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Staying Human: new poems for Staying Alive
Staying Human is the latest addition to Bloodaxe’s bestselling Staying Alive series of world poetry anthologies. These anthologies have introduced many thousands of new readers to modern poetry as well as offering poetry lovers a broad, international selection of 500 ‘real poems for unreal times’ in each volume. Staying Human has a strong focus on the human side of living in the 21st century in poems from the past two decades relating to migration, oppression, alienation, day-to-day living, and the individual’s struggle to hold on. Many of these went viral after being shared on social media because they speak to our times with such great immediacy. The poets are from drawn from every continent, including Jericho Brown, Terrance Hayes, Jane Hirshfield, and Sharon Olds from the US, and Nobel Laureates Wisława Szymborska and Tomas Tranströmer from Europe.
528 pages, Paperback
Published December 8, 2020
22 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Neil Astley
40 books39 followersNeil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, Britain’s leading poetry imprint, which he founded in 1978. His own books include novels, poetry collections and anthologies, most notably the Bloodaxe Staying Alive trilogy. He is also a trustee of Ledbury Poetry Festival and Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, and a development committee member of Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, Ireland.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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May 3, 2021
‘But why the last? I ask. Why not
Live each day as if it were the first --
All raw astonishment.’
-Linda Pastan
Since today is the last day of National Poetry Month, I’d like to talk about one of my favorite poetry series: Bloodaxe Book’s Staying Alive anthologies edited by Neil Astley. If you were to ask, hey I want to get into modern poetry but I don’t know where to start, I’d hand you this newest 2021 anthology, Staying Human, without having to think twice (also would recommend the Breakbeat Poets anthology series by Haymarket Books though too). This is the fourth volume in the anthology series and I am constantly in awe and how well Astley can collect a thick book of poems that is just an absolute joy from page to page. The first book, Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times came out in 2003 and each subsequent volume has been as strong as the last. It is my go-to for when I need to quickly find a good poem and each book is organized really well by theme. What is most impressive is the vast number of amazing poets from all over the world in each collection and Staying Human offers a wonderfully inclusive introduction to many familiar and fresh voices in poetry.
‘I am a human being
And I exist
A human being
And a citizen of the world
Responsible to that world
--and responsible for that world.
-Tom Leonard
This volume features practically all of my favorite poets and introduced me to a few new ones. Inside you’ll find Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, Moniza Alvi, Danez Smith, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jericho Brown, Ocean Vuong, Imtiaz Dharker, Louise Glück, Charles Simic, Wisława Szymborska, Tomas Tranströmer, Gwendolyn Brooks and many many many more. Honestly it’s such a perfect introduction to poetry but also an indispensable to those already well versed. Something I always appreciate about any anthology from Bloodaxe is the way that it mixes well known poets from UK and the US as well as around the world and there is a clear effort for racial inclusivity (I would, however, like to see more big anthologies like this include more trans and nonbinary poets).
The book is divided by categories and cluster similar poems together in a way that brings them to life through their juxtaposition. One rather lengthy section is poems from, about, or in response to Frank O'Hara. Which is cool I guess, I love his work and it’s awesome to see other poets I admire admiring him but it does seem a bit random and weird in the flow of things? It is definitely a choice. Though I’d love to see Bloodaxe do something like that with other well-regarded poets, I’d pick that up in a heartbeat because I really love poetry as a conversation between minds and hearts.
This is such a wonderful addition to the Staying Alive series and I am so delighted to have this. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
4.5/5
Small Kindnesses
-Danusha Laméris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
Live each day as if it were the first --
All raw astonishment.’
-Linda Pastan
Since today is the last day of National Poetry Month, I’d like to talk about one of my favorite poetry series: Bloodaxe Book’s Staying Alive anthologies edited by Neil Astley. If you were to ask, hey I want to get into modern poetry but I don’t know where to start, I’d hand you this newest 2021 anthology, Staying Human, without having to think twice (also would recommend the Breakbeat Poets anthology series by Haymarket Books though too). This is the fourth volume in the anthology series and I am constantly in awe and how well Astley can collect a thick book of poems that is just an absolute joy from page to page. The first book, Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times came out in 2003 and each subsequent volume has been as strong as the last. It is my go-to for when I need to quickly find a good poem and each book is organized really well by theme. What is most impressive is the vast number of amazing poets from all over the world in each collection and Staying Human offers a wonderfully inclusive introduction to many familiar and fresh voices in poetry.
