... or Buy Australian!
On 10 December 2013 21:36, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Billy Collins's Favorite Works of Poetry
> >
> > December, 2013
> >
> > Billy Collins's accessible and good-natured poetry is more influenced by
> the antics of Bugs Bunny than the great works of Coleridge or Wordsworth.
> But despite—and perhaps because of—all that, his words never fail to be
> profound and true. His latest book, Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems,
> is one of the finalists in our2013 Goodreads Choice Awards, and it's easy
> to see why. For Collins, humor is always a knife rather than a shield, and
> the small mysteries of our lives can lead to moments of wonder. A New
> Yorker born and raised, Collins was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to
> 2003, during which time he wrote "The Names," remembering victims of 9/11.
> That position, and that poem, cemented his spot as one of America's few
> popular poets—a role he's embraced with entertaining readings to audiences
> that number in the thousands.
> >
> > So what does a prizewinning poet like to read? Here are Collins's picks
> for books of poetry that would make excellent holiday gifts!
> >
> >
> > Search Party: Collected Poems by William Matthews
> >
> > "He's been called the closest thing American poetry has to a Horace, an
> urban and urbane poet who is happy to allow his learning (vast) and his
> pleasures (jazz, wine, talk…) into his elegant verse. And did I mention his
> wisdom, carefully inserted at just the right place in his meditations.
> Opening lines: 'Don't play too much, don't play/too loud, don't play the
> melody.' 'The Accompanist.'"
> >
> >
> > Bringing Together: Uncollected Early Poems 1958-1989 by Maxine Kumin
> >
> > "This collection provides glimpses into a poet growing into the mature
> work that made her a major voice in the choral group that is contemporary
> poetry. One can see the learning of the line in this variety pack of poems
> about darkness, diaries, and of course, pastures and horses. Opening lines:
> 'Wearing the beard of divinity, King Tut / hunts the hippopotamus of evil.'
> 'Remembering King Tut at the Pearl Harbor Exhibit.'"
> >
> >
> > Answering Back: Living Poets Reply to the Poetry of the Pastedited by
> Carol Ann Duffy
> >
> > "A gathering of examples of poets talking back to their predecessors in
> tones that range from respect to trespass. The reader is let in on the
> Great Conversation among poets, a series of dialogues that flows back and
> forth through history. The repeated lesson is that growth and invention are
> really just the uses of influence. Opening lines: 'I'm leaving the Isle of
> Innisfree. / I never liked it much: / The clay and the wattle hutch / Was
> far too small for me.' By R.V. Baily."
> >
> >
> > Selected and Collected Poems by Bill Knott
> >
> > "Pick up any poetry book by this man and you are in for a series of wild
> surprises. He is one of a small group of poets who can take us on wild,
> imaginative journeys in only a few lines while using a very plain diction.
> He makes the rest of us look like seventh graders in a talent show. Opening
> lines: 'Hair is heaven's water flowing eerily over us / Often a someone
> drifts off down their long hair and is lost.' 'Hair Poem.'"
> >
> >
> >
> > Collected Poems by Ron Padgett
> >
> > "Here they are all! A giant stack of your favorites from America's most
> wiggy poet. And one of its most friendly. There is a lot of boy in the
> mature Padgett, and he has never tired of the game of connecting things
> that no one ever thought to connect before. Favorite line: 'The Missouri
> River is a tribute to the Mississippi.' 'The Complete Works.'"
> >
> >
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
'Undercover of Lightness'
http://walleahpress.com.au/recent-publications.html
'Shikibu Shuffle'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-from-aboveground-press-shikibu.html
|