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Poetry in Michigan / Michigan in Poetry
Featuring poetry Tom Andrews, James Armstrong, Cullen Bailey Burns, Jackie Bartley, Elinor Benedict, Terry Blackhawk, Gladys Cardiff, Susanna Childress, Patricia Clark, David Cope, Jim Daniels, Mike Delp, Toi Derricotte, Chris Dombrowski, Jack Driscoll, Stuart Dybek, Nancy Eimers, Robert Fanning, Mary Jo Firth Gillett, Lisa Fishman, Linda Nemec Foster, Matthew Gavin Frank, Joy Gaines-Friedler, Dan Gerber, Linda Gregerson, Mariela Griffor, Robert Haight, francine j. harris, Jim Harrison, Bob Hicok, Conrad Hilberry, Dennis Hinrichsen, Amorak Huey, Austin Hummell, Lizzie Hutton, David L. James, D. R. James, Rhoda Janzen, Jonathan Johnson, Laura Kasischke, Josie Kearns, Elizabeth Kerlikowske, Judith Kerman, L.S. Klatt, Kimberly Kolbe, David Dodd Lee, Phil Levine, M.L. Liebler, Thomas Lynch, Naomi Long Madgett, Corey Marks, Peter Markus, Dave Marlatt, Gail Martin, Kathleen McGookey, Judith Minty, Ander Monson, Julie Moulds, Amy Newday, William Olsen, Anne-Marie Oomen, Miriam Pederson, Susan Blackwell Ramsey, Greg Rappleye, Josh Rathkamp, Christine Rhein, Jack Ridl, Ron Riekki, John Rybicki, Mary Ann Samyn, Teresa Scollon, Herb Scott, Heather Sellers, Diane Seuss, Patty Seyburn, Faith Shearin, Marc Sheehan, Don Stap, Phillip Sterling, Alison Swan, Keith Taylor, Matthew Thorburn, Russell Thorburn, Richard Tillinghast, Rodney Torreson, Robert VanderMolen, Diane Wakoski, Daneen Wardrop, Angela Williams, and John Woods Featuring art Mary Brodbeck, Michelle Calkins, Jean Canavan, Nathan Caplan, Martha Ceccio, Karin Wagner Coron, Steve Coron, Lori Feldpausch, Steve Gilzow, David Grath, Ladislav Hanka, Carol Hanna, Lois Lovejoy, Stephen Magsig, Alanna Pfeffer, Katie Platte, Meridith Ridl, Erin Scott, Craig Seaver, Tom Walsh, Mary Whalen, Nancy Wolfe, and Patrick Young. "Huron River Mist #2" by Martha Ceccio Paul Sizer, Sizer Design + Illustration
- GenresPoetry
203 pages, Hardcover
First published September 16, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 15, 2018
On one hand: February is indeed 13 months long in Michigan, as Bob Hicok's "A Primer" puts it. There are moments of squarely-hit nails.
On the other hand: this book seems awfully heavy with winter snow and deaths by drowning (https://is.gd/ip6dec), without quite as much trillium and wildflowers, humidity, sweet-toothed wineries, or orchards at harvest time.
Maybe that's what you get, when you gather an anthology: the risk of imbalance.
On the other hand: this book seems awfully heavy with winter snow and deaths by drowning (https://is.gd/ip6dec), without quite as much trillium and wildflowers, humidity, sweet-toothed wineries, or orchards at harvest time.
Maybe that's what you get, when you gather an anthology: the risk of imbalance.
January 29, 2019
OK, Yeah, I'm in this book. But these kinds of regional anthologies are essential, I think, to record a moment in a place's history, to show what certain attitudes were around in a state as various as Michigan. There are people I wish were in here who aren't, but that's always going to be a problem with this kind of thing.
Here's a few words I published back when it came out:
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
Here's a few words I published back when it came out:
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
January 15, 2022
Nice collection of poetry and prose specific to Michigan. Illustrations include watercolors, acrylics and textile art forms with organic components. Wide ranging subjects, personal observations, memories of site specific towns and growing up in this wonderful and sometimes harsh and heartbreaking land. The chill of cold rain, blizzard and ice as well as halcyon days in golden summer. The dust of childhood, rust of industry and automotive worship.
August 13, 2017
I bought this book as a sort of commitment to the state of Michigan, a token of understanding. We were visiting Kalamazoo, Michigan, for my husband's job interview, and I had a day to myself. I decided to visit a local bookstore, Kazoo Books. I wanted to buy something--but not just a book I could buy anywhere. I wanted to buy something that meant Michigan.
