Product Description
An illuminating and invaluable guide for beginners wary of modern poetry, as well as for more advanced students who want to sharpen their craft and write poems that expand their technical skills, excite their imaginations, and engage their deepest memories and concerns. Ideal for teachers who have been searching for a way to inspire students with a love for writing--and reading--contemporary poetry.Amazon.com Review
Steve Kowit believes, and rightly so, that poetry should show, not tell. The same could be said for good teaching, which is what makes this volume so remarkable. In In the Palm of Your Hand Kowit employs more than 100 poems and excerpts to illustrate his discussions on everything from metaphor to meter to metaphysics. Working your way through this book--and it is work--is like sitting in on a terrific creative-writing seminar, minus the criticism (both constructive and destructive) of fellow students. If you go by the book, you'll have written at least 69 poems by the end. Because of its explication of the basic tenets of poetry, In the Palm of Your Hand might be mistaken for a beginners' book only. That would be a shame. There are so many good ideas here that more experienced poets won't want to miss out; Kowit has lots of exciting ways to invigorate one's writing. (Here's a favorite quick tip: "A good rule of thumb is never to use a word that you're proud of.") In the Palm of Your Hand is also recommended for members of writing groups who are interested in imposing some kind of structure on their meetings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Amazing
Kowit's book invites you into the very soul of poetry, and suddenly you find yourself evoking the minuscule, corner-shadowed inhabitants of your subconscious ... all the specks of dust and the cobwebs. And they find themselves, reincarnate and illuminated, on paper. He gives you wonderful exercises that inspire you to try things you would never have thought of otherwise. I highly recommend this book.

In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop
I never received this item. I think the seller was very poor-not letting me know what had happened, until I questioned him. Very poor customer service. I would not order anything from this seller. I am not able to review this item- (it appeared that the seller, never sent it)

Do you think you know something about Poetry?
As I started to read this book, I thought I had a pretty good idea about poetry. I was totally wrong. I knew nothing at all. In the foreword to this book Dorianne Laux writes:"I was lucky. And now you can be lucky too". I thought that it sounded promising, but then I did not think more about it. As I started reading and after just a couple of pages, I understood what Dorianne Laux meant. If you hold this book in your hand and if you are prepared to discover what Steve Kowit has to show you about the world of poetry - then you are truly lucky. As the title says, you hold the Poetry in the Palm of Your Hand. Go for it!

Vaguely pedestrian
I chose this book because of the glowing reviews. I was disappointed. I expected a discussion of the nature of poetry and how it is constructed. What I got was "A process for recovering memories" (Recall a pleasant time in the past., Recall a building in which you once lived., etc.)

I gave this book one star because some of the critiques of the ibcluded poems were interesting although the choices of poems was not. Knowing what I now know, I would pass on this book.

it's this poet's companion
Since 1996, I have kept this book handy on my nightstand and carried it with me on every vacation I take, just to make sure it is accessible when I am ready to learn more about reading poetry, to improve my writing of poetry, to give myself assignments for writing, or just to read and re-read some of the beautiful samples included inside. I have and have utilized a number of "poetry handbooks," but find this one the best. It is just a great book for anyone interested in poetry from any angle. It is also helpful for discovering new poets, too, as the samples included are drawn from a wide body of authors. ... Read more

Product Description
To us
it is just dirt,
the ground we walk on...
But to Dave
it was clay,
the plain and basic stuff
upon which he formed a life
as a slave nearly 200 years ago.

Dave was an extraordinary artist, poet, and potter living in South Carolina in the 1800s. He combined his superb artistry with deeply observant poetry, carved onto his pots, transcending the limitations he faced as a slave. In this inspiring and lyrical portrayal, National Book Award nominee Laban Carrick Hill's elegantly simple text and award-winning artist Bryan Collier's resplendent, earth-toned illustrations tell Dave's story, a story rich in history, hope, and long-lasting beauty.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Stunning Illustrations
I had purposed this book to be apart of an ongoing History discussion I was having with my children --boy and girl, 8 and 10 -- on the Civil War. I meant to personalize the historical era which is basically incomprehensible to children this young if you don't give them someone they can understand. And eventually we did get around to this discussion, but first it had to wait. Why? Because my children were awestruck by Bryan Collier's beautiful illustrations. His drawings just grabbed their attention and they had to examine them thoroughly before we could get back to the text. (There's something just magically about how a pot can be pulled out of the blob of clay, and they just had to go through the process multiple times before we could move on :)

Dave's hands, buried
in the mounded mud,
pulled out the shape of a jar.

Like a
magician
pulling
a rabbit
out of
a hat...

How true. And Bryan's palate of rich browns and ochres brought that magic to life. And served to make Dave "real" to my kids. So that when we got around to that conversation about what the Civil War was about we could talk about how amazing his artwork and poems were in the context of a time when it was illegal to teach a slave to read and write.


THE SKINNY:::
Dave is a fascinating man and I think the author and illustrator made this perfectly clear.

Besides putting slavery in perspective, I really liked how inspirational his story was.Dave managed, somehow, in a time when it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write, to produce poetry. And his story is really one of the inextinguishable human spirit.

I wish the book had included some information about the rest of Dave's life.He was eventually emancipated after all, and took the last name Drake, and I wonder what happened to him.But then again not knowing the rest of the story, perhaps there's a reason it was omitted.(Parents and teachers might still want to do some more research to tell 'the whole story'.)

I also wish that there had been some notes explaining some of the more cryptic poems. We had fun trying to figure out what some of them might have meant, but I would have liked to have an authoritative source give us their opinions.

Simply fabulous artwork.
3.5 Stars

Pam T~
mom/blogger
booksforkids-reviews

visually stunning picture book biography
When author Laban Carrick Hill first learned the inspiring story of Dave the Potter, an outstanding 19th century folk artist, poet, and slave, he was determined to share Dave's story with young readers.

He decided to tell Dave's story in free-verse, explaining the process of creating a pot from beginning to end.With powerful close-up images of Dave's hands forming the clay on the potter's wheel, we read:"Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat,/Dave's hands, buried/in the mounded mud,/pulled out the shape of a jar."While the clay dries, we see Dave preparing the special "glasslike brown glaze to withstand time."Finally, Dave inscribes his jar with a special poem, signing his name and the date.

In an era in which few slaves learned skilled trades such as pottery, and slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write, Dave's works are particularly extraordinary; at the conclusion of the book, the author provides more details of the little that is known about Dave's life, and also reproduces a number of Dave's surviving verses.

The stunning illustrations by award-winning illustrator Bryan Collier are inseparable from the text.Done in a palette dominated by the earth tones of the clay itself, the illustrations are done in a combination of watercolor and collage and show the step-by-step process of creating a pot.The images are infused with a monumental and even spiritual quality which highlights the dignity of Dave's work.

The book includes a brief bibliography of resources, both print and websites, about Dave.

In his dedication, illustrator Bryan Collier is particularly eloquent about this story, which he dedicates to all artists, and everyone who loves picture books:"Because this story is really about the power of the human spirit, artistry, and truth, and that cannot be silenced by bondage of any kind."Don't miss this new release--not only a wonderful book to enjoy and discuss, but one which can also be used to inspire both art and poetry lessons in school classrooms.

Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children
Enslaved potter Dave produced thousands of beautiful pieces of pottery over the course of his life, a true accomplishment given that the institution of slavery denied most African Americans access to skilled trades.Dave's pottery is even more extraordinary given that a number of pieces were inscribed with poems he wrote himself at a time when southern states prohibited the education of slaves.

