Wednesday, May 30, 2007

What I've been reading:

Ripening, Paul Hunter: wonderful poems of farming and the land.

Brief Weather & I Guess a Sort of Vision, Anthony Robinson: I love how this book is formatted sideways compared to most books, and includes commentary about the poems on the backs of the pages. Fun stuff.

Ploughshares, ed Edward Hirsch: a lot of good work here. My favorite: Nicholas Christopher's "14 rue Serpentine." Wow.

The Anteroom of Paradise, Bruce Bond

Harmless Medicine, Justin Chin

Dance From Inside My Bones, Lana Hechtman Ayers: "This Rose-Shaped Scar" is devastating.

Ripple Effect, Elaine Equi (I have blogged about this before).

embryoyo, Dean Young

A Primer on Parallel Lives, Dan Gerber: wonderful Zen/nature poems.

Three Fables, Stringfellow Barr & Jennifer Borges Foster: a wonderful erased poem made from an old fairy tale.

For Love of Common Words, Steve Scafidi

Blackbird and Wolf, Henri Cole: the bookjacket says these poems are "neither confessional nor abstract." I would argue they are a little of both.

China Basin, Clemens Starck: he writes beautifully of labor and the work of hands.

Traveling Incognito, Clemens Stark: ditto

The Light at the Edge, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Vellum, Matt Donovan: beautiful long-lined poems. Winner of the Bread Loaf Prize.

A Fiddle Pulled from the Throat of a Sparrow, Noah Eli Gordon: horrible author photo; beautiful poems. Ellipitcal, disjunctive, but they work for the most part.

Earlier Poems, Franz Wright: he was dark and depressing even back then (no surprise), but these are amazing poems. I love his stuff.

This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosely : and this year I hope I will.

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