Over the last two weeks, I've been soliciting ideas from readers concerning what they consider to be perfect or near perfect books of poems, offering a free 6 issue subscription to Lilliput Review as enticement (or punishment, depending on your pov). Here is the list so far:
(Please note: this list continues to grow. See webpage listed below for details. The list is now over 170 titles)
The List
Basho And His Interpreters by Makoto Ueda
Silence In The Snowy Fields by Robert Bly
The Pill Versus The Springhill Mine Disaster by Richard Brautigan
Thirst by Patrick Carrington
Variations by Bill Deemer
Book of Haikus by Jack Kerouac
The Haiku Anthology, 3rd edition, edited by Cor van den Heuvel
Letters to Yesenin by Jim Harrison
book of resurrection by mark hartenbach
The Waiting Room at the End of the World by Jeff Rath
New Poems (1908), the Other Part by Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. Snow)
Selected Poems by Anne Sexton
The Sonnets (William Shakespeare/1609)
Harmonium (Wallace Stevens/1923)
Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman
The Prelude - William Wordsworth
The Tower (W.B. Yeats/1928)
Seventeen books of poems in all, covering the gamut ranging from classical to small press. I have to admit this is a sort of cheap way to bump up my own personal reading list and I'm hoping that other folks find a title or two here that they might be interested in taking a gander at. Thanks to everyone that participated; a number of free subscriptions went out, so some sort of balance has been established.
Because, however, I can't get enough, here's what I've decided to do. I am going to continue to solicit titles for the list as new folks pass through or come on board. Since I don't want to take up anymore time shilling for titles on the blog, I've created a webpage with the list at the Lilliput Review homepage. As an incentive to contribute, I'm going to offer the two current issues (or two issues added to subscriptions for current subscribers) of Lilliput free on an ongoing basis. People interested in Lillie who go to the homepage looking for a sample or info will see they can get free copies for their thoughts. I'll set some arbitrary end point for the list (25 titles, 50, 100?) and call it quits when that point is reached. To me, it's a win/win/win situation; the reading list grows, people get free issues, Lillie gets out there to more folks.
So, spread the word. Send titles along anytime. I'll put a link on the sidebar of the blog to the new webpage for ease of access.
In other news, I've received a chapbook by Michael Kriesel, Feeding My Heart to the Wind: Selected Short Poems 1999-2005, from sunnyoutside press. Michael has published some excellent work in Lillie over the years and I was delighted to see this collection. Here is a poem from Lilliput #152 that is reprinted in this fine collection of short work:
Rented Room
Fall window sill
the beer's cool
watching a maple
I start to pay attention
to the light
the way trees do
And here's a second beauty:
Landing Road
Old pine trees
line the road
so many tongues
for the wind
Get a hold of a copy of this; you won't be disappointed.
Lots more things out there to discuss, but time flys by when your making new webpages and coming up with goofy ideas. So it's on to the archive for a peek at Lilliput #91, September 1997. For those keeping score, #92 is a broadside by small press impresario ave jeanne, entitled Old Man Sez Young Man. It is available for a buck, as are all previous broadsides and back issues. Here are a couple from #91:
"Precious"
Nothing precious is not concealed at the start.
Robert P. Vierling
Haiku #17
Heart beating so fast
and under my fingernails
acorns and oak trees.
Bill DiMichele
Wondering
how is it done,
the vanishing,
to step behind an atom
the oak crown still roaring
Georgette Perry
And you too shall
pass, the autumn
tells me, shaking
its leaves
in my face.
Albert Huffstickler
Till next time,
Don
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