This thoughtful, creative picture book pays tribute to Dave the potter.Rhythmic verse and expressive watercolor/collage images harmonously present the story of how Dave would have created one of his lovely jars, from transforming the earth into clay and spinning the clay on the wheel, to finishing the piece with an inscription and glaze.Together with the afterword, the prose and illustrations provide a useful resource for teaching young learners about slavery and different ways in which African Americans resisted this oppressive system.
... Read more

Product Description
Compiled by poets who have been at the center of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, Aloud! showcases the work of the most innovative and accomplished word artists from around America.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

spanglishy book
I honestly would have never thought of buying this book had i not seen the movie Miguel Piñero.The movie showed an incredibly talented man who struggled with many personal problems (drugs, aids, alchohol,robbery, etc.) the movie gives a Puerto Rican perspective of life and the obsticles one has being latino in United states. I felt very inspired by the movie and felt compelled to buy the book to experience his unique style of poetry, his stuff is very good, and there are also many other people who have excellent poetry in this book also.

great service
got this book in a timely manner and paid pennies for it. haven't read it just yet. flipped thru it and found so many good poems it left me homesick and longing to return to the nuyourican poets cafe. i've watched a lot of poets on youtube. anyway for what it's worth i'd recommend this one. Aloud helps me feel connected to NYC and living here in charleston, SC i really need it.

great variety
my english prof recomended this book to me, i'm glad she did. if you love poetry this book has a vast variety of styles and authors.

Depending on the reader...
I bought this anthology when I was really into performing, and watching performance poetry, SLAM, spoken word, whatever you want to call it. Even then I was disappointed. Perhaps I'm an elitist then, but I would have much rather this was a DVD, or a few CDs perhaps, but this work is meant to be performed, and on the page it just doesn't, well, perform, which is why, since my last move it hasn't made its way onto the bookshelf.

raving reality
Honest, deep, exciting. Thats what I found this collection to be.
The poets bare their souls, their opinions, their lives in an unflinching declaration of life. I loved it. I read and re-read it. ... Read more

Product Description
Rich selection of powerful, moving verse includes Brooke’s "The Soldier," Owen’s "Anthem for Doomed Youth," "In the Pink" by Sassoon, "In Flanders Fields" by Lieut. Col. McCrae, Thomas Hardy’s "In Time of the Breaking of Nations," many more by Kipling, de la Mare, Bridges, others. Publisher’s Note.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Nice survey from Dover
As the First World War becomes more of an afterthought, its legacy may actually rest in the countless poems it inspired.During one of mankind's worst armed conflicts, Britain saw a poetic flowering with some of the most delicate verses ever written.And these poems are not frozen in time, either; they still have major social relevance today.

Those who are curious about these writers will find satisfaction in another of Dover Thrift Editions' low-cost books.'World War One British Poets' is a 71-page survey of 16 writers both male and female, with apt editing by Candace Ward.While not an in-depth study of the poets, it gives a strong introduction to some of Britain's greatest literary minds.

'World War One British Poets' is nicely arranged and brings the poems into historical context.There is a short introduction to the war's beginnings and how these poems were a natural response to the chaos that ensued.Each poet is dealt with attentively and a short bio prefaces the selection of his or her work.To Candace Ward's credit, this anthology gives attention to names both major and minor.Besides Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon - considered the titans of First World War poetry - there are easily-forgotten personalities like Charles Hamilton Sorley, Robert Bridges, and Walter de la Mare.

The anthology includes two female poets: Alice Meynell, known as a social activist during the Victorian era, and May Wedderburn Cannan, who was educated at Oxford and served as a Red Cross volunteer in France.Disappointingly, the book omits such poets as Edmund Blunden and Richard Aldington, but there is only so much ground that can be trod in 70 pages.The book will certainly motivate readers into looking for more works by the poets who filled this era.

Located in Mineola, New York, Dover Publications has mastered the 'thrift' edition by printing books at the lowest costs possible while keeping prices super-cheap.'British World War One Poets' currently retails at $2.50; there are anthologies better detailed than this one, but for the low price, you can't find better value.

WWI Poets -- Ward
This is a good anthology, although somewhat limited in scope.As a research tool, it is barely adequate.As a review of the most famous poetry, Ward gives a good range of poetry, and the reader will get a flavor of WWI poetry.

good stuff
I'm not a big fan of poetry.When this book was assigned for one of my classes, I was afraid it was going to be a huge chore to get through it.However, I was pleasantly surprised by many of the poems in this book...there were several that I took a strong liking to, including the classic "In Flander's Field," among others.I found many of the poems quite touching.

And an added bonus, they're all pretty short.

A good, inexpensive primer to WW1 poetry
The two cultural features from the First World War that have survived the test of time are its popular music and its poetry. While the music is generally remembered as peppy and cheerful, much of the poetry serves as a dark and grim counterpart. As it is, some of the greatest 20th Century poets derived their inspiration from those tragic years.

This book is an excellent and inexpensive sampler of World War One-era poetry. Most of the major battlefield writers are represented, including Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg, and John MacCrae. Other important writers who were inspired by the war are also included, such as Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy. Two women, Alice Meynell and May Cannan are also represented. The editor included a balanced number of patriotic works and anti-war poems.

Each writer has a mini-biography, followed by a sampling of his or her works. The quantity varies from a single poem, up to 11 works. The selections are representative of the authors, and many of the best-known titles are here, including Dulce et Decorum Est and In Flanders Fields.

This primer is hardly comprehensive nor is there much critical analysis of the poems or poets. But it is not meant to be. This book combines a well-rounded selection of poetry with an extremely low price to make it an attractive introduction to World War One-era poetry. This is not the best anthology out there, but it is a perfect introduction for those who are curious about First World War poems and don't want to pay a hefty price.

Great Poems on War
I am not a poetry reader. Perhaps due to a lasting revulsion of forced readings in various literature classes during my tenure in public school, poetry used to be a real turn off. Until I picked up this slim book of poems of British World War I poets, that is. After a few pages of some of the excellent poetry in this book, the pulse quickened, the lights came on, and poetry suddenly seemed useful.

World War I (1914-1918) is pretty much a forgotten war today. Occasionally, you'll see a documentary containing grainy footage of men in strange helmets climbing out of trenches, usually moving at a freakishly quick pace due to the inadequacy of the early film process. WWI is further overshadowed by the mega-death body count of WWII. But WWI had its own unique horrors as the nations involved resorted to poison gas, mechanized warfare, and attrition strategies to kill off some 15 million people. The new methods of mechanized warfare failed to stifle the human element of war, and this is where these poems come into play. Some of the soldiers involved in the conflict were poets and writers, and they used these talents to document the battlefield horrors for the folks back home.

There are male and female writers here, and those who were there and those who stayed home. Those who served in the war do the best jobs with their poetry. Even May Wedderburn Cannan, a woman who served as a nurse at Rouen, writes better poetry about the war than such distinguished literary figures Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy (both of whom write from the safety of the home fires).

Keeping in line with the subject matter, most of the poems are grim and violent. Many of the poems focus on the incongruity of nature and violent acts of war. In one stanza, birds are chirping, the sun is shining, men are singing, and all seems right with the world. The next stanza is filled with sudden mutilations, violent death, and the shriek and scream of shells and bullets. Some of the poems deal with the anguish of watching someone die or killing another human being, as Wilfred Owen writes in "The Target" about a possible meeting in the afterlife with an enemy he's killed:

"Well, if they get me, first I'll find
That boy, and tell him all my mind,
And see who felt the bullet worst,
And ask his pardon, if I durst."

A few of the poets speak in favor of the war, seeing it as a call to glory or a defense against barbarism (see Rupert Brooks, John McCrae, and Rudyard Kipling). Others rail against the rulers and the senseless attrition warfare (Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Isaac Rosenberg best represent this viewpoint).

