Customer Reviews

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle

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In 1972, I chose several poems from Reflections... for a poetry anthology I compiled as a project for my Children's Literature course. This course was an elective course I took while earning my B.A. in teaching. For many years, this book was part of my classroom. Yesterday, I read "Crossing" by Philip Booth (about watching a train at a railroad crossing) from that book at a variety show at my church. Today, four people requested the title of the book I read that poem from! For 30 years, I have recommended this book -- I should get a commission on the number of copies I have sold! Makes a wonderful birthday, holiday, etc. gift for any child.

This colection is one that every poetry lover should purchase, the poems are strickingly simple and moving, they are ones that have stuck in my head for a long long time. I read this book cover to cover during an 8th form poetry project and fell in love with it. It goes on my list of fantastic poetry. There are many metaphores and similies in it that have stuck in my mind for the past year since I read this book (the concept of an apartment building as a filing cabenit of people's lives, the poem about the plums that is so simple yet so complex in its simplicity and the final poems line of "when unicorns were still possible" have all stuck with me for the past 11 months as I trad through life without this book before rediscovering it.) I hope that everyone gets a chance to read this book.
Peace to you

i had to do a project of poetry and this book made it more fun and enjoyable and i'm in 9th grade!

This is the best anthology of poetry for middle and high school students that I have encountered in 30 years of library work. Acerbic poems like Parker's "Resume" are included as well as lighthearted ones like "Why nobody pets the Lion at the zoo" by Ciardi. Reflections has the best of 20th century- the well known like Cummings, Frost and Cheever (his "Sonic Boom" is a hoot) as well as lesser known poets like Deutsch and Stafford. The compilers picked poems that would appeal to males and females. This book should be in every school and library in the county- its that good!

I've had a pretty rotten day (week, month, etc.). I went to my local coffee shop for a sandwich and picked up a book off the shelf, thinking the sandwich would take awhile to be ready. I was wrong, the food came quick, but I still stayed for nearly an hour because the book was so good!

These poems made me feel sentimental, open. They are honest, humorous, and intense in their simplicity. I was halfway through and almost walked to the counter to ask if I could keep the book. I changed my mind, and returned it to the shelf. Everyone deserves to read this book, I can buy my own copy.

This a an excellent anthology arranged in a delightful way for young readers. It contains the work of widely know poets such as William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg and others as well as some exceptional poetry by some not so widely know poets, such as the title poem in this collection.

I first read this book when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I absolutely loved it, as you can tell by my remembering it to this day, about 40 years later. Once upon a time, I had a paperback copy, probably from Scholastic books. I now live in limited space, so had to give up almost my entire library. To rebuild my library, I bought a Kindle. I was hoping to get this in Kindle format, but alas, it is not to be just yet.

I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful way to introduce children to poetry, as the verse is not too complicated or flowery. I am so glad my teacher used this book. It instilled in me a love of poetry that has lasted my entire life.

Unlike other reviews I've attempted, this one really matters for a host of reasons. For one thing I've read the book. Also I love the book. I value it enough to want to convey the "essence of it" and I'm recommending it to friends and you know how that goes. Say one thing a little off and a recommended book is never looked at again.
So with no small amount of weight here on my shoulders I will try and tell a reader what this book was like for me. Essentially I probably formed all my beliefs and values in the late 60's and early 70's- I think we should make wax crayon candles and frog plaster casts for our tables, I'm really into trolls though I no longer have or collect them, I recall thinking Woodstock sounded like the best idea ever except I'm not so much into mud.
This book was published in 1966 and I got my hands on it in 1968 in a book order from Scholastic that I ordered from school. Likely I ordered not knowing what I was asking for, as I wasn't a particularly good reader then. But I got it and this was how I DISCOVERED POETRY. If I can be forgiven it's rather like your first love. You see the world through a different lens ever after. I know my peers were grappling with their own issues but I was in a life that needed poetic vision and I loved that this collection spurs you into thinking about nuclear winter, jazz, loneliness, kittens. It was just great. Vietnam body and injury count numbers appeared nightly on the TV then and I had friends with older brothers at war, so I think I was thinking rather much on life. The collection contains poems by Yvor Winters, Ferlinghetti, cumming, Hughes, Roethke, Leuders(who put it together and you must get his "Clam Lake Papers"-trust me) and so many writers that I read them from this initial introduction all my life.Talk about turning on... So what can I quote....well amazingly most of it:

how about:
Unfolding Bud

One is amazed
By a water-lily bud
Unfolding
With each passing day,
Taking on a richer color
And new dimensions.

One is not amazed,
At first glance,
By a poem,
Which is tight-closed
As a tiny bud.

Yet one is surprised
To see the poem
Gradually unfolding,
Revealing its rich inner self
As one reads it
Again
And over again.

Naoshi Koriyama

Wish I wrote like that one day out of my life.
So if you work your way through the collection it's rather a soul opening experience. And perhaps a lifelong affiliation I have with the text has allowed me to use it to propel this vision of "what poetry is.." into teaching in my classrooms. When I read the book as I was doing this morning waiting for the power to be reinstated after my husband forgot to get the bill in the mail...again...which is off topic...but aggravating...I was thinking of how i feel sad sometimes I grew up. Well you miss those times in some ways...as I'm not really happy in the Bush vision. Teaching was fun, and now is hide and still try to make it fun.
These poems coalesce for me a time spent down by the pond, or weaving my daisy chains ( I'm still rather into my daisy chains) Again I recommend it to anyone who can read this review to the end and not declare the reviewer is on a liberal toot...tho it might be that. Yeah it is I guess that... I do think in the world today the values contained in this book, if one can call it that, prefer "voice", you know how we liberals are, anyway it does talk to social action, ecology, compassion, veneration of soul. And we know how that's going these days....it's not corporate or commercial, upper classed enough or botoxed either. It's a book of a time I'd like to scoop up and dust this world in again like luscious powdered sugar. So if you get it write a review if you can capture the essence of why it changed my life for me.

I first read this book in high school and must have borrowed it from the school library so much that no one else had a chance to use it. It impressed me so much that, even now nearly forty years later, I remember the words of many of the poems, if not in their entirety at least key portions.

I was both surprised and elated to find this book still in print. It is one of my favorites and the dog-earred, worn paperback copy that I have owned since high school graduation is in need of replacement.

I recommend this book to everyone, both young and old, poetry lovers and those who have no clue what a poem actually is. It is a collection that speaks to all and that touches both the mind and the heart.

I was given this book many years ago when I was a child. It is still my favorite poetry book to this day. So enthralled was I, as a child, with this wonderful book of poems that I began writing some of my own and have been writing ever since. Some of these poems are funny, some are very sad, all are thought-provoking whether you are a child or an adult. I still have my original old copy which has moved around with me everywhere since I received it as a child. I would highly recommend this book to everyone!