(Part 3) Top products from r/Poetry

I recommend Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds. It came out in 2012 and one the Pulitzer. The collection deals with her impending divorce with her husband and then the process of the actual divorce. Very straightforward and accessible, but also heartbreaking and has a lot of great musings on love and what happens when the love is gone.

http://www.amazon.com/Stags-Leap-Poems-Sharon-Olds/dp/0375712259

The Bigger World by Noelle Kocot is also wonderful. It came out in 2011. She creates these weird realities that feel slightly abstract and bizarre but also very relatable. Much lighter than Stag's Leap, I enjoyed this collection immensely. It was very playful but had a lot of great melancholic moments.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bigger-World-Noelle-Kocot/dp/1933517522

Engine Empire by Cathy Park Hong is another great collection. It was published in 2012. There are three main sections to this book, all these slightly different realities. First is like old west, so a lot of ballads and narratives. Second takes place in an imagined factory town in China, I think this section follows a worker who works in a factory reproducing famous pieces of work. Third section is an imagined future where people have become even more ingrained within technology, slightly dystopian depending on your point of view. What I like a lot about this collection is you can see how she changes her styles and forms of writing to reflect what she is writing about in any given section.

http://www.amazon.com/Engine-Empire-Cathy-Park-Hong/dp/039334648X

Flies by Michael Dickman was published in 2011. I personally really enjoyed this. The collection deals mainly with the death of Dickman's brother. It's very bizarre and dark. He kind of creates this "grief world" and kind of shoves you in it. It felt very personally and honest to me. Poems require a bit more unpacking than the other collections, but really great stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Lannan-Literary-Selections-Michael-Dickman/dp/1556593775

One of my favorite collections I read last year was The Earth Avails by Mark Wunderlich. I think it was first published in 2014. For this collection he took an old german prayer book and translated/repurposed the prayers in it into his own poetry. If you like nature/natural stuff this would be great. There is a weight and spirituality to the poems that I really liked. The poems do not feel super modern, but feel fresh. Really, really beautiful writing.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Earth-Avails-Mark-Wunderlich/dp/1555976662

Hustle by David Tomas Martinez, also published in 2014, is a very accessible collection and easy to read. The back of the book says, "Hustle documents the author's latino youth in San Diego, California. An inferno of stolen cars, silent sex, and murdered valedictorians," I feel like this is the best description of the collection. Really vivid imagery and wonderful, straightforward story telling.

http://www.amazon.com/Hustle-David-Tomas-Martinez/dp/1936747774

Last recommendation is Trickster by Randall Potts. This is another collection from 2014. Tbh I can't remember a way to characterize this except for mythic (not sure exactly why that word is popping to my head), but I do remember really enjoying it.

http://www.amazon.com/Trickster-House-Poets-Randall-Potts/dp/1609382846

Hope this helped! Hope you enjoy whatever you end up reading. Poetry is the best.

Well... I mean, subtext is not the only important thing, but it's still important. I really enjoy poets who create meaning not only through the literal meaning of words, but through the usage of words (and they definitely do so intentionally). I think the real problem is that that kind of thing can feel clinical and detached in the classroom, where you're doing it for a grade. When I'm able to find complexity and deeper meaning in a work I love, though? That's exciting and joyful!

Example: The first works that come to mind when I think are actually songs by my favorite band, The Oh Hellos. Specifically, their EPs Notos and Eurus. They've got this extended metaphor relating God to nature and humanity to man-made structures. Like in the song Constellations -- the central metaphor is the tower of Babel, from the story where humanity tries to build a tower to reach God. God hates their hubrice, so he causes the tower to crumble, and the people to speak different languages so they can't try again. Now, Notos' central theme fundamentalism, the reasons for it, the problems with it, what it's like when you can no longer hold onto it. In that context, the tower of Babel is related to religion. That is, it's something people use to reach God, but it ultimately separates us from him and from each other. The second important metaphor here is constellations. And what's the nature of constellations? Well, they're pictures we see in the stars. But while the stars actually exist in external reality, those pictures only exist in our minds; the actual stars that compose them have no real relationship to each other, and are in fact often light-years apart. (Not to mention, different cultures see different pictures). Their use as a metaphor here seems to be saying that God is something real, but so many our believes about him are just our own human projections.