Regardless of ideological viewpoint or writing style, all of the poems have a beauty that comes from dealing with horrors beyond the comprehension of the individual. The overwhelming power of the poems should make the hardiest soul's eyes mist over with tears of frustration, agony, and profound sadness. ... Read more

Product Description
Collected here are poems about horse racing, mining, trash collecting, nuclear testing, firefighting, border crossings, buffalo hunting, surfing, logging, and sifting flour. In these pages you will visit flea markets, military bases, internment camps, reservations, funerals, weddings, rodeos, nursing homes, national parks, backyard barbecues, prisons, forests, meadows, rivers, and mountain tops. In your mind s eye, you will meet a simple-minded girl who gets run over by a bull, two mothers watching a bear menacingly nosing toward unsuspecting children, and children who have yet to be toilet trained out of their souls. You will learn to reach into the sacred womb, / grasp a placid hoof / and coax life toward this certain moment. You ll teach poetry to third graders, converse with hitchhikers, lament for an incarcerated brother trying to fill the holes in his soul / with Camel cigarettes / and crude tattoos. You will sit at the kitchen table where perhaps the world will end while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite. In the short time each of us has in this world, here s your chance to experience life widely and to reflect on your experiences deeply. Lowell Jaeger, Editor ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great poems from and for everyday people!
I saw this book in an independent Santa Fe bookstore last week (for full retail price + tax)and I stood there for more than 30 minutes reading through it.I knew I needed to buy it and almost purchased it then and there.My common sense won out, though, and I waited to get home to buy it from Amazon.I can't wait to receive it.As a poet of common themes myself, I appreciate such poetry from others.

The Perfect Book for Poetry Skeptics
I admit I started off as a poetry skeptic myself a few years ago. That is, until I got in to college and joined a poetry workshop full of real people who wrote about real things. I suddenly discovered I could understand and love poetry as much as I loved fiction.

Mr. Jaeger says it best in his introduction to the Anthology: "Over nearly three decades, I've taught poetry courses and workshops to audiences of all descriptions, beginners especially, and I know with certainty that people who claim they can't understand poetry, can indeed. It's a matter of exposure..." (3).

This is a book full of understandable poems from understandable people who work and live everyday lives, and have chosen to tell us about them. But what is everyday for one person is a new and interesting experience for another. That is what makes poetry beautiful, and that is what makes this book unique as it shows us the lives of people in eleven different states, with numerous backgrounds, cultures and traditions. Come and meet them. ... Read more

Product Description
From listening to his grandmother recite epic poems from memory to curling up in bed while his father read funny verses, award-winning actor John Lithgow grew up with poetry. Ever since, John has been an enthusiastic seeker of poetic experience, whether reading, reciting, or listening to great poems.


The wide variety of carefully selected poems in this book provides the perfect introduction to appeal to readers new to poetry, and for poetry lovers to experience beloved verses in a fresh, vivid way. William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Dylan Thomas are just a few names among Lithgow's comprehensive list of poetry masters. His essential criterion is that "each poem's light shines more brightly when read aloud." This unique package provides a multimedia poetry experience with a bonus MP3 CD of revelatory poetry readings by John and the familiar voices of such notable performers as Eileen Atkins, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Billy Connolly, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Lynn Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Gary Sinise, and Sam Waterston.


Every reader will enjoy reciting or listening to these poems with the entire family, appreciating how each one comes to life through the spoken word in this superlative poetry collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

Very nice poetry book
The selection of poems is fantastic.My Mom and my aunt both really like the book.Just be aware that some of the poems on the CD are hard to understand due to the accents of the readers.My Mom and aunt are both hard of hearing and my Mom is almost blind so using the CD didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.If you're simply reading the poems yourself, it's great!

The Poets' Corner
John Lithgow is such a Renaissance Man with eclectic taste and choices.All of which I celebrate in his Poets' Corner including his takes and the performances. What can I say?Go for it!

too thin for the price
poets corner-not enough, john! at best a sparce sampling. poor tom scrapes the bowl for want of meat he paid in full.

The Poet's Corner
I originally obtained the book from my local library.I loved it so much, I purchased it from Amazon.An old German proverb says, "Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen."This book is a treasure that I will return to again and again.It is a "pathway" to other important books (such as Jack Kerouac's "On The Road")that I have heard of but will now read.John Lithgow outdid himself.Thank you John!

Pricing
This is a great book but the pricing is odd. While this is one of the few I would rather own in hardcover than on my kindle, it should not cost 4 dollars more on kindle. ... Read more

Product Description
A major June film release from Touchstone Films, this movie tie-in is a sure seller. Starring Robin Williams, this is the poignant story of an eccentric and charismatic English teacher who brings new life to a conservative boys' prep school in Vermont. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (55)

The Novelisation: A Big Disappointment
I love Dead Poets Society. In fact, it's one of the best movies I've watched, ever. It was one of those that deeply moved and touched me. The stories of these boy's lives touched me, as they were so true to life.

However, after reading the book of the movie, I have to say I'm left terribly unimpressed. It read more like a kid's novel than anything else. It lacked depth and emotion. The characters were all made out to be shallow, childish and weak, while Mr. Keating's part in the changing of the boy's lives was terribly downplayed. Some of the very poignant scenes in the movie were simply not justified in the book.

I have to say though, that I have to give credit to the author for some of the extended scenes that were deleted in the movie, but apart from that, it's a big disappointment. It's okay for a read of the outline, but really, you have to watch the movie to really know and understand what DPS is about.

Novelization Of The Film
Although it makes me smile to say this now, when I was in middle school, I used to leave this movie in the VCR and watch it almost every morning as I was getting up for school. Something about its 1950's New England setting and cast that all came together to make it important to me. I loved its message of unconventionality and personal freedom of expression. I liked the new worlds the teacher, Mr. Keating, said poetry could open up to a reader. Time passed, I kind of got away from DPS (a film I sadly outgrew) and it wasn't until many years later as I was cruising the book section of a thrift store that I came upon the novel to this movie. Remembering the way this timelessly inspirational story used to make me happy, I bought the book and read it in one sitting. For anyone who was ever touched by Dead Poet's Society I recommend this book. To anyone else, skip it, there's not a lot here for you: no new characters, same sad ending, same time, same place. Dead Poet's Society the book reads exactly like a director's cut extended version of the Peter Weir movie, including in its length a handful of scenes the film never contained. It also has a few lines that were spicier than the dialogue in the motion picture and there's a stronger suggestion of exactly what Charlie 'Newanda' Dalton got up to with those college-age girls from town he brought to the Dead Poet's meeting that one night. I still have this little novel and I'm glad I bought it. I only wish I'd owned it back in the day when Dead Poet's Society was among my favorite movies.

O' Captain! My Captain!
I would recommend this book to anyone.The book has a flow, balancing friends, tragedy, family, school, and everyday life. Although few find this book a bore, I found it fast-paced and absorbing.This is a thrilling and entrancing piece of literature.
-Timo

an excitingbook
The novel deals with a lot of good ideas. It shows that we have to live with our hearts spontaneously, and not run it like a conveyer belt! There are so many things which are important and which we forget so easily in our all-day lives.
The boys all have their own problems! And these are mostly problems about how to live their lives That can also be our own concern! And so the book is likely to touch everybody, I think.
I can really recommend this extraordinary book!

A very goodbook
I like poems very much! In this book there were quite a lot. The story is exciting, romantic and sometimes also funny. Of course I also see the tragic side of the novel. It shows a good way to live on's life: Carpe Diem! ... Read more

Product Description
In 1951 Robert Motherwell published a collection of writings called The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology. Conceived as a sequel to that volume, Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology does for Surrealism what Motherwell's book did for Dadaism. The concept and contents were discussed with Robert Motherwell and met with his enthusiastic approval.The essays, manifestos, poems, and texts in this anthology offer a composite picture of the Surrealists-- their convictions, styles, and spirit--from the movement's beginnings in France just after World War I to its second flowering in America after World War II. The book includes writers and artists from Belgium, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Guyana, Italy, Martinique, Mauritius, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, Senegal, Uruguay, and the United States. Caws's main criterion for inclusion was that the works be the best and most representative of the different forms of Surrealism. Among others, the artists and writers include André Breton, Marcel Duchamp and Rrose Sélavy, Max Ernst, Mina Loy, Francis Picabia, and Tristan Tzara. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Here it is, the treasure house.

