This poetry collection has been a labor of love for its editor, Jeffrey Coleman. In an interview on the Tavis Smiley show in April, Coleman talked about searching for poems related to the Civil Rights movement for a paper he was assigned in graduate school. The project continued from there. The full contents are available on the Duke University Press webpage.
This is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.
COLEMAN, Jeffrey Lamar, ed. Words of Protest, Words of Freedom: Poetry of the American Civil Rights. 358p. Duke Univ. 2012. Tr $89.95. ISBN 978-0-8223-5092-7; pap. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-8223-5103-0. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. Chapters present poems that speak of the lynching of Emmett Till, the murders of famous leaders, and the children killed in 1963 in Birmingham at church. Audre Lord’s 1964 poem, “Suffer the Children,” brings back that terrible day. “We who love them remember their child’s laughter/ But he whose hate robs him of their gold/ has yet to weep at night about their graves.” Outstanding poems are included about the integration of the Little Rock schools, the Black Panther Party, and the race riots in the late 1960s. Julius Lester expresses one sad theme in “Revolutionary Mandate 1.” “These are not the times to take your friends for granted–to assume/that they will always be there. They may not be./And if you wait until the next time to tell them that they are very/ special to you/ You may wait until/someone calls you and says that/so and so’s body was found/ beneath the bricks/of a dynamited building.”–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
Love, an Index is Rebecca Lindenberg’s first book, and the debut volume in the recently announced McSweeney’s Poetry Series.
This series of poems traces her relationship with poet Craig Arnold. Lindenberg began the book while he was still alive, in fact started working on it three years before his disappearance. But after losing him, it became something closer to an elegy which, as mentioned in her interview in The Believer, is both celebration and mourning.
LINDENBERG, Rebecca. Love, an Index. 99p. McSweeney’s. 2012. Tr $18. ISBN 978-1-936365-79-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Poet Craig Arnold disappeared while hiking a volcano in Japan in 2009. The woman who loved him writes about their relationship and her sense of loss without explanation. There is no preface; the tragic event is explained in the blurb on the back cover. The first poem, “What Rings but Can’t Be Answered,” is touching and could speak to anyone who has ever waited for a call from a loved one. “I want to be the crackers in your soup,/I want to be your brass compass. Oh, mister,/just thinking about you curls the ends of my hair.” Thirty-one pages are given to the alphabetical listing of remembrances and feelings as the couple’s story is told. “A ABANDON, what I did when you touched me that winter with an ungloved hand.” “C COMPROMISE, I will get up early with you so long as you’ve made coffee.” “O Over, when I answered the phone that May morning and the man from the search team said, “It’s over.” The entries take readers from Bogota to Rome where the couple traveled and explored. Sometimes Lindenberg explains in prose poetry what she is doing and thinking. The overall effect of sadness builds until readers feels her tremendous loss. The slim volume is beautiful and romantic and should appeal to teen readers.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
Today’s guest blogger is Karlan Sick. Karlan and I served together on the Alex Awards committee for four years, and Karlan was always determined to find a book of poetry for the list. She introduced me to Poets House. At least once a summer, we would meet there and spend hours reading through potential collections, most hand-picked for us by the knowledgeable staff. Almost two years ago, Poets House moved from Soho to an incredible location in Battery Park City. Open to the public, and available for school visits, this is a beautiful, inspiring place for poetry. From Karlan:
With some 50,000 volumes of mostly contemporary American poetry on open stacks, Poets House is a wonderful place to visit here in NYC. The new site faces the park and Hudson River with beautiful wide windows to please those who want to read or write. Every year a special party is held to introduce the Showcase, a collection of virtually every poetry book published that year. Star struck readers can enjoy refreshments and meet some of their favorite poets. Programs and writing workshops are held for children, teens and adults. When the weather is nice, there are special events in the adjacent park, too. An annual fundraiser, a walk across Brooklyn Bridge in June, is a highlight of the year. Poetry is read before the walk, at the half way point, and on arrival. A fine dinner is served along with more poetry. The creative leadership of Poets House has made this wonderful space exciting and welcoming. Come for a visit when you are in New York City.
COLLINS, Billy. Horoscopes for the Dead. 106p. Random. 2011. Tr $24. ISBN 978-1-4000-6492-2. LC 2010018621.
