to allow yourself solitude and time away from workshop madness.Its lists of books to read while writing, before writing and just plain writing literacy are superb, and its "writing challenges" (exercises for writing poems when you're stumped) are super.I'm working my way through them, day by day.

Nice technical reference
I found that this book had little to say to the 'soul' of the poet but a tremendous amount to say about the craft.I first picked this book up several years ago, and since then the chapter on 'Verse Forms' is something that has stayed with me -- whenever I wonder just what a 'sestina' or a 'villanelle' is I pick up this book.I have also found the example poems Packard uses to be unusual and therefore interesting and occasionally inspiring.It is a reference and it's not a 'feel-good' book, but it's one I value on my shelves, and which I've given to other people who want a little more discipline in their poems than free verse provides.

A critical look at modern poetry.
On the dust jacket of this book, the word "curmudgeonly" is used. Don't bother to look it up, just read on and you'll get the idea. He begins with an overview of the history of poetry - very interesting andvery informative - and then moves on to discuss the pros and cons ofvarious schools of thought. Again, interesting and informative. He ishowever, quite merciless in his criticism of the things he dislikes - hissection on Poetry Workshops is a good example. Unfortunately, you get theimpression that he doesn't have much time for us ordinary human beings whofind writing poetry a satisfying experience without actually aspiring tothe Pulitser Prize. And while it is true that he addresses issues like'when to seek publication', 'how to apply for grants' etc etc, he doesn'tactually give you much information!

A good book as an overview of thehistory and purpose of poetry, with some excellent exercises("triggers"). Not however a book for someone starting out inpoetry, or for anyone who has even the slightest doubt about their ownabilities as a poet. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Criticism; Poetry; Juvenile Nonfiction / Poetry / General; Literary Criticism / General; Literary Criticism / Semiotics ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sublime
I'm a serious student of Japanese poetry and came across this book in a comparative literature class in college. I loved it so much that I bought another copy for my mom, who was maybe a casual reader of poetry at best, and SHE loved it. It's one of the most accessible poetry books I've found, and the translations read very smoothly. (The original Chinese text is included, which is helpful for students and other translators who would use it as a reference.)

Another reviewer mentioned that there was a mistake in the translation, but having translated a significant amount of poetry myself, I have to say that there is no such thing as a perfect translation. Chinese and Japanese poetry contains a lot of allusions, word associations, etc., but these are sometimes left out intentionally because there is no way to render the exact nuance of the original without disrupting the flow of the translation and the mood of the overall poem.

Young Needs a Better Informant
After discussing one of Young's "translations" with a competent scholar of Chinese literature, I found that he completely mistranslated the poem because he was ignorant of an allusion easily recognizable to anyone qualified to translate Chinese poetry.

Save your money.

She's Amazing!
Her story is touching and the fact that she died so young might suggest that this poet is merely a curiosity in the rich poetic context of the late Tang. But in fact, as these sensitive and sometimes brilliant translations demonstrate, she was as good as any of her contemporaries, a poet of great range and rare sensibility. With its fine introduction, careful notes, inclusion of the originals and beautiful cover, this is a book to own and treasure, mainly for its astonishing poems! ... Read more

Product Description
A new edition of the acclaimed anthology—the most comprehensive collection of twentieth-century poetry in English available.

"The most acute rendering of an era's sensibility is its poetry," wrote the editors in their preface to the first edition. Thirty years later, this thorough and sensitive revision freshly renders the remarkable range of styles, subjects, and voices in English-language poetry, from Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy in the late nineteenth century to Carol Ann Duffy and Sherman Alexie in the twenty-first century.

With 195 poets and 1,596 poems, The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry richly represents the major figures—Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Williams, Hughes, Olson, Bishop, Larkin, Plath, Rich, Heaney, and Walcott, among others. It also gives full voice to postcolonial and transnational poets, ethnic American poetries, experimental traditions, and the long poem. Each volume concludes with a Poetics section that provides essential contexts for reading the poems.

