Modern American Poetry

With lively writing and illuminating examples, David Caplan argues that two characteristics mark the vast, contentious literature. On the one hand, several of America's major poets and critics claim that America needs a poetry equal to the country's distinctiveness. They advocate for novelty and for a break with what is perceived to be outmoded and foreign.

Diane Seuss's signature voice—audacious in its honesty, virtuosic in its artistry, outsider in its attitude—has become one of the most original in contemporary poetry. Her latest collection takes its title, Modern Poetry, from the first textbook Seuss encountered as a child and the first poetry course she took in college, as an enrapt but ill-equipped student, one who felt poetry was beyond her reach. Many of the poems make use of the forms and terms of musical and poetic craft and contend with the works of writers overrepresented in textbooks and anthologies and those often underrepresented.

'Intelligent but unpretentious rhyming poetry for intelligent but unpretentious people.' This user-friendly edition also comes with poem-by-poem explanatory notes by the author himself, an essay which defines traditional rhyming poetry in today's context, and a glossary of technical terms. Here, current ideas, and up-to-date language, are placed in traditional poetic verse. At points in the book, you should read what you always wanted to say, and hear it said superbly.

'Intelligent and unpretentious Modern Poetry for intelligent, unpretentious and modern-minded people.' This masterful collection brings exquisite high-art poetry to ordinarily educated readers. Each poem comes with a set of explanatory notes, written by the author himself; and this edition also includes an informative essay to explain what makes free-verse successful. The few technical terms that are employed in the essay are clearly explained in an informative glossary. Here is the poetry book for the 2020's. At over two-hundred pages - the collection is more than twice the length of other...

A delightful account of the seasons in a house and its garden near the sea, a domestic idyll of hardy plants and neighbors, outer and inner weather, love and loss, and taking stock of the life we’ve made The delicious long-form poem “The Vineyard” is set in and around the quasi-fictional...

In his collection of poems, Musings of a Hermit, Charles (Chuck) Kausalik-Boe explores seeking the divine through the natural world, cats and chance encounters with others. From the solitude of his tiny inner city home, he watches and reflects on what passes by his porch windows. He also goes within to experience the magic that dwells in his heart and soul. From Chuck’s pen flows poetry that is both prayerful and filled with whimsy. Musings of a Hermit is a love song to the divine, the world around us, and to the magic that is possible.

In this poetry collection, Elektra Flowers transforms the traditional card suit of coins/pentacles into meditations on the earth.

Marlon & Zenoviah Love, dreams, and all the drama of high school life collide in Marlon & Zenoviah, a fresh, heartfelt story about finding your person when you least expect it. Meet Marlon—a smooth-talking basketball star with big hoop dreams—and Zanoviah, the low-key poetic genius who’d rather hide in her journal than step into the spotlight. Their worlds couldn’t be more different, but when a class project throws them together, sparks fly in the most unexpected way. From sneaky glances in the hallway to deep conversations under the bleachers, Marlon and Zanoviah discover what it ...

In this stunning collection of new poems, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life’s work, describing with wonder both the everyday and the unaffected beauty of nature. Herons, sparrows, owls, and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry, and...

A rousing, beautifully observed, and tender-hearted debut poetry collection about identity, culture, home, and belonging—for fans of Jasmine Mans and Fatimah Asghar “We, children of plátanos, always gotta learn to play in everyone else’s backyard and somehow feel at home.” Poet and...

A remarkable series of audiobooks, featuring distinguished twentieth-century American poets reading from their own work. A first in audiobook publishing--a series that uses the written word to enhance the listening experience--poetry to be read as well as heard. Each audiobook includes rare...

FINALIST FOR THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRY “An undisputed literary event.” —NPR “History—with its construction and its destruction—is at the heart of In the Lateness of the World. . . . In [it] one feels the poet cresting a wave—a new wave that will crash onto new lands and...

Walt Whitman said, "...poetry is the voice of the nation, expressing its deepest concerns, ambitions and longings," which is certainly true of the great classic poetry of America. This wide-ranging anthology, from the earliest poets of the 16th century to the present day, reflects the changing preoccupations and visions of Americans, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, E.E. Cummings, and more.

Published nine years after her 1933 novelization of the trial and death of Socrates, Rogue’s Legacy is Babette Deutsch imagining François Villon, the notorious French poet known as much for his verse as for his criminality. As Herbert Gorman wrote in the New York Times: “The extant documentation concerning Villon in Rogue’s Legacy is brought to such a sharp and living fictional focus that the result for the reader is very much like draining a huge beaker of ruddy Beaune that the poet loved so well. . . . She has created a character who lives and who might very well be the François ...

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by LitHub A new collection of vivid, personal and provocative work from the author of Or to Begin Again, a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in poetry In Ann Lauterbach’s eleventh collection, the image of a Door recurs across several poems, as she...

In a world that demands silence, one voice rises to turn scars into scripture. "What Don’t Kill Me, I Write About" is a raw, unflinching poetic journey through urban adversity. Ross navigates a landscape where survival demands an armor sewn from silence, dissecting inherited trauma and quiet battles within. Witness a childhood stripped bare become the crucible for unparalleled resilience. Here, pain isn't just poetic—it's practical, shaping identity and redefining hope. Ross masterfully transforms gunshots into a hymn and heartbreak into commas, making harsh realities resonate with ...

Enter the dark and twisted world of G.R. Tomaini, a contemporary Poet, Philosopher, Systematic Theologian, and author of nine books who explores the depths of human depravity, despair, and decadence. In The Psalms of Babylon, you will find 112 Flowers of Malaise that will shock, disturb, and fascinate you. You will encounter seductive sirens, hungry hogs, unholy grins, and laughing gas. You will visit opium dens, woodchippers, bathtubs, and tombs. You will witness sin, surf, seance, and soliloquy. You will experience asphyxiation, jouissance, Ragnarok, and metanoia. The Psalms of Babylon ...

Since 1998, the Alfred A. Knopf Publishing Group has celebrated National Poetry Month by emailing a poem-a-day throughout the month of April to over 25,000 devoted poetry fans. In April 2006, Knopf introduced the Poem-a-Day podcast, which featured poets including Kevin Young and James Merrill...

If you want blessings as you live, In goodly measure, learn to give; A kindly life of selflessness Will boomerang to blessedness. Fluent and expressing a keen insight into the complexities of modern-day life, such is the quality and content of Anna Daisy Siemens’ Poetry and Prose. Never trite and overdone, however, the verse possesses a freshness coupled with a candidness that renders it unique. And moreover the underlying theme of the collection as a whole is quite clearly drawn. And that is, beyond the superficial materialism that too many of us pursue as being the ultimate in happiness...

This program is read by the author The debut collection of poetry from Lili Reinhart, the actress and outspoken advocate for mental health awareness and body positivity. I seem to be your new favorite novel. One that keeps you up at night, turning my pages. Fingers lingering on me so you don’t...