Seraphim's Miscellany
Mist Over Monocacy (photographed by Linda Freedman)
Sample my Poetry
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A Few Good Websites
Poetry
Daily!
Academy
of American Poets
Electronic Poetry Center--Language poetry
starts here!
Poets &
Writers
Poetry
Society of America
Birds of Monocacy Nature
Center
Personal Information
Robert Freedman
Job: Retired Acquisitions Librarian for the Bethlehem Area Public
Library
Interests: Poetry, Birding
Running
Recommended
Emily Dickinson knew she was reading a good poem when she felt the top of her head come off -- here are books that did the same for me -- and some essential general poetry texts and collections ...
Individual Poets
- Bukowski, Charles. (order whatever is available--don't expect Dickinson or Charles Wright here--"people's poetry" for open-minded readers. It helps to be wacky too)
- Dickinson, Emily. The complete poems (edited by Thomas H. Johnson)
- Hikmet, Nazim. Poems of Nazim Hikmet (heart-wrenching poems from a poet who truly suffered)
- Kunitz, Stanley. Passing Through : The Later Poems New and Selected (Not a "clinker" among these beautiful poems)
- Laux, Dorianne. First, the name is pronounced Lox, which more than whets my appetite for her sterling poetry--and it's not a drawing-room poetry that can put you to sleep. These are the words of a woman who has lived fully and seems to have found much to love in hard work, men, and foibles that don't often come to mind when one thinks of poetry. So read her work, and hope that you some day get a chance to hear her read that work: I can't think of anyone who gives us so much of herself in a reading.
- Millar, Joseph. He is the first top-rate poet I've read who tells what it's really like to be a blue-collar male struggling in relationships with women, children, and work--which is not to say that the poetry is not finely wrought and sensitively written. The real thing ... and read anything that you can get by Millar.
- Stern, Gerald. (think of Whitman walking the streets of your town--and then forget Whitman and just enjoy. Read whatever you can get your hands on, and you'll be rewarded)
- Swensen, Cole. Noon (award-winning volume that deserves much wider distribution)
- Thomas, Dylan. Collected poems (any edition)
- Wright, Charles. The World of the Ten Thousand Things : collected poems (and many others; a perfect blend of intelligence and beauty)
- Wright, James. Collected poems (the poet most often mentioned to me when I first searched for models of fine poetry)
Collections
- Astley, Neil (editor) Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (divided into areas of experience such as "Bittersweet," "Body and Soul," and "The Art of Poetry," this seems to me a uniformly fine, emotionally satisfying selection that will be a welcome gift)
- Hoover, Paul (editor) Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (more inclusive than "Silliman" below)
- Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry (latest edition)
- Norton Anthology of Poetry (latest edition--lots of academic criticism of this one, but it's still the most useful basic introduction)
- Rothenberg and Joris. Poems for the Millennium, 2 volumes (essential collection of work you're not likely to find anyplace else)
- Silliman, Ron (editor) In the American Tree (an anthology of "language" poetry)
Poetics
- Addonizio, Kim and Dorianne Laux. The Poet's Companion: a Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (absolutely the best combination of encouragement, triggering exercises, and solid craft information that I've come across ... two of the best give their best to us ... a "desert island" book)
- Behn, Robin & Chase Twichell. The Practice of Poetry (a collection of poetry writing exercises from poets who teach)
- Hugo, Richard. The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing (in some ways a poet's "Strunk"--carry it in your shirt pocket)
- Kinzie, Mary. A Poet's Guide to Poetry (a "Chicago Guide," and a most thorough exposition of traditional practice--nothing missing in this one!)
- Wallace, Robert & Michelle Boisseau. Writing Poems (a delightful text widely used by university writing programs)
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