Can you understand this song without getting all of this? Partially, I think. It took me a while to completely grasp it, but I started picking up on these existential themes from the get-go, like in the chorus, "Like constellations a million years away, every good intention... is interpolation, a line we drew in the array, looking for the faces, looking for the shapes in the silence." I deeply felt that, even if I wasn't really sure what to do with the Tower of Babel references. However! Understanding, rather making the song less for me, made it that much more beautiful! I got chills about it all over again! (I had a similar experience with the rest of the EPs; when I caught how the division between the binaries of God/nature and humanity/structures crumbles over their course, [like with stones being compared to seeds in "Grow"], collapsing completely in "Constellations"' companion song, "Hieroglyphs"... The point is that division between God, nature, and humanity was always an illusion, and... To me that is so utterly beautiful and joyful!)

I guess my point is, you don't have to understand everything going on in a poem to enjoy it. People shouldn't devalue that kind of appreciation. However, I think you shouldn't stop there. It's good to try to understand poems on a deeper level, not because you're supposed to or that it'll make you smart, but because there's so much beauty, love, and joy hidden in between the lines. And how do you get there? It takes learning and practice for most people, because it really is like a code or a foreign language. For me, it started with a book called How to Read Literature Like a Professor that I read for a high school English class (more about prose than poetry, but same idea). Then in college I learned more about different schools of criticism, what to look for, how to figure out where authors were coming from. A lot of this involved... Well, I think one of the best ways to practice is to read other peoples' analyses. Find a poem you love, read it over and over, see what stands out to you about it. Then read what other people have written about it. Overtime, you'll find yourself applying what you've learned to unfamiliar poetry. If you're passionate about it, if you enjoy figuring it out, if you thirst after understanding, then I think you'll discover so much!

I was in a similar situation to you a few years ago—wanting to “get in” to poetry, but not quite knowing where to start. I ended up buying an anthology—“Good Poems for Hard Times” by Garrison Keillor.

It’s an absolutely lovely collection. It’s divided into chapters by a common theme, or you can just open it to a random page and you’re sure to find a gem. It’s also a pretty good mix between typical canonical works and more obscure poems. Not to mention—Keillor’s introduction to the collection is absolutely beautiful and changed the way that I read poetry forever.

I’d definitely recommend starting with an anthology so you can decide what you’re particular “taste” is, and then you can grow your library from there. I’ve had my “Good Poems for Hard Times” for about four years now, and it’s introduced me to so many lovely poets and styles.

Here’s an Amazon link if you’re interested!

Epics are pretty various. Other than Homer** & maybe Beowulf, they tend to be long, public, political poems. Both the Aeneid and the Inferno fall into this category. So do the long romances of the French, Italian renaissance (Chanson de Roland, Gerusalemme Liberata etc). But that's about the extent of their 'definition'.

Epics are not always serious: Pulci's Morgante Maggiore, for example, is a sometimes rabelaisian comedy with a strong social/political view. Indeed, the greatest comic poem in English (Lord Bryon's "Don Juan") is a self-styled 'epic' of 16 books (unfinished when Byron died) with a hero (Juan) who doesn't matter much and a distinct politica/soclal agenda.

Realism? Not necessary. In Don Juan, the hero is fictive from the start because the real subject of the poem is Byron himself. That's sort of true of Morgante, too. It's a poem about a fictional hero of Romance (Roland) and his fictional squire, the giant Morgante. No one is supposed to take either character too seriously.

