Saturday, December 1, 2012

Saturday Good Reads: Poetry I'm Not Recommending for Christmas


I think I’ve mentioned before – somewhere, likely on this blog – that I’m somewhat resistant to people showering books at me. I’m rather persnickety when it comes to what I read. So rather than push my own likes off on you for the Christmas season, I’m following in the tradition I started last year and listing the books I’m not recommending. If you want to check them out, that’s fine. But I’m not pushing them at you.

Today is poetry. Next Saturday will be fiction, followed by non-fiction. I looked over my list, and realized that most of my reading has become fiction and poetry. It may be because poetry and fiction last longer than non-fiction.

Not all of these are recently published. Some are classics or older books. But they represent some of what I’ve read this year, and thoroughly enjoyed.

Poetry I’m Not Recommending for Christmas

Prayers of a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Mark Burrows.

Finding My Elegy by Ursula Le Guin.

The Last Dreamers by Padraig Daly.

Philokalia and Recovered Body by Scott Cairns.

Discovering Moons by Judith Valente.

Wessex Poems by Thomas Hardy (the Kindle edition is free, by the way).

Eyes, Stones by Elana Bell.

Water the Mud by Joel Jacobsen.

Human Chain by Seamus Heaney.

Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.


Grand & Arsenal by Kerri Webster.

Avalon by M.J. Duggan.

Fire in the Earth by David Whyte.

This Morning by Michael Ryan.

A Thousand Vessels by Tania Runyan.

This London by Patrick Hicks.

Under the Sycamore by David Malone.

Collected Poems by R.S. Thomas.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh thank you for not recommending this wonderful list. I can't wait to not check it all out. slowly, savoring it all. Title by title. This is gift.