Collected Poems by Joseph Ceravolo
Barbara Berman reviews Joseph Ceravolo’s Collected Poems today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Posts by: Barbara Berman
Bright Wings An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds edited by Billy Collins
Barbara Berman reviews Bright Wings An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds edited by Billy Collins today in Rumpus Poetry.
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The Emily Dickinson Reader by Paul Legault
At their best, love and translation share some contradictions, including selfishness and generosity. Translation is impossible, or at least not very good, without a passionate desire to own the material and leave one’s mark on it. At the same time, few translators want to “hide the light” of their translations “under a bushel.” The translations they undertake and complete belong to them, are marked by them, and yet they are without much value unless shared.
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Inside/Out: Selected Poems by Marilyn Buck
Every prison sentence represents compound tragedies involving family members and friends, the affect on the community where the crime was committed, and, of course, the prisoner whose sentence may or may not be appropriate. If the prisoner who is confined is innocent, outrage enters the mix.
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Poets Beyond the Barricade by Dale M Smith
In Washington, D. C. many years ago, Denise Levertov took questions after a reading and was asked if poets were obligated to protest with poetry when their government was acting illegally or immorally. Levertov replied that of course poets should protest, but since good political poetry was difficult to create, and to judge, writing letters and going into the streets were laudable, often imperative actions.
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“My Poets” by Maureen McLane
Maureen McLane has published two daring, original collections of poetry, and a book called Balladeering, Minstrelsy, and the Making of British Romantic Poetry, from Cambridge University Press. Balladeering, with sometimes sluggish, academic prose, is worth effort for anyone wishing greater understanding of traditions that have influenced romantic poetry and the poetry that has come after it : in other words, anyone who cares about literature.
...moreBarbara Berman’s Holiday Shopping Guide
Barbara Berman is a long time Rumpus reviewer. Here she offers her recommendations for books to give during this holiday season and beyond.
Years ago I decided to do as much holiday shopping as possible at independent book stores and non-profit retail outlets.
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“What Is Amazing” by Heather Christle
What Is Amazing by Heather Christle is another illustration of my frustration with the word “critic,” why I think “appreciator” is a closer approximation and why I’m still open to one-word suggestions.
Christle was born in 1980 and has two earlier books and a Believer Award to her name, as well as poems in Verse, Columbia Poetry Review, Boston Review, The New Yorker, and publications Rumpus readers may not have heard of and should get to know better.
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Fragile Acts by Allan Peterson
The cover of Allan Peterson’s Fragile Acts, in print and as eBook, is as visually compelling as the cover of Rebecca Lindenberg’s Love, An Index, the first poetry selection in McSweeney’s new series. The cloth binding of Fragile Acts is an inviting green, and the artwork is a sexually ambiguous back view of a person from the waist to almost the top of the head.
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Troy, Unincorporated by Francesca Abbate
The good news about Troy, Unincorporated by Francesca Abbate, is that though it is a re-imagination of Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde” from his Canterbury Tales, you don’t have to have been an English major or a Chaucer lover to appreciate her accomplishment.
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Citizen by Aaron Shurin
What we have here is a bounty of controlled ripeness, elastic and kinetic…. Shurin approaches a kind of explosive artistry that is powerfully gripping.
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Watchword by Pura López Colomé
There is spiritual alchemy at work here, making one wish this piece, and many others, could be chanted by choruses taking turns, in both languages, with an audience not responding audibly between poems.
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The Poems of Jesus Christ, by Willis Barnstone
Born in 1927, Willis Barnstone is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Indiana University and an admired translator . His rendering of The Poems of St John of the Cross is rightly revered by believers, non believers, scholars and general readers.
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Marge Piercy’s unflinching clarity of vision continues to be the kind of sturdy example so vital to literature. She has long been teaching and in the public arena, on the humane side of almost every contemporary issue.
Long time Rumpus Reviewer Barbara Berman examines the two latest offerings from critic Helen Vendler, one on Emily Dickinson and the other on the last books from five of the 20th century’s finest poetic voices.