As to subject matter: it's what you please, although at epic length you need variety. Modern epics don't need to be about battles and feasts and voyages and games and harrowings-of-hell (the events of the classical epics). Byron makes endless jokes about this, although he does put Juan through a few episodes (shipwreck, cannibalism, the Russian siege of Ismail, harems, empress' bedrooms, english fox-hunts etc) that mock the conventions.

If you'd like to know more about Bryon's "Don Juan", you'll find several articles and stuff you can download -- including annotated and narrated excepts -- at https://madbaddangerous.com

** PS: You could also argue that Hopmer's Illiad, far from being merely an heroic tale, has a social/political agenda. Caroline Alexander makes a great case that it is fundamentally a poem about good governance and the futility of war in her book "The War that Killed Achilles" (https://www.amazon.com/War-That-Killed-Achilles-Homers/dp/0143118269)

Anne Carson -- Autobiography of Red changed my view on writing forever. Bridging the gaps between history, classical studies, poetry, prose, and philosophy it's an adventure in masculinity, sexuality, and longing. I've read every Anne Carson publication since; each is dense and provoking and difficult... she is a genius.

C.D Wright -- One Big Self is an examination of prison life in the south, told through prose and poetry snippets. There is an associated photo-journalist book that accompanies it, and together they're just outstanding. I think it gives one of the best holistic views of the south through really moving and lyrical prose.

Everything by Derrick Brown (Scandalabra, I Love You is Back, Born in The Year of The Butterfly Knife, etc) These are the only books that made the translation to spoken word for me... I'm not always a fan of spoken word poetry, but these made the jump for me. Church of The Broken Axe Handle kindof saved my life after a series of deaths in my family and friend circles; I've watched him read it over 500 times. It's technically about a breakup, but moreso about how you continue to live after the loss of intimacy and self-worth when someone you love deeply leaves (on their own or by death).

Live For A Living by Buddy Wakefield This book is the only other one that made the translation to spoken word for me. I think the writing and spoken poems are equally as good, and are sharp and smart... and I just related, often. "Horsehead" is a good example of the written-to-spoken translation

you're likely to get a zillion answers. poetry is such a wild and broad field, with many disparate subsets. And the difficulty in your question is that if i answer with The BreakBeat Poets or War Poems, where I find several valuable poems in each, you would invariably find them drastically more or less valuable to you.

I've read a couple handfuls of anthologies, and my lesson learned is that ... it kinda doesn't matter. liking poetry is a numbers game for me - if i want to add more poetry to the list of poems i like, I've got to read about a hundred more poems.

it doesn't quite matter the author, or era - though i do have to say i'm starting to figure out where/when more of the poetry i like tends to come from.




I highly suggest 2 things - any used book-store is going to have a dusty, not-often-shopped pair of shelves called poetry, in which you'll be able to find some classics, and some anthologies, for a few dollars each. super cheap, generally. Then, take the bulk of your budget to a new book-store and shop that section for a specific style/author/genre that you think might kin with him.

There are tons of anthologies these days centered around all sorts of lives and lifestyles. urban living, country living, black, Hispanic, old, young, hobo/travelers, gay, spiritual, ... all the sorts.

Regardless, good luck, have fun.

I mean, you really need to be reading anthologies to get a basis of the poetic tradition and then move on to individual books. While individual books of poetry help you get a sense of each writer, getting a taste of many poets throughout many periods is the only way to really become well versed (pun-intended). Also, part of the way to learn how to read poetry more critically is learn how to write poetry, or at least what goes into writing poetry. And my personal advice is to purposefully read poetry that is hard for you to grasp or find interest in, whether that be due to understanding or content (e.g. Yeats and his faeries don’t interest me in the slightest).

Theory/Reading Critically:

• A Poetry Handbook (super basic approach)
  
• How to Read Poetry Like a Professor
  
• Why Poetry?
  
• The Poetry Handbook
  
  American:
  
• Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American
  
• The Oxford Book of American (my personal favorite)
  
• Any of The Best American Poetry collections, to read the most contemporary poems.
  
