Earth-Shattering Poems

by Liz Rosenberg (Editor)

Poetry helps us across the world's narrow bridges, but when we slip, it helps us not to be afraid. Here is a collection of some of the most intense poems ever written, to guide us, to lead us, to hold on to as we fall.

Poems are earth-shattering when, as Emily Dickinson put it, "I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off." Liz Rosenberg has selected poems of passion and yearning, of birth and death that do just that: they hurt, but they also heal. For, over and over, the poets return to love, the mysterious, perhaps limitless feeling that binds us to the earth and may lead us beyond.

As Galway Kinnell tells it, "The wages of dying is love." The reward of reading great poetry is a form of love, too, and this collection is a chance to feel that, again and again.

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 1998

About the author

Liz Rosenberg is an American poet, novelist, children's book author, and book reviewer. She is currently a professor of English at Binghamton University.

Reviews

[Elijah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though the poems are perhaps not quite as life-changing as the title would have you believe, I found this collection at the perfect time and it hit home.

My favourite is this poem from the meditations of Rabbi Nachman:

The whole world is a very narrow bridge
but the most important thing is not to be afraid at all.

[Barb Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I savored this book!

[Kimber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Selected poems---what poems should be--powerful and raw.

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

We ordered this book on accident, there’s a book with a very similar title by Neil Astley that we meant to get instead. That was a confusing and then funny surprise at Christmas! This book is intended for young adults, yet there were some included that I’m not sure young adults would understand or enjoy…some I did not understand and I’m in my 40s. A mix of poems I’ve read before and ones I’ve never heard of, a mix of ones I enjoyed and ones I didn’t enjoy. Three and 1/2 stars

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult to "judge" a book of poetry. It's like judging painting or photography--everything is so subjective. Just because a poem might not resonate with me doesn't mean that it won't resonate with someone else.

But as the editor, Liz Rosenberg, admits, the poems included in her anthology were selected with a teen or young adult audience in mind. And that's apparent. A number of these poems were a bit too drastic for me, for lack of a better word. Quite a few gems, though--many of which I'd never read before.

[Allie_Luthel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was enjoyable. I read through it fairly quickly, kind of skimming through the majority of them. There are quite a few eye-catching, thought provoking poems such as "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath, "The Whole World", and "How Graciously the Animal" by Linda McCarriston. However, I would not use "earth-shattering" to describe these poems; a lot of them are of a more quiet nature and give insight into the quieter moments in someone's life that are usually more negative. I would recommend it, but not highly.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't realize this is the same Rosenberg who wrote the novel Home Repair. Amazing little collection, though I think I like her Invisible Ladder even more, because I treasure those photos of the poets as adults and as kids. Galway Kinnell as a handsome teenager! Ginsberg as a long-legged kid! Rosenberg herself looking like a Salinger kid character.

[Christina M Rau · Rating 3 out of 5]

This compilation makes sense. It is a great way to continue my self-education of poetry. This collection is aimed at a younger generation, most likely to continue the love of poetry for the future. Get Drunk! by Baudelaire doesn't seem kid-friendly. It is, however, Christina-friendly. Rock on, Baudelaire.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, some poems were better then others, but that's normal with any poem book.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems I read in my classroom. Some of them single-handedly turned bad days around. I mostly read contemporary poetry, so this was a welcome exposure to poets from 620 b.c. all the way through the 20th century.

——
and if you commit then, as we did, the error
of thinking,
one day all this will only be memory,

learn to reach deeper
into the sorrows
to come - to touch
the almost imaginary bones
under the face, to hear under the laughter
the wind crying across the stones. Kiss
the mouth
which tells you, here,
here is the world. This mouth. This laughter. These temple
bones.

The still undanced cadence of vanishing.

- excerpt from Little Sleep’s-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight, Galway Kinnell, 1971

[Cheryl]

David read, October 2022

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry

1999 Riverbank Review Children's Book of Distinction Award

3/5

7th-10th Grade

Summary
This is a collection of 41 poets. The poems involve joy, love, sadness, anger. Every one includes some form of "earth shattering" understanding, hence the title of the collection. The poems capture, tear down, break your heart, and then build you back up again. It deals with real life issues that affect us all, like the roller coaster known as love.
Evaluation
This is a good example of young adult literature. It has common topics that a young adult would struggle with, and poetry is a great way to deal with those emotions that are hard to have a normal conversation about. The poetry in book has vivid imagery and vibrant language like Matthew Arnolds poem on page 21, “To lie before us like a land of dreams…And we are here on a darkling plain”(Rosenberg 21)

Ending
The book has the poems in chronological order, including a section of biographies of each poet in the back. So a reader might find this book to be closed. You read the poems in sequential order, and then you read about the poets in sequential order. No questions or issues were left unanswered.

Teaching Suggestions
Student can use this book to enhance reading comprehension and grab the attention of readers since all the poems are relatively short. Students can also use this book to identify the characteristics of literary genres. This book could be used at the introduction of a poetry lesson and would be a great read aloud.

Read Aloud
21-22, 68-69

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosenberg has pulled together poetry from Sappho (620-550 B.C.) to Kate Schmidt (born in 1973 and still living) and also provided brief biographical sketches of the poets. She tried to find poems that speak to our “most intense experiences and emotions” and shake the reader. These speak to the intensity of adolescence.

[Sundry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, I admit it, I was hoping that this would include some geology references. This collection was intended for kids, but it starts with Sappho and moves forward. Very interesting little anthology.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know that I'd call this collection of poems "earth-shattering" but I enjoyed it overall.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the biographical materials at the end. Nice ideas for further reading.