Department of Book Reports: Poetry!

It's time for Poetry Month again! As they have in the past, Knopf publishing will send you a poem a day when you sign up for their email list. Check out the other topics in the right hand side bar while you're there.


I also like to mention a couple of my favorite booksellers, John & Christine, over at Open Books A Poetry Emporium. If you have a chance, spend a couple hours browsing their shelves in Seattle. It's delightful to be surrounded by so much poetry!

Another wonderful resource is The National Poetry Foundation, with links to fill up many a rainy afternoon. I'll leave you with this final bit of whimsy, a gown made entirely of Little Golden Books (via boingboing)

Poetry books are available at (Jackson Street) Books On 7th and fine independent bookstores everywhere. Visit us on Facebook Jackson Street Books.

Department of Book Reports: April Poetry

April is of course, National Poetry Month, as declared by Bill Clinton in 1996. I thought I'd point you at some of the delightful offerings available this year. The folks over at Poets.org will send you a poem a day, and they have a nifty book you can order directly from them Poem In Your Pocket. Carry it around on your daily errands and you can tear out a page and engage in a bit of Guerilla Poetry:

Better yet, take a video of yourself reading a poem at its location of setting and submit it for their contest, Poem on The Range.

Knopf publishing also offers a Poem a Day. This is an annual tradition I'm always sorry to send end on the 30th of the month.

Of course, some people have the opinion that we need poetry everyday, not just April. Writer's Almanac brings a poem and some literary history items to your mailbox all year round.
This also gives me a chance to mention our good friends John & Christine who run a bookstore devoted entirely to poetry: Open Books in Seattle. There's no better way to spend a rainy afternoon than in this cozy shop.

We'd be happy to help you select a volume from our stock. Orders placed here get our special offer bonus: I'll include a free publisher's Advance Reading Copy with your purchase. Have a poetic April!

April is Poetry month

Half Moon, Small Cloud, John Updike

Caught out in daylight, a rabbit’s
transparent pallor, the moon
is paired with a cloud of equal weight:
the heavenly congruence startles.

For what is the moon, that it haunts us,
this impudent companion immigrated
from the system’s less fortunate margins,
the realm of dust collected in orbs?

We grow up as children with it, a nursemaid
of a bonneted sort, round-faced and kind,
not burning too close like parents, or too far
to spare even a glance, like movie stars.

No star but in the zodiac of stars,
a stranger there, too big, it begs for love
(the man in it) and yet is diaphanous,
its thereness as mysterious as ours.


sign up for a poem a day from Knopf.
photo

Billy Collins, Forgetfulness