(Part 2) Best regional & cultural poetry books according to redditors

There's a very excellent book of poetry about this series of photographs called Bellocq's Ophelia. One even focuses on this picture in particular.

If you're curious what poetry can do in today's world, check this one out for sure.

EDIT: I dug out my copy. Here's the poem in question:

Photograph of a Bawd Drinking Raleigh Rye

--E.J Bellocq, circa 1912

The glass in her hand is the only thing moving-
too fast for the camera-- caught in the blur of motion.

She raises it toasting, perhaps, the viewer you become
taking her in-- your eyes starting low, at her feet,

and following those striped stockings up like roads,
traveling the length of her calves and thighs. Up then,

to the fringed scarf draping her breasts, the heart
locket, her bare shoulder and the patch of dark hair

beneath her arm, the round innocence of her cheeks
and Gibson-girl hair. Then over to the trinkets on the table

beside her: a clock, tiny feather-backed rocking chairs
poised to move with the slightest wind or breath;

the ebony statuette of a woman, her arms stretched above
her head. Even the bottle of rye is a woman's slender torso

and round hips. On the wall behind her, the image again--
women in paintings, in photographs, carved in relief

on an oval plane. And there, on the surface of it all, a thumb-
print--perhaps yours? It's easy to see this is all about desire,

how it recurs--each time you look, it's the same moment,
the hands of the clock still locked at high noon.

by Natasha Trethewey

I'd give any of these to someone interested in poetry and wanting to get a good start.

Jill Alexander Essbaum: Harlot

Brian McGackin: Broetry

T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land and Other Poems (start with "Prufrock")

Sylvia Plath: Ariel (note: this is the "restored" edition--yes it is superior)

Anne Sexton: Transformations

Dante: The Divine Comedy (Durling & Martinez translation)

Anon: Beowulf (Heaney or Sullivan/Murphy translation)

Homer: Odyssey (Fagles translation)

Kim Addonizio: Tell Me

David Mason: Ludlow

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Collected Sonnets

Shakespeare: Collected Sonnets

Moira Egan and Clarinda Harriss (ed.): Hot Sonnets

Sounds Good, 101 Poems to be Heard

I'll go ahead and add the publisher's page for my book (which I absolutely would include as a good "beginning" book) but it won't be out until late January.

ENJOY!

*edit: I absolutely WOULD include my book as a beginner book--sorry for any confusion!

You could always read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, but honestly, it's a long poem that has little to do with the character in LOTR. There isn't much information about him; Tolkien himself was (purposely or not) extremely vague on the topic. There are any number of internet fora where you can find discussion and Wild Mass Guessing, but here's what the man himself had to say about the matter:


"Frodo has asked not 'what is Tom Bombadil' but 'Who is he'. We and he no doubt often laxly confuse the questions. Goldberry gives what I think is the correct answer. We need not go into the sublimities of 'I am that am' - which is quite different from he is. She adds as a concession a statement of part of the 'what'. He is master in a peculiar way: he has no fear, and no desire of possession or domination at all. He merely knows and understands about such things as concern him in his natural little realm. He hardly even judges, and as far as can be seen makes no effort to reform or remove even the Willow. I don't think Tom needs philosophizing about, and is not improved by it. But many have found him an odd or indeed discordant ingredient. In historical fact I put him in because I had already 'invented' him independently (he first appeared in the Oxford Magazine) and wanted an 'adventure' on the way. But I kept him in, and as he was, because he represents certain things otherwise left out. I do not mean him to be an allegory - or I should not have given him so particular, individual, and ridiculous a name - but 'allegory' is the only mode of exhibiting certain functions: he is then an 'allegory', or an exemplar, a particular embodying of pure (real) natural science: the spirit that desires knowledge of other things, their history and nature, because they are 'other' and wholly independent of the enquiring mind, a spirit coeval with the rational mind, and entirely unconcerned with 'doing' anything with the knowledge: Zoology and Botany not Cattle-breeding or Agriculture . Even the Elves hardly show this: they are primarily artists. Also T.B. exhibits another point in his attitude to the Ring, and its failure to affect him. You must concentrate on some part, probably relatively small, of the World (Universe), whether to tell a tale, however long, or to learn anything however fundamental - and therefore much will from that 'point of view' be left out, distorted on the circumference, or seem a discordant oddity. The power of the Ring over all concerned, even the Wizards or Emissaries, is not a delusion - but it is not the whole picture, even of the then state and content of that part of the Universe."

-- J. R. R. Tolkien, draft of a letter to Peter Hastings, from The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter, 2000, Houghton Mifflin, pg 192.

