Poetry Collections

So I've been reading a lot of poetry over the last few weeks. I'm not going to write detailed reviews. Instead, I will list the titles and whether or not I recommend reading them as a whole. Here goes:

Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns, New Poems Both Light and Dark by Ray Bradbury. Sadly, no. Though I did enjoy a few poems in this book, the collection didn't inspire me. This was my first time reading Bradbury's poetry so perhaps I'm unfamiliar with his best poetic work.

Selected Poems by Margaret Atwood. Yes! I loved this collection. There were very few poems that I didn't like. Some of my favorites were "Tricks with Mirrors" and "Song of the Worms." I highly recommend this book of poetry! Atwood is the best at pratically everything, isn't she?!

Poems and Problems by Nabokov Vladimir. Maybe. This was my first time reading Russian poetry. This collection seemed to be all about desire. Some of my favorites were "The Muse" and "Soft Sound."

Shadow Train: Poems by John Ashbery. No. I just couldn't access the structure, the rhythm. It just felt very stiff but I'm sure that has more to do with me than with Ashbery's work.

The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop. Yes! My goodness do I love this woman! I've read her prose collection and was floored by, "In the Village." Like her prose, her poetry does not disappoint. Like most of her work, much of the topics concern Nova Scotia, nature, and wonder. Much of her childhood landscape is embedded in these verses. There is so much beauty in the precision of her language. Bishop is right up there among my favorites Jane Kenyon and Sylvia Plath.

For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell. Maybe. I liked this collection but didn't love it.

And there you have it! Maybe an actual book review will come next week! I'm reading about 4 different stories right now but The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau is rocking my world. I suspect I'll finish it first.

Goodness!

I'm pretty good about keeping up with my teachers/mentors. I communicated with Victor LaValle (who has a great response to The New Yorker's racist cover) about a month ago and was excited to hear about his next book.

Micheline Aharonian Marcom had a new book (the third in her trilogy) released this March. I missed her reading in L.A. because of work but today, I stumbled upon the news that she will release another new title this year--yes, that makes two new books in the same year.

Mirror in the Well sounds sooooooooooo good. I can't wait to read this book and I'm hoping she'll come back to L.A. for another signing. By then, I'm sure I will have recovered from my last book talk trip.

After today, I have exactly 11 more days of work left. I don't start teaching until September so I plan to vacation for a full month. I deserve that much--I haven't had a vacation since last November and that was stressful because I used the time to participate in NaNoWriMo.

I'm looking forward to having a nice, long break. That will give me time to dissect all these great books I've been wanting to read. Now back to The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau!