Spring, the season of poets, is upon us; and your local library prepares to celebrate April as Poetry Month with readers of all ages. Book Buzz this week therefore brings to you some new or notable adult poetry reads available
Spring, the season of poets, is upon us; and your local library prepares to celebrate April as Poetry Month with readers of all ages. Book Buzz this week therefore brings to you some new or notable adult poetry reads available for use through the Hawaii State Public Library System. To prime your poetry pump I volunteer this vintage verse from the inimitable Ogden Nash:
The trouble with a kitten is
THAT
Eventually it becomes a
CAT.
We hope you know that with your HSPLS library card you can request and borrow materials from any of the state’s 51 libraries. The request service is free! You can also return your library materials to any library that is convenient for you. As we all know, any celebration requires a feast; so this Poetry Month dig in to poetry.
Anthologies from favorite writers
Good Poems
Selected and Introduced by Garrison Keillor
811.008 Go
A collection of poems chosen from those read on Keillor’s Almanac radio show. The noted radio man says these selections were selected for “Stickiness, memorability… You hear it and a day later some of it is still there in the brainpan.”
The Language of Life:
A Festival of Poets
By Bill Moyers
811.09 M
In a series of fascinating conversations with thirty-four American poets, and in dozens of poems, The Language of Life celebrates language in its “most exalted, wrenching, delighted, and concentrated form,” and its unique power to re-create the human experience. Poets speak with Moyers about their work, their lives, and their creativity.
The Best American
Poetry 2008
Edited by Charles Wright
811.08 B 2008
This handy anthology series, edited each year by a different poet, is a great way to sample America’s latest and hottest poets. In addition to the poems, the book contains revelatory notes from the poets on their works and erudite introductory essays by the editors.
Contemporary poets
The Shadow of Sirius
By W. S. Merwyn
332.02401 Ki
Called by the LA Times Book Review one of the greatest poets of our age, the Hawai’i resident and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Merwyn offers this latest collection of poems.
Words By the Water
By William Jay Smith
811.54 Sm
Few poets go on writing well into old age, but the 90 year old Louisiana-born William Jay Smith is one of them. The concern of this collection as a whole is with linking eras of life and art. Smith’s poetry offers sensuous pleasure and intellectual delight. Variety is matched by insight.
Some Hawai‘i favorites
Behold Kaua‘i: Modern Days, Ancient Ways: Poems of Kaua‘i with Cultural and Historical Perspectives
By Dawn Fraser Kawahara
H 811.6 Ka
The poet comments, “As with a best friend or love who remains constant and vital, it is hoped that your initial encounter and many return engagements deepen and intensify your experience with this collection of sensitive and sensuous poems and descriptive notes.”
The Folding Cliffs:
A Narrative
By W.S. Merwin
H 811 M
A narrative poetic story of Pi’ilani’s historic journey to Kalalau Valley with her husband Kaluaiko’olau and son who eventually died there of leprosy.
He Mau Mo’olelo Na Kekahi Paniolo Pelekane: Tales by An English Paniolo
By Duke Wellington
H 811 We
A poetry collection with a unique voice from a Kaua‘i paniolo. Endearing, funny, thoughtful.
Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre
By Lois-Ann Yamanaka
H 811 Y
Yamanaka refuels the English language with her own brand of island music-rich in distinctive rhythms and magical insights. The lives of the women who are her narrators breathe up from these pages.
International poets
Contemporary Russian Poetry: An Anthology
Edited by Evgeny Bunimovich and J. Kates
891.71508 Co
This bilingual edition includes representative work from forty-four living Russian poets.
Strong in the Rain:
Selected Poems
By Kenji Miyazawa
Translated by Roger Pulvers
895.6144 Mi
Miyazawa, who died at age 37 from tuberculosis created magical tales for children. His poems testify to his deep love of humanity and nature. Light wind and rain are processed through him before being recreated on the page. Miyazawa is now widely viewed as Japan’s greatest poet of the 20th century.
Longing for the Light: Selected Poems of
Vicente Aleixandre
Edited by Lewis Hyde
861.62 Ai
A bilingual Spanish-English volume of the poetry of 1977 Nobel Laureate Vicente Aleixandre. The collection is divided into four sections to represent different phases of the poet’s writing. Robert Bly says of him, “He was and is a kind of river, carrying trees torn up by the roots, everything turbid and wheeling, things turned up frightening in the sunlight.”
• Carolyn Larson is head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library. Her weekly column brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