With substantially new introductions, headnotes, annotations, and bibliographies by the award-winning scholar and teacher Jahan Ramazani, this anthology is indispensable for all who love poetry. Two volumes, slipcased. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

good condition, but only vol.2 was sent-needed to be more specific.
It was hard to know if I was going to receive volume 1 and 2 because neither were specified in the description, so i purchased the anthology and only received vol. 2 still a pretty good bargain, but I need volume 1 and i'm not sure how i would get it. otherwise it a was a very quick delivery!

What a DEAL!!!!
I haven't read the books yet - got them for a grad class I am taking.However, they are priced insanely well!These books were $122.00 through school and B&N - less than $50 here.I love Amazon - shop here all the time and they have great customer service!

In Good shape
I received the item in good shape. It looked used but also a little new.
The best part about buying the item is that the seller did a good job with keeping in touch with me throughout the whole sale period.

tremendous anthology
In the past I've read less expensive anthologies, but the quality of the selections and the excellent introductions (especially the poetics section at the back) make it well worth the extra money.To double your pleasure, read the first volume in conjunction with an excellent free on-line course at Yale.edu.

Boring
I found only one poem in the whole collection to be enjoyable. The remainder of the collection is probably useful as a reference but I wouldn't recommend it to individual buyers. ... Read more

Product Description
Fiftieth Anniversary Edition

Neruda was a kind of King Midas. Everything he touched turned to poetry, says Gabriel Garca Mrquez, who also considers the Chilean Nobel laureate "the greatest poet of the twentieth century, in any language." [The Fragrance of Guava, 1983]. The Canto General, thought by many of Neruda's most prominent critics to be the poet's masterpiece, is the stunning epic of an entire continent and its people. The Canto speaks of the destiny of Latin American peoples and the life of the poet himself. Without question, this is one of the most important and powerful long poems written in the modern period. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

One of the Greatest Books Of the 20th Centruy
How is there only one review for this? This is one of the greatest books of all-time. Neruda is one of my favorite poets and all of the reasons why are present in this text. I just learned that some people have a different impression of Neruda because they have only come across his more popular Odes and Twenty Love Songs and a Song of Despair. I like it all, but those are nowhere near the level of Canto General.

Canto General is an epic. I especially love the early passages about life on Earth before the conquistadors came. It's a complete historical account about the creation, the defilement and the restoration of the Americas. Neruda brings it all out full force in this book. I have read many passage out loud and have found myself actually winded from the unending power.

This translation is excellent. I can't compare it to others, but it's clean and seems to hit the mark really well. When reading it, I never question that it's anything but Neruda's voice. There is also a nice introduction. It also has a flap that can be used is a bookmark. It's very sturdy for a paperback.

Get this book. Each read opens new windows. Neruda is at the height of his powers here. There are wonderful passages, captivating sub-narratives, political revolts, and the poetry is unparalleled. It's actually hard to describe in words. When the mind is clear, it's some of the best poetry that there is.

Support local bookstores if you can.

Can to, General
Amazon sent me the following:

"Thank you for your recent purchase from Amazon.com. We invite you to submit a review for the product you purchased or share an image that would benefit other customers. Your input will help customers choose the best products on Amazon.com. It's easy to submit a review--just click the Review this product button next to the product."

As I never received the book from the Marketplace seller I have not yet had a chance to read "Canto General" by Pablo Neruda. One would think that Amazon could keep up on such things....

A Masterpiece of Latin American Literature
If you must read only one book from the Modern Latin American Literature (and this certainly would be a great mistake, if not a crime), then it should be this one. Canto General is a single poem, and yet it is acollection of poems. It is a historical epic, a social analysis, apolitical pamphlet, and a love sonnet. It is a song of Love and a song ofRevolt, a personal song as well as a universal one; a song which whisperstenderly in your ear, and a song that screams against injustice with a loudforceful voice. It is Pablo Neruda's song and it is Chile's song, but it istruly America's song, North and South.