An anthology so rich and diverse I'm going to go ahead and call it "heroic".So much of this wouldn't be available anywhere, if not for this book.Mary Ann Caws has done dozens of fresh translations.It seemed incredible to sit at my table with my coffee and say, "Ah, now I'll read Andre Breton's letter to his daughter. . . now I'll look at facsimiles of Joseph Cornell's letters to Mina Loy and Marianne Moore. . . here is a picture of an elderly Picasso wearing a fireman's helmet. . . here are the poems of Robert Desnos and Paul Eluard and Malcolm de Chazal.The book is beautiful and fascinating and simply a lot of fun.I'm not a scholar or a historian -- this is a book to read for pleasure.

For example, here are 7 Things I Loved:

Giorgio de Chirico, an excerpt from his memoirs: "Although the Surrealists professed unadulterated communist and anti-bourgeois feelings they always tried to live as comfortably as possible, dress very well and eat excellent meals washed down with excellent wine; they never gave so much as a centime to a poor man, never lifted a finger in favor of someone who needed material or moral support and above all they worked as little as possible, or not at all." (p.29)

Louis Aragon, an excerpt from Paris Peasant: "Fearsome, charming whores, let others take to generalizing in their arms.""No museum could ever reconstruct you on the basis of your little dimpled hand." (p.75)

Antonin Artaud, an excerpt from "Van Gogh: The Man Suicided by Society": "He who does not smell of a smouldering bomb and of compressed vertigo is not worthy to be alive.""Only perpetual struggle explains a peace that is only transitory just as milk that is ready to be poured explains the kettle in which it has boiled." (p.106)

Leonora Carrington, the story "House of Fear": "But I'd forgotten that I could only count to ten, and even then I made mistakes.In a very short time, I'd counted to ten several times, and I'd gone completely astray.Trees surrounded me on all sides.'I'm in a forest,' I said, and I was right." (p.149)

Arthur Cravan, from his Notes: "I am perhaps the king of failures because I'm certainly the king of something." (p.171)

Julien Gracq, "Ross' Barrier": "At such times we hugged each other so long and close that in the melted snow, a single gully was hollowed out, narrower than a baby's cradle, and, when we got up, the cover between the two teat-like mounds suggested Asiatic asses, saddled with snow and descending the mountain slopes." (p.231)

Marcel Marien, his gorgeous essay "Psychological Aspects of the Fourth Dimension": "For if one break, pierce, breach, split, or otherwise penetrate an object, it is not its interior that is thereby reached; in the new void created, new images are created, hitherto unknown surfaces are touched." (p.289)

And I haven't mentioned the poems of Mina Loy, or the portfolio of Dorothea Tanning paintings, or Joseph Cornell's dream journal or Breton's collaborations with Eluard, or the entirely incredible Meret Oppenheim.

There is so much here -- and so many writers I would never have found if not for this book.This expensive sturdy book is worth saving up for!

An impressive, far-reaching overview of Surrealism
I'm surprised that this rich volume hasn't been reviewed by anyone else so far, but I'll try to do it justice. Mary Ann Caws, who has written extensively about the Surrealists, has compiled a treasure trove of Surrealist art & writing in these pages, including work from many creators not immediately thought of as Surrealists. But as she demonstrates, the glowing thread of the marvellous runs through their creations as well.

"Surreal" has become an all-purpose word for "strange, different" these days, and many famous Surrealist images have become all too familiar, drained of their mystery & power, through commercial over-exposure. Caws makes us experience Surrealism anew, in all of its boundary-breaking freshness & startling beauty. She reminds us that it's not just one more useful form of graphic design, but a means of seeing through the mundane shell of the world, of discovering new & intricate connections between seemingly unrelated objects & ideas, and of burning away the dulling drabness of the everyday to experience a blazing, transforming new reality.

There's such a wide range of work collected here that you're sure to find something that speaks especially to you. And you'll find countless points of departure for further exploration of the Surreal. This isn't just an excellent introduction to Surrealism (although it's certainly all of that), but a work of art in itself. If the Surrealist mode of experience appeals to you, and you want to learn more about it, then this is the place to start. Most highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
selections from each of the 52 Pocket Poets books ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Overrated?
I think this book is quite a bit overrated. People speak about this book gushing with sappiness.I guess I should make it clear at this point that I'm not really a big fan of this style of poetry. I think beatnik prose can be pretty good and pretty poetic,but I tend to be a little leary about beatnik literature that is explicitly poetry. Make no mistake about it, there is some good material in here, including some of Mr. Ferlinghetti's stuff and some of Kerouac's and Ginsberg's typical stuff. However, overall, I wouldn't say I'm too impressed.

Nice overview of City Lights poets, but selection problems
This is a pleasingly slick and blocky hardbacked volume offering a nice sampling of every single one of City Lights' pocket poet editions.But I think the selection could be better.

First, and perhaps predictably, the Beats, and above all Ginsberg, get too much space.Not only does Ginsberg have multiple books in the series, he often gets many poems from each book, while other poets only get one.It's very hard to get a real sense for poets who are new to you--and thus to decide if you want to explore them further--from a single poem.Some of the imbalances are mind-boggling.Corso gets one sole poem, while Kerouac (not a BAD poet, but certainly not a great one) gets eight?!

Second, Ferlinghetti seems undecided on the nature of the volume--is it supposed to represent the best poems in the series, or is it a nostalgic history trip?This is most evident in the selections from Ginsberg--which often appear to have been picked simply because they offer explicit or implicit elegies for each of Ginsberg's famous Beat pals.Many of the Ginsberg selections are pretty disposable--yet his best poems, "America" and "Supermarket in California," are left out, and only part II and the footnote of "Howl" are included.

That said, it's nice to get an easy introduction to City Light's offerings beyond the Beats, that's really the book's best feature.There are many wonderful poems by Kenneth Patchen, a perfect pick of O'Hara, as well as Prevert, Nicanor Parra, Norse, even Picasso, Brecht, and Mayakovsky.It makes me wish they had just trimmed the beats out entirely--or given them their own separate City Lights anthology--so we could get a better taste of the others.

Beat book
A wonderful and portable collection of poems about being on the go and experiencing life to its fullest.

Captures the true beat essence in delightful and sundry ways.

A rare joy in the world of poetry. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

A poet chooses and offers insight.
These 130 columns written for the Washington Post Book World present a fascinating view of the breadth of world poetry and insight into the mind of a well read poet.The essays and poems are topical or biographical and include familiar topics such as Nightingales ("Perhaps I never heard you, but my life \ is bound up with your life, inseparably" Jorge Luis Borge) or Self Portraits ("Sick of being decent, he craves another \ crash.What reaches him except disaster? Frank Bidart).Looking at untypical subjects of poems we see Hirsh's insight for example on swimming "Kumin's poem .. finds a deeply religious element in the act of immersion." .Hirsh at time seems to offer psychological clarity "Grossman's poetry seems haunted by the Freudian idea that a son's poetic work should fulfill his mother's spoken (and unspoken) desires"). The poets span the world from Polish Czeslaw Milosz ("There was no thing on earth I wanted to posses."), to Yiddish Kadya Molodowsky ("Merciful God, /Choose another people/ Elect another") to Nebraskan Ted Kooser. So this book offers a good anthology of poets along with Hirsch's commentary which helps make the poems meaningful.

Near-perfect Anthology
Other compilers or "editors" of similar collections, anthologies, or selected poems of single poets can look to Hirsch's "Poet's Choice" as a great model for their publications.Not just replications of poems collected or uncollected, Poet's Choice is instructional and pleasurable by way of the author-editor's personal comments re: his "favorites," the similarities and differences among poetic styles, nuances, etc.This book offers fine selections, but much more.

Valuable Insights by a Master Poetry Reviewer
Hungry for tips on where to find brilliant, cutting-edge poets?Eager to learn about highly-talented poets with much to say wonderfully on human issues?Then buy Edward Hirsch's Poet's Choice and enjoy yourself.Each of his short chapters (three pages each!) introduces the reader to outstanding poets from around the world who have found their voices in personal catastrophe, ethnicity, life-altering experience, or sudden insight.After reading Hirsch's outstanding critiques of stunningly gifted, mostly 20th-Century poets, you'll want to buy their selected or collected works.And Hirsch's sensitive, evocative explanations of the poets' lives and poetic techniques are educational and motivational all by themselves.Hirsch, a respected poet himself, gives us lines like this one from his wistful chapter comparing poems and birdsongs:"There is something irrational in poetry, which still trembles with a holy air."And, in his chapter on the angst-driven love poems of Jane Mayhall, "There is something holy and crazed about an intensely personal grief."Hey, I'm more than ready for Poet's Choice, Part 2!

Poetry: "There has never been a civilization without it."


Always relevant, poetry addresses the great themes of our lives, love, loss, the modern terrors of a post 9/11 world, the scourge of war and a hope for peace. Tackling every human emotion and universal concept, poetry "puts us in touch with ourselves" as we interpret the words of the poets, personalizing and processing. This collection addresses every aspect of life, from the general to the personal perspective, our marginalized society, our place in the grand scheme of things and an ongoing dialog with history from the perspective of our own experiences. The poem is the sound of humanity, the voice of yearning and hope, restoring us to an increasingly alienating world, a private corner of the universe where we find comfort and expression.

Poet's Choice is not just another collection of great poems, but a more intimate format, the author speaking to the landscape of poetry, the language of each selection, shared anecdotes, bits of information that render each work uniquely accessible: Jorge Luis Borges' "Nightingale"; Rabindranath Tagore's "Final Poems"; Nellie Sachs' "Butterfly"; Xuan Quynh's "Summer"; Pablo Neruda's "Body of a Woman" and "Walking Around", to name but a few. This is poetry in its natural context, complex, universally appealing. Thoughtfully assembled, the poets speak the language of the world, past and present, an anthology that begs for a permanent place on a desk or bedside table, an island of personal exploration that expands souls and heals the battered heart.

"And so
it has taken me
all of sixty years
to understand
that water is the finest drink,
and bread the most delicious food,
and that art is worthless
unless it plants
a measure of splendor in people's hearts." (Taha Muhammad Ali)

To absorb the depth of these poems is to appreciate the differences inherent in the world we inhabit, elevating the consciousness and reaching for the finer self, one with the universe in human experience and the source of hope. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

The Best Poetry Anthology Ever?
I prefer anthologies for my intermittent poetry reading jags, so the role of editor is important. And after looking through POET'S CHOICE, I think that a case could be made that Edward Hirsch is the most auspicious choice for poetry editor/scholar that one could make.

In POET'S CHOICE, Hirsch has brought together material from his "Poet's Choice" columns to run alongside both international poems (which comprise one half of the book) and the work of American poets (the other half.) POET'S CHOICE is further organized into chapters exploring subgenres of poetry that a layperson would not ordinarily encounter. The odd thing is, Hirsch's introductory essays are so good, one can spend as much time enjoying his prose as the poems themselves!

By providing this accessible context and thought-provoking analysis with terrific poetry, Hirsch has compiled a truly excellent book. It's sublime reading both for the short term and for the long haul as well.

Just for fun, the following is a poem by the late William Matthews, which lays out the "Four Subjects of Poetry":

1. I went out in the woods today, and it made me feel, you know, sort of religious.
2. We're not getting any younger.
3. It sure is cold and lonely...
(a.) without you, honey.
(b.) with you, honey.
4. Sadness seems but the other side of the coin of happiness, and vice-verse, and in any case, it is too soon spent, and on what, we know not what. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

40 Years Of European Poetry
The New European Poets is a fine introduction to the largley unknown work of poets from Portugal and Ireland to Russia and Turkey. Obviously with such a huge volume of poetry to cover it can only offer the merest taste and the most talented of the poets cannot be outstanding. The alternative to be much more selective might have been more enlightening but this is never the less an interesting introduction to the varied voices of the new Europe.

new european poets
one of the best translated poetry anthology i have.europe first time presented to me in different perspective.fresh voice.young representation.

Exciting anthology!
This is an excellent collection of contemporary poetry from
all over Europe, including the more exotic and less familiar
geography.Irina Ratushinskaya is included, from Russia. She is
a poet I have long admired, who was imprisoned for years for her
powerful words and insights.
A great anthology, not to be missed.If you love poetry, read it! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (16)

Pity
Is it the methodology that is to blame for this underwhelming collection? It is quaintly restricted to poets born from 1960 (ok) who had no book pub'd BEFORE 1995(?) and had pub'd NO MORE THAN 3 BOOKS when this collection was being assembled(???). I'm afraid it's the guys listed on pxxviii they DIDN'T include, the divine Denise Duhamel entre autres, that got me slavering. And then there's the sheer volume - EIGHTYFIVE names! OK, it's not the poets' fault - the university presses need product and they're only trying to secure their future after all - but it needs to be said that these poems for the most part lack emotion, form, fun, concision, lyricism and fundamentally a sense of NECESSITY, their willed obscurity suggesting not hidden depths but concealment, obfuscation. On form, was there really NO RHYME till p333 (from the delightful Patty Seyburn) and precious little afterwards?! Otherwise the only oases I spotted in this formless desert were the modestly pleasing ghazal on p383 and the canzone (like a sestina but harder) on p414. As for the 'sonnet' on p376, sonnets come in many forms these days, but line count is not enough.

Bottom line: these poems are just plain dull - dull and samey. Yeah, I know - how can 85 poets be samey (quite an achievement!) and some of these guys, other than Seyburn and one I'm saving for the end, must have legs. If these were paintings I'd say they needed to be better lit, better framed and better hung; in this dingy basement they don't show at their best. Better yet, stash 'em in the cellar for posterity to discover (life's too short to attempt the work of posterity now!)

Anthologies only work if they are collections of gems the compiler genuinely treasures (example: David Lehman). Even selecteds are often compromises; only the original individual volumes, with good and less good alongside, are the biz, like LPs/CDs (am I old fashioned? yes). Collections of the merely 'representative' are dreary compromises; although funnily enough this one was ALMOST redeemed for me by the very last poem (the fact that we wind up with Rachel Zucker, a name new to me, shows that alphabetical anthologies aren't invariably doomed) which was everything I want from a poem, funny, witty, ingenious, subtle, disturbing, poignant - everything this collection, alas, is not.

C-c-c ... Cronies!
Mike Dumanis is a nice guy who did a terrible job on this anthology. It should have been called "Mike Dumanis' Anthology of His Iowa Friends (and a few others he met at AWP)." The most myopic anthology I've ever seen.

a solid collection
This book reminds me of the Poulin anthology. It seems to start where the Poulin leaves off, providing a look at the poets much too young and new to be included in any of Poulin's editions. Some of the writers in here are among the most notorious in their generation, the ones that seem to be winning honor after honor, but the book has some surprises as well: interesting poets I read for the first time include Sabrina Mark, Lisa Jarnot, and Julianne Buchsbaum. A lot of the bigger names too: Nick Flynn, Kevn Young, Natasha Trethewey. Some surprise omissions, but that's true of all anthologies. All in all, a pretty good intro to the poets who are probably well-known to many of their peers but not to us older folk. Definitely has more experimental poems than a lot of the big anthologies, but there's also a surprising number of writers using meter.

