The 2000 Poet's Market : 1,800 Places to Publish Your Poetry (Poet's Market, 2000)
by Chantelle Bentley (Editor)
$19.19 US / 640 pp soft /(c) 1999
Wherever you go to get your poetry published, you start here. This volume, from the the folks that bring you the other Writers' Market books, is slanted towards selling single poems to magazines and journals, which is where poets need to start. The magazines go from little broadsides specializing in vampire poetry (seriously) to bright shiny magazines like the Kenyon, Painted Bride, and the like. It also contains good advice on targetting market (the index is fairly good), writing cover letters, making queries, and getting started generally.

The International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses in 1998-1999
$27.96 US / 946 pp paperback /(c) 1999
This is a phonebook-sized directory of the smaller markets, wieldy but well-indexed. Some of these are spiffy, classy, lively journals that I'd love to be in. Others are just--little. But, let's face it, you're not going to get into the New Yorker right off. Compared to the Poets' Market, this is stronger on the where-to-submit, weaker on the how-to-submit. If you're selling a book, not individual poems, this is a great resource--much, much better than Poets' Market. Tired of sitting in the reference section of the local library with last year's volume? Last time I checked, Amazon was selling this at a hefty 30% discount.

Grants and Awards Available to American Writers. John Morrone, editor
$15.00 US / 224 pp paperback /(c) 1999
On the back cover, E. Annie Proulx says she sleeps with this book under her pillow. I tried this and got a crick in my neck. However, if you have what you think is an award-winning body of work, this is the book where you can find awards to win. It is also good at finding special awards for which you might be uniquely qualified--those available to Canadians under thirty, say, just for example. (The "American" part of the title is serious, but not quite so exclusive as it sounds.) It's complied by the American and Canadian PEN folks, and so is quite reputable, well-researched, with minimal axes to grind.

Money For Writers: Grants, Awards, Prizes, Contests, Scholarships, Retreats, Resources, Conferences, and Internet Information. Diane Billot, editor
$11.96 US / 224 pp paperback /(c) 1999
The above book is better, in general, but this is the book has two important advantages. First, it's the easiest book to use in reverse--say you've got a story on sharks that you'd like to sell--gosh, there's a shark story contest. Second, it is less academic, catering more to people who have resumes, not "creative resumes," or CV's.

The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988-1997
by Harold Bloom
$12.00 US / 336 pp soft /(c) 1998
Exactly what the title says.

The Practice of Poetry : Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach
by Robin Behn (Editor), Chase Twichell (Editor), Chase Twitchell (Contributor)
$12.00 US / 300 pp soft /(c) 1992
Aspiring Poets will find this book useful for its exercises and essays by the contributors. The exercises have been tested against poets in writing programs at many schools, and the personal reflections will serve as an inspiration to all.

The Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott
$10.36 US / 239 pp soft /(c) 1995
Would that all instruction books be this interesting and enjoyable. For once, reading how to write is as fun as writing itself.

The Elements of Style by William Struck and E.B. White
$5.56 US / 92 pages soft /(c) 1998
This it the little book with the great vision. It teaches you to write correctly, clearly, forcefully, and well. It works so well that hasn't been out of print in nearly fifty years. Buy it, read it, memorize it.

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed Karen Elizabeth Gordon
$15.40 US / 175 pages, hardcover /(c) 1998
Grammar's dark magic brought to light. There is absolutely no reason why an invaluable reference should be dull. If you like the title, you'll love the book. The last time I checked, this book was selling for $15.40 US. A good present for the writer in your life. Don't get her another copy of 101 famous poems, whe has one already.

The Disheveled Dictionary: A Curious Caper Through Our Sumptious Lexicon. Karen Elizabeth Gordon
$10.50 US / 162 pp hardcover /(c) 1998
- Admit it. You read dictionaries for fun. This one is even more fun than most. And unlike most "weird words" books, this one contains words you can and do use--like "sumptious" and "lexicon."

The Ink Dark Moon : Love Poems by Ono No Komachi and Izumi Shikibu
translated by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani
$11.20 US / 160 pp soft /(c) 1990

Women court poets from Henian Japan. Poetry that will take you to a different world, unique and universal.

Why did you vanish
into empty sky?
Even the fragile snow,
when it falls,
falls into this world.
--A poem mourning Naishi (Shikibu's daughter)
Lady Izumi Shikibu

Ahead of All Parting : The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
$14.00 US / hardcover /(c) 1995

Rilke is an icon of modern poetry--love him or hate him, but read him. Try this translation by Stephen Mitchell, who is rapidly becoming an icon of contemporary translation.

