Customer Reviews

Poetry Daily Essentials 2007

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

 

 

I am so indebted to Diane and Don for Poetry Daily and now two anthologies culled from their dailies. I am so over letting teachers tell me who is great and who isn't but, on the other hand, trying to keep up with everything that is happening in poetry would require all my money and all my time and then some. So, I need something in the middle: someone who'll throw a poem or two at me each day (okay; two someones: I listen to Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, too) and like cooking pasta, see what sticks. Okay, so first prize goes to: "Marvell Noir" by Ann Lauinger, since good, contemporary parodies tickle me to no end. And the second, first prize goes to "Up Late, Reading Whitman" which, when I read it at a local open mike, made me something of a god until I had to tell everyone James Kimbrell wrote it, not me. And how in the world can you flip through a poetry anthology and see a title like "Rattlesnakes Hammered to the Wall" by Ray Gonzalez and not slam on the breaks and back up? And if you don't fall on the floor in the bookstore when you're reading "Counterman" by Paul Violi well, you need some serious remediation, man. There you go. A great book. Thanks, Poetry Daily guys, for doing it again.

Once again the Poetry Daily people have created a fabulous collection of inspiring poetry!

Their first book, which had a poem for each day of the year, was a source of daily joy and pleasure.

I read each day's poem to my sweetheart for more than two years,
enjoying each poem on its appointed day of the year.

I only wish that this latest effort had 366 poems, instead of only 152,
so that I could enjoy a new one of these fabulous poems EVERY day of the year.

I give my highest praise to this book, as well as to the earlier "Poetry Daily: 366 Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry Website (2003).

One of my (and my sweetheart's) all time favorite poems, in the earlier book for the date January 9, is Kim Addonizio's "What Do Women Want."

For any poetry lover: If you are not already accessing daily poems on line from "Poetry Daily," I urge you to check out their web site: www.poems.com

Billy Brown
Poet, Singer, Chef and Mathematics Educator