Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

1. An Early Martyr by William Carlos Williams
2. Darkness Around Us is Deep by William Stafford
3. Bach and the Catbird by John Fandel
4. Man with the Night Sweats by Thomas Gunn
5. V by Tony Harrison
6. Drive-In by R. S Gwynn
7. Ranging and Arranging by John Fandel
8. Why Brownlee left by Paul Muldoon
9. Imperfect Love by Miller Williams
10. Lords of Misrule by X. J. Kennedy
11. Stations of the Air by John Ciardi
12. Wreck of the Deutschland by Gerard Manley Hopkins
13. North & South by Elizabeth Bishop
14. The Mills of the Kavanaughs by Robert Lowell
15. In Other Words by May Swenson
16. Middle of a War by Roy Fuller
17. The Orb Weaver by Robert Francis
18. Portraits and Elegies by GJertrud Schnackenberg
19. WW2 and after (1940-56) Marianne Moore
20. V Letter and other poems by Karl Shapiro

This is a really nice selection; it's good to see so much poetry with a few years on it. There are a couple poets here I've never heard of - John Fandel, for example, and RS Gwynn. I'll look forward to hearing about those.

S. wrote: "This is a really nice selection; it's good to see so much poetry with a few years on it. There are a couple poets here I've never heard of - John Fandel, for example, and RS Gwynn. I'll look forwar..."

Sarah: Thanks for your note. I am an old Fuddy-duddy so my choices would naturally be likewise. I found RS Gwynn in a very,very large Anthology by Dana Gioia. John Fandel is a real find! His "The Bee" has been anthologized - he's got about 25 books, mostly chap books. I can get only very sketchy info on him on the Internet -85 yrs old, WWII vet, Professor at Manhattan College, former Poetry editor of Commonweal. I'm currently trying to contact him via Commonweal. Can't wait to review the "Wreck of the Deutschland." I saw another member of this group was reading "Exile," a novel about the "Wreck" which I just finished also.

It's exciting to find someone obscure and marvelous. Of course it's exciting to find someone who's just plain marvelous, too...