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This collection of poems, by both unknown and established poets, is a
wonderful (re)introduction to some of the best contemporary American poets
writing today. Series editor David Lehman has taken an evenhanded approach
with these books --- since 1988, he has selected a new editor every year to
choose what he or she feels are the best poems of the year.
Organized alphabetically by poet, so as not to distinguish the strength of
the poems by their placement in the book, this collection includes works
discovered in literary magazines such as Boulevard, The Georgia Review, Tri
Quarterly, Callaloo, Ploughshares, and The New Yorker. Lehman's foreword
explains that the poems in this volume blend the popular and the literary.
Illustrated by the emergence of poetry on subways, TV advertisements, and the
Internet, and alternate forms of expression such as poetry and music,
performance poetry, and poetry "slang," among other innovations, it's clear
that there are no longer set boundaries and, as always, rules are made to be
broken. Poetry has always been a rebellious art form, this new frontier of
poetry a testimony to free expression. A wonderful introduction by Pulitzer
Prize winning poet Rita Dove explains the difficulties and rewards of
choosing the poems that have made the final cut.
Although each has its merit, there are a handful here that particularly stuck
out for me. There was something to be gained from reading each of these
poems, but I'll highlight my favorites here:
"Seven Roses" by Frank X. Gaspar begins with the simple image of flowers at
the breakfast table, "Three red, one white, one purple, one yellow, one
pink." The image of the roses sparks a meditation on beauty, which brings
Gaspar to the realization that "The truth about life is that it is good, but
it comes with strings attached."
In Billy Collins's poem, "Man Listening to Disc," an event as regular as
listening to jazz on a CD Discman while walking down a New York City street
is revealed as a way to put a secret soundtrack to your life. Here, our
narrator becomes empowered by the music that only he can hear, reflecting
further on his place in the world while striding through the crowds of New
Yorkers who, as he rightly says, "mistake themselves for the center of the
universe."
"Immigrant Picnic" by Gregory Djanikian paints a brilliant scene of a family
picnic at which the ostentatious Americanized son is so bold as to roll his
eyes and correct his mother's grammar!
In "Alpha Images" Karl Elder recites the alphabet and talks about what he
sees in the curves and lines that make up each letter. In describing the
capital letter 'M' for example, Elder writes "Dragging its belly,/ a
mechanical spider,/ its nose to the ground." Or, the letter 'O,' "The rim of
the moon./ Peephole into an igloo./ Shadow of a zero."
In Susan Woods's "Analysis of the Rose as Sentimental Despair" she riffs on
her impressions of a contemporary painting (Cy Twombley, set of five
paintings, 1985). It is a somber poem about the ironies of falling in love
with a memory. Wood writes, "(loving the Idea, but not the Thing itself),/
loving the memory of rose petals/ strewn across a bed, but not/ the rumpled,
semen-stained sheets." Thinking about other poets like Rumi, Rilke, and
Leopardi, Wood concludes that all poems are elegies.
I hadn't read poetry for a while before coming to this collection, and
reading it has reminded me of what I've always known: how easy it is to fall
in love with words. In every thing, in each of the small details that we
encounter in the expression of life, there is something larger that we can't
quite put a finger on. In this magnification of small things that can
oftentimes, at the surface, seem mundane, poetry exalts the glory of language
and the possibilities in every moment.
It is difficult to get people to read a book of poetry by someone they have
never heard of. Poetry can be esoteric, as proved by many of these poems. But
it can also stretch your imagination beyond its limits. This introduction to
75 new voices will be reaffirming to poetry lovers, poetry dabblers, and to
the poets themselves. I think it's safe to say that poetry, in it's many
forms, touches more people now than ever before. And though, of course, you
won't love every poem, you will love many of them. And even in those that you
find only mediocre, you will discover breathtaking nuances and moments that
invite you to stop and savor their richness.
--- Reviewed by Melanie Okadigwe
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