Written in Neruda's lyrical andmellifluous style, Canto General speaks with passion, lucidity, and evenpremonition of the heavy burden of social injustice and the brutality oftyrannical rule. But it also speaks with overflowing sensuality of love(for women, for the people, for his country). It would be unconscionablenot to absorb and understand this book in its social and historicalcontext, yet it would be a great mistake to view it uniquely as a politicalwork of expression.

Read it to understand the Americas. Read it to revelin the beauty of its language. Read it to feel proud and to feel ashamed,to laugh and to cry. Read it in English (good), in Spanish (much better),or even in French (why not?)

I first read Canto General in French at theage of 15. I may since have forgotten some of the words in this book, butits impact and its spirit will probably remain with me for the rest of mylife.... ... Read more

Product Description
From the Beat poetry of the '50s to the spoken word of today, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry brings readers the words, visions, and extravagant lives of bohemians, beatniks, hippies, punks, and slackers. Like Donald Allen's epochal New American Poetry, The Outlaw Bible will serve as a primer for generational revolt and poetic expression, and is an enduring document of the visionary tradition of authenticity and nonconformity in literature. This exuberant manifesto includes lives of the poets, on-the-scene testimony, seminal underground articles never before collected, photographs of clubs and cafes, interviews, and, above all, the poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (42)

Good for parties
I like to pick it up and just read some here and there. Fun stuff.

Gift Praise
Ordered as a birthday gift for my 34-year-old son whom I see about every six months.Did not give it to him until the car was packed and hugs were exchanged.Trip time was delayed and bigger hugs were exchanged.I am a devious mom and knew how to plan this if I wanted a good visit.Have received numerous emails and calls beginning with "Mom, you've got to hear/read this."Bought it for him, not for me.He gives it 5 stars as a "must read," and I give it 5 stars as a good gift for young adult poetry readers.

Fantastic selection, Very Interesting, Very Moving
This book blew me away, there are stories and tidbits of lives in that book.You really feel like you made a bunch of new friends when you get to the middle.You feel how they felt, all the different people of our society.It's amazing - take post-its and mark your favorites for later re-reading.Tons of poems to keep you reading for hours and hours.

Hookin' High School Kids
Teaching high school poetry is tough--Emily, Walt--the classic poets scarcely inform the world of the average stoner/slacker/skater high school kid.This book will help break through and open the world of poetry to those who really need it.During five years of teaching at an alternate public high school, I bought half a dozen of these, for other teachers, for especially promising students, to replace copies boosted from the classroom.It's "school inappropriate" in many ways--raw, profane, real, gross--it takes real balls to use this book in public schools, but the kids will love it.

Oh, the words!The miraculous, transformingwords!
This big, fat, juicy book of poetry is a feast, a literal feast of poets and poetry that you won't be studying in high school or college.It's the rebels, the outcasts, the beats, the street poets, the slammers and the damned.It's Sparrow, Tupac, Dylan, Wanda Coleman, Di Prima and hundreds more you probably haven't heard of.

If you color outside the lines, occasionally peek into the abyss with your toes gripping the edge, then you will love this wealth of words.Buy it, drink it, eat it, wear it.It's life-affirming and life-changing.

... Read more

Product Description
Billy Collins, one of our most beloved poets, has chosen poems of wit, humor, imagination, and surprise, in a range of styles and forms, for The Best American Poetry 2006. The result is a celebration of the pleasures of poetry.

In his charming and candid introduction Collins explains how he chose seventy-five poems from among the thousands he considered. With insightful comments from the poets illuminating their work, and series editor David Lehman's thought-provoking foreword, The Best American Poetry 2006 is a brilliant addition to a series that links the most noteworthy verse and prose poems of our time to a readership as discerning as it is devoted to the art of poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

a friendly introduction to what the best means
Collins' poetry is one of "accessibility"--a term he expands upon greatly in his introductory remarks, and there, his voice is firm and assured about the kind of poetry he favors versus drivel passing for verse in contemporary American poetry.Sure, Collins' poetics might not gel very well with the crap being published today, but that is his singular stance and vision of what American poetry is like in 2006, one filled with "Laughter in the Dark" (to borrow a scintillating title by Nabokov).

the best I've read in the series
There is no doubt in my mind that 06's collection is the best I've read (and I've been reading them for some time now), though to be fair, somehow I missed 2005--though I'm not much for Hejimen's taste. I'm not surprised how good this one is though, after all, Billy Collins selected them, and he is a phenomenal poet with great taste. He picked poems that covered all schools but were told in language and images that we can all appreciate and understand. Keep picking poets like this (hey, consider Gioia, Dave Mason and R.S. Gwynn--they'll give you collections as good or better than even this one.).

