Poet's Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books That Shaped Their Art

by Peter Davis (Editor)

Eighty-one poets list and comment on books that were essential in their artistic development

Paperback

Published March 1, 2005

About the author

Peter Davis lives with his sweet wife, son and daughter. His poems have appeared in places like Atticus, Jacket, and The Best American Poetry anthology. He draws, writes and makes music in Muncie, Indiana while teaching English at Ball State University. More info at artisnecessary.com.

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting stat about this book:

William Carlos Williams was the most frequently cited poet with 17 poets referring to him. Shakespeare and Yeats had 11.

Reading these poets write about their most essential works can work both for and against them. For example, Clayton Eshleman writes about his experiences leaving his wife and baby for another woman and tricking Cesar Vallejo's widow out of her rights to the works so he could translate them. And oh yeah, he flow back to his childhood home to tell his mother he didn't love her; he needed to do this to . Even though he is a cad, he did convince me to read Cesar Vellejo -- just not HIS translation.

Some notable quotes from some of the essays:

"And because life is difficult, I take my poetry difficult." - Alice Friman

"In the poems of Diving into the Wreck she names the journey, and commits herself. Absolutely." -- Joy Harjo

"Young poets should strive to make a personal list, based on admiration and resistant to fashion." -- Robert Pinsky

"From her and Grenier, in particular, I learned that one must be willing to go exactly where your vision leads you, even if that place seems not to exist or otherwise be impossible." -- Ron Silliman

"I think it is good for young poets to have heartbreaking ambitions." -- Richard Wilbur

My Review: This is a solid reference book I plan on returning to again and again. After reading it, I put about 50 more books on my reading list and also, plan to read at least one poem of all the contributors.

[Talia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read. Of course, poets tend to be a bit self-centered and this book only proves to emphasize that (a few went overboard, you know). But I'd like to share my own little list of what I read, but that's what GoodReads is anyway, I guess.

[Gary McDowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these kinds of books!

[Mills College Library]

011.8 P7458 2005