That probably doesn't help much. It isn't supposed to. One is obviously not intended to inquire too deeply into exactly what Bombadil is -- and it doesn't matter anyway. The Silmarillion and most of the rest of the Middle-earth corpus is intended as a history of the Elves, and anything else that enters it is generally coincidental and of only passing interest to Tolkien himself. The fact that LOTR involves hobbits and men is only to show that the world of the Eldar is ending; it closes the history begun in The Silmarillion. In that history, Bombadil plays little part, and anything said of him must be regarded as speculation. Here's a 1986 essay on Tom by Gene Hargrove that may be interesting.

I would choose a book titled Words and Nothing More by Jonathan Lamoureux Horic .
Beautiful, raw and real.

https://www.amazon.ca/Words-Nothing-Jonathan-Lamoureux-Horic/dp/1727724038

Thanks for asking!

I've heard this from a few people. We were an entire generation of kids who joined the military with the Black Hawk Down possibility playing in our heads . A single bullet is what we want. Poet veteran, Brian Turner said it best in "Here, Bullet." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguxNDdyky8
His body of work.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1882295552

I think all the actual suggestions I made in this post would apply here (disregard that it's about buying a poetry gift, you're the 'they' or 'she' in this haha) so I'll paste it in and make a few additional suggestions. But #1 suggestion is to read through Poetry 180 and when you find pieces you like to search those poets in google or at poetryfoundation.com (they also have a great browse function where you can search by theme, 'school', poet, subject, occasion etc)

​

There's certainly a wide variety of options, the best options are mostly more poetry to read. All good poets read lots of poetry. I mean, sure, there's probably 3 or 4 out there that don't, but outliers aside, poets read poetry. So there's a couple options, if she only started writing a couple years ago, I would suggest a workshop type text book and a subscription to a nice literary journal like American Poetry Review, Rattle, Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Georgia Review, Arts & Letters, Five Points, Gettysburg Review, Paris Review etc. Depending on the type of poets she likes, different magazines would be better.

One good tact would be to ask them for a few of their favorite poets, maybe say you're thinking about reading more poetry or something, or just ask. Do a google search for their name and "literary journal" or "literary review". If you see that name in any of the above journals I mentioned, get her that subscription. If not, consider getting her one of their collections from Amazon. For anthologies, which are great for young poets especially, because it can help introduce a reader to many similar or dissimilar voices to broaden their reading horizons, and also some of the books I'll be recommending have a strong prompt/craft component to help them continue to develop. I especially recommend the bolded titles, and Seriously Funny, while good, may be a bit complicated for a newish reader of poetry. But I could be misreading what you mean by poetry career and they could be plenty comfortable with it.

Here are a couple that are good options:

Seriously Funny is a great anthology themed after poems that bring wit to serious topics. It's edited by husband/wife poetry duo David Kirby and Barbara Hamby.

Staying Alive has a great variety of poems organized by theme. These are mostly poems published in the last 50ish years, and lean slightly toward being more accessible (easy to understand) than the first anthology.

Contemporary American Poetry: Behind the Scenes was edited by Ryan G. Van Cleave and is more of a textbook (like the next 2). It has a CD with audio recordings of many of the poets in the book and it is broken up by poet, mostly chronologically I believe. It has some craft essays as well. Being a textbook, new copies are expensive, but used are cheap cheap.

The Poet's Companion is edited by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, both tremendous poets in their own right. This one is more oriented in using poems to spark your own writing, but it does have a good amount of poetry in there, and the craft essays are brief and to the point.

In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop edited by Steve Kowit is also a great textbook for producing your own writing by looking at certain aspects of other poems. Stylistically this is similar to The Poet's Companion, and both are tremendous. Used they're each only $6 with shipping too.

Or, here are a few books that you can't go wrong with: Rose by Li-Young Lee, Tell Me by Kim Addonizio, Rail by Kai Carlson-Wee, The House of Blue Light by David Kirby, American Noise by Campbell McGrath, The Gary Snyder Reader—a huge book, but great, Some Ether by Nick Flynn

​

If you find a few more specific poets you like and want to find more of feel free to message me, and if I'm familiar with them I'll shoot you some more suggestions. A couple other poets who get personal and focus on minutiae/details etc would be like Albert Goldbarth, Billy Collins, Stephen Dunn, Matthew Neinow, Nick Latz, Gaylord Brewer, Ted Kooser, Philip Levine and, a couple that do similar with a definitely stylistic approach would be like Bob Hicok, Dean Young, Alex Lemon and Emma Bolden. For other lyrics/audio you may enjoy Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Ani DiFranco, Utah Phillips, Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Atmosphere/Slug, Josh Martinez...