A wonderful sampling of contemporary poetry
Since a great many contemporary poems leave me confused or disappointed, I was delighted to connect positively with so many of the seventy-five poems selected by guest editor, Billy Collins.The editor's Introduction brought insights that contributed to my enjoyment, as well as providing guidance to would-be poets.Of course, the guest editor makes a huge contribution to the success of this annual series, and Billy Collins has ferreted out some treasures for 2006.

Good to keep up with current poetry
It is good for those who are not inclined to keep up with currently published poets to see the choices of a poet laureate.

Ok
The only favorite poem of mine is by Kay Ryan. The rest of the stuff is mediocre.. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Poetry for Young People
Our grandchildren really enjoyed this book.
One of them even wants to try his hand at writing poetry
at age 7-8.
Bought this on a recommendation and glad that I did. ... Read more

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"Here, in a precedent-setting collection, are the master singers."—Carol Muske-Dukes

Poetry and music share countless virtues, affecting us in many of the same ways. We respond to their lyricism, move to their rhythms, and anticipate their refrains. In antiquity, the two forms were one and the same, performed together, not as prima donna and accompanist, but as inseparable aspects of a single piece.

The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology celebrates this timeless connection with more than 150 extraordinary poems written with music as their muse. Through them, we experience the power of music to enthrall, evoke, and inspire, whether in opera houses, on road trips, or in the unexpected interior worlds to which music escorts us. The book's nine sections—Listening to Music; Songs and Singing; Performances; Composers; Opera; Jazz and Blues; The Piano and Piano Lessons; Horns, Woodwinds, and Strings; and Music in Nature—include an exceptional array of poets: the most eminent versifiers from today and centuries past, as well as an exciting selection of lesser-known discoveries and rediscoveries.

While the poems in The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology are themselves musical, they are included because they are direct responses to music and the experiences entered into through it. Some are tributes to performers and composers—from Bach to Stravinsky to Coltrane to Callas—while others recreate the magic of live performance. Others still are exquisite renderings of the memorable, often intimate moments that music generates or leads us to relive—an audience of seals drawn in from the sea in Seamus Heaney's "The Singer's House," or a man making peace with his bourgeois roots via Cole Porter in Tony Hoagland's "You're the Top."

Whatever element of music they address, the poems of The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology form a striking arrangement that is bound to resonate with lovers of poetry and music alike.

Contributors to The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology include Fleur Adock, W. H. Auden, Charles Baudelaire, Robert Bly, Louise Bogan, Eavan Boland, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Hayden Carruth, Amy Clampitt, Billy Collins, Jane Cooper, Emily Dickinson, Steven Dobyns, Mark Doty, Jane Flanders, Robert Frost, Louise Glück, Deborah Greger, Donald Justice, Thomas Hardy, Seamus Heaney, John Hollander, Ted Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Kenneth Koch, Richard Howard, Louise Labe, D. H. Lawrence, David Lehman, Philip Levine, Federico García Lorca, Amy Lowell, Mina Loy, William Matthews, Phyllis McGinley, Sandra McPherson, James Merrill, W. S. Merwin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Howard Moss, Lisel Mueller, Howard Nemerov, Pablo Neruda, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Oliver, Frank O'Hara, Linda Pastan, Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, Muriel Rukeyser, Rumi, Sappho, May Sarton, Grace Schulman, Ann Stanford, John Updike, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Susan Wheeler, James Wright, Kevin Young, Adam Zagajewski, Jan Zwicky, and many others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The poetry of music
This is a beautiful gift for the musician or the wordsman. It contains some of the most wonderful poetry about music and musicians ever written. This is the third copy I have bought. Recommended highly!