Adult/High School–Collins served as Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003, and his sense of humor and storytelling style appeal to most readers. Boys should appreciate “The Snag.” “The only time I found myself at all interested/in the concept of a time machine/was when I first heard that baldness in a man/was traceable to his maternal grandfather./I pictured myself stepping in the odd craft/ with a vial of poison tucked into a pocket/and, just in case, a newly sharpened kitchen knife./Of course, I had not thought this through very carefully./But even after I realized the drawback/of eradicating my own existence/not to mention the possible existence of my mother,/I came up with a better reason to travel back in time.” The poet then imagines being a child and meeting his grandfather in a touching conclusion. The title poem describes an activity to which many people do not admit. And why read the horoscope relating to someone who is gone? “Every morning since you disappeared for good,/ I read about you in the daily paper/ along with the box scores, the weather, and all the bad news./ Some days I am reminded that today/ will not be a wildly romantic time for you,/ nor will you be challenged by educational goals,/ nor will you need to be circumspect at the workplace.” It is refreshing to read a poet who uses direct, elegant language. The humorous, wistful tone of the poems and the incidents poignantly presented should make this a welcome addition to all collections.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
Adult/High School–Bishop (1911-1979) received many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award for Poetry in 1970 for her Complete Poems. This new edition of her collected poetry was released in celebration of the centennial of her birth. Being independently wealthy, Bisop was able to travel and live abroad. Many of her poems treat her travels, and she knew Portuguese, French, and Spanish well enough to translate the work of other major poets. Her poems will be appreciated by teens for their accessible style. “Questions of Travel,” the title poem from a book set in Brazil, is a good example. “There are too many waterfalls here; the crowded streams/ hurry too rapidly down to the sea,/ and the pressure of so many clouds on the mountaintops/ turning to waterfalls under our very eyes./ For if those streaks, those mile-long, shiny, tearstains,/ aren’t waterfalls yet,/ in a quick age or so, as ages go here,/ they probably will be.” “North Haven” was written in memory of her friend Robert Lowell. “You left North Haven, anchored in its rock,/ afloat in mystic blue…And now—you’ve left/ for good. You can’t derange, or re-arrange,/ your poems again.” This is a fine collection that students will want to read and ponder, including the collection of facsimiles of previously unpublished poems at its conclusion.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
Here we are , over halfway through National Poetry Month. I look forward to posting poetry reviews here regularly in the future, once or twice a month. We’ve enjoyed a good run of once a week during the month of April, with one week to go!
Enjoy this playful, fun collection, quite accessible for younger readers.
CRAIG, Michael Earl. Thin Kimono. 105p. Wave. Aug. 2010. Tr $14. ISBN 978-1-933517-46-9. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Craig’s third book of poetry contains many insightful and surprising selections. Rather than being introduced to Japan, readers encounter a trip to the acupuncturist, shoeing horses, and watching an owl at night. The poet makes all of the works interesting. Some are written in paragraphs but read as poetry. Some, such as “This I Believe,” contain amusing thoughts. “I believe in tacos and mortification./I believe that all people fall/into one of two categories: Doonesbury or Far Side./Well, or Andy Capp. Andy Capp type people./They’re everywhere.” Craig works as a farrier in Montana, so it is natural that a man who earns his living shoeing horses would write about the experience. “In the Road” shows that horses even enter his sleep. “I had a dream last night. I dreamt/I was trying to shoe a horse in the road./I’d get under him and swing my hammer/and he’d move his foot, just a little.” His matter-of-fact style may inspire some to try writing about their own experiences. The straightforward poems describe small events and tell part of little stories. In “The Neighbor,” the poet explains that he is writing for himself or for someone like him. Teens who enjoy poetry will want to share Craig’s short, lively poems.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
This is a Words without Borders publication. Words without Borders “translates, publishes, and promotes contemporary international literature.” Every month they publish an online magazine. They also partner with publishers to release print anthologies, of which this is one.
Tablet & Pen is quite a thick & heavy tome, and may appear intimidating to teen readers. But I was surprised by just how accessible the pieces are, and found it a wonderful collection to dip into at random. Most of the prose pieces are excerpts, usually full chapters, from novels or longer nonfiction works. This is a strong choice for school libraries in particular.
Just as Kevin Young’s Ardency could supplement the study of American History, selections from Tablet & Pen could be used to complement a course on Middle East history, culture, literature or religion. Or make for a different recommendation to a teen excited about The Kite Runner.