Best of luck on your journey!

Celebrate and Promote:

3 years ago, I wanted to give up my life and end it all.

Today, I bought my poetry book which I published on Amazon.

Keep living, it helps.

Links for Kindle eBook and Paperback

Table of Questions and Answers. Original answer linked - Please upvote the original questions and answers.
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Question | Answer | Link
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So...... what was wrong?|I think sometimes you meet someone and you see the great side of them, and they see that in you, and you overlook your differences. Then enough time passes and you learn to love so much about each other, but then those differences surface again, and this time you love each other far more...which makes the fear of losing the other one even more unbearable to think about. Eventually, those differences surface and you must acknowledge that maybe you just aren't all that happy together. Once you bring that emotion to light, there is no going back.|Here
Have you authored any other books? Sorry to hear about your situation. I'm far too familiar with loneliness myself.|I wrote and published a book for musicians years ago, but this is the first book that I wrote for me and not with big dollar signs attached to it. I just had so many things I wanted to say, and I needed an outlet to process my emotions that were hitting me like bullets. Art has always been there for me, in good times and bad, and this time I wanted to share how I felt with other people..I guess I just don't feel like wanting to do this all alone this time around.|Here
I don't acctually have a question I just wanted to ask you how you're doing and to say good job on the ama. Your doing a great job answering everyone's questions.|Thank you for your kind words. My friend told me to do the AMA and I am trying my best to be an open book. I am doing ok today. I have been processing this loss for months, but it being the wedding day and all, that's a bit rough. I am excited about the book though, and that really helps me smile today. Thank you for your comment. I hope you have a great day yourself.|Here
If you could pick a bouquet of poems (that aren’t your own) to describe what love is and what it means to you, what would you choose?|I would choose a book titled Words and Nothing More by Jonathan Lamoureux Horic . Beautiful, raw and real. https://www.amazon.ca/Words-Nothing-Jonathan-Lamoureux-Horic/dp/1727724038 Thanks for asking!|Here
I love to write poetry and I'm an aspiring author. How did you become published?|First off, keep writing! and Thank you for your question. I knew that I had a great shot at getting this one published through a company, but I wanted to have it available on the day that was supposed to be my wedding (I know, that in itself is poetic haha). I ended up opting for self-publishing through Amazon, as they have been a great success for me in the past with a previous book (not related to poetry). I would say that you should find a book the size and style that you like, use that book as a template for your own, and then add all of your poems to it. Also, create an account on Kindle publishing to get things set up through Amazon, and when you wan to convert your book to an ebook, simply use Fiverr.com to get the job done cheap. Please feel free to share some of your poetry with me, either here or my Instagram @instadonnelly|Here
Congratusorrlationsy?|Now that is a word I can get behind hahaha. And it sums up the day for me haha. Thank you.|Here
your book is called conversations with ghost: so what are the names of the ghosts?|That is one hell of a question. But being vague seems lame. Kristy Helena Dyane Crystal Michelle And a few that are in there by proxy. No last names for obvious reasons :) Thank you for your question.|Here
looking back, do you think the marriage would have worked or was breaking up for the best?|We had our near misses more than a few times. I think we weren't meant to make it forever. Even if I wanted to continue to try and make it all work, sometimes you just know that the intensity isn't there enough to last a life time. It's still love, but then it becomes about being best friends, and then you both forget to talk about things. It's the silence that kills love. But yeah, I would say that breaking up was the right answer. Time will tell though. Thank you for asking.|Here
I'm sorry you had to go through that, but at least it happened BEFORE you got married. I was married once...she left me for a coworker. But as they say, "it's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." It does get better. I am happier now and although i dont agree with what she did, I am happy our relationship is over. You shouldnt want to be with anyone who doesn't want to be with you. It isn't fair to either of you. We only have one life, let's make the best of it by making it what we want it to be! Stay strong, my friend ☺|Thank you for this. Yes, I almost called my book "Just Friends" because that's what they always say hahah. I really appreciate your comment. Make it a great day!|Here
How did you publish it?|I was under a time constraint so I opted to self publish through Kindle Direct Publishing. Since my last book has been successfully launched through them before, it was something I was comfortable with. I wrote the book. Had it edited. Created the cover myself. Then launched the book on KDP. It's a great service that lets you decide your pricing structure and where you want to sell your book. I do want to make it clear that it is still VERY important that you edit, re edit, and edit again for good measure, before you hit that publish button.|Here
Do you feel less lonely now or when you were with your partner?|I feel more lonely for sure, but I also feel empowered that I can focus on me for a while and try to get things right in my own life|Here
I’m literally going through the same thing. I’ve been writing a ton. How did you go about getting published?|First off, I'm sorry that you are going through the same thing, it's absolutely crushing. That's the point of my book though, I wanted to reach out with my heart and share that with others. I want anyone that cares to listen (or read in this case) to know that they are not completely alone. As for the book, I did this. 1) Found a poetry book the same shape and size that I wanted. I used that book as inspiration, and it became a template during the editing process. 2) Wrote book and then edited the book. 3) Uploaded the finished book and cover to Kindle Direct Publishing . 4) Published! Thank for your question.|Here
How did you go from breaking up to publishing a book in just 3 months? That's impressively fast considering all phases involved; even if the creative process and writing were part of you coping strategy is pretty fast.|I could see myself making two decisions, to grab the bottle and start a long journey down that rabbit hole...or, lean on art to see me through ( and yes, there was Whiskey still involved, and a ton of music! I even created a playlist on Spotify). I should note that I am still very much in the healing process. The book helped me a lot, but it didn't fully heal this wounded heart. I think anyone feeling something truly powerful emotionally should let that out in an art form. It really helps. It's like free therapy. Haha|Here
Well said. I admire how exact your description is of this unceasing temptation of lashing out and burning all bridges with greatest fire ever seen (even more so if you are in right and it would be so easy) and then describing the other way of containing yourself and accepting the pain that comes with loneliness. So no real question here, just wanted to tell you that I don't even like poetry that much, but I am looking forward to read your book!|I really appreciate your kind words. You sound like you really get where I am coming from. I just want to heal and I want her to heal, and I want what's best for everyone. I have seen far too many loves turn into hate because of uncontrolled emotions. Trust me. Healing takes time, and the process is far better when you don't spend all your time trying to be right about how the other person hurt you. If you end up getting my book, that would be incredible, and if you like it, or not, please feel free to leave a review. Aloe, I will be giving anyone who buys my book the ebook version for free when it's ready, so make sure to let me know on my Instagram account @instadonnelly|Here