What a Small, Small World!
Iowa workshop anthology with a few other usual suspects as well as other signs of nepotism.How sad.Shuffle the pages and look at the cards: you've got only one suit.

An anthology of innovative, and exciting poetry
Legitimate Dangers: American Poets Of The New Century is an anthology of innovative, and exciting poetry. All the poets whose works were selected were born after 1960, did not publish their first book before 1995, and have no more than three books published. Though diverse in individual background and the manner in which they approach the craft of poetry, each has a unique voice and tone contributing to a singularly memorable and original omnibus. A black-and-white photograph of each poet precedes the selection of his or her works. Enthusiastically recommended for poetry lovers in search of fresh inspiration. Ars Poetica (the idea) by Dana Levin: would it wake the drowned out of their anviled sleep- / would it slip the sun like a coin behind their eyes- // The idea, the teacher said, was that there was a chaos / left in matter - a little bit of not-yet in everything that was- // so the poets became interested in fragments, interruptions- / the little bit of saying lit by the unsaid- // was it a way to stay alive, a way to keep hope, / leaving things unfinished? // as if in complete a sentence there was death-
... Read more

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The Dada Painters and Poets offers the authentic answer to the question "What is Dada?" This incomparable collection of essays, manifestos, and illustrations was prepared by Robert Motherwell with the collaboration of some of the major Dada figures: Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, and Max Ernst among others. Here in their own words and art, the principals of the movement create a composite picture of Dada--its convictions, antics, and spirit.

First published in 1951, this treasure trove remains, as Jack Flam states in his foreword to the second edition, "the most comprehensive and important anthology of Dada writings in any language, and a fascinating and very readable book." It contains every major text on the Dada movement, including retrospective studies, personal memoirs, and prime examples. The illustrations range from photos of participants, in characteristic Dadaist attitudes, to facsimiles of their productions.

Customer Reviews (3)

A classic, and a great intro.
This is Motherwell's classic book on Dada. It was the only comprehensive look at Dada for along time. Good for an intro as well as a comprehensive coverage of the original Dada's and their works.

Excellent resource for Dada history
Motherwell has compiled an impressive look into the world and lives of the dada artists. Exceptional!

Anti Unincorporated
Dada not only wrote and painted, it talked, drank, agitated, danced, babbled, burbled, shocked, indulged in self-loathing, took notes, held exhibits, dressed up, hooted, wrote scathing criticisms of itself, whistled, made noises with its skin, fell in love with itself, mailed letters, and then committed suicide.Huelsenbeck, Tzara, Breton, Ball, Duchamp et al. enacted Dada selves out of hatred for war, but their hatred and iconoclasm continued when they discovered that the monster that lives off of war didn't die on Armistice Day (the one in 1918).They became anti-everything that was Modern, Reasonable, Commonsensical, Appropriate, in other words, everything that would help humans hide from (while justifying) their own self-destructiveness.They tried to open up the unconscious and display it for Europe and America.This book charts that process better than most.The best of the essays about Dada is "The Dada Spirit in Painting" by Georges Hugnet, but the best pieces here are by those who, in writing and painting, were being Dada:Eluard's and Huelsenback's poems, Ball's "Dada Fragments," Tzara's "Seven Dada Manifestoes," Ribemont-Dessaignes' "History of Dada," and Breton on Duchamp. ... Read more

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Three thousand years of the greatest Greek poetry, exquisitely translated and assembled in a handsome volume sure to be a modern classic.This landmark volume captures three millennia of Greek poetry—more than 1,000 poems and 200 poets. From the epics of Homeric Greece to the historical and erotic ironies of Cavafy, from the romances, hymns, and bawdy rhymes of Byzantium to the innovative voices of a resurgent twentieth century, this anthology brings together the diverse strands of the Greek poetic tradition. The favorites are all here—raging Achilles, restless Odysseus, strong-hearted Penelope—but The Greek Poets also presents neglected eras, from the rise of Constantinople to the end of the Ottoman occupation. In offering canonical poets such as Sappho and Pindar, and the modern Nobel laureates Seferis and Elytis, the renowned editors give us their new translations and bring together other masterful translators, including Robert Fagles, James Merrill, and W. S. Merwin, along with a younger generation that includes Anne Carson, Paul Muldoon, and Alicia Stallings. This is an essential companion to the Western literary tradition. map ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant
For anyone interested in history, in writing, especially in excellent prose, plays and poetry should buy this book.

It is exquisite, full of detail but not overwhelming.

'The Greek Poets' contains within it's pages a wealth of information of which the reader can approach in any order.

The book itself is handsome, a quality not often found. Plus, there are so many wonderful pieces, no reader can possibly be disappointed. ... Read more

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A monument to the literary genius of women throughout the ages, A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now is an invaluable collection. Here in one volume are the works of three hundred poets from six different continents and four millennia. This revised edition includes a newly expanded section of American poets from the colonial era to the present. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

History of Women's Poetry
As a woman poet I'm always interested in those who have gone before.Recently at a poetry workshop the instructor read from the earliest poem in this collection and I was intrigued so purchased the book. It lives up to all my expectations, an excellent source of women's poetry from the earliest known poems/hymns to present day, providing an excellent overview.I'm giving it a special place in my poetry collection and will be turning to it often for relaxation and inspiration.

A great collection
I fell in love with this book when I lived for a time in the Barnstone 'barn' in Bloomington, Indiana, for a term in the early 1980s.I met both Aliki Barnstone, the editor of this text, as well as her father Willis Barnstone, a poet and scholar in his own right.Aliki Barnstone was a published poet as early as the age of nine.This was almost a guarantee for a lifelong love of poetry and literature, which comes through in this collection.

The collection begins in the very beginnings of written literature, with pieces from Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, ancient Hebrew and Aramean literature.It is rare enough for works from these time periods to have any author ascribed at all, and doubly rare for women to be credited as authors, so this represents an important collection.Barnstone also includes some ancient poems from Asian languages such as Chinese later in the collection.

The organisation is not strictly by chronology, but does follow a more-or-less chronological progression both in terms of the overall languages (Sumerian as a language preceded the Latinate languages, which preceded the English language, and so forth), and the primarily chronological listing within the language groups.Thus, one gets modern Hebrew poets in the book prior to the listing of ancient Greek poets such as Sappho and Praxilla.

Some of these more ancient pieces could be questioned editorially - the Song of Deborah (from the biblical book of Judges) and the Magnificat (from the gospel of Luke) are included because they represent women's voices, but may not be originally women's compositions as literary texts.The more modern the language or composition, the more likely it is to have an identifiable author, so one cannot fault Barnstone for striving for inclusivity to this extent.

Not only does this represent one of the best anthologies of women's poetry overall, it also represents a grand collection for many of the subsections, such as the African languages, Chinese, and international French and Spanish.Barnstone's brief commentaries throughout are accessible and useful, introducing context and biographical information to help place the literary features and meaning-ful elements in such a way that readers will more easily identify with the poetry.

This is a great collection.

Women for Women Poets
If you liked this book I sugjest you check out Aliki's own work and for that matter her fathers. If you would like a compleate list of that work go to Barnstones.com.She is a wonderful poet and you will find that some ofher inspiration comes from the poets in "A Book of Women Poets fromAntiquity to Now".Her brother also writes wonderful poetry Irecomend "Impure" by her brother."Madly in Love" isher great work.I would suppose her book from her childhood is alsowonderful.I look forward to more of her work.

what a find!
This is one of my favorite poetry anthologies because it covers such a wide expanse of time and includes women's voices from all over the world.This anthology has introduced me to so many women poets that I otherwisenever would have met.It is incredible to realize that women have ALWAYSand everywhere been writing, and I am always inspired by the tradition ofmy mothers when I read this book.As Sappho said, "Someone, I tellyou/ will remember us."

Wonderful Resource!
This is my all-time favorite anthology; I give it as a gift whenever I can.I like the idea of presenting voices that have not always gotten the attention they deserve, but even more than that I am amazed at the thesheer range of genius.There's hardly a dud in here.

I particularlylove the translation of Marina Tsveteyeva's "Poem of the End." The punctuation so accurately reflects the language and tone.I once sawanother translation in one of those "Best Loved Poems of InsipidPeople" anthologies that was painfully stupid.I wish I could readthe Russian original....

Anyway, I can't think of a better resource tointroduce you to a wide range of poets you might not otherwise have accessto. ... Read more

Product Description
A beautifully illustrated portrait of Beat icons Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and Philip Whalen and the years in the Cascades high country that shaped their lives and work.

This is John Suiter's first book, and it evolved from a magazine assignment that took him to Jack Kerouac's remote fire lookout on Desolation Peak on the fortieth anniversary of the publication of The Dharma Bums. For two weeks in the summer of 1995, Suiter-an East Coast city-dweller all his life-lived in Kerouac's still-standing fire lookout, making photographs for his magazine project. Meanwhile, the awesome beauty and profound solitude of the surrounding North Cascades worked their magic-as it had for Kerouac and countless others since.

In 1996, Suiter met the poets Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen, who had also worked as fire lookouts on peaks in the North Cascades in the 1950s. It had been Snyder-the real-life model for Kerouac's fictive "Japhy Ryder"-who had first come into the Upper Skagit country as a fire lookout in 1952 and blazed the way for Whalen and Kerouac to follow. Suiter returned to the North Cascades during the next few summers for further shooting-hikes on Crater, Sourdough, and Sauk mountains. Illustrated with thirty-five beautiful photographs, Poets on the Peaks tells how the solitary mountain adventures of three young men helped to form the literary, spiritual, and environmental values of a generation.

Based on scores of previously unpublished letters and journals, plus recent interviews with Snyder and Whalen and several others, Poets on the Peaks creates a group portrait of Kerouac, Snyder, and Whalen that transcends the tired urban clichés of the "Beat" life. Poets on the Peaks is about the development of a community of poets, including the famous Six Gallery reading of October 1955, and contains unexpected cameos by fellow poets and mountain-climbers Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth, Philip Lamantia, and Michael McClure. Poets on the Peaks is also a book about Dharma and the years of Dharma Bums--from the 1951 roadside revelation in the Nevada desert that led Gary Snyder to drop out of academia and head for Japan, to Kerouac's lonely vigil with The Diamond Sutra on Desolation Peak, to Philip Whalen's ordination as a Zen priest. Finally, Poets on the Peaks is the story of the birth of a wilderness ethic, as well as a photographic homage to the Cascades landscape, a landscape virtually unchanged since these men journeyed there thanks to the environmental protections they helped inspire. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Calling all Beats!

John Suiter's "Poets on the Peaks" is a must have.
Thank you.

The sources of "The Dharma Bums" & more
This is the perfect companion to Jack Kerouac's classic novel, offering a wealth of information, fascinating stories, and gorgeous photographs about the world chronicled in that novel's pages. But it offers so much more -- a richer understanding of Gary Snyder & Philip Whalen, as well as their poetic work, and an in-depth look at the times & experiences that shaped all three writers. There are countless books about the Beats, many of them quite good indeed ... but this is surely one of the best. The author truly knows & loves his subjects, without being blinded by any need for glossy hagiography. It's as honest a book as you'll find about these three remarkable men & their times. A very enthusiastic recommendation!

Beat Beginnings:The right place at the right time...
John Suiter's work on the founding fathers of Beat poetry and prose is a marvelous read. Suiter takes us along the trail through post war America and ties together the Beat poets, Jack Kerouac, McCarthyism, San Francisco and the North Cascades Forest Service Fire Lookout system of the 1950's. Imagine the poet/Zen Buddhist Gary Snyder being blacklisted from working for the Forest Service! Do you want to know how Jack Kerouac got the idea for his Dharma Bums work? What was it like spending a month and a half completely alone on top of a mountain in the Pacific Northwest, looking for the telltale smoke of a developing forest fire? Do you know what a "lightning stool" is, what you do with it and would you like to see a photograph of one? What was it like being at the famous Six Gallery poetry reading in 1955 when Allen Ginsberg first read "Howl"? If these questions interest you, or if you want to know about the origins of Beat writings-this is the book to get. Author Suiter launches the reader awaythrough Old Mexico to visit with young Robert Mitchum as Christ in a glass coffin and William "Junky" Burroughs, up through Yosemite to camp with Kerouac and Snyder, a stop in San Francisco at City Lights Bookstore and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and finally Japan and Hozomeen, and the Void from Desolation. A delightful Masterpiece of fact and photographs!

Covers beautiful Cascade Mountain scenes and peaks
Writer-photographer Suiter provides a literary portrait of Beat era poets Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, and Jack Kerouac in Poets On The Peaks, which centers around their early experiences as fire lookouts in the 1950s. As such, Poets On The Peaks provides a hard book to easily categorize: it covers beautiful Cascade Mountain scenes and peaks, fire lookouts, and literature and biography alike. The writings of these three juxtapose nicely with the photos and images, making this a recommended gift choice for the holiday season.

Significant contribution to literature on early Beats
In his first book, John Suiter has produced a work that contributes significantly to the literature on early development of the Beat literary movement and to understanding the disparate characters of Snyder, Whalen, and Kerouac.Using the common experience of all three men serving as fire lookouts in the Northern Cascades in the early to mid 1950's, the author evokes portraits of how each writer was influenced by wilderness and the isolation of a fire lookout, and how each used the experience in his work.Drawing from recent interviews with Snyder and Whalen and others who knew them during the early 1950's, from previously unpublished letters and journals, and from extensive close readings of all three writers, the author crafts a portrait of the evolution of a literary movement, of a wilderness ethic, and perhaps unintentionally, the devolution of Kerouac contrasted against the focus and dedication of Snyder and Whalen.The book is illustrated with photographs of the fire lookouts and their locales. ... Read more

Product Description
An impassioned audacity distinguishes the thirty writers represented in the rousing anthology of poetry from the great 20th-century countercultural literary movement. In combining art with an unapologetic antiestablishment zeal, the Beats gave birth to a literature of previously unimaginable expressive range, fomenting an artistic revolution.

The defining work of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac provides the foundation for this collection, which also features statements on Beat poetics, selections from the alternately ardent, incendiary, and earnest correspondence of Beat Generation writers, and the improvisational verse of such Beat legends as Robert Creeley, Diane Di Prima, Gregory Corso, Denise Levertov, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Whalen, Bob Kaufman, and Peter Orlovsky, along with the work of other women writers and the lesser-known poets of this school. Visceral and powerful, infused with an unmediated spiritual and social awareness, Beat Poets is a rich and varied tribute and—in the populist spirit of the Beats—a vital addition to the libraries of readers everywhere. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Hilarious!
I love to read these out loud and using my pretentious beatnik voice. I had myself and my wife in stitches reading "The Quarrel." Groovy, man! How anyone could keep a straight face while writing this stuff I don't know. It's the next best thing to REAL poetry!

Solid Sampler of 28 Poets
"Beats Poets," a snug volume of various poetry from the Beat era in the 1950s and 60s, can serve as a sampler for 28 modern influential poets.

