The Poem I Turn To With Audio CD: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them [Hardcover]

Jason Shinder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Movies and poetry have been intertwined since the dawn of cinema. Poets have written about movies, and movie actors have written and been inspired by poetry. Selected by 42 acclaimed entertainers, The Poem I Turn To includes selections from Pulitizer Prize winners and Poets Laureate, as well as inspiring contemporary poets. Listen to compelling readings on the CD and read the actors' thoughts describing how poetry has affected their lives.

*HEAR
30 poems on one audio CD, including:
* Adam Arkin reading
Theodore Roethke's The Waking
* John Landis reading
Mark Twain's The War Prayer
* Lili Taylor reading
Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken
* Stacy Keach reading Shakespeare
And Many More

Editorial Reviews

From AudioFile

This recording of poetry is accompanied by a text that includes the contributors' biographies and comments. The project, an anthology of favorite poems from actors and directors, is well intentioned but uneven. The text is a richer compilation of poems, as the recording contains barely a handful of poems--the text includes 80 poems, the recording only 15. While the text contains poems selected by actors noted for their interesting and trained voices, such as Kyra Sedgwick and Jane Fonda, their voices are not on the CD. Further, the readers who are on the recording do not do justice to the poems they selected. R.F. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks MediaFusion; Har/Cdr edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402205023
• ISBN-13: 978-1402205026
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,269,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry as Muse for Creators, April 15, 2008

By 

Janet Riehl "Riehlife Village Wisdom for the ... (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Poem I Turn To With Audio CD: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them (Hardcover)

Shinder and advisory editors Michael O'Keefe and Lili Taylor have put together one lovely collection that, by extension, shows the power of poetry in the daily life of creative people everywhere.

In "The Poem I Turn To" we are given an impressive cross-section of film artists sharing the poems that move and inspire them. I love the informal commentaries by actors and directors giving testimony to how the poem they've selected has worked in their lives. Each poem is accompanied by a short bio of the poet. The bios for the filmakers appears in the back of the book for easy reference.

The poets chosen lean on the Anglo-American canon, but they selections do step out...and also rub against each other in interesting ways. I'd like to see an index in the book so I could look up poets by name and poems by title.

You'll love meeting both familiar friends and new poems in "The Poem I Turn To."

Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

5.0 out of 5 stars play death more sweetly, March 2, 2010

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Poem I Turn To With Audio CD: Actors and Directors Present Poetry That Inspires Them (Hardcover)

we drink and we drink you: I am glad Death Fugue read by Tim Blake Nelson is track 22 on the CD. I have been fond of the poem in other translations of Todesfuge by Paul Celan so "Play death more sweetly" is not the word order in this book. I found the readings on the CD impressive. Poetry gains meaning as it becomes more familiar. I don't read poetry often, but selections of poems by Rumi impress me. I know a few Rilke poems well and am puzzled when people like some that strike me like: how aren't you?