An Anthology on Reading and Writing Poetry

Most poetry anthologies follow one of several standard templates. They may be chronological, or the subset of poetry by century. They may be selections of contemporary poets, or poems by nationality. Some anthologies focus on a single theme, like T.S. Poetry’s own Earth Song. 

Mark Yakich, a professor of English at Loyola University in New Orleans, has taken the idea of thematic anthology an academic step further. With The Poetry Reader: An Anthology, he’s assembled an anthology of two broad poetic themes, reading and writing. It’s an eclectic but purposeful gathering of poets from across the world and across the centuries, using their selected poems to show how to read poetry and how to write it.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

An Alternate Ending to Romeo and Juliet – Patrick Hastings at Library of Congress Blogs.

 

“Aprilian,” poem by Bliss Carman – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Orwell Knew What Made Shakespeare Great – Michael Lucchese at Providence Magazine.

 

“The Rolling English Road” by G.K. Chesterton – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Spitfire Roundabout, a Dark Teesside story by Glenn McGoldrick, is free on Amazon today.

“Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide” by Mark Yakich

Poets, or most of them, take their work seriously. You can read interviews in Poets & Writers, American Poets, and The Poetry Society in the U.K., and you know that poetry is serious business, and serious work. It is serious business even for this poets who use humor in their poems and in reading them, like Billy Collins.

Mark Yakich

So it is a bit disconcerting to start reading Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide by Mark Yakich and find this in the introduction: “The first poem I remember hating was Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan,’ on which I had to write a report in 10^th grade.” We soon discover that Yakich hated Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” almost as much. And that he took only one English course in college. And that he he had read only three novels by the time he was 25.

I perhaps should have mentioned that Yakich is a professor of English at Loyola University in New Orleans. He teaches creative writing. He teaches poetry. He co-edits the literary journal New Orleans Review.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.