Did you get any poetry books for Christmas? If so, which are you most looking forward to reading?
I got a nice stack of poetry books from my husband and from my parents (yay and thank you!). Among them, a few that I am particularly excited to read are:
A Point Is That Which Has No Part by Liz Waldner. This won the Iowa Poetry Prize and the James McLaughlin Prize about a decade ago, and I've been wanting it ever since. It's title refers to a definition from Euclid's Geometry, which is what immediately drew my attention. I bought another book by Waldner in the meantime, but somehow I had never gotten this one. So excited to have it, I started reading it on Christmas afternoon. The University of Iowa actually offers the entire text online here.
Paul Guest's My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge is also a book I've been wanting to read, and now can. Guest writes about his paralysis since a bicycle accident at age 12. As our family copes with devastating health issues, I find myself drawn more and more to Guest's poetry about struggles with the physical, written with poignancy, wit, and a realistic edge.
the true keeps calm biding its story by Rusty Morrison is probably the book I was coveting most this Christmas season, as I am in the throes of a poetry crush on Morrison, but didn't have this volume. But I've blogged about Morrison before...
So how about you? Did you get any particularly coveted books this holiday season?
4 comments:
You got some good ones, Jessica! I got Tomas Transtromer's _The Sorrow Gondola_ and _The Great Enigma_, as well as Yusef Komunyakaa's _The Chameleon Couch_. I hope you and your family enjoy your Oshogatsu -- there's so much to be grateful for this coming new year.
Mari, you hit the jackpot too. I've heard such good things about the new Komunyakaa, and Transtromer has been a perennial favorite. Yay for a good year in reading.
Murakami's three-volumed 1Q84. Too big to take on the train, so I haven't started it yet. Maybe after we are done celebrating Zen's birthday today. . .
Chris, I'm eagerly awaiting your impressions of the Murakami. As big a fan as I am, the sheer lenghth of this one is daunting.
Happy birthday to Zen!
Post a Comment