Glynn Young reviews Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Prayers of a Young Poet, ” a wonderfully engaging collection, adding new insight to both the man and his poetry.
Discovering Moons, Discovering Myself
I wanted to give you something of comfort: words like an armoire smelling of talc, lined with lace, concealing a ruby bracelet, tortoise shell comb. Words that melt on the tongue a communion wafer. wheaten and whispering of salvation… (from the poem “Why Write” by Judith Valente) I read Judith Valente’s Discovering Moons twice, once […]
“Finding My Elegy” by Ursula Le Guin
Le Guin has pulled together some of her favorite poems and included new ones as a kind of possible life or work summary, including “Finding My Elegy”…
Laugh and Learn to Write Fiction
There’s a new book on the street. (And in the pink limo.) The Novelist, a novella that will teach you how to write fiction, even as you get lost in a story of one big challenge, an elusive cup of tea, and a ruminating poet’s attempt to break free. “Hilarious protagonist, ” says one reader. […]
Poetry for Isaac and Ishmael
This is not the poetry of Mideast politics but the poetry of people – peoples – caught up in Mideast politics, whether the scene is set in the Auschwitz death camp or the Aida refugee camp.
“You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake”
The title suggests a story or a riddle, implying that something is going to happen or unfold, or a challenge or competition is going to begin. I’ve never read a book of poetry quite like ‘You and Three Others are Approaching a Lake’
Kerri Webster’s “Grand & Arsenal”
The appeal of the poems in Grand & Arsenal is broader than only to St. Louisans. They are delightful, learned, approachable, historical and regional, and replete with literary references to Hawthorne, Lucretius, Ovid and even Agatha Christie.
Michael Ryan’s ‘This Morning: Poems’
A review of Michael Ryan’s ‘This Morning: Poems’
The Hearing of the Sea: Thoughts on A Broken Thing
When I come across a book as provocative as A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line, I know I will recommend it, but the question is… to whom
Alan Shapiro’s “Night of the Republic”
Poet Alan Shapiro loads his minds-eye camera with film (or, these days, a disk)
Tania Runyan’s “A Thousand Vessels”
A poetry review of A Thousand Vessels.
Dave Malone’s “Under the Sycamore”
Quick: name a contemporary love poem.
Stanley Moss’s “God Breaketh Not All Men’s Hearts Alike”
Now Moss has published what must stand as a testament to his career as a poet
Donald Hall’s “The Back Chamber”
From the time I was 8 until I was 14, I spent a week each summer at my grandmother’s house in Shreveport. I would sleep in the second bedroom, which was always called “the back room” even though it and my grandmother’s bedroom formed the back of the house. It was the room with a […]
Matthew Duggan’s “Underworld: The Modern Orpheus”
Duggan has done something wonderful here with this retelling of an old, old story. He’s given it a modern sensibility while remaining true to its mythological origins.
Poet Scott Cairns’ “Short Trip to the Edge”
Poet Scott Cairns writes about four pilgrimages he makes to spiritual centers of the Eastern Orthodox Church – three in Greece, one to a center in Arizona.
InsideOut: Poems by L.L. Barkat
A year outside brings us to a year inside. Poems of nature, dreams, sensual love. Divided by seasons, the poems explore the range of human experience.
Elizabeth Bishop: The Complete Poems 1927-1979
Finding the poems of Elizabeth Bishop. Again. With “The Riverman.”
The Great Fires, Poems 1982-1992 by Jack Gilbert
Jack Gilbert’s poems are lyrical and clean, like clear ice.
The Poems of John Estes
Estes’ poems evoke a sense of the literary and of everyday reality. He ranges from Virgil to a one-armed, drunken grandfather, and the art of Brueghel.