His vision, from the constant pacing of the of the bars,
has grow so weary that it cannot hold
anything else. It seems to him there are
a thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world.

from "The Panther" Ranier Maria Rilke

In a Time of Violence by Eavan Boland
$8.00 US / softcover /(c) 1995

Probably my favorite living poet, my favorite book of hers. Boland uses language like a sculpter's chisel, an archelogist's brush. Occasionally this is a little distancing--but normally it uncovers something incredible right inside the stone at your feet.

the eighteenth century ends here
as her hem scorches and the satin
decoration catches fire. She is burning down.
As a house might. As a candle will.
She is ash and tallow. It is over.

From “The Death of Reason.” -- Eavan Boland

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
$5.99 US / 112pp hard /(c) 1997

There's a reason he's on everyone's list. I promised I'd marry the first man who recited Sonnet XXIV to me--and James, bless him, did. They have that kind of power.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

From Sonnet XVIII ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") -- William Shakespeare

On Love and Barley Haiku of Basho by Basho
$7.96 US / softcover /(c) 1986

Ought to be on everyone's list. The inventor of haiku, and one of the nominate to be whisked away by the aliens to galactic center to be standins for humankind, by which we will be judged. A great original genius.

The voice of the pheasant;

How I longed

For my dead parents!


--Basho

Sappho : Poems, a New Version by Sappho
$8.76 US / softcover /(c) 1999

Okay, she doesn't quite go with the two above, possibly because so little of her work survives. In my opinion, a must-read for poets, if only to see how to get effect from rhythm.

Now while we dance,

Come here to us
gentle Gaiety,
Revelry, Radiance

and you, Muses
with lovely hair

--Sappho

Pablo Neruda : Selected Poems/Bilingual Edition by Pablo Neruda
$13.60 US / 508pp soft /(c) 1990

The Great Man of Latin America. He writes political poems, love songs (hot stuff!) and odes to socks. Some of the first poetry I read, and still close to my heart. If I could have a VCR on my island, I'd also bring The Postman -- probably the best movie about poetry. Neurda fits well into Italy, oddly. (Buy The Postman (English subtitles) for $17.99 US)

I have to remember everything,
keep track of blades of grass, the threads
of the untidy event, and
the houses, inch by inch,
the long lines of the railway,
the textured face of pain.

from "Memory" -- Pablo Neruda

The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens by Wallace Stevens
$12.80 US / softcover /(c) 1990

For years I half-remembered Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, from some High School Anthology. Now I know why I remember it. He may be a critic's poet, but Stevens brings thoughts and images that may change the way you think, at least for a bit. You need that if you're stuck on a desert island.

Among twenty snowy mountains,
the only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

From "Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird"
-- Wallace Stevens

Collected Poems by Patrick Kavanagh
$9.56 US / 210 pp soft /(c) 1973

In my opinion, Ireland's best poet, and certainly the best Irish poet writing in English in the 20th century. Better than Yeats, more authentic, angrier but also happier, less clever, by which I mean more natural with words. Also, his spiritual side appeals to me--not based, as Yeats's sometimes seems, on naive pastorals and wacky paganism. Who needs Byzantium when you've got Dublin?

On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay--
I loved too much and by such, by such is happiness thrown away.

. . .

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay--
When the angel wooes the clay he'd lose his wings at the dawn of day.

From "On Raglan Road" -- Patrick Kavanaugh

Selected Poems (20th Century Classics) by Anna Akhmatova, D. M. Thomas (Translator)
$10.56 US / 150 pp soft /(c) 1992

Even considered only as a witness to history, it would be hard to value Akhmatova too much. She was born in Russian in 1889, and unlike most well known poets and artists, never left. Her first husband was murdered as a counter-revolutionary in the twenties. She lived through the seige of her beloved St. Petersburg. In the Stalinist years, Akmatova herself was not imprisoned--but only because she was too important to touch directly. Instead, both her second husband and her son were detained for years. The great poem "Requiem" is the record of that worst moment of the century; it was too important to be written down; it survived only in the minds of the people who had memorized it, and was not printed until after the fall of the Soviet Union. Akhmatova is sometimes called "the conscience of Russia." To me, she is the heart and soul of Russia. I don't actually need to to take this book to the desert island, as I can recite huge portions of it. The Thomas translation is better than average.

You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms. The rim
Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson
And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire.

From “You will hear thunder . . . .” -- Anna Akhmatova

They took you away at daybreak. Half wak-
ing, as whough at a wake, I followed.
In the dark chamber children were crying,
In the image-case, candlelight guttered.
At your lips, the chill of an ikon,
A deadly sweat at your brow.
I shall go creep to our wailing wall,
Crawl to the Kremlin towers.

No, it is not I, it is someone else who is suffering.
I could not have borne it. And this thing which has

happened,
Let them cover it with black cloths
And take away the laterns . . .

Night.


From “Requiem.” -- Anna Akhmatova