Poetry Book Reviews & Essays on Poetry

A Poet’s Ideal Library: Classic Essays on Poetry and Poetics

Classic essays on poetry and poetics that belong in a poet's library, suggested by Jim Finnegan and the members of the NewPoetry discussion list.

“A Field Guide to the Poetics of the 90’s”

Poet & editor of the Dictionary of Literary Biography R.S. Gwynn offers an overview, categorizing poetry “schools” & tracing the poetic lines of descent into today’s academic poetries.

“Beware the Philistines of publishing”

James Fenton comments on Oxford University Press’s decision to can their contemporary poetry line.

“The Blue That Sustains the Song”

In ZYZZYVA’s Fall 1998 issue, John Oliver Simon probes the faultlines in the Chilean poetry scene.

Christian Science Monitor Poetry Web Special

The Christian Science Monitor devotes a special section to poetry in its Web edition. “Of Poems & Poetry” lists links to CSM’s poetry feature articles, interviews & book reviews, all gathered in one place for easy browsing.

“Electronic Poetry”

Clemente Padin has written a très bon essay in Sala Altamira (“Altamira Cave”), Latin American journal of experi-po.

A History of Concrete Poetry

Thomas Nagel’s Joe Daviess Country Concrete site is a study of the word as image from Sumer to Appollinaire to the Internet age.

Journal Editors on Poetry

Among the articles at the online PSA Journal (Poetry Society of America) is this compilation of journal editors’ favorite poets & other journals.

“The Mystique of the Difficult Poem”

In Poetry International (San Diego State’s annual lit mag), Steve Kowit asks of poetry: “pure music” or “something coherent to say”?

National Public Radio report -- “Poetry Academy”

In January 1999, All Things Considered gave a history of the tempest brewing among the Academy of American Poets’ Chancellors.

National Public Radio report -- “Poetry’s Rise”

The annual spate of spring news flashes about poetry’s ever-blooming renaissance started early in 1998, with Laura Sydel’s report on NPR’s Weekend Edition (RealAudio file).

New York Times review — “A Poetic Homage”

You have to register to read any part of the New York Times online, but it doesn’t cost anything, and it’s worth your time to read things like Matthew Mirapaul’s essay on Miekal And's “After Emmett” and other multimedia visual poetry goings-on on the Net.

“Poetry & American Memory”

In the October 1999 The Atlantic Monthly, laureate Robert Pinsky wrote about collective memory & read from his personal canon of American poems.

“Poetry and Pop”

Here’s an interesting essay on the relationship of poetry to rock and spoken word by University of Iowa Professor Thomas Swiss.

Poetry as News

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s column was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Book Review during his 1998 tenure as SF’s first Poet Laureate. He brings a long poetic perspective to the daily newspaper in stories like “Zen Poets Meet In Eternity,” about Korean poet Ko Un’s visit to SF.

Stephanie Salter on the Nike Poetry Slam

“I think that I shall never see a poem made for Nike” is the headline: Stephanie Salter reports why Martin Espada turned down Nike's poetry slam invitation on the SF Examiner/Chronicle’s sfgate site.

Village Voice dispatch -- “Wordstock”

Evelyn McDonnell went to the first People’s Poetry Gathering, talked with many of the variegated assortment of poets that came to New York & reported what they had to say, a cross-section of views of the current poetic scene.

“Word Doctor”

In Salon’s Health & Body section, Harvard physician & poet Rafael Campo wrote about the healing powers of poetry.

“Towards a New Direction in Poetry”

C.E. Chaffin seeks exemplars of direct & powerful utterance ranging back to Dante & Blake as models for poetry in the third millennium: “I would like to put in a good word for Robinson Jeffers and Czeslaw Milosz, since they often share Dante’s directness.... They are no sleight-of-hand artists doing the dance of the seven veils...”