‘I am a human being
And I exist
A human being
And a citizen of the world
Responsible to that world
--and responsible for that world.
-Tom Leonard
This volume features practically all of my favorite poets and introduced me to a few new ones. Inside you’ll find Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, Moniza Alvi, Danez Smith, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jericho Brown, Ocean Vuong, Imtiaz Dharker, Louise Glück, Charles Simic, Wisława Szymborska, Tomas Tranströmer, Gwendolyn Brooks and many many many more. Honestly it’s such a perfect introduction to poetry but also an indispensable to those already well versed. Something I always appreciate about any anthology from Bloodaxe is the way that it mixes well known poets from UK and the US as well as around the world and there is a clear effort for racial inclusivity (I would, however, like to see more big anthologies like this include more trans and nonbinary poets).
The book is divided by categories and cluster similar poems together in a way that brings them to life through their juxtaposition. One rather lengthy section is poems from, about, or in response to Frank O'Hara. Which is cool I guess, I love his work and it’s awesome to see other poets I admire admiring him but it does seem a bit random and weird in the flow of things? It is definitely a choice. Though I’d love to see Bloodaxe do something like that with other well-regarded poets, I’d pick that up in a heartbeat because I really love poetry as a conversation between minds and hearts.
This is such a wonderful addition to the Staying Alive series and I am so delighted to have this. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
4.5/5
Small Kindnesses
-Danusha Laméris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
July 17, 2025
Another powerful collection of poetry from this series. Although I normally lean towards metrical poetry, this collection of free verse really gets under your skin. From poems by women about the loss of a child to the journeys and hardships of refugees seeking a safer life. The poems make you understand these people and feel the suffering as they have. They will stay with you.
July 11, 2022
These anthologies from Bloodaxe books are such a pleasure.
March 21, 2021
It feels a little churlish to say that a lot of poems in this collection that were deeply moving, written on topics of huge political and social import, didn’t work very well as … well, poems. For a poem to be truly effective – to me – it needs to have both the force of feeling and the control of the form. The latter is lacking from a lot of these works. I still enjoyed the wide exposure to poets whom I might not have otherwise encountered.
A Litany for Survival (Audre Lorde):
“So it is better to speak
remembering
We were never meant to survive.”
Life and Other Terms (Janet Fisher):
“and I see living’s a job like any other,
that there are no true and perfect implements
to trim the edges, only working usages, like knives.”
Rising Late (Derek Mahon):
“Salvation lies in love of the simple thing
such as our complex poets used to sing:
a rose, a table with its magic glow,
the ideal forms they body forth also.
I would become, in the time left to me,
the servent of a restored reality –
chalks and ochres, birdsong, harbour lights,
the longer day and the short summer nights.”
Wonder (Tuvia Ruebner):
“A human being can bear almost anything
and no one knows when and where
happiness will overcome him.”
If God Made Jam (Sarah Lindsay):
“and Bobby catechized wasn’t wrong
when he pictured a deity, willing to work in the kitchen,
who made preserves and redeemed us.”
Decisions: II (Boris A. Novak):
“Between hope and despair
choose hope:
it will be harder to bear.”
for women who are difficult to love (Warsan Shire):
“and if he wants to leave
let him leave
you are terrifying
strange and beautiful
something not everyone
knows how to love.”
Epilogue (Keri Miller):
“if we are amazed at anything let it be this:
not that we have fallen from love,
but that we were always resurrected
into it, like children who climb sweetly
back into bed.”
The Cure at Troy (Seamus Heaney):
“The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.”