  Other:
  
• The Norton Anthology
  
• Six Centuries of Great Poetry
  
  Source: Have a Master’s Degree in poetry and currently working on my MFA. My expertise is in 20th & 21st Century American Poetry, particularly post-War/post-45.

I really liked The Discovery of Poetry by Frances Mayes.

Not pretentious at all imo. Spends less time preaching and more time giving examples. More of a guide than an instruction manuel. It touches on a lot of different aspects of poetry and gives a variety of examples for each. It's a great way to familiarize yourself with the various elements of poetry and a lot of different poets as well.

For poetic form definitions folded within samples of the actual forms themselves, pick up the clever John Hollander's Rhyme's Reason: http://www.amazon.com/Rhymes-Reason-Guide-English-Verse/dp/0300088329 and good luck!

Hello Rose!! Omg thank you so much, this made me smile so much! I appreciate this.
I understand and respect your rule haha but I'll just attach the link to the book on Amazon here : (http://amazon.com/dp/B07Q61QLLS)
And I see why you can't find it; its cuz my reddit name is only a pseudonym. I am actually named Awa.
Btw, are you an ENFP, too??

One of my favorite poetry books is "A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry," edited by Czeslaw Milosz. The poems aren't difficult to understand yet are diverse and really wonderful. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Luminous-Things-International-Anthology/dp/0156005743/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Book+of+Luminous+Things&qid=1565830406&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I'm not sure if it has 100+, but my favorite collected anthology, by far, is The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart. The subtitle can go fuck itself, but the collection itself is unbeatable. So, so good. Really, this book showed me so much of what poetry can be. I really enjoy that it doesn't focus on one era so much over others, contemporary poetry is well-represented, and this all shows in the organization of poems. Pound right next to Olds right next to Li Po. Brilliant.

If I can get over the subtitle, I feel like anyone should be able to. Check it out!

Not exactly what you asked for, but the book Strong Measures compiles a few example poems from pretty much all the major forms (in English, at least) along with explanations of the forms in the back. It is my go-to whenever I need reminded how a form works. Thought you're going to want to buy it used - buying it new is nothing short of ridiculous.

[Sound and Sense] (http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Sense-An-Introduction-Poetry/dp/0155826107) is really a great book. It was used by my teacher in high school but I still keep a copy of it around the house.

Penguin have some good ones edited by Laura Barber, 1, and 2, there's not any from Medieval times in these, I don't think. I think Shakespeare and maybe a few from a century earlier are as far back as they go but they're mostly modern poems. There is The Faber Book of Beasts which has some older poems in.

It's a picture book.

Langston Hughes: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

I read through this a few summers ago. I, Too was one that struck me the most; still gives me chills, still (and probably always will be) incredibly relevant.

You should probably credit the author [Terrance Hayes]

This poem is just one of many with the same title, from a book also with the same title: American Sonnets to My Past and Future Assassin

The project was partially birthed out of an earlier Hayes poem - [American Sonnet for Wanda C.] which directly references American Sonnet 88, by Wanda Coleman

Wanda Coleman's "American Sonnet" poems, of which there are over 100, are actually kind of hard to find in print, especially since they haven't been collected in one place as far as i can tell - [American Sonnet 10, by Wanda C.] -- She explains her process in this [Wanda C. Interview]

The Kenyon Review explains the whole shebang in this [4 Part Series]

With all that immediate context out of the way, to say that it is purely a response to Trump or "politics" would be downplaying it severely. [This is America] [This is America] [This is America] etc - It's difficult to condense our history of racism and violence and classism, especially if you're not american.

The ending of this poem is very similar to Ross Gay's [Within Two Weeks...] - It is the question of what does it mean to be a black American. How you can both be proud of an America full of icons of justice and change and progress, but also aware that America's past is racist, and also its future will continue to be racist. What do you say to this two-faced America?

>It is not enough to love you. It is not enough to want you destroyed.

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