Astley, Neil ed. Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times. Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 2002.
Collins, Billy. Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems. New York: Random House, 2001.
Dove, Rita. Selected Poems. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.
Heaney, Seamus. Opened Ground. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998.
Hodgen, John. Bread Without Sorrow: Poems. Spokane, Wash.: Lynx House Press, 2001.
Levertov, Denise. Poems: 1968-1972. New York: New Directions Publ. Corp.,1987.
___. This Great Unknowing. New York: New Directions Publ. Corp., 2000.
Lowell, Robert. Selected Poems. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1977.
Monahan, Jean. Believe It Or Not. Alexandria, VA: Orchises Press, 1999.
Pinsky, Robert. The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems, 1966-1996. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996.
Rich, Adrienne. The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New 1950-1984. New York: WW Norton & Company, 1994.
Schwartz, Lloyd. Cairo Traffic. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000.
Tapscott, Steve. From the Book of Changes. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon, 2002.
Yes, it's a healthy list. But it's a big chore we've undertaken. I will be asking you to offer regular brief "reflections" on specific poems/poets, to write two short (5 page) and one longer (10-12 page) essay, and to offer a final in-class presentation. Come with questions, energy, a willingness to talk. This could be grand fun -- but much of that will depend on you.
Setting the terms:
in Poetry 180 (NY, Random House, 2003)
"Introduction"
Billy Collins, in After Confession (edited by Kate Sontag and David Graham; St. Paul MN, Graywolf Press, 2001)
"My Grandfather’s Tackle Box: The Limitations of
Memory-Driven Poetry"
Dana Goia, Can Poetry Matter? (St. Paul MN, Graywolf Press, 1992)
"Introduction to the Tenth Edition"
"Can Poetry Matter?"
Seamus Heaney, The Redress of Poetry (NY, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1995)
"The Redress of Poetry"
Opened Ground (NY, Farrar Straus, and Giroux, 1998)
"Crediting Poetry"
Denise Levertov, New and Selected Essays (New Directions pb, 1992)
"The Poet in the World"
"Poetry, Prophecy, Survival"
"A Poet’s View"
Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Freedom CA, The Crossing Press, 1996)
"Poetry Is Not a Luxury"
"An Interview: Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich"
Robert Lowell, Collected Prose (New York, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1887)
"Art and Evil"
"91 Revere Street"
Czeslaw Milosz, The Witness of Poetry (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 1983).
Robert Pinsky, Democracy, Culture, and the Voice of Poetry (Princeton NY, Princeton University Press, 2002)
"Culture"
"Social Presence"
"Models of Culture"
"Conclusion"
Adrienne Rich, What Is Found There (NY, W. W. Norton, 1993)
"Woman and Bird"
"Voices from the Air"
"The Space for Poetry"
"Someone Is Writing a Poem"
"Not How to Write a Poem, But Wherefore"