Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

Since I'm nearing the goal of 20, I'm posting my list so that I can see at a glance what the themes and trends, the gaps and blind spots, are (e.g., perhaps I could be reading more formal poetry, more non-U.S. poetry, and more poetry in translation? Also, I think this is the first year I've been on Goodreads where I've read more men poets than women!).

1. Howard Nemerov, War Stories: Poems About Long Ago and Now
2. Ellen Bass, The Human Line
3. David Budbill, Tumbling Toward the End
4. The Defiant Muse: Vietnamese Feminist Poems From Antiquity to the Present, ed. by Nguyen Thi Minh Ha, Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh, and Lady Borton
5. Galway Kinnell, Selected Poems
6. Richard Eberhart, New and Selected Poems, 1930-1990
7. John Foy, Night Vision
8. Duy Doan, We Play a Game
9. Anthology of Mexican Poetry, ed. by Octavio Paz, tr. by Samuel Beckett
10. Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Lucky Fish
11. Logan February, Painted Blue With Saltwater (chapbook)
12. Keiho Soga, Taisanboku Mori, Sojin Takei, and Muin Ozaki, Poets Behind Barbed Wire, tr. and ed. by Jiro Nakano and Kay Nakano
13. DeMisty D. Bellinger, Rubbing Elbows (chapbook)
14. Jameson Fitzpatrick, Mr. & (chapbook)
15. Anne Sexton, Selected Poems
16. Dante Micheaux, Circus (chapbook)
17. Diana Khoi Nguyen, Ghost Of
18. Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
19. Max Ritvo, The Final Voicemails

20. Emily Jungmin Yoon, A Cruelty Special to Our Species



....I made it to twenty! :-)

21. A House by Itself: Selected Haiku of Shiki, tr. by John Brandi and Noriko Kawasaki Martinez

22. Of Quiet Courage: Poems From Viet Nam, ed. by Jacqui Chagnon and Don Luce, with various translators

23. Richard Wilbur, New and Collected Poems

Yay, Jenna! Up and over with room to spare :-) Interesting observations about patterns above.

Yeah, I feel I'm occasionally at risk of getting so caught up in reading single-volume poetry books by contemporary American poets where, if I'm not careful, I'm liable to start neglecting non-American poets, poets in translation, long-ago poets/forgotten "masters," and/or formal poetry (which I think is underrepresented in the contemporary American single-volume poetry book scene). I love staying up to date with what's going on in the U.S. poetry scene right now, but I wouldn't want it to happen at the expense of doing broader, more diverse reading that is helpful in other ways to my development as a writer.

It is very difficult to "do it all." Maybe if you think in terms of a lifetime of reading? If you leave one select group out for one year, or even 5, you can always correct it in the future.

I confess, I tend to question poetry in translation as an influence for writing, since we're not really getting that poet's writing (assuming the translator is not the poet her/himself). Yes, though, for subject matter and approach to the subject as providing food for thought.

Knowing you through this particular group, I also feel like I can give you permission to admit that you actually have already had a broad exposure to poetry in terms of your development as a poet and that whatever else you toss in the cauldron is only slightly going to alter the savory nature of the broth. I hereby give you permission to write without further development. :-) Just read whatever you want to.

Haha thanks :-D

I do think that although it's undeniable that much gets lost in translation of poetry, certainly not *everything* gets lost, and I think the downsides of reading poetry in translation are dwarfed by the risk of my getting too married to a U.S./Anglo-poet-centric worldview when I don't. I personally feel I've learned a ton from reading translated poetry over the years. Not as much as I've learned from reading English, French, and Vietnamese language poetry in the original, but still well worthwhile.