Excellent read, excellent condition
The Music Lover's Poetry Anthology is a well-organized collection of poems about an assortment of musical topics; including instrument families, the listening experience, performance, composers, and music in nature. A wide variety of poets and poetic styles are featured, making the reading of this book diverse and captivating.This item was received in excellent condition and holds a place of honor on the bookshelf.

music !!!
New twist on an old theme: music,composers and poetry. A good mix and a good read. ... Read more

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Since its first publication in 1965, this collection has been widely hailed as the best available text of William Blake's poetry and prose. It is now expanded to include a new foreword by Harold Bloom, his definitive statement on Blake's greatness. ... Read more

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Since its inception in 1988, The Best American Poetry series has achieved brand-name status in the literary world as the preeminent showcase of each year's most important contributions to American poetry. This year's exceptional volume, edited by Robert Creeley, a figure revered across teh wide spectrum of American poetry, features a diverse mix of established masters, rising stars and the leading lights of a younger generation. The pleasure of the poems selected here,Creeley explains in his introduction, is "that they caught my fancy, some almost outrageously, some by their quiet, nearly diffident manner, some by unexpected turns of thought or insight, others by a confident authority and intent." With comments from the poets elucidating their work, a thought-provoking introduction from Creeley, and Lehman's always popular foreword assessing the current state of poetry, The Best American Poetry 2002 will prove as irresistible to new readers as it is indispensable for poetry fans everywhere. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

The Best Anthology Ever
For a great many years now, I have been buying and reading cover to cover the annual issues of "Great American Poetry."This is by far the best example the anthology has had to offer. Every poem is unique, powerful with a vast command of language and nuance, and they each invite rereading after rereading.These gems are diverse and yet extraordinary in their methods. The poets are seen at their finest. 2001-2002 must have been a highly creative year.

Never mind the bollocks, buy this book!
For many years, I have been taking the Best American Poetry books down from the shelf at the local bookstore for a peek, but I never felt compelled to buy one until I read the 2002 version selected by Robert Creeley. I've always had more respect than affection for Creeley, finding it hard to get into his stuff, but I loved the synergy (Marketing stole this word from the Greeks--I'm stealing it back) produced by the juxtaposition of devil-may-care experimentation with the best of more traditional,"mainstream" offerings in this volume.My favorite examples of these divergent impulses here are Jenny Boully's "The Body," a poem in the form of footnotes to blank pages (this poem has been ridiculed in other reviews found here, but I find it daring and exhilirating--in fact, I wish I had thought of it first) and Donald Hall's "Affirmation," an astonishingly straightforward and devastating poem that is one of my favorites from his body of work and one that should warm (freeze?) the heart of the most esthetically conservative reader.

Even though I received a B.A. in English with a focus on creative writing ten years ago, I have only recently begun to understand the struggle between those who would keep poetry at a place it never was (the "School of Quietude" in Ron Silliman's terms--you MUST read his blog, it's good whether you agree or not, just as long as you care about poetry) and those who want poetry to continue to evolve (not "improve"), no matter what unexpected and scary turns it may take (what Mr Silliman calls, in our time, the "post-avant").This book seems to have frightened most of the reviewers who felt compelled to contribute their opinions here, which frightened state they express as distaste. Just know that the most innovative and forward poetry that has lasted was seen in its time as "eccentric" or "inaccessible" or "repugnant" or "unreadable" or "incomprehensible," ad nauseam, from Euripides to T.S. Eliot, who, despite of his conversion to stultifying artistic conservatism and his weird adoption by "the Establishment" (and weirder disinheritance by "the anti-Establishment"), told us, if I remember correctly, that meaning should not be sought when first reading poetry that is new to us, but rather an understanding of the qualities of language the poet is presenting to us.

[This may be a complete misrepresentation of Eliot; I'm sorry I don't remember where I read his statement about reading for meaning.Anyway, people who hate this book will respond that there is no quality to the language here, the good old days were the best, blah blah blah etc etc, but this is as good a place as any to end this review.]

Unfortunately
Few of the poems in this collection struck fire in me, a smaller percentage than earlier volumes in the series.

By far the worst of the series
I have never been a fan of Creeley's work ("For Love" is honestly one of the worst poetry books I ever wasted a yard sale dollar on), but I still expected better from his BAP selections, which are totally lacking in flavor.Creeley tries to convert readers to his surrealist style, rife with inaccessible, abstract dream-language, most of which here is narcissistic, utterly incoherent, and reads like the journal ramblings of a Goth teenager. Someone who does not like poetry would not change his/her mind after reading BAP 2002, and that is exactly why I find this collection repugnant. As a poet myself, I have an open mind, experiment with nontraditional modes of writing, and enjoy the surrealist and renegade edge of many contemporary writers.But this edition was useless, both as enjoyable reading and as writing inspiration.90% of the poems are meaningless, flat, and unfulfilling.Additionally, they were culled almost exclusively from the internet and unheard-of publications. I strongly support small presses and am always eager to sample new publications, but to ignore more established journals which consistently produce quality work feels disrespectful somehow.To be fair, there are a few bright spots in this edition--the poems by Broughton, Burkard, Chapman, Cooley, di Prima, Equi, Friedlander, Gizzi, Goldbarth, Hall, Kumin, Merwin, Myles, Metres, Olds, Sadoff, Warsh, Wier and Wright are worth a second read.But an anthology such as this shouldn't be assessed on the quality of each individual poem, rather on the tone and texture of the whole.The "picture" that BAP 2002 paints is a painful, wasteful, headache-inducing one. Creeley himself says in the introduction, "These poems are better than the best, each and every one of them. If you don't agree, then go find your own." Please, please take his advice.

An Unsurprising Disappointment
Reader take note: if you are curious about contemporary poetry and are looking for an interesting place to start, this anthology is not for you.Try 2001 or 2003.Skip 2002. One of the interesting things about this series is discovering the guest editor, always a notable contemporary poet, as reader of contemporary poetry.What exactly was Robert Creeley thinking?Most of the poems in this volume are emminently forgettable; others unreadable.I enjoy reading this anthology every year, but in this case it was a real struggle. ... Read more

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The Poet Laureate's clear and entertaining account of how poetry works.

"Poetry is a vocal, which is to say a bodily, art," Robert Pinsky declares in The Sounds of Poetry. "The medium of poetry is the human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is as physical or bodily an art as dancing."

As Poet Laureate, Pinsky is one of America's best spokesmen for poetry. In this fascinating book, he explains how poets use the "technology" of poetry--its sounds--to create works of art that are "performed" in us when we read them aloud.

He devotes brief, informative chapters to accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, blank and free verse. He cites examples from the work of fifty different poets--from Shakespeare, Donne, and Herbert to W. C. Williams, Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, C. K. Williams, Louise Glück, and Frank Bidart.

This ideal introductory volume belongs in the library of every poet and student of poetry.
Amazon.com Review
While it's hardly the most traveled of literary destinations, poetry hassuffered from no shortage of guidebooks. Still, these poetic baedekers tendto get bogged down in terminology and historical hairsplitting, while theactual music gets lost in the shuffle. We should be thankful, then, forRobert Pinsky's brief, wonderfully readable volume, in which he zooms inon verse as acoustic artifact: "When I say to myself a poem by Emily Dickinsonor George Herbert, the artist's medium is my breath. The reader's breathand hearing embody the poet's words. This makes the art physical, intimate,vocal, and individual."

