A House Called Tomorrow: Fifty Years of Poetry from Copper Canyon Press

by Michael Wiegers (Editor)

Poetry is vital to language and living. This anthology celebrates 50 years of Copper Canyon Press publications, one extraordinary poem at a time. Since its founding in 1972, Copper Canyon has been entirely dedicated to publishing poetry books; here Editor in Chief Michael Wiegers invites press staff and board—past and present—to help curate a retrospective. The result is a collection of beloved poems from books spanning half a century: representing Pulitzer Prize-winning books, debut collections, works in translation, and rare books from Copper Canyon’s early days. This book is a tribute to Copper Canyon poets and readers everywhere, because, as Gregory Orr writes, “Certain poems / In an uncertain world— / The ones we cling to: // They bring us back.”

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

500 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry is an incredible vessel for emotion and human connection, riding the abstractions of words and rhythm into the hearts of those who read them. ‘Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful,’ wrote poet Rita Dove, and Alice Walker tells us that ‘poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.’ Poetry is elusive and difficult to define as the art itself is often an expression of freedom, though W.H. Auden once offered that it ‘might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.’ Since 1972, the nonprofit publisher Copper Canyon Press has been a valuable space for an incredible list of poets to bring their work out into the world, and the vast catalog of nearly 700 volumes of poetry in 50 years demonstrates how versatile poetry can be and, as Executive Editor Michael Wiegers writes in his introduction, proof that ‘the great pool of poetry is inexhaustible.’ Wiegers asks us to stop and consider what exactly is poetry. ‘I believe this is not an intellectual argument but rather an elusive evolution toward empathy and connection,’ he writes, ‘yet there is no singularity to what constitutes this art form. For all the different styles, aesthetics, opinions, and assertions, we engage in common experiences whenever we read or hear a poem.’ This is best examined by flipping through the pages of this incredible anthology, A House Called Tomorrow,’ which celebrates 50 years of poetry under Copper Canyon Press. With a fabulous introduction by executive editor Michael Wiegers and an amazing overview of the publisher’s history, this is a wonderful anthology that gives us the past and present and reminds us of the power and possibilities of poetry.

‘And so poetry is not a shopping list, a casual disquisition on the colors of the sky, a soporific daydream, or bumper sticker sloganeering. Poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that telling the truth makes possible. Poetry means taking control of the language of your life. Good poems can interdict a suicide, rescue a love affair, and build a revolution in which speaking and listening to somebody becomes the first and last purpose to every social encounter.’
-June Jordan

Copper Canyon Press has been home to some of the biggest names in US poetry, like former US Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin, or Pulitzer Prize winners Natalie Díaz and Jericho Brown, also Denise Levertov, Carolyn Forché, Ocean Vuong, Arthur Sze, Ursula K. Le Guin, Victoria Chang, Paisley Rekdal, the English translations of Nobel Prize winners Pablo Neruda and Tomas Tranströmer, my favorite poet Lucille Clifton and so many more. You’ll find a poem from every collection the publisher ever put out here, which is a really fun way to discover new poets and writers while also paying tribute to this lovely nonprofit bringing us amazing art. Speaking of, the cover was designed by Erika Blumenfeld, the artist in residence for NASA (which rules that NASA even has an artist in residence) who used an ink brush to put a stroke of 24 karat gold onto paper in the shape of a meteor.

Not many of them, it’s true
-Gregory Orr

Not many of them, it’s true,
But certain poems
In an uncertain world—
The ones we cling to:

They bring us back
Always to the beloved
Whom we thought we’d lost.

As surely as if the words
Led her by the hand,
Brought him before us.
Certain poems
In an uncertain world.

This is a cool collection and it was also a really fascinating history of the publisher itself. ‘We’re small, but we punch above our weight when it comes to the poetry field,’ Wiegers says. I thought it was neat to learn they provided space for Graywolf Press—another incredible nonprofit publisher—to start up and shared a building together. His thoughts on being a nonprofit that helps fund poetry programs to grow the community was insightful as well:

‘Being a nonprofit arts organization, much like an art museum, wherein we’re curating poetry, rather than curating exhibits – our exhibits would be our books, of course, – that’s allowed us to sustain this focus and publish some of the most significant poets of the latter half of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st century.’

It was interesting to read how the publisher began to get more notoriety publishing many collections that went on to win major awards, and made efforts to a more inclusive catalog to ensure more voices are represented and to reach more readers. In his introduction, which is worth picking up this anthology for on its one, Wiegers discusses the history of poetry publishing in the US, emphasizing that ‘poetry was central to their efforts to elevate BIPOC, queer, and countercultural voices.’ Look at Akwaeke Emezi discussing ‘when i last came out i called myself free,’ and the other amazing poems in here on identity or queerness. Poetry is often an act of resistance and many incredible poems have come from oppressed or otherwise marginalized communities finding a way to use their voice and deliver a message. Think of the Russian poets who met in secret to memorize each other’s poems to ensure their survival under Stalin when a poem could land you in prison or lead to your execution (much like Bulgakov’s famous saying ‘manuscripts don’t burn’). I think of Juan Gelman writing ‘my verses like bullets firing at death,’ in the face of the 30,000 people “disappeared” by the military junta in 1970’s Argentina, or the speech from Salman Rushdie where he said ‘A poem cannot stop a bullet. A novel can’t defuse a bomb. But we are not helpless. We can sing the truth and name the liars.’ Words being a radical act is something poetry is well equipped to harness and keep the human spirit alive like a torch refusing to burn out in a storm.

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
-Lucille Clifton

I enjoyed that the selection process for this collection came from a collaborative work of requests from readers, the Board, and the poets themselves. While it isn’t exactly cohesive aside from being a Copper Canyon Press published poem, it does make for a really cool range of work. You have everything here, like poems that can devastate in just a few words:

Separation
-W.S. Merwin
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.

Or longer poems that deal in the more political, such as this signature and much-anthologized poem from Jericho Brown’s Pulitzer Prize winning collection The Tradition:

Bullet Points

I will not shoot myself
In the head, and I will not shoot myself
In the back, and I will not hang myself
With a trashbag, and if I do,
I promise you, I will not do it
In a police car while handcuffed
Or in the jail cell of a town
I only know the name of
Because I have to drive through it
To get home. Yes, I may be at risk,
But I promise you, I trust the maggots
Who live beneath the floorboards
Of my house to do what they must
To any carcass more than I trust
An officer of the law of the land
To shut my eyes like a man
Of God might, or to cover me with a sheet
So clean my mother could have used it
To tuck me in. When I kill me, I will
Do it the same way most Americans do,
I promise you: cigarette smoke
Or a piece of meat on which I choke
Or so broke I freeze
In one of these winters we keep
Calling worst. I promise if you hear
Of me dead anywhere near
A cop, then that cop killed me. He took
Me from us and left my body, which is,
No matter what we've been taught,
Greater than the settlement
A city can pay a mother to stop crying,
And more beautiful than the new bullet
Fished from the folds of my brain.

There are poems that will fill you with joy, or sadness, but often with hope. There are even some excellent translations:

There Is a Light in Me
-Anna Świr

Whether in daytime or in nighttime
I always carry inside
a light.
In the middle of noise and turmoil
I carry silence.
Always
I carry light and silence.

There’s honestly something for everyone in here, and it does make a great introduction to contemporary poetry for those who are still combing the field finding poets that work for them. All in all it is an amazing testament to this wonderful publisher.

Who says a poem must stick to the theme?
Poetry is certainly lost on him.
Poetry and painting share a single goal-
clean freshness and effortless skill.
-Su Tung-p'o

So if you are new to poetry or a long-invested fan of the art, A House Called Tomorrow is a fantastic anthology. Copper Canyon Press has been doing excellent work for 50 years and is a highly decorated nonprofit, Indie publisher. They already have a follow-up anthology to this out soon. Let’s hope they have another productive and poetic 50 years to come.

Let’s go as we are,
a free woman
and an old friend
let’s go on two separate paths
let’s go together,
and let’s be kind . . .
-Mahmoud Darwish, from We Were Missing the Present

[Jennifer nyc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think 50 years of poetry is too much for my level of connection to the art form. After an enjoyable first 155 pages of getting to know poets, I found myself skipping forward to ones I liked, and then losing interest altogether. That doesn’t mean this isn’t a strong collection—I don’t know enough about poetry to say. What I know is that sometimes a poem has me swaying to its rhythms, and sometimes it leads me through a narrative surprise, and these are the ones that move me. I think there weren’t enough of these moments here to keep me going, but I did enjoy the getting there in a smaller dose.

[Ken]

For books, the pilgrim's progress can be bumpy and circuitous at best. This one, for example. I was 90% there when it came time to travel for a few weeks and you know how packing luggage goes when it comes to big books of over 500 pp. Even Marie Kondo can't squeeze in their sparking joy.

Thus, Fifty Years had to wait Two Weeks. Returning to Maine's power and internet outages, however, worked to its advantage. I woke up and sat down with Copper Canyon Press for a coffee or three while the repair crews worked their slow and methodical magic.

In a general sense, then (the best I can do), I'll share that this is one of the better anthologies I've read. How can it lose, though, when you're talking Copper Canyon, a rather fine wine among the poetry presses of renown? I also like that it was divided by the decades starting with the year they struck copper in the canyon: 1973 (ah, to be young again!). This meant some of your favorite poets came back to see you again, which is awfully polite of them.

Who's who here? A few names that I was happy to see and read and reread include Thomas McGrath, W.S. Merwin, Pablo Neruda, Lucille Clifton, Anna Swir, Jim Harrison, Hayden Carruth, Han Shan, Ruth Stone, Ted Kooser, Ellen Bass, Brenda Shaughnessy, Lao-Tzu, Natalie Diaz, Bob Hicok, Jericho Brown, Frank Stanford, Laura Kasischke, Taneum Bambrick, Arthur Sze, Cate Marvin, Tomas Tranströmer, and any number of unknown names eminently knowable after the communion of mine eyes and their verse.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content and with great pleasure I closed the cover of this book after reading the very last poem. I chose to read this one or two poems a day over the last few months, taking time to sip and savor. I became re-acquainted with some old friends and met some new ones along the way. If you're looking for a wide ranging collection, you won't go wrong with this one.

Publication 2023

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who follows Copper Canyon needs this beautiful, exquisitely curated anthology.

[Ace Boggess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly outstanding volume of poems from a diverse and powerful group of some of the best poets around. You can't go wrong with this book, whatever your poetic tastes.

[Ambrose Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great poetry anthology to take one poem a day with!

[Xiaoning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Read a few really good poems, but the rest of them are average

[Isla McKetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this during a week at Ft Worden and I carried the magic home. I was delighted how many of the books from the last decade I own. Excited to explore more.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing array of poetry from the editors at Copper Canyon Press.

[Hannah Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A HUGE anthology with a variety of poems. My favorite poem from this collection is Separation by W.S. Merwin:
"Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color."