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[Source] (https://github.com/johnsliao/ama_compiler)

This is really cool of you :)

So, you say you like sci-fi... But do you like haiku? And more importantly, do you like both at the same time? Because if you don't, you'll hate this scifaiku book I published.

On the flipside of this argument, check out Tracy K. Smith's Science Fiction-inspired poetry collection, Life On Mars.

Yeah, Tolkien's poetry is usually overlooked but there's a lot of great stuff he wrote. "Cat" was from a collection called "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" and it's definitely worth a look if you want to get into some of his easier poetry...

https://www.amazon.com/When-My-Brother-Was-Aztec/dp/155659383X

There's húsabœr or staðr. Both can mean "farmstead" or "farm" but húsabœr gives the connotation of the buildings that make up the farm or the dwellings for people/animals while staðr is closer to the English "-stead", meaning more of the land/location. Its also used widely to mean "place" or "spot."

There's also bú which means "farming" (like the action or business of farming) or "household" but is used for a lot of other things as well.

If you wanted to be a bit dramatic with the river bluff feature, you could use nes, which is "headland". So, for example, in Landnámabók, there's a "Herjólfsnes", which is the land taken by a man named Herjolf. I've seen a lot of personal names incorporated into geographical terms to make place names. So if your name was Aaron, say, you could then have "Aaronsnes" or "Aaron's Headland."

Edit: You could also do the same with staðr, so: "Aaronsstaðr".

You can look at Zoëga's dictionary to see more details on the terms.

In modern Icelandic, I found býli or kot (for a small cottage farm). See here and here.

Good luck and congrats on getting a farm!

I think you would like Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith.

It’s a collection of poetry and motivation writings. I touch on topics of growth, love, purpose, and the universe.

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Loving-Universe-Sergio-Torres/dp/1978196938/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510211165&sr=8-1&keywords=growing+and+loving+with

If you’re interested

I just happened to end up at a university that had a professor of Old Norse. Modern Icelandic and Faroese are pretty close and there is an Old Norse dictionary (Zoega's concise dictionary - it's concise because he was going to make a larger one but died before he could). My old norse professor has two textbooks you can get on amazon (textbook 1 and textbook 2) but I don't know how good those are because he was writing them while I was taking his courses. There's also this textbook which I've never used but has good reviews.

You can also learn modern Icelandic and then study Old Norse because they very similar. It may be easier to do it that way. We also read the sagas in the original Old Norse which was very interesting.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quiet-Nights-Till-Lindemann/dp/1935738712
Waiting eagerly for Flake's book in English though...

