All about: anthology

Reading: I am 25 by Gregory Corso
Beat poet Gregory Corso 1930-2001) was a young member of the Beat generation, 'urchin shelley' who always believed in the power of poetry to bring about change. Here is a funny verse about generational conflict between poets: I am 25 With a love a madness for Shelley Chatterton Rimbaud and the needy-yap of my youth ...
Reading: Tamer and Hawk by Thom Gunn
Thom Gunn (1929-2004), another much-honored poet, who started out using iambic pentameter, borne out of an ambition to be the John Donne of the twentieth century, writing about topics such as LSD, Hell's angels or queer culture. Later, he wrote no less heart-felt poetry in freer forms. For him, "Writing poetry has in fact become ...
Reading: Dead Animals by John Hollander
The American poet John Hollander (1929-2013) was known for his language virtuosity. His most famous book for a wider audience was his 1981 introduction to form and prosody Rhyme's Reason, a witty tour through the intricacies of poetry that you can borrow online. Some say that his poems lack personal engagement, that the emotion is ...
Reading: Murphy in Manchester by John Montague
John Montague (1929-2016), a friend of Samuel Beckett, connected the English and Irish tradition like no other. This is captured in the short poem with the resounding title 'Murphy in Manchester': Murphy in Manchester He wakes to a confused dream of boats, gulls, And all his new present floats Suddenly up to him on rocking ...
Reading: What Kind Of Times Are These by Arienne Rich
A very popular public poet, Arienne Rich (1929-2012) was also a leading feminist activist. Her poetry career stretches many decades and she was awarded many prizes. Her book 'Diving into the Wreck' is probably her most well-known publication. She is a kindred soul, who told us that "perhaps just such a passionate skepticism, neither cynical ...
Reading: Breaded Fish by A.K. Ramanujan
The Indian poet A. K. Ramanujan (1929-1993) wrote in English and Kannada, a rich language of South India. He considered himself to be the hyphen in "Indo-American" and was a respected teacher and a wonderful poet. As you can see here, in my imagination this poem has a specific Indian ring to it: Breaded Fish ...
Reading: Adultery at forty by Donald Hall
Donald Hall (b. 1928) is another celebrated American poet. Hall “has lived deeply within the New England ethos of plain living and high thinking, and he has done so with a sense of humor and eros.” He had lost his wife, Jane Kenyon to leukemia in 1994, with whom he lived a happy and harmonious poet's ...
Reading: In The Small Hours by Wole Soyinka
Nigerian Yorùbá playwright, novelist and poet Wole Soyinka (b. 1934) received the Nobel Prize in 1986 as the first representative of a 'new English literature' emerged in the former colonies. He is also a political activist who spent 22 months in prison basically for trying to avert the Nigerian civil war, in the sixties. I ...
Reading: Don Juan in Amsterdam by Daryl Hine
Today I honor another master of words, Daryl Hine (1936-2012). We was a remarkably gifted poet whose language has been praised as exceptional. He studies the classics and philosophy, and that clearly influenced his poetic eye. Ormbsby says it better: Hines is "a poet in whom an almost irresistible exuberance of language brims to the ...