Drive, They Said: Poems about Americans and Their Cars

by Kurt Brown (Editor)

What icon better defines America's experiences, dreams, foibles, escapes, and obsessions than the automobile? And what experience more perfectly captures the American spirit - moving on, westering, wandering - than driving? In this anthology, editor Kurt Brown collects the best of the innumerable poems that have made driving their emblem during the century known as the Automobile Age.
Poems from nearly one hundred contemporary writers are gathered in this hommage to America's obsession with the automobile, including Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Bly, Rosellen Brown, Hayden Carruth, Rita Dove, Joy Harjo, and Thomas McGrath. The anthology's sections define driving as "the rolling forward toward the future" for both men and women; the meditative aspects of driving into the self; the experience of stopping by the side of the road as we rush wildly across the map; the crossing of destinies; the allegories of life itself.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

300 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 1994

Reviews

[Koeeoaddi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love poems of the road, so I absolutely loved this collection! F'instance:


Truck Stop: Minnesota, by Stephen Dunn
So This Is Nebraska, by Ted Kooser
Driving Montana, by Richard Hugo
Scenic Route, by Lisel Mueller

From Lisel Mueller,

...When we come this way again
the trees will have gone wild,
the houses collapsed, not even worth
the human act of breaking in.
Fields will have taken over.

What we will recognize
is the wind, the same fierce wind,
which has no history.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Americans have a love affair with the automobile. So Americans write poetry. Bring those together, add hope, humor, freedom, the open road... Stir and enjoy.

[Terry]

As with all collections, a mixed bag of soup and nuts. Some truly beautiful, many so-so. A thematic thread - autos/road trips - unites them all. As high school English teacher, I find it worth having, if not as essential as Poem a Day, Vol. 1, Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times, and Good Poems.

[Elizabeth]

road songs, yes. you see more when you travel by car. notice more, perhaps.take the camera out...compose

[Sebastian]

One of the poets I enjoyed was “Goodbye, Iowa” it was really good. It gave me the vibe where I felt chills inside. It wasn’t scary or anything. Just the story and the way it was told just made think about it for like a long time. It’s the only poem that gave me the weird vibe. The more I got into the book the more the poem got deep. The accident one was really deep, in the poem it said this, “CRY OF BRAKES, A WOMAN SPITS THE WINDSHEILD AND DANGLES ACROSS THE HOOD LIKE A DOGS TONGUE.” It made a picture in my head and it felt like I was there and I saw the woman just hanging there with the window broken and people all around just looking her.