Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century | List Price: $26.00
Discount Price: $16.02
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Binding: Paperback
An Impressive Collection [Posted on 2006-02-02]
This is a beautiful-looking book, and I'm glad, because I can't put it down and have been carrying it around with me for two days and reading a new poet every chance I get.
Because I'm sort of new to reading and writing poetry, I can't pretend like I understand everything I have read in here, but the poems I like best make me question how I know what I know about them and what I feel after I've read them. I think a good poem is one that makes me react in a visceral way to it, like, A. Van Jordan's "Kind of Blue" or Major Jackson's "Euphoria." These poems make me think about things they don't mention, like darkness, cold, alienation, and despair, but also are often funny, warm, and occasionally sexy. To be honest, I do struggle to understand some of the poems, yet each feels important to the anthology as a whole.
Just because I don't "get" it immediately doesn't lessen its worth; it just makes me want to read it again. For instance, when I'm done with this review, I'm going to reread "The Elegant Tongue" by Terrance Hayes.
Every literary occasion will have its detractors, but I'm grateful to have the chance to read so many poems by writers I hadn't heard of before and will never forget.
An anthology of innovative, and exciting poetry [Posted on 2006-05-02]
Legitimate Dangers: American Poets Of The New Century is an anthology of innovative, and exciting poetry. All the poets whose works were selected were born after 1960, did not publish their first book before 1995, and have no more than three books published. Though diverse in individual background and the manner in which they approach the craft of poetry, each has a unique voice and tone contributing to a singularly memorable and original omnibus. A black-and-white photograph of each poet precedes the selection of his or her works. Enthusiastically recommended for poetry lovers in search of fresh inspiration. Ars Poetica (the idea) by Dana Levin: would it wake the drowned out of their anviled sleep- / would it slip the sun like a coin behind their eyes- // The idea, the teacher said, was that there was a chaos / left in matter - a little bit of not-yet in everything that was- // so the poets became interested in fragments, interruptions- / the little bit of saying lit by the unsaid- // was it a way to stay alive, a way to keep hope, / leaving things unfinished? // as if in complete a sentence there was death-
What a Small, Small World! [Posted on 2006-08-22]
Iowa workshop anthology with a few other usual suspects as well as other signs of nepotism. How sad. Shuffle the pages and look at the cards: you've got only one suit.
a solid collection [Posted on 2006-11-20]
This book reminds me of the Poulin anthology. It seems to start where the Poulin leaves off, providing a look at the poets much too young and new to be included in any of Poulin's editions. Some of the writers in here are among the most notorious in their generation, the ones that seem to be winning honor after honor, but the book has some surprises as well: interesting poets I read for the first time include Sabrina Mark, Lisa Jarnot, and Julianne Buchsbaum. A lot of the bigger names too: Nick Flynn, Kevn Young, Natasha Trethewey. Some surprise omissions, but that's true of all anthologies. All in all, a pretty good intro to the poets who are probably well-known to many of their peers but not to us older folk. Definitely has more experimental poems than a lot of the big anthologies, but there's also a surprising number of writers using meter.
C-c-c ... Cronies! [Posted on 2008-08-02]
Mike Dumanis is a nice guy who did a terrible job on this anthology. It should have been called "Mike Dumanis' Anthology of His Iowa Friends (and a few others he met at AWP)." The most myopic anthology I've ever seen.
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