Looking for a new poet’s work to read, or to give to the poet in your life? We’ve selected the best recently published poetry anthologies here -- samplers in which you can discover the work of many poets. (Although they are numbered, we have NOT ranked our choices by “quality” or any other criterion. New books will appear here as we review them.)
(Edited by Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera, Three Rivers Press/Random House, 2001) From John Rodriguez to Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks to Beau Sia, I mean this is from and to ’till your ears turn blue, a universe that turns the hinge on the millennium like a can-opener. Once you open this particular can o’words, Pandora, they will never ever fit back in.
(Harcourt, 1998) Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz has selected 300 poems from around the world past & present for this “book of enchantments,” choosing poems that are “short, clear, readable... loyal to reality”... from Li Po to Li Young-Lee, Gary Snyder to Wislawa Szymborska, Elizabeth Bishop to Tomas Transtromer, May Swenson to Steve Kowit, Walt Whitman to Raymond Carver...
(Edited by Robert Pinsky, W.W. Norton & Co., 1999) When Pinsky was Poet Laureate, he asked Americans to share their favorite poems & tell how the poems had touched their lives -- and the result was both inspiring proof that poetry matters, and a national portrait at the turn of the century, in this book and in the online audio/video.
(Edited & introduced by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Books, 1995) Celebrating 40 years of publishing the Pocket Poets Series -- those small square volumes known for introducing Beats, leftists & avant garde poets to readers -- this sampler reveals the breadth of the series, which also included books by Vosnesensky, Pablo Picasso (!), William Carlos Williams & Robert Bly.
(Edited by Bob Grumman & Crag Hill, Light & Dust Books, 2001) This generous helping of what the editors call “visio-textual art” is, in fact, concrete poetry in the digital age. In good old mimeo black & white, this stubborn work shades beauty and is a solid landing on the other side of the moon of your mind.
(Edited by Jerome Rothenberg & Pierre Joris, University of California Press, Vol 1:1995 & Vol 2:1998) This two-volume set of “modern and postmodern poetry” is a must-have. The collection slings out a big banner and fills up the void with words. Rothenberg & Joris have reconstituted poetry as something to delve into and savor, as an international conspiracy open to all.
(Edited by Nathalie Handal, Interlink Books, 2000) Here it is, with a knowledgeable intro and a big heart, the book that will strip the veil off and allow the silence of Arab women to become the Past. From Bahrain to Morocco, Algeria to Yemen -- an important book.
(Chosen by John Hollander & Eavan Boland, Turtle Point Press, 1996) This collection offers numerous opportunities to relearn the nearly forgotten pleasure of reciting memorized poetry, from storytelling favorites like Ernest L. Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” to classic poems like Robert Frost's “The Road Less Traveled” to short modern lyrics selected for performance.
(Edited by Gary Mex Glazner, Manic D Press, 2000) This anthology documents the socio-literary phenomenon of poetry slam in 100 poems from slam-winners all over the U.S., with articles on slam history, the rules of competition, tips on organizing slams & performance tours. The first collection that spans the nationwide slam scene, a necessity if you’re into it.
(Edited by Margaret Ferguson, W.W. Norton & Co., 1996) This is the biggie, the core of the English canon, the beginner’s essential reference book, sampling poems from Shakespeare, Donne & Milton to Auden, Frost & Ashbery. Some have complained about the selections, or that its 2000 pages are not well enough bound, but it remains the first textbook for students of poetry.
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