I bought this book as a way of saying, "I can see myself living here, being happy here, if my husband gets the job." And on the airplane ride back to Phoenix, I thumbed through the paintings and photographs and poetry, reading a little here and a little there.
Now I've lived in Michigan for almost four and a half months, and today I finished the final poem. You can know a place if you know it's poetry--and this poetry all feels connected to place. There are some poems about Detroit, about the big, working, often dirty city. But most of the poems embrace the rest of Michigan--embrace the water, the forests, the small towns, the beauty and brutality of winter, the Michigan sense of possibility.
In one of the poems, "Folk Religions of Michigan" by Marc Sheehan, we read:
"The gospels all proclaim the same thing:
the Union Man is made in the image of God,
the Boat is holy for it floats on the Lake,
the Lake is holy for the mass baptisms it Affects,
the Baptized are holy in Form and in Flesh,
especially the Young among them.
The faithful ask guardian demons to deliver
them from one near-disaster to the next
with only a dented fender or broken
promise to atone for."
In Michigan, the water is life, it is part of the soul of the people and the community. Not just Lake Michigan, but all the rivers and streams and lakes and the rain! the rain--the rain.
Another poem that I read the day I bought the book, and also, again today: "Neruda in Kalamazoo" by Susan Blackwell Ramsey. In it, "Neruda shakes he head at Kalamazoo, but he's half-amused." He's trying to find poetry, but it's hard to be found, people buried so deeply in their layers of "wool, down, fleece...Even their pale eyes afford no traction, strike no sparks. It's like wrestling water." But then Neruda sees poetry--little bits of poetry, all around him, and "he opens his paper."
Give Michigan a chance--give it a moment, a piece of your heart, and its poetry will effect you, will take root in your soul. These poems do the same, and every poem speaks of the poetry of Michigan and the brilliant artists who reside here.
This book gives me hope that I, too, can find my place in Michigan.
I bought this book as a way of saying, "I can see myself living here, being happy here, if my husband gets the job." And on the airplane ride back to Phoenix, I thumbed through the paintings and photographs and poetry, reading a little here and a little there.
Now I've lived in Michigan for almost four and a half months, and today I finished the final poem. You can know a place if you know it's poetry--and this poetry all feels connected to place. There are some poems about Detroit, about the big, working, often dirty city. But most of the poems embrace the rest of Michigan--embrace the water, the forests, the small towns, the beauty and brutality of winter, the Michigan sense of possibility.
In one of the poems, "Folk Religions of Michigan" by Marc Sheehan, we read:
"The gospels all proclaim the same thing:
the Union Man is made in the image of God,
the Boat is holy for it floats on the Lake,
the Lake is holy for the mass baptisms it Affects,
the Baptized are holy in Form and in Flesh,
especially the Young among them.
The faithful ask guardian demons to deliver
them from one near-disaster to the next
with only a dented fender or broken
promise to atone for."
In Michigan, the water is life, it is part of the soul of the people and the community. Not just Lake Michigan, but all the rivers and streams and lakes and the rain! the rain--the rain.
Another poem that I read the day I bought the book, and also, again today: "Neruda in Kalamazoo" by Susan Blackwell Ramsey. In it, "Neruda shakes he head at Kalamazoo, but he's half-amused." He's trying to find poetry, but it's hard to be found, people buried so deeply in their layers of "wool, down, fleece...Even their pale eyes afford no traction, strike no sparks. It's like wrestling water." But then Neruda sees poetry--little bits of poetry, all around him, and "he opens his paper."
Give Michigan a chance--give it a moment, a piece of your heart, and its poetry will effect you, will take root in your soul. These poems do the same, and every poem speaks of the poetry of Michigan and the brilliant artists who reside here.
This book gives me hope that I, too, can find my place in Michigan.
November 7, 2014
I just don't "get" much poetry. I did like several of the poems, but mostly I just wonder what the author is trying to say, what I'm supposed to take away from the reading. Sometimes I think the words were all put in a basket, shaken up, drawn out, then assembled into a poem. I did like the Michigan connection with many of them. The art in the book left me feeling the same way - just don't understand much of it. This is not a criticism of the art or poems, just my lack of understanding. But it is a book of poems to qualify for my 2014 reading challenge!
July 27, 2014
I loved so many of these poems and will go back and reread some just to immerse myself in the beautiful language. The reason I've enjoyed reading this collection so much is because the over arching theme of Place is so strong. This really is Michigan in Poetry. Reading the poems feels like going home. And the art pairs well with the text.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews