Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

I thought it would be fun if we shared our favorite poetry books of the year, whether a single favorite or top 3, whichever ones have held your attention and beg for rereading.

Mine are
Selected Poems by Mona Van Duyn
Scything by Joanne Lowery
The Lost Lunar Baedeker by Mina Loy

Thanks Jen - great idea. Will come back with mine.

That was easy:
Extraordinary Power by Emily Bludworth de Barrios
Sum of Every Lost Ship : poems by Alison Titus
Someone Else's Wedding Vows by Bianca Stone

Out of my 2014 list of 20 poetry books read and reviewed, my favorite was Alphabet by Inger Christensen (trans. Susanna Nied; first pub. 1981). Favorite poetry book among more recent releases was Eduardo C. Corral's Slow Lightning (2012).

It was fairly easy for me as well. Certain books popped out as uniquely worthwhile.

Jenna, interesting categories--and I like how you marked the translations on your list.

In the past, I never made it to the group goal of reading and reviewing 20 poetry books a year because I used to spend all my time reading thick tomes titled "Selected Poems" and "Collected Poems," mostly by hoary long-dead poets. This past year, partly because I've gotten to know more living poets, partly because I've become more interested in cultural perspectives (e.g., Asian-American perspectives) that were not much addressed by the dead poets, I've begun reading more debut collections by young/young-ish living poets. Given that debut collections are often very slim, this change in habit has allowed me to finish more books and thus reach the group goal for the first time.

And every year I make a point of trying to read roughly the same number of English-language poetry books as translated ones. I think that otherwise it's far too easy to fall into a rather narrow America-centric (or Anglo-centric) worldview.

Excellent observation. It's easy to get mired in "Selected" and "Collected" volumes. Though I hadn't thought about it before, you're absolutely right that the goal of this group has required me to mix it up. In fact, I need to think about getting another bundle of chaps in 2015.

My favorites in 2014 were

1. Tortoises
2. Sun and Saddle Leather, Including Grass Grown Trails and New Poems

Both titles left me wanting more!

I see you've got more cowboy poetry on your 2015 list, Debbie.

Yes, I couldn't find any more Badger Clark but the Cowboy Songs book looked interesting....I'm curious to see if there will be any of the ones I remember from old albums by Sons Of The Pioneers!

One upside of living outside the states is being exposed to non-anglo poets, I've always found. Thanks for the tips, all.

My favorites of the ones I reviewed this year were:

1. Christopher Marlowe's The Complete Plays
2. Christopher Marlowe's The Complete Poems and Translations
and
3. Paul Celan's Paul Celan: 70 Poems

Of the ones I read in 2014 but haven't reviewed yet, my favorites were:

1. Julia Vinograd's Cannibal Cafe (Open All Night): Selected Works 2006-2014 (Zeitgeist Press, 2014)
2. Joan Colby's Joan Colby: Selected Poems
and
3. Cassandra Dallett's Wet Reckless

Wow, Marlowe got the top two spots. Glad to see Colby on there. That collection is on my 2015 list.

Jen wrote: "Wow, Marlowe got the top two spots. Glad to see Colby on there. That collection is on my 2015 list."

I hope you love Joan Colby's Selected Poems as much as I did, Jen!

My 2014 outstanding poetry reads were (in no particular order):

Division Street by Helen Mort
What the Water Gave Me: Poems After Frida Kahlo by Pascale Petit
Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds

I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and buy Stag's Leap. It makes an impression on everyone who reads it, and I just discovered that not only do the libraries in my county, and the next one over with a big city, not have the book, they have no books at all by Sharon Olds. This is why I collect poetry.

My favorite is one I haven't reviewed yet, Companion Grasses by Brian Teare. I read it because I was going to be in his workshop at Napa Valley Writers Conference, and thought I should wait until afterward.

Of those I read I liked Carrie Fountain's Burn Lake and Eliza Griswold's Wideawake Field best, but in both cases I think it was the subject matter that stuck with me more than the craft.

I agree that sometime subject matter trumps craft. I think that's true for some, perhaps most, of my favorite poems.