Your guides and our reassembled roster of Museletter correspondents got together in 2003 to help you fill in your last-minute holiday gift list with these, our favorite poetry books.
1. Sleeping with the Dictionary, by Harryette Mullen
(University of California Press, 2002) Harryette Mullen’s first collection in 10 years is an amazing abecedarian take on race and politics. Ms. Mullen is difficult, sonic, and the poet I most love to wrestle with. ~Bob Holman, Poetry Guide
2. View with a Grain of Sand, Selected Poems by Wislawa Szymborska
(Translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak & Clare Cavanagh, Harvest Books, 1995) This selection of poems from 7 of her books is a wonderful introduction to Szymborska, who is not well known in the West even after receiving the Nobel Prize. The translations are elegant & the poems are transcendent revelations, irony, incantation, crystal, wit. ~Margy Snyder, Poetry Guide
3. Love Works, by Janice Mirikitani
(City Lights Books, 2002) Part of the San Francisco Poet Laureate Series, this book represents a heart of the city -- Janice Mirikitani has lived there since 1963 & has worked at Glide Memorial Church for 35 years. Her poetry is a testament to love and makes a great gift for those who might be in emotional need during the holiday season. ~Martha Cinader, NoCal correspondent4. Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong
(Trans. John Balaban, Copper Canyon Press, 2000) While Keats was pining for Grecian urns, Ho was writing lines like “Screw the fate that makes you share a man. / If I had known how it would go / I think I would have lived alone” (from “On Sharing a Husband”). The translations by Balaban are provocative. Ho Xuan Huong is the new Rumi. ~Gary Mex Glazner, Southwest correspondent5. Sailing Alone Around the Room, by Billy Collins
(Random House, 2001) The latest book from Billy Collins, the Bob Newhart of poet laureatism, includes some of my favorites: “Victoria’s Secret,” “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July” and the unforgettable “Forgetfulness.” It’s also available in paperback, but I recommend the hardcover -- it just feels good in the hands. ~Stazja McFadyen, Florida correspondent