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Garrison Keillor

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Good Poems for Hard Times Hardcover – September 8, 2005

by Garrison Keillor (Editor)

4.5 242 ratings

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An eclectic anthology of poetic works, selected for their uplifting and honest themes, includes pieces by such writers as Raymond Carver, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost. Collected by the author of Homegrown Democrat. 100,000 first printing.

From Booklist

Having revived the radio variety program with A Prairie Home Companion Garrison Keillor turned to broadcasting poetry in the daily short feature The Writer's Almanac. In any given week, probably more people hear him read poems than attend poetry readings and slams. That's good because his taste is excellent. But then, his criteria are golden. For him, a poem is good if it's memorable, recitable, and accessible. The almost-unheard-of-for-poetry sales of Good Poems (2002) suggest that many endorse his taste and criteria, and the sequel to that success gives them no reason to change their minds. As before, the range of poets represented is broad contemporarily (the majority are alive or very recently deceased) and historically (sixteenth to twenty-first century), though not internationally, for, with one exception (Psalm 51), English is these poems' language of origin. As before, too, these are predominantly poems of domesticity and ordinary things, and when a poem touches the genuinely extraordinary, it is related to everyday life; for instance, Stephen Dobyns' "Thelonious Monk" relates a particular instance of a kind of experience virtually everyone has--the discovery of greatness. Even those tired of Lake Wobegon, or who think Keillor's a bigoted Democrat (especially after Homemade Democrat, 2004), should grant that he knows good poetry. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Garrison Keillor is the host of A Prairie Home Companion and The WriterÂs Almanac and the author, most recently, of The New York Times bestseller Homegrown Democrat, as well as many bestselling Lake Wobegon novels.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Viking Adult
Publication date

September 8, 2005
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

5.76 x 1.22 x 8.48 inches
ISBN-10

0670034363
ISBN-13

978-0670034369
See all details

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking Adult (September 8, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670034363
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670034369
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.76 x 1.22 x 8.48 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #594,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #536 in Poetry Literary Criticism (Books)
- #2,057 in American Poetry (Books)
- #2,399 in Literary Criticism & Theory

Customer Reviews:
4.5 242 ratings

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Garrison Keillor

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Garrison Keillor wrote Boom Town during the pandemic lockdown in New York, reading drafts of it to his wife, Jenny, sitting across the room. He did parts of the book in monologues for audiences in Boston, New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Virginia, along with the story of how, in the eighth grade, his shop teacher Orville Buehler, worried about the boy's carelessness with the power saw, sent him up to LaVona Person's speech class, thus changing his life. Keillor says, "For many people, the key to success is discipline and education, but for me, it was ineptitude with power tools." His twice-weekly columns appear on Substack (garrisonkeillor.substack.com).

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nbt

If there were six stars, this would get six

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2023

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I read a lot of poetry collections and anthologies, and this is the best I have come across. Lots of great poems from many authors, many of whom will never get much recognition, but have written at least one great poem. I am taken aback with emotion every time I read in it.
Everyone should have a copy of this book.

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2005

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Garrison Keillor calls his latest book of verse GOOD POEMS FOR HARD TIMES. He could just as easily have called it MORE GOOD POEMS or FURTHER GOOD POEMS since he has produced another anthology every bit as good or better than his previous GOOD POEMS. These 185 poems from 61 named poets-- there are a couple of anonymous poems and a psalm or two-- were selected from Keillor's "Writer's Almanac" radio show so they are the kind you listen to and grasp the meaning of while waiting for the light to change. These poems are meant to speak to ordinary people through what Mr. Keillor calls "the last presence of honest speech and the outspoken heart."

It is worth the price of this book for Mr. Keillor's introduction alone. He opines that America is in "hard times" now with "the levels of power firmly in the hands of a cadre of Christian pirates and bullies whose cynicism is stunning," with the perversion of religion, a tax system that favors the rich, when newspapers decline and the censor abounds. He fears for a future when America has "no binding traditions," when the public cannot name senators and gets their political knowledge through television and their "only public life at Wal-Mart." He says further about what is already taking place: "You lie in a hotel bed at night, remote in hand and surf a hundred channels of television. . . and you can drift for hours among the flotsam and you will never see anything that shows that you're in Knoxville or Seattle or Santa Fe or Chicago and nobody will ever speak to you as straightforwardly and clearly as poetry does." That's pretty scary stuff.

