What other poetry books have you been reading lately?
1. Nick Thran’s Earworm (2011; winner of the Trillium Award).
- This guy is just amazing—so much wit and intelligence. I mean, he wrote a sort of apocalyptic poem about a pineapple. Amazing. (Bonus shout-out: Thran’s Mayor Snow [2015].)
2. The Best American Poetry 2016 (ed. Edward Hirsch).
- This was a special year, it seems. It included poems by recently deceased masters like Philip Levine (d. 2015) and James Tate (d. 2015). But there’s also some terrific stuff in there by contemporary poets John Koethe, Debra Marquart, and Cate Marvin—all poets that are new to me.
3. My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer (ed. Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian)
- I can see Spicer becoming one of those poets whose work I come to for renewal (e.g., when I’m getting too prolix, when the lines are too thick, when the rhythm is becoming boring).
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