National Poetry Month
There’s still time to mark this year’s National Poetry Month. Pick up one of these amazing anthologies, or just go browse the 800s at your closest library. Whatever you do, read some poetry before the end of April and chances are you’ll still be reading in May.
"Who Reads Poetry: 50 Views from Poetry Magazine," edited by Fred Sasaki & Don Share.
Who reads poetry? We know that poets do, but what about the rest of us? When and why do we turn to verse? Seeking the answer, Poetry magazine since 2005 has published a column called “The View From Here,” which has invited readers “from outside the world of poetry” to describe what has drawn them to poetry.
"The Complete Poetry," by Maya Angelou.
From her reflections on African American life and hardship in "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie" to her revolutionary celebrations of womanhood in "Phenomenal Woman" and "Still I Rise", and her elegant tributes to dignitaries Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela ("On the Pulse of Morning" and "His Day is Done", respectively), every inspiring word of Maya Angelou's poetry is included in the pages of this volume.
"The Best of American Poetry 2017," edited by Natasha Trethewey.
Edited by Pulitzer Prize-winner and nineteenth US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, "The Best American Poetry 2017" brings together the most notable poems of the year in the series that offers “a vivid snapshot of what a distinguished poet finds exciting, fresh, and memorable” (Robert Pinsky).
"Selected Poetry of William Wordsworth," by William Wordsworth.
Wordsworth's poetry is celebrated for its deep feeling, its use of ordinary speech, the love of nature it expresses, and its representation of commonplace things and events. As Matthew Arnold notes, "[Wordsworth's poetry] is great because of the extraordinary power with which [he] feels the joy offered to us in nature, the joy offered to us in the simple elementary affections and duties."
"Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500-2001," edited by Carolyn Forche.
The 300 poems collected here were composed at an extreme of human endurance—while their authors awaited execution, endured imprisonment, fought on the battlefield, or labored on the brink of breakdown or death. All bear witness to historical events and the irresistibility of their impact.
"Tonight No Poetry Will Serve," by Adrienne Rich.
In the intimate address of "Axel Avákar," the black humor of "Quarto," and the underground journey of "Powers of Recuperation," compressed lyrics flash among larger scenarios where images, dialogues, blues, and song spiral into political visions. Adrienne Rich has said, "I believe almost everything I know, have come to understand, is somewhere in this book."
"Voices of Poetry. Vol. 1" & "Voices of Poetry. Vol. 2"
Hear rare recordings from some of the world's most-respected poets reading their own works: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hoard; ee cummings, Prose Jottings; Archibald Macleish, The Old Man To The Lizard; Ted Hughes, Six Young Men; May Swenson, Naked In Borneo; Marilyn Hacker, The Dark Twin; Kenneth Patchen, 23rd Street Runs Into Heaven; Edith Sitwell, An Old Woman; Theodore Roethke, The Bat. Recording obtained and published by Rick Sheridan.
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