Poetry lovers- I need a suggestion for some summer reading.

[LaraMN]

I wanted to sit outside at dusk last night, burn a (citronella) candle, and kick back and read after the kids went to bed, but I'm sorely lacking in any fresh material. Whatcha' got?

[BlueIris]

1. Uh, let me see. Charles Wright is always good for "quiet nights."

I think, anyway. Or you could go with someone loved in my neck of the woods especially, Oregon favorite, William Stafford. Most of the rest of my beloved "summer" poets are considered obscure outside of acadamia, so those are some of the only writers I can suggest whose books should be easily found in most bookstores in your area.

ETA: If you wanted to go a little father back or stretch beyond the Americans, I recommend Edna St. Vincent Millay, and also the books of Wislawa Szymborska (Polish writer who received the Nobel Prize in...'97? Might have been '96). Most of the translations of her books that are available here now are excellent (In my eyes, anyway; I only took two years of Polish). I think of both as great "summer" writers who focused on profound subject matter in a way that was meaningful but not too "heavy."

[LaraMN]

2. Thank you! I'll check those out!

I'd love to find some sort of anthology; I like to skip around and read whatever suits my mood (which is subject change by the minute!):rofl:

[BlueIris]

3. It's interesting that you mention that. I was going to suggest that you

scoop up a Norton's anthology of modern poetry or something.

Alright, since you put that out there and since I'm actually heavily critical of the Norton anthologies' obvious bias against non-canonical authors, here are some anthologies I recommend with well-written, entertaining (ie; "summery" poems and poets): Garrison Keilor's "Good Poems," "Aloud: Voices from the Nu Yorican Poets' Cafe," (that one is from the heydays of the 'slam' poetry movement, so if you're not into experimental or post-modern structures or subject matter I don't recommend it--but if you are, PM me for more recs) and "Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times" (edited by Neil Astley).

[LaraMN]

4. That sounds like a good idea.

I don't have many anthology-type books, mostly just works by individual authors. I may have to do just that!

[BlueIris]

10. A few more: The Robert Pinsky edited "The Handbook of Heartbreak,"

(not as morose a collection as it sounds like it should be) "A Formal Feeling Comes," (formal verse by modern female authors, edited by Annie Finch) and "Ain't I A Woman!" (shut up, it's a great collection of more poems by female authors that I like because the poems included are very well rounded and feature discussion of serious and less-than-serious topics, with a balanced multicultural emphasis; edited by Illona Linthwaite).

You might have to order those last two from Amazon, although I'm pretty sure I saw a copy of the Linthwaite anthology in one of our Borders the other day.

[jpgray]

5. One without Billy Collins in it

:hide:

[Tyrone Slothrop]

7. I figured there'd be some sort of Collins-bashing here

That usually seems to come up on poetry threads here.

What's your beef with him? I generally really enjoy his work.

[jpgray]

9. He's just too precious/bland for my tastes

This is poetry, so I can't "prove" he sucks or anything, there's just too much other stuff I'd rather read that doesn't leave me so cold. I've never heard him read, though--maybe he does basslines and shit like Amiri Baraka. :D

[Tyrone Slothrop]

13. That's just it. It's all subjective, hence my curiosity

I've heard him read and met him. He was a nice fellow.

Personally, I don't go in for the hip slam-style poetry; I like something that's a bit more...considered, I guess?

I appreciate the way he takes a rather mundane subject like the thesaurus or a cigarette and turns it into a metaphor on something larger, like industry or something like that.

But, as you say, it's poetry. To each his/her own!

[jpgray]

15. I'm not at all into slam

But to me the way he takes the mundane subject is just grating, like the worst of Wordsworth--a stereotypical take that ostensibly is about the subject but is really about the self-aggrandizing, facile observations of the poet. :D

[Tyrone Slothrop]

6. Billy Collins is my favorite contemporary/modern poet

He was poet laureate a couple years back.

Here's one of my faves by him:

Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes

First, her tippet made of tulle,
easily lifted off her shoulders and laid
on the back of a wooden chair.

And her bonnet,
the bow undone with a light forward pull.

Then the long white dress, a more
complicated matter with mother-of-pearl
buttons down the back,
so tiny and numerous that it takes forever
before my hands can part the fabric,
like a swimmer's dividing water,
and slip inside.

You will want to know
that she was standing
by an open window in an upstairs bedroom,
motionless, a little wide-eyed,
looking out at the orchard below,
the white dress puddled at her feet
on the wide-board, hardwood floor.

The complexity of women's undergarments
in nineteenth-century America
is not to be waved off,
and I proceeded like a polar explorer
through clips, clasps, and moorings,
catches, straps, and whalebone stays,
sailing toward the iceberg of her nakedness.

Later, I wrote in a notebook
it was like riding a swan into the night,
but, of course, I cannot tell you everything -
the way she closed her eyes to the orchard,
how her hair tumbled free of its pins,
how there were sudden dashes
whenever we spoke.

What I can tell you is
it was terribly quiet in Amherst
that Sabbath afternoon,
nothing but a carriage passing the house,
a fly buzzing in a windowpane.

So I could plainly hear her inhale
when I undid the very top
hook-and-eye fastener of her corset

and I could hear her sigh when finally it was unloosed,
the way some readers sigh when they realize
that Hope has feathers,
that reason is a plank,
that life is a loaded gun
that looks right at you with a yellow eye.

Billy Collins

[Swede]

8. The Essential Neruda might fit the bill.

If Neruda is your thing.

http://www.poetryconnection.net/0872864286/The_Essential_Neruda__Selected_Poems.html

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. Suggestions:

Not sure what you like or have read, but here are some of my favourites: WH Auden, Philip Larkin, Anne Sexton, Charles Bukowski, Ezra Pound, Stephen Dobyns, William Carlos Williams...some of these are always worth a re-read if it's been a while, too.

[miss_american_pie]

12. Summer as in lightweight

or summer-themed?

[RetroLounge]

14. May I suggest you go to my Journal

and read thru the threads until you find someone you like, then go find their books.

:hi:

RL

p.s. Josh Bell, Dorianne Laux, Kim Addonizio...