Not that Poet Laureate Pinsky gets vague or touchy-feely on us. Poetry,like God, is in the details, and the author starts with the buildingblocks, the amino acids, of verse: accent and duration. Even the most jadedof readers will benefit from his syllable-by-syllable examination of ThomasCampion's "Now Winter Nights Enlarge" and Wallace Stevens's "SundayMorning." Moving on through discussions of syntax and line, meter and rhyme(or lack thereof), Pinsky enlists both the usual suspects (Shakespeare,Frost, Hardy, Eliot, Bishop) and some less customary ones (Gilbert &Sullivan, Louise Gluck, and the splendid James McMichael) to make hispoints. These poems are, in some sense, teaching tools for the author. Yeteven his on-the-fly commentary causes us to see them in a new light. Herehe is, for example, on the near-monotonous minimalism of W.C. Williams's"To a Poor Old Woman": "The poem dramatizes the taking in of a supposedlyordinary experience, and the playful, almost hectoring repetitions are likean effective sermon in praise of simplicity." The Sounds of Poetryis no less effective a sermon. It leaves your ear (and your heart) attunedto the pleasurable play of poetic language and persuades you that hearingis, indeed, believing. --James Marcus ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

A Small but Immensely Valuable Book
Pinksky's close careful discussion of how sound works in poetry is immensely instructive, like being taken on a leisurely tour through an art museum accompanied by a first-rate docent. After reading this book, unless you are either already a superb reader or supremely stupid, you will find new registers, new nuances in poems you thought you knew through and through. William Carlos Williams called poems "machines made of words": Pinsky takes several poems apart and carefully points out and explains the workings of some of their most delicate and precise inner mechanisms. I know of no other book that treats this subject as well.

aLAS this BOOK is DRY as DUST
I actually learned from this book -- in particular, gained an understanding of relative stress and of how the best free verse incorporates meter -- but Pinsky, though he has the love, is dry as can be, bless him.

Excellent introduction
Robert Pinsky's The Sounds of Poetry is an invaluable guide to the most critical--and one of the most neglected--aspects of poetic writing: sound. I first read this book when taking an undergrad poetry-writing course, and I found it immensely helpful.

Pinsky takes a great deal of potentially clunky, academic information and distills it into a fast, easily-digestible handbook. In just over 100 pages, he outlines the essentials of rhythm, meter, the meaning carried by sounds, and the interrelation of all three. For anyone who has read, studied, or written poetry before, there won't be much new here, but having so much good advice in such a concentrated form makes this little book an excellent read. Even several years after taking that course, I still find myself browsing this book, looking for helpful reminders and inspiration.

Pinsky's book is not only helpful and informative, it's a fast, fun read--it both delights and informs. Horace would be proud.

Highly recommended.

Not a dull manual
Don't be deceived by the bad reviews you see from a few others here. What likely disappoints them about this book is its refusal to be useable, to give a method to read or write rhythm, to make illusory markings of beats or syllables. Far from reducing poetry to a scheme, Pinsky brings out the uniqueness of every line, every sounding of words together. He shows how the power of a poem involves tones and speeds and flows of sound played against subtle turns of syntax.

He shies away from neat categories of verse. Instead, he'll show marvels, such as iambic pentameters within Ginsberg's "Howl."

Not only can you learn about poetry here, but find such sentences as: "The emotion, the sexual horniness, produces an artifact of extravagant control." Rather than a book to pick up for practice or study, I found it was hard to put down.

A Guide to Hearing Poetry Better
Too many poetry books (and teachers) approach meter as though it were a clearly defined binary system of equally stressed and equally unstressed syllables. Robert Pinsky is largely successful at showing how to appreciate the rich variety of sounds in the English language while avoiding a lot of technical terms and descriptions. It's important to keep in mind that this is not intended as an overview of the basics of poetry, but a "brief guide" to one aspect of how poetry works. He discusses rhythm and meter (including the effects of duration and pitch), rhyme and its variations, and blank and free verse. There were a few aspects of the book I didn't fully agree with. Pinsky treats all meter as variations of iambic. He includes some elements of word choice (particularly etymology) that are not convincingly related to sounds. And his tone is at times too simplistic - not condescending, exactly, but annoyingly dumbed down. However, this short book is well worth reading to get a poet's perspective on the importance of sound in verse. ... Read more