ASLAN, Reza, ed. Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. 657p. Norton. 2010. Tr $35. ISBN 978-0-393-06585-5. LC 2010032679.
Adult/High School–Literature from the modern Middle East is presented in an anthology divided into three time periods: from 1910 to 1950, 1950 to 1980, and 1980 to 2010. Within each time frame, literature from Arabic-language countries from Persia to Turkey to Pakistan are introduced. With translations from so many different cultures, the book is long for most readers. Teens will want to start with the short informative essays introducing each section and then select poems, essays, and stories to enjoy. Many of the poems are beautifully simple, such as “I Am Listening to Istanbul” by Orhan Velikanik: “I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed/First a breeze is blowing/ and leaves swaying/Slowly on the trees;/ Far, far away the bells of the/Water carriers ringing,/I am listening to Istanbul with my eyes closed.” In the third section, current problems of the Middle East are described by poets and essayists in an insightful way. Persian poets write eloquently of Iran and events since the revolution. This is a Words without Borders anthology, a nonprofit organization founded to translate and publish international literature. Hebrew and Israeli literature are not included in this volume. Works by Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Urdu writers are not seen very often and are most welcome here.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
I am excited to kick it off with a review of Kevin Young’s Ardency, a fascinating way to discover, explore, and contemplate the Amistad incident. Imagine what a high school student might take away from this literary treatment compared to reading a page or two in a history book. Here, layers and implications are revealed in poetry that brings a chorus of voices to life.
I first encountered Kevin Young’s work in Jelly Roll (Knopf, 2003), which was nominated for the National Book Award. It is also quite accessible for young adult readers, following the progression of a love affair from its heady first days through to a rather disastrous end. The poetry in Jelly Roll is based on all kinds of musical genres and dance rhythms, with an emphasis on the blues.
YOUNG, Kevin. Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels. 272p. Knopf. 2011. Tr $27.95. ISBN 978-0-307-26764-1. LC 2010030007.
Adult/High School–Most teens know the basic story of the revolt on the slave ship Amistad, and a quick review is provided in the preface. This collection of poetry is not presented in a chronological sequence from capture to revolt to imprisonment to repatriation. Instead, the voices of different characters speak in turn in the section titled “Buzzard,” telling of the rebellion and attempt to sail to Africa that ended in New Haven. In “Correspondence,” the captives use their newly acquired English to write to influential men such as John Quincy Adams for help. In “Speech” a supplicant pleads, “having English now/ I hope to tell you/ what it meant to hear your/ words it was a river/ slowly icing over it was/ rain falling into water/ was the night following/ rain into water a father/ crocodile waking early/ to eat his children.” The longest section, “Witness: a Libretto,” is narrated by Cinque, a leader of the rebels. Young’s work should be set to music. He mixes lessons from the primers used by abolitionists to teach the prisoners and parts of familiar old hymns learned in jail into Cinque’s account of the New Haven trial. The final short section concerns the return to Africa where a mission was established. Most of the victims departed quickly to look for their families, who were often missing. The title fits the impassioned poems that tell this most horrific story.–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
Elizabeth Alexander came to the attention of the larger public when she was asked to read an original poem at President Obama’s inauguration.
Alexander is a professor of African American studies and English literature at Yale. After reading large sections of this book, I was not surprised. She often uses history, especially African American history, as the inspiration for her poetry. I can imagine all kinds of integration between history and english classes, perhaps using these poems as examples for students writing their own poetry inspired by history.
I especially enjoyed the selections from Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color (2007), which bring to life the feelings of students attending Prudence Crandall’s school in 1830s Connecticut. This collection was co-authored by Marilyn Nelson and published for young adults by Wordsong.
In any case, a great choice for school and public libraries alike, and one that teens might not encounter without a personal introduction.
ALEXANDER, Elizabeth. Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems, 1990-2010. 255p. Graywolf. 2010. Tr $28. ISBN 978-1-55597-568-5. LC 2010922921.
Adult/High School–This retrospective collection of 20 years of work is wonderfully readable. As Alexander tells stories with her poetry, readers learn about the Venus Hottentot, brought from Africa to London and treated as a tourist sight. Poems from Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color portray the plight of the brave educator who could not keep her students safe when the town of Canterbury objected to educating young women of color by poisoning the well and setting fire to the boarding school. The poignant poems are written from teachers and students’ points of view. The Amistad poems movingly depict the rebellion of the slaves on board the ship and their trial in New Haven where Yale students volunteered to teach them English. There are also autobiographical poems about the poet’s life and family as she recalls her grandfather frying apples and summertime in Washington, D.C. where she grew up. Lines from “Summertime” make readers feel the heat. “A hydrant/illicitly opened, kids riding/the hard spray, caught in the rainbow/of water.” Alexander’s poem “Praise Song for the Day” was delivered at President Obama’s inauguration and is one of the 15 new selections. It is an inspirational piece with great appeal for all readers. “I know there’s something better down the road./We need to find a place where we are safe./We walk into that which we cannot yet see.”–Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library
Finding appealing poetry for teens is a challenge. Today we offer two very different possibilities. One from Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott. The other for beginners.
WALCOTT, Derek. White Egrets: Poems. 86p. Farrar. 2010. Tr $24. ISBN 978-0-374-28929-4. LC 2009031895.
Adult/High School–A cat scaling a wall and an ocean breaker cresting lead the poet to an observation concerning the human heart. The cat’s claws grip the wall as it begins to scamper up, then there’s a slip, and in the end a quickening fall. The breaker too follows the pattern of “gripping, sliding, surrendering. . . to the lace-rocked foam.” These images, in a poem that manages, in 16 marvelously crafted lines, direct Walcott to observe that the action of the cat and the movement of the breaker are one with “the heart, coming home, trying to fasten on everything it moved from.” The poem has rhyme and rhythm, allusion and metaphor, and phrasing rendered with such precision that it is easy to imagine many readers pausing to catch their breath. A fair question remains: is there anything here for young adult readers? Are these poems beyond the reach of the poetry “novice?” It is true that they are not easy. There are allusions to classical mythology, the Bible, Shakespeare, Dante. And the landscape of the majority of the poems is, as usual, the poet’s Caribbean homeland. But anyone, anywhere, of any age, can relate to the “desert indifference” of a cat with its “who-the-hell-are-you?’ calm,” with its belly turned upward as it lies in the midday sun with “eyes slitted in ecstasy.” White Egrets is full of such images of universal accessibility, just as it is full of deep and lasting truths of what it means to be human. The themes are large: love, death, birth, ageing, loss, triumph. The locales are varied: New York, Amsterdam, Capri, Spain, Italy, Saint Lucia. The particulars are innumerable: egrets, acacia trees, terra-cotta warriors, diabetes, empires, Barack Obama. The end result is a gift to all who turn to the written word for truth and beauty.– Robert Saunderson, formerly at Berkeley Public Library, CA
CHAPMAN, Margaret & Kathleen Welton. Poetry for Beginners. illus. by Reuben Negron. 151p. Steerforth. 2010. Tr $14.99. ISBN 978-1-934389-46-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–This succinct and serviceable volume begins on exactly the right note for “beginners” who wonder what this thing called poetry could possibly be. After an epigram by Emily Dickinson, where she famously claims that she knows she is in the presence of poetry when she feels as if the top of her head were taken off, page one begins with the wonderful first few lines of Marianne Moore’s poem “Poetry:” “I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle.” Indeed there are, and indeed she is not alone in that sentiment. But, of course, Moore has more to say on the matter. She suggests that by reading poetry, even while having a perfect contempt for it, one discovers, in the end, that poetry holds “a place for the genuine.” The authors of this book make good use of Moore’s astute and marvelously stated observation throughout their well-paced and well-illustrated introduction to the art of poetry. The book touches on all the basics: the meaning, look, sound, and sense of poems; the vast array of poetic forms, from epics and odes to limericks and free verse; how to read a poem; and how to experiment with writing one’s own poems. There is also a brief survey of the history of poetry from Homer to Hip-Hop. The volume is enlivened with carefully chosen lines from the vast palette of verse, and by appropriately emotive original drawings. Two criticisms, however, need to be noted. One, in their effort to be inclusive, they tend to overwhelm “beginners.” A handful of new names is one thing, but a list of 50 or 100, or more, with very little said about each one, tends to take on the charm of a page from a telephone book. Also, it appears that the proofreader got a bit tired or distracted, especially toward the end. In a book that explores the wonders precise language can achieve, it is especially important to dispense with the typos. Nonetheless, Poetry for Beginners is a worthwhile purchase.–Robert Saunderson, formerly of the Berkeley Public Library, CA
A number of adult books of sequential art have treated poetry across the past couple of decades—so small a number that one can count them all pretty much on one hand. An all time favorite of mine for booktalking with teens who are learning English is the folio sized and darkly inked collection of visual puns by David Morice, More Poetry Comics (A Capella, 1994); his version of Longfellow’s “the Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” is a hoot that involves—what else?—laundry detergent.
