Around the World discussion

I would love to find out what poetry books, if any, people are reading.

This is a great group!

Hi Valerie, the only poetry that I've listed is Wisteria by Kwame Dawes and Ten Thousand Lives by Ko Un though I haven't yet decided if they'll be my final choices.

Are you including poetry in your list?

Austria: Rainer Maria Rilke: Sonnets to Orpheus
Bulgaria: Blaga Dimitrova: Because the Sea Is Black
Chile: Gabriela Mistral: Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral
Cook Islands (a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand): Kauraka Kauraka: Dreams of a Rainbow (Moemoea a te Anuanua)
El Salvador: Claribel Alegría: Flowers from the Volcano
Estonia: Jaan Kaplinski: The Wandering Border
Gambia: Phyllis Wheatley: Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and Moral
Greece: Olga Broumas: Beginning with O
Iceland: Unknown: The Elder Edda
Ireland (Northern, UK): Seamus Heaney: Death of a Naturalist
Jamaica: Michelle Cliff: Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise
Macedonia: Slavko Janevski: The Bandit Wind
Romania: Dan Pagis: Points of Departure
Saint Lucia: Derek Walcott: The Prodigal: A Poem
Solomon Islands: Alvert Wendt (Ed.): Some Modern Poetry from Solomon Islands
Spain: Federico García Lorca: The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca
Vanuatu: Grace Mera Molisa: Black Stone

Mind, they're not all good poetry. I'm sorry I don't have time to link them; I'll edit this post later in the week if I get a chance.

Thanks so much for the responses everyone!

Yes I'm including poetry in my list, but not for the whole list.

St. Lucia: Selected Poems by Derek Walcott

Thanks for asking the question Valerie. I'm always interested in poetry suggestions. I have Walcott on my list too with White Egrets and Omeros.

I didn't know Walcott from from St. Lucia! Thanks!

I'm reading George MacKay Brown's Travellers: Poems for Scotland. Will let you know how it is :).

I was going to for Australia but then didn't like the guy. I'm definitely not opposed to the idea!

I was wondering whether to include poetry or not, but now think I ought to include some. I'm not sure how well it would work in translation. I will give it a try when I get to the next Anglophone country.

I'm reading The August Sleepwalker by Bei Dao. It's translated from Chinese and is modern poetry written from the time of the cultural revolution on. Very good and supposedly a good translation. I found this from a review by Valerie.

I read The Love Poems of Rumi for Iran, but it was short (60-70 pages) so I also read a novel from Iran, The Septembers of Shiraz. I really enjoyed both books.

I've finished Travellers: Poems by George Mackay Brown for Scotland now. I've given an example of his poems in my review here.
I can recommend it to get an idea of the Scottish people and their life, but if you've never seen Scotland you might need to google some pictures to go along with this.

Gaeta1 wrote: "I am reading Omeros right now. It's exhausting as I haven't read any epic poetry since my college days."

I have that Gaeta, but haven't yet decided whether to read it for the challenge. Good luck. I have been intending to re-read The Odyssey for a while now and also haven't read any epic poetry since college.

You have picked some difficult reading.

I'm not going there either!