Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

I'm still nibbling on the enormous collected Auden so that will be number one. Others I want to tackle this year include:

New and Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur

Cool, Calm and Collected by Carolyn Kizer

The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Poems for the Millennium III

This is big-book year for me. Not shooting for 20 but just to get some of the larger volumes on my shelves read. There are a couple of slender volumes in the queue as well:

Olives by A.E. Stallings

The Bounty by Derek Walcott

Sparrow by Reginald Gibbons

Hi Jen,
As always, looking forward to your reviews. I have a volume of Poems for the Millennium (II?). It is indeed a beast. Honestly I didn't get much pleasure from it.

No. 2 is less wowzy because it deals with more contemporary poets, all familiar, and I found it easier to criticize because of what it left out. However, I confess I still love the general tack of these volumes and am very curious to see what 3 holds.

No. 1 was my introduction to the moderns and I still consider it the best book I've ever read on how that period expressed itself in poetry. I read it about a semester after a class in art history that covered the moderns (of course, only visual arts) and was happy to find a book that did something very similar but with poetry.

I've just checked and in fact I have volume I. I remember buying it. A guy in the poetry aisle with me recommended it. I will have to go through it again since I see a number of poets I love in there. I probably didn't give it much time.

It could be you already had plenty of background in the modern period when you read it and thus were less affected--or perhaps disagreed with some of what the editors had to say. I'm perfectly willing to admit that serendipity had something to do with my affection for it.

But, again, I've never come across another book of poetry that treats poetry as art history treats the visual arts. Lit has its own way of presenting the modern period and tends to focus on fiction, whereas, if you ask ME, poetry and the visual arts is where things were being the most stretched and toyed with. I am fascinated with poetry that rides the edge of being meaningful, which strikes me as the modern "project" and I like how the first Millenium book leads the reader through the experiments of that time.

You probably shouldn't say anything more or I'll keep talking about why/how much I like it :)

I just spent 45 minutes reading the first 60 or so pages. Much to offer. I don't think I went through it systematically before.

"Much to offer" is a good way to put it.

1. Olives by A.E. Stallings
2. Milk and Honey Siren, ed. Jeremiah Walton
3. Mosslight by Kimberley Pittman-Schulz
4. A Book of Poetry 1, collaborative editing (textbook)

5. Practicing to Walk Like a Heron by Jack Ridl

6. In the Space Where I Was by Dana Guthrie Martin

7. Homebodies by Sarah J. Sloat

8. Nocturnes by Kathleen Kirk
9. Sundial by Rebecca Schenck

10. Collected Poems, W.H. Auden, ed. Mendelson

I was tempted to call it 10-15. :)

11. Catastrophe Theory by Susan Yount

(which, by the same token, should be a .5)

where are they may i read them

I'm confused by your question, Erie. These are physical books. Not online that I know of. The Auden collection might be found at your local library and almost certainly on amazon. Catastrophe Theory is probably best bought from the publisher (though if you're in the U.S., I wouldn't mind sending you mine. I don't intend to keep it).

i dnt know

12. Sparrow by Reginald Gibbons

13. Song of the Ocarina by Thom Wilkerson

14. Scalping Foray by Thomas Wilkerson

15. New and Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur

16. Vanishing Lung Syndrome by Miroslav Holub

17. Organic Furniture Cellar by Jessica Smith

18. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

It doesn't look like I'll be making it to 20 this year. Where are a few chap books when you need them? :D I'll have to remember to have a few on hand for the final run next year.

Just 2 to go! I bet there are some online chaps you could read! Reviewing is of course another animal.

I've put a few more up that will be active tomorrow, but there are a few up there now, Jen: http://goo.gl/GOFs4j

Two oldies but goodies that I especially like are The Secret Life of Hardware and Scything.

Thanks, Diane :D I'm away to visit relatives, though, til the end of the week. Google will be reminding me to check it out next Saturday though. I love the title "The Secret Life of Hardware."

Well, I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and safe travel if you're traveling. Robert and I are laid up with a bad upper respiratory infection, so we're just sitting around hacking and miserable and unable to eat. For once, I can actually curl up with my Paperwhite and read for pleasure. Almost done with Cloud Atlas...

Jen wrote: "It doesn't look like I'll be making it to 20 this year. Where are a few chap books when you need them? :D I'll have to remember to have a few on hand for the final run next year."

The Auden and Yeats Collecteds have to be worth at least five each though don't they! Have a good Christmas Jen.

Get well soon Diane.

Thanks, Caroline!

Thanks, Caroline. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well. The Auden was a beast.

I hope you're feeling better by now, Diane. Hacking is the pits--even if it does provide an excuse to lay around and read.

As it turns out, I had some time to read while visiting my parents. I finished one I took along from the by-the-bed pile (which mysteriously never gets smaller):

19. To Hide in the Light by Bonnie Roberts

And I was able to read through one of the books I received as a gift on Christmas Day:

20. Anterooms by Richard Wilbur

I'll try to get the reviews up shortly.