Recent additions to the scene, however, include a couple of elegant graphic novels in which the poet’s muse is conjoined with the visual artist’s in a manner that avoids puns or cheap tricks of simple repetitive illustration. Drew Weing’s Set to Sea isn’t a volume of poetry but rather a story about a poet, and about his poetry. It’s fiction and in both tone and visual reference harks to the era of tall sailing ships, kidnapped ship laborers, pirates, and presses that turned out pocketbooks of poems for the less adventurous—in both deed and art—to read aloud in society. It’s a small, hardcovered book, just right for tucking into a breast pocket—or reading in bed. Each panel covers a full page, but because of the book’s diminutive size, the eye roams around a fairly close boundary. In addition to belonging in every library where teens visit for homework or browsing, this is one to suggest to family members who ask for tips about buying books for their own teens.
Certainly not for the faint of heart, but equally evocative and elegant—in a very different way—is The New Yorker’sfrequent cover illustrator, and former street artist, Eric Drooker’s visual accompaniment to Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s famous Howl. Drooker and Ginsberg were not only acquainted as coworkers on an anthology of Beat verse (Illuminated Poems, 1996), but it was Ginsberg who looked up the younger Drooker when the poet began to notice the visual artist’s work. The text of Howl has received many challenges, some outright censorship, and the praise of both literary and social scholars and informed readers over the past 54 years. It is neither crude nor rude, but Ginsberg spared no gentle reader’s ears by evoking the ugly truths of streetlife, alienated and disenfranchised Americans, members of minority groups ranging from sexual orientation to race to economic security, and other warts of our society as it was for much of the 20th century. Drooker sets the scene for his visual presentations of these words by reminding current readers of how conditions today are both similar and dissimilar. Teachers brave enough to teach this poem—and how can the Beats be omitted from a high school curriculum that includes American literature?—will find that by slowing the reader, students who use this version will actually read the poem more deeply.
Browsing teens will find both these titles accessible and something to pass from friend to friend. Both require the reader to find someone else with whom to share what is essentially an intimate, rather than a solitary art—the art of fine poetry.
WEING, Drew. Set to Sea. illus. by author. 144p. Fantagraphics. 2010. Tr $16. ISBN 978-1606993682. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–With a text as concise and carefully honed as a good poem, and full page panels rendered in etchinglike black and white, this evocative and accessible story of a poet who goes to sea is set between covers that fit into a single hand. While the plot is purposely stereotyped to a kind of 18th and 19th century adventure standard, replete with pirates, parlour poetry readings, and the passing of a muse from one generation to the next, it is neither trite nor dull. This is an ideal book for browsers, poetry lovers, sea-story fans, teachers in search of a perfect book for students of all abilities, and art students.–Francisca Goldsmith
GINSBERG, Allen. Howl: A Graphic Novel. illus. by Eric Drooker. 224p. HarperPerennial. 2010.Tr $19. ISBN 978-0062015174. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Drooker, a frequent New Yorker cover artist and author of several wordless sequential art novels such as Flood! and Bloodsong (both Dark Horse), worked with Ginsberg on a 1996 collection of the Beat poet’s work, Illuminated Poems (Four Walls, Eight Windows). Here, Drooker, who designed the animation for the film version of Howl, places Ginsberg’s text and his own moody and softly muted images together to create something more than just the sum of these rich parts. Howl has received condemnation as well as literary and socio-political accolades since it was first published in 1956, and while Drooker does not exploit any of the textual savagery visually, he fittingly remains true to it. By allowing the poem to expand over so many pages and scenes, readers are appropriately slowed to think about what the poet is saying; Drooker’s art echoes the mid-century scene while pointing to relevant details in our own time.–Francisca Goldsmith
Angela Carstensen is Head Librarian and an Upper School Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. Angela served on the Alex Awards committee for four years, chairing the 2008 committee, and chaired the first YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult committee in 2009. Recently, she edited Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Titles and Programs for a New Generation (ALA Editions, 2011). Contact her via Twitter @AngeReads.
