Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

Dan's 2016 Poetry Reading List:
1. Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse - David Budbill
2. Local Knowledge: Poems - B.H. Fairchild
3. Pity the Beautiful: Poems - Dana Gioia
4. The Singing: Poems - C.K. Williams
5. 99 Poems: New & Selected - Dana Gioia
6. Nine Horses - Billy Collins
7. Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God - by Rainer Maria Rilke, Anita Barrows (Translator), Joanna Macy (Translator)
8. Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems - Billy Collins
9. What Do We Know - Mary Oliver
10. Dog Songs - Mary Oliver
11. Poems: New and Selected - Ron Rash
12. The Sea in You: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love - David Whyte
13. No Matter the Wreckage - Sarah Kay
14. The Apple That Astonished Paris - Billy Collins
15. Holy Luck - Eugene Peterson
16. What Work Is - Philip Levine
17. Myths & Texts - Gary Synder
18. And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou
19. Rapture - Susan Mitchell
20. Splitting an Order - Ted Kooser
21. The Search for Wonder in the Cradle of the World - Anthony Abbott
22. Yellowrocket: Poems
23. Vita Nova - Louise Glück
24. Invisible Strings - Jim Moore
25. I Shall Not Be Moved - Maya Angelou
26. Little Dogs: New and Selected Poems - Michael Crummey
27. The Man Who: Poems - Anthony Abbott
28. Still to Mow - Maxine Kumine
29. Zen Master Poems - Dick Allen
30. The Rain in Portugal: New Poems - Billy Collins
31. Roots to the Earth: Poems and a Story - Wendell Berry

Congratulations on overshooting the mark!

Any favorites or stand outs that you would recommend?

Out of this list, I really enjoyed Still to Mow by Maxine Kumine and Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse by David Budbill. Both of these contained poems that I read and reread and which I still continue to ponder. I'm already making plans to copy down some favorites from these collections in my journal. I also fell in love with Dick Allen's Zen Master Poems for their short, pithy quality (he kind of reminds me of Kay Ryan?) and I've already copied many of his down. Budbill and Allen, for me at this juncture in my life, have a special attraction because of their interest in Zen Buddhism, and in particular the idea of mindfulness. I've been in some very stressful situations in my field of work over the last four or five years, and I was fortunate that my reading in the area of focusing on breathing, practicing being more mindful and being more aware of each moment and being fully present helped me to navigate some difficult waters. I've always found that sort of focused attention in poets like Wendell Berry and Mary Oliver (and I thoroughly enjoy their focus on nature/pastoral settings). And now I'll have to add Maxine Kumine to my list of 2016 favorites. I kept going back over my review, while writing it, and thinking about which poems I liked the best. I know the book of poems Still to Mow has a darker slant to it, with all the focus on current politics, wars, atrocities, genocide, etc., but somehow Maxine offers a way to stay in the mix of community, even the broader community of the world, and yet keep our lives rooted in the soil and in what's local and near at hand. Maxine offers a way for all of us to get more involved and, to use a Ghandian phrase, "Be the change we want to see happen in the world." Maxine has a blunt way of saying what she thinks, cutting to the chase, in a way that challenges power and lets power know that there is accountability and what is just and good can still be measured and weighed and recognized. Maxine's poems have offered me something other than a religious text or philosophical text or literary novel to help me sift through history and current events and they hold a light up of a more compassionate path to travel and they point to more holistic, inclusive possibilities for building community (local and worldwide).

Thanks for your encouragement! Poetry has become one of my main staples for reading material over the last five years or so. I'm trying to soak up as much as I can as to the technical side of poetry regarding form and format. I'm sure this will add even more pleasure and depth to my reading. I've enjoyed reading everyone's insights and comments and I'll be scouring the lists in this group for other poets and books to check out. I can't wait!

Thanks for streamlining. If you have an interest in Zen Buddhism, you might want to check out the poetry of Gary Snyder and Ralph Angel.