Mr. Keillor is totally democratic in his choice of writers. The qualifications for inclusion appear to be that the poet be fairly accessible on a first hearing and not long-winded so you need not look for a Pound or Eliot here. These verses are about the rubber meeting the road. There are some heavy-hitters among the poets included, i.e., the ones we read in the Norton American and English Literature anthologies: Auden, Robert Burns, E. E. Cummings, the beloved Miss Emily, Donne, Frost, Hardy, Keats, Shakespeare, Whitman et al. Also included are important modern names-- Wendell Berry, Charles Bukowski, Raymond Carver, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Donald Hall, Mary Oliver-- and a host of good poets I had never heard of before. (I found myself often looking up the bio of a previously unknown writer whose poem I had just been taken with.) Although I understand completely that every editor must discriminate and cannot include everybody, I would have liked included maybe a poem by Cavafy or Mark Doty or Paul McCartney.

The subject matter of these poems is diverse, from 1977 Toyotas and spiral notebooks to baseball, which is not to say that many of the selections are not profound nor beautiful. One of my favorites is Charles Bukowski's "the con job," obviously about the First Gulf War where "the U. S. ground troops were largely/made up of Blacks, Mexicans and poor/whites/most of whom had joined/the military/because it was the only job/they could find." Another is the beautiful and sad "Affirmation" by Donald Hall where the young "row for years on the midsummer/pond, ignorant and content." And Lisel Mueller's exquisite poem about snow, "Not Only the Eskimos."

Finally the biographical sketches of the poets included at the end of this collection usually have a quotation in bold black letters by the writers themselves, often as good as their poems. My favorite is by Lawrence Ferlinghetti: "Like a bowl of roses, a poem should not have to be explained."

Thank you, Mr. Keillor, for more good poems.

95 people found this helpful

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MisterEnglishTeacher

Y'all - This book is a joy.

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2021

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I am only writing because I read some horrid review claiming that "not one" poem in this collection moved the reviewer. Then she didn't want to be moved. This book can be a sanctuary for many - particularly those who don't normally turn to poetry - which is why - I suspect - the MEH reviewer - has a problem with it.

Read it. Gift it. And buy more poems, y'all. :)

6 people found this helpful

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Justin Clark

Suprisingly Good

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2011

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I am not a big poem reader. In fact, I'd rather not read any of them, but I had to get this book for an English class I am taking and was pleasantly surprised at how nice some of the poems are. Many of them touched me in some way or another. Of course there were some poems I disliked but that's just how collections of anything works. Would recommend to any who reads poems or anyone trying to get into reading poems.

One person found this helpful

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Olga Drucker

A Gem on Every Page

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2011

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Having Good Poems for Hard Times, by Garrison Keillor on my book shelf is like having a big bouqet of flowers of many colors in my home. I purchased this (and others) from Amazon, and was pleased how fast I found it in my mailbox. There's a poem for everyone between the covers of this book, even for those who've never read a poem before, or say they don't like poetry! From well-known poets of the past to more modern ones I had never heard of, each poem has a special meaning just for me. As it will for you. So I bought a couple more from Amazon, for my friends. Good Poems for Hard Times will make great Christmas presents.

I keep my little volume beside my bed, and pick a flower from it whenever I'm in the mood - which is often. Makes me want to read Mr. Keillor's other poetry selections.

5 people found this helpful

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Sandra Favorite

Great service.I

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2022

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It was to replace a book I gave as a gift.

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mongrelT

Enjoyable start to finish - Kindle version

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2009

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This is my favorite collection of poems. Although I am fairly new to reading poetry, and my experience and exposure are limited, I really enjoyed Good Poems for Hard Times, and considerably more so than Keillor's first collection, Good Poems .

I bought the Kindle book this morning (24-05-2009) after downloading and reading the free sample, which included only the TOC and part of Keillor's Introduction, then I read the book start to finish over the course of the day. I can't wait to read it again tomorrow.

If you want to read some beautiful poems, some that will bring tears to your eyes, some that will make you laugh out loud, and some that will make you read them two or three times in a row because you like them so much, then buy this book.

8 people found this helpful

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Nana Linda

Good Poems are good, but Garrison Keillor didn't write them

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2008

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I bought this book for my daughter-in-law, a sixth grade English teacher.
I thought that the poems were written by Keillor, however, this is not the case. He collected the poems, and his choices are good. But the book title is accurate, they are GOOD poems, not great ones. I think it would have been more helpful if the purchaser knew that Keillor didn't write the poems. The title makes it look like it is his work.

One person found this helpful

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