I've always loved this poem. The first section of Schrecker's Post-Millennium Rhapsody is an update of this. You can read it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CPQ71RZ#reader_B07CPQ71RZ

Ryokan was a poet, he has a book.

https://www.amazon.com/Dewdrops-Lotus-Leaf-Poems-Ryokan/dp/1590301080

But something you can just jump into can be found here.

http://thezenuniverse.org/anecdotes-poetry-zen-master-ryokan/

You forgot the book of poems! The Adventures of Tom Bombadil were published during his lifetime and therefore are canon!

If that's really the way you think, then I highly recommend that you read Solipsist, by Henry Rollins.

https://www.amazon.com/Bellocqs-Ophelia-Poems-Natasha-Trethewey/dp/1555973590/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=natasha+tretheway&qid=1554327076&s=gateway&sr=8-6

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

It's like a whole book, so not easily postable, but you can get it on the Amazon.

Autogenerated.

I just published my first poetry/self-help Book - AMA to convince you to buy it

The book in question: https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Loving-Universe-Sergio-Torres/dp/1978196938/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510211165&sr=8-1&keywords=growing+and+loving+with


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Comment 1 of 1
Updated at 2017-11-11 05:23:06.312845

Next update in approximately 20 mins at 2017-11-11 05:43:06.312869

This is a really cool book of sci-fi haikus (I know, odd right?) that I really enjoyed. Written by a Redditor.

http://www.amazon.com/white-noise-haiku-space-ebook/dp/B004S7EP84/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

https://www.amazon.com/Waste-Land-Facsimile-Transcript-Annotations/dp/0156948702/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2WGK69ZF8IY3L&keywords=the+wasteland+t.s.+eliot&qid=1563976937&s=gateway&sprefix=The+wasteland%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-7

Read my book. Actually no, don't...

You can get Till's books translated however that's about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Nights-Till-Lindemann/dp/1935738712

What about this one? https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Comedy-Divina-Commedia-Translation/dp/1781393192

I'm not sure if Longfellow's translation is the best, but he was both an accomplished poet and a professor of Italian, so that's encouraging. Plus, this professor from Bard claims his is one of the best: https://theamericanscholar.org/how-to-read-dante-in-the-21st-century/#

This one, though admittedly it is pricey.

Me personally...I started with "Black Coffee Blues". Then most people read the follow up "Do I Come Here Often?", but I read "Solipsist" before that. "Get In The Van" is specifically more about his time with legend punk band Black Flag but it's super interesting. He let's you in to alot that molded him into the man he is today. And then after that, I'd say just start going down the line with the others. Also, YouTube his live spoken word performances too. The guy is just so damn fascinating lol sorry, he had a big influence on me in my late teens...enjoy! :)

I know this was a month ago, but check out the Restored Edition of Ariel here: http://www.amazon.com/Ariel-Facsimile-Manuscript-Reinstating-Arrangement/dp/0060732601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418412768&sr=1-1&keywords=ariel+plath

The original was published by Hughes, who reorganized the collection and left out a couple poems. It might have what you're looking for.

I think Asian poetry should be your go to for this.
Chinese:
[Hanshan] (https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Mountain-Mandarin-Chinese-English/dp/1556591403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519439&sr=8-1&keywords=hanshan)
[Libai and Dufu] (https://www.amazon.com/Li-Po-Tu-Translated-Introduction/dp/0140442723/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519506&sr=8-3&keywords=li+po)
[Tao Yuanming] (https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Poems-Tao-Chien/dp/1556590563/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519544&sr=8-1&keywords=Tao+qian)
and Japanese:
[Saigyo] (https://www.amazon.com/Saigyo/dp/023107493X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519595&sr=8-1&keywords=Saigyo)
[Basho] (https://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Road-Interior-Writings-Shambhala/dp/1570627169/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519621&sr=8-3&keywords=Basho)
[Ryokan] (https://www.amazon.com/Dewdrops-Lotus-Leaf-Poems-Ryokan/dp/1590301080/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519642&sr=8-4&keywords=Ryokan)

Since you were one of two people to respond here haha I just want to make sure you see my book is free for kindle download this week. The Cosmic Hello

That was the first and only thing that came to mind when I tried to think of one. I was thinking only of Geir T. Zoëga, the apparently quite well-known guy who compiled my Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic. (Spoiler alert: it's not very concise.)

> Natalie Diaz was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Diaz teaches at Arizona State University and the Institute of American Indian Arts Low Rez MFA program. Her first poetry collection is When My Brother Was an Aztec.

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"I write hungry sentences," Natalie Diaz once explained in an interview, "because they want more and more lyricism and imagery to satisfy them."