Poems I liked:
They Spoke to Me of People, and of Humanity – Fernando Pessoa
Bonsai Master – John Barr
You Fixed It – Zeina Hashem Beck
Small Kindnesses – Danusha Laméris
Gate C22 – Ellen Bass
A Contribution to Statistics – Wislawa Szymborska
The Years – Nadine Aisha Jassat
The Red Gate – John F. Deane
Over the years… – Hanny Michaelis
Introductions – Moya Cannon
Ars Poetica – Aracelis Girmay
Scaffolding – Seamus Heaney
Uxor Vivamus – Dick Davis
Making a Meal of It – Dick Davis
Wedding Cake Decorations – Tara Bergin
To Be Alive – Gregory Orr
Wait – Galway Kinnell
Lily – Ron Koertge
Cat in an Empty Apartment – Wislawa Szymborksa
Checking Out Me History – John Agard
We Lived Happily During the War – Ilya Kaminsky
What Is It Worth? – Mikeas Sánchez
Dominion – David Constantine
Some People – Wislawa Szymborska
Poems that saddened me:
Hundreds of cockroaches drowned today – Musa Okwonga
Conversations About Home – Warsan Shire
A Litany for Survival (Audre Lorde):
“So it is better to speak
remembering
We were never meant to survive.”
Life and Other Terms (Janet Fisher):
“and I see living’s a job like any other,
that there are no true and perfect implements
to trim the edges, only working usages, like knives.”
Rising Late (Derek Mahon):
“Salvation lies in love of the simple thing
such as our complex poets used to sing:
a rose, a table with its magic glow,
the ideal forms they body forth also.
I would become, in the time left to me,
the servent of a restored reality –
chalks and ochres, birdsong, harbour lights,
the longer day and the short summer nights.”
Wonder (Tuvia Ruebner):
“A human being can bear almost anything
and no one knows when and where
happiness will overcome him.”
If God Made Jam (Sarah Lindsay):
“and Bobby catechized wasn’t wrong
when he pictured a deity, willing to work in the kitchen,
who made preserves and redeemed us.”
Decisions: II (Boris A. Novak):
“Between hope and despair
choose hope:
it will be harder to bear.”
for women who are difficult to love (Warsan Shire):
“and if he wants to leave
let him leave
you are terrifying
strange and beautiful
something not everyone
knows how to love.”
Epilogue (Keri Miller):
“if we are amazed at anything let it be this:
not that we have fallen from love,
but that we were always resurrected
into it, like children who climb sweetly
back into bed.”
The Cure at Troy (Seamus Heaney):
“The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.”
Poems I liked:
They Spoke to Me of People, and of Humanity – Fernando Pessoa
Bonsai Master – John Barr
You Fixed It – Zeina Hashem Beck
Small Kindnesses – Danusha Laméris
Gate C22 – Ellen Bass
A Contribution to Statistics – Wislawa Szymborska
The Years – Nadine Aisha Jassat
The Red Gate – John F. Deane
Over the years… – Hanny Michaelis
Introductions – Moya Cannon
Ars Poetica – Aracelis Girmay
Scaffolding – Seamus Heaney
Uxor Vivamus – Dick Davis
Making a Meal of It – Dick Davis
Wedding Cake Decorations – Tara Bergin
To Be Alive – Gregory Orr
Wait – Galway Kinnell
Lily – Ron Koertge
Cat in an Empty Apartment – Wislawa Szymborksa
Checking Out Me History – John Agard
We Lived Happily During the War – Ilya Kaminsky
What Is It Worth? – Mikeas Sánchez
Dominion – David Constantine
Some People – Wislawa Szymborska
Poems that saddened me:
Hundreds of cockroaches drowned today – Musa Okwonga
Conversations About Home – Warsan Shire
October 21, 2020
** A copy of Staying Human was provided by the publisher and Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review **
Such a beautiful and timely anthology!
Such a beautiful and timely anthology!
September 26, 2021
Wonderful as ever, though a bit maudlin.
March 5, 2025
An important collection, full of tough topics. One has to be in the right mindset to tackle a BloodAxe book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews