Customer Reviews

In Our Own Words: An Anthology of Poetry : From a Generation Falsely Labeled (In Our Own Words (Marlow Peerse Weaver))

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found this book of poetry to be very refreshing. I appreciate the diversity of voices in this collection. I am confident that many of the poets included in this anthology will be our voices of the next generation. There is a lot of potential. I am interested in learning more about the poets and their backgrounds. I hope there will be a volume two.

In Our Own Words: Generation X Poetry Marlow Weaver (Editor) 160 pages Mw Enterprises; ISBN: 0965413624

This brilliant volume which contains 214 poems from 145 poets from around the world is well worth the read. Many of the poets included in the work have been previously published by A Writer's Choice Literary Journal. Marlow dug through over 4500 submissions to find the selections which give rise to the voice of the so-called X-generation. His choices were excellent, and prove to show what we all too often forget-people are not labels or stereotypes. The X Generation is comprised of varied and individual mindsets, attitudes, emotions.

This anthology sings loud with a varied, vibrant, voice. I'd have preferred page numbers in the book but that is a small complaint. I think this work sets the tone for the future of poetry into the next millennium. And it serves well the point that Poetry Is Not Dead- but is a live, breathing, growing, and important part of world culture.

Congratulations to all the poets included, and a big hand of applause for Mr. Weaver.

Leslie Blanchard

Editor A Writer's Choice Literary Journal ISSN: 1521-2319

I must praise this publisher for his brave vision to compile such a poetry anthology when others are still committed to projecting upon our generation their moral failures and festering cynnicism. From the child born in the ghetto working hard to overcome her circumstances to the honourable men and women who have served in our nation's defense, this generation is bound to make a major mark on the 21st century. But we as a generation have to be strong, as exampled in these poems, to rise above the media hype and materialistic wilderness and speak our hearts and souls as only we can. "In Our Own Words" succeeds in this task by demonstrating our humanity, global literary unity and social conscience in the midst of societal breakdown, as evidenced by poems such as "Tempting Heaven: A Methodist Mediation on Rwanda" that we too can build anew and walk a clearer path to contentment.

With all of the horrible stereotypes about "Generation X," who better to break those stereotypes than the Xers themselves? This book is a powerful testimony to the fact that this generation does in fact stand for something, that it has its own unique voice. I hope people hear its message; it could easily become a cult classic. I commend MW Enterprises and the authors for their courage in this amazing endeavor.

This is a great book. My favorite poetry books are ones from this series. I love to hear how my generation expresses themselves. Keeep up the good work Marlow!

As one of the poets in this anthology I admit I am not totally objective. I found more than half of the poems here to be interresting and worth reading. Some 'poets' here are too young (in their teens) to really have a voice, the older ones like me (b. 1959) seem to be more 'poets', whatever that means. Worth reading if you were born between 1960 and 1980, just to know why you are called an Xer. Mostly this is straight poetry and not very complicated, for all those who think they can't understand poetry, this will be a surprise. Vol. 2 and 3 have been published already.

I agree with poetry purists that this book does not represent well crafted poetry; however, one should keep the objective of the book in mind. I do believe this book accomplishes what it aims to do by showing the diversity of a generation. Some of the poetry in this book is well crafted. Other poems in this book are not necessarily well crafted, but at least seem to be true expressions from the poets. I hope there will be a book two with perhaps a few improvements. I would like to see more acclaimed poets and page numbers.

I really enjoyed the raw, original, unique works in this book. Although they are mostly poems that do not follow form, structure, or general poetry "rules", they do eloquently showcase the poetry of a generation of people who are not (contrary to popular belief) slackers. I found the poem "Belfast '98" by Timothy Stifter and "School of Poetry" by Marie Griffin particularly good.

I think this book comes closer to being poetry than a lot of well crafted poetry that comes across with a sense of contrivance. The poems in this book seem geniune.

Maybe not great poetry--but that's okay. This book isn't about great poetry. The poets in this book have potential. I hope you all keep writing.