13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Superb Poetry Anthology With Accompanying DVD, August 9, 2005
Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, founded the Favorite Poem Project shortly after the Library of Congress appointed him to the post in 1997. Since its inception, the Project has been dedicated to celebrating, documenting and promoting poetry's role in Americans' lives.
"An Invitation to Poetry: A New Favorite Poem Project Anthology" is the third volume of Pinsky's publicly and critically acclaimed series in which Americans, from ages 5 to 97, from many states, of diverse occupations and education, are asked to submit their favorite poems and to explain why the poem is important to them. Some of the readers' comments are as moving as the poetry itself.
The work included in this volume represents poets from all over the world throughout the centuries. The enclosed documentary DVD, which is a companion piece to this compilation, features twenty-eight contributors reading their own selections along with an introduction by Pinsky. The readers range in age and background from two 11-year-olds to 97-year-old former Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz to a Supreme Court justice. One of the segments that really moved and inspired me is by a Vietnam War Veteran who cries in front of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D. C., while reading "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa: "I go down the 58,022 names / half-expecting to find / my own in letters like smoke."
I found many of my own favorites in this extraordinary collection. I was also introduced to several wonderful new poems I might never have read otherwise. Included here are works by: Sappho, Shakespeare, Goethe, Keats, Whitman, and Emily Dickinson, as well as more contemporary poems like those by Yehuda Amichai, and Saadi Youssef. The book emphasizes the pure joy of reading poetry. And, it appears, that poetry appreciation is alive and well in America!
I highly recommend this anthology to poetry lovers everywhere, and also the first two publications from The Favorite Poem Project: "America's Favorite Poems," and, "Poems To Read." These extraordinary volumes are all edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz. And if you do not particularly care for poetry, this collection may change your mind.
JANA
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Attend a poetry reading., December 4, 2004
Robert Pinsky, past poet laureate and the instigator of the Favorite Poem Project, says that the poem doesn't happen on the page, but when it's spoken and heard. The real strength of this book and DVD is the DVD--it has about 30 five-minute interview/clips with readers and how/why their favorite poem struck a chord with them. We see some personal background of the reader with them reading the poem aloud (sometimes memorized!) Readings range from the whimisical ("The Sloth" read by a 5th grader) the serious ("Facing It" read by a Vietnam vet). I also disovered poems I had never heard of before, like Margaret Atwoods, "It Is Dangerous to Read Newspapers," a terrific poem. I first heard some of these readings on the Newshour ("The Song of the Banana Man") and wanted more. This book/DVD combination proves that poetry speaks to everyone.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a great DVD with a fine book, November 25, 2004
The book is a fine anthology, with some you will know and others that will be unfamiliar. But what makes it primarily worthwhile is the accompanying DVD: regular Americans talking candidly about why a poem matters to them, or how a poem has helped them during a challenging period, and then reading it. It may sound banal, but the result is spellbindingly gripping, reminding you that poetry is not an elite art form restricted to the few, but a source of solace and inspiration to your neighbor. Fabulous stuff.
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