Passages from Ginsberg's "Howl" and Corso's "Transformation & Escape" will draw you read these pieces in full. "Howl" is the highly controversial poem which challenged free speech and the definition of art.

Creeley, Jones, and O'Hara are hear, as is Lawrence Ferlinghetti, both poet and owner of the famous San Francisco bookstore "City Lights" where so much of the Beat movement originated.

Denise Levertov is notably here with five selection. Only a few Kerouac poems are published here, but his work can be easily found in larger collections.

Helping capture the Beat movement, editor Carmela Ciuraru has included "Letters, Encounters and Statements on Poetics," which is a collection of short essays by a few of Beat's major players.

I fully recommend "Beat Poets."

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

More than twenty-five poets from the Beat movement
Compiled and edited by Carmela Ciuaru, Beat Poets provides informative coverages featuring and showcasing the work of more than twenty-five poets from the Beat movement, ranging from Bob Kaufman, to Allen Ginsburg, to Diane di Prima. Rousing poems and Beat verse classics will bring back nostalgic memories for some, while introducing a whole new generation to a diverse Beat poetry drawn from the themes and concerns of a now yesteryear of the American experience. ... Read more

Product Description
Grab the interest of 6th-8th grade readers with poems presented in a fun new light! Coauthored by well-known fluency expert, Timothy Rasinski, this incredible book for Grades 6-8 encourages students to read and perform playful, original content written in student voices that will engage both reluctant and skilled readers. The easy-to-use, standards-based lessons and purposeful activity pages help readers build fluency, comprehension, and poetry skills. Each book also includes an Audio CD that can be used to support fluency and comprehension, as well as an interactive whiteboard-compatible Teacher Resource CD that can be used to support literacy skills. 144pp. plus 2 CDs ... Read more

Product Description
A compact anthology of 3 centuries of poetry by 20 great American poets. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

It only had a few that I had heard of.
It only had a few that I had heard of, orconsidered famous. It is a nice inexpensive paperback to have for your library.The Mentor Book of Major American Poets

American Poets
What a lovely compilation of great works by American poets.It satisfied the reading requirements for my kids high school language arts course.

Keep a copy on my nightstand.
Other reviewers have noted that this an aging book.It's a fair criticism, but this is still a great collection of some of the best works of some of the most important American poets.It's nice and small and relatively cheap.I keep a copy of it on my nightstand and read from it almost daily.

The great American poets
This work contains samples of many outstanding American poets and also of the great American poets. In my own feeling the great American poets are few in number. Whitman, Dickinson , Wallace Stevens , Eliot ( if he is an American) and on the borderline Poe Frost and Cummings. This anthology which contains works only up until the early sixties does not thus include today's most well- known active poets. But in my feeling( and it is only that ) these poets do not come to the level of their great predecessors. And here I think Emerson's judgment is correct and the one poet who most embodies the spirit of America at least in its most expansive phase is Whitman.
This anthology though contains the work of many very good poets , and thus any real reader of it will certainly have a true idea and feeling of what American poetry is about.

Good, but shows its age
"The Mentor Book of Major American Poets," edited by Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig, brings together generous selections from the work of 20 writers: Edward Taylor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Stephen Crane, Robert Frost, Vachel Lindsay, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, John Crowe Ransom, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Archibald MacLeish, E.E. Cummings, Hart Crane, and W.H. Auden. These authors span the 17th to 20th centuries (the youngest was born in 1907). Many styles, forms, and themes are contained within this rich anthology.

That having been said, I must note that the book has a copyright date of 1962, and it really shows its age. It's hard to imagine someone compiling an anthology of major american poets (to 1962) today and making the omissions that Williams and Honig did: Anne Bradstreet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and many others.

Despite its deficiencies, this is a wonderful collection that contains a wealth of memorable pieces. A few of my favorites: Taylor's rapturous "Stupendous Love!"; Emerson's "The Snowstorm," which celebrates the "frolic architecture of the snow"; Poe's masterwork "The Raven"; Whitman's ecstatic, all-embracing "Song of Myself"; a marvelous selection of Dickinson's quirky genius; Robinson's tragic "Richard Cory"; S. Crane's haunting short poems; Lindsay's lush, musical (and very politically incorrect!) "The Congo"; Cummings' amazing sonnet beginning "when serpents bargain for the right to squirm"; and much more.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in American poetry, but caution that, because of its dated nature, it needs to be supplemented. ... Read more

Product Description
The Great Modern Poets and CD is the perfect introduction to the finest poetry of the 20th century. This ideal gift is now complete with an 80-minute audio CD featuring original recordings of 29 inspiring poems, read by their authors. Here the listener will find beautiful verse by the greatest poets of the modern era, including: W.B Yeats' The Lake Isle of Innisfree; Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; Wallace Stevens' Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself; T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; John Betjeman's A Shropshire Lad and The Licorice Fields at Pontefract; W.H. Auden's The Shield of Achilles; Dylan Thomas' A Refusal to Mourn...; Ted Hughes' Thrushes; Sylvia Plath's Daddy; and a special full-length reading of Howl by Allen Ginsburg, among many other much-loved classics. Accompanying the CD is a beautifully illustrated book containing over 150 complete and unabridged poems, covering Thomas Hardy, W.B. Yeats, D.H. Lawrence, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, The War Poets, E.E. Cummings, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Ezra Proud, Sylvia Plath, and many more.Each chapter comprises introductory quotations, an illustration, a biography of the poet, a selection of their key poems and simple explanations of the themes. With an introduction that suggests ways to appreciate the poems, and a glossary that demystifies the concepts and movements of modern poetry, The Great Modern Poets and CD is an ideal welcome to the pleasures and insights poetry has to offer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

In A Time of Crystal Silence
This was my present this AM laid silently on a pillow next to a head lost in a wandering dream. Christmas morning. A gift of silent acknowledgment of the one thing money, time, hearts all seek, the expression of value in the symbolic word.

A beautiful gift to a lonely wife. This was given as I fumble and ask...it was as noted here discounted, which would be a real shame since it's worth giving a pretty coin. But to review, yes, this is a volume, a slim one, of "modern" poets that are masters, Hughes, Plath, Yeats, Hardy, Cummings, Boland, O'Hara, Larkin, Lowell to cite a very few. Many remain unnamed, each with a page bio and a few selections of poems, good selections, obvious and less obvious examples of the reason the poem turned at their hand.
Lovely for a purse, backpack, brief and the ritual of reading through breaks in a day, lovelier still if the day is presented up freed of tasking.

It would be a wonderful gift, it was.

excellent book to browse or read cover to cover
This book has brought me closer to the world of great poets.I've ordered it for friends, and Amazon's low price and expedient shipping has made it easy to do.I recommend this book for prose and poet writers, appreciators of the arts and parents to introduce their children to the ever-expanding world of words on paper.

An Eloquent Introduction To Modern English Languge Poets
I purchased this book at a clearance price from a local bookstore. It seems that it's not getting the exposure or economic success that it deserves. It is an eloquent introduction to the work of great modern poets.

Each poet is introduced with an insightful and succinct one page biographical essay by the editor, Michael Schmidt. These essays are near poetry, in and of themselves. There's also a full page black&white photograph that seems to reach deeply into the character of each poet. Even the photos are poetic in their insight. The selections of poems range from one, to about six, for each included poet.

Without naming names, I can say that I'm familiar with the work of about half of the represented poets. Many of the others are familiar in name, but I've never read their works. There are several that I've never heard of, but I'm deeply impressed by all of them. I'm inspired to seek out more works of these poets, and perhaps that was the editors intent?

Sadly, we live in a world where artists of our language live, work, and pass on in relative obscurity. But if you are someone who loves beautiful ideas, beautifully expressed, I think you'll have much to gain from time spent with this book. ... Read more