Even more than the many fine poems cited in this wonderful anthology, I enjoyed the eloquent responses by everyday Americans as to why they responded in certain ways to their favorite poems. These stories are almost as moving as the actual poems and there are dozens of terrific poems, both the familiar and the unexpectedly novel. If you only read the comments, you'd be a richer person, but to read the comments along with the poems, now that's an experience. If this book were required in English classes around the country, maybe kids wouldn't resent poetry units so much!

I am absolutely blown away by the quality of this anthology! Absolutely blown away. Organized by the people behind the Favorite Poem Project ... this beautiful book strikes the perfect poetic balance; the poems here have depth and meaning, but they are never impenetrable and are always a joy to read aloud.

The mainstays are all here: Shakespeare, Dickinson, Whitman, Keats, Frost, etc., but the book often presents their lesser-known works (such as a terrific Langston Hughes piece called "Life is Fine" that I'd somehow missed). There are also more obscure poets; May Swenson, Derek Walcott, and many international writers. But what makes this book truly unique is the commentary printed above most of the poems sent in by people of all ages and professions.

Students, teachers, doctors, writers; they talk about their favorite poems with great love and a sense of awe. Their passion is infectious. I plan to buy this book, but instead of sitting on my bookshelf like my other poetry books it will go in my backpack to be with me wherever I go, for anytime I need a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended.
GRADE: A

I sailed to the Arctic on the Regina Maris in 1997, a couple years before Oxenhorn took his trip. Not quite the book I would have written, but I started out with greater expectations of discomfort and hardship. After all, it was the Arctic. Nonetheless, Oxenhard paints an accurate picture of life on a tall ship on the frigid edge of the world, and, more importantly, gives a true recounting of the deep personal changes that take place in everyone aboard on such a voyage. I sailed with many of the characters in the book, and would disagree with the more negative of Oxenhorn's descriptions of them, nonetheless, he does give a good feel for some of the friction that occurs on a long trip under difficult conditions with no privacy. Its a great pity that the good ship Regina Maris no more. I believe that everyone who sailed on her to the frozen north came back a deeply changed and better person. This book is perhaps the next best thing.

The late Harvey Oxenhorn secured an enduring legacy through his captivating, detailed account of his apprentice voyage on the tall ship, Regina Maris. He painstakingly chronicles all facets of life during the nine weeks spent traversing from Boston to the Arctic Ocean, recounting sights, sounds, encounters, and experiences at sea and on shore in various ports from Newfoundland to Greenland and back again.

The result is not one of those irritating "look, look at me" travel books or the ramblings of a self-absorbed trekker who intimidated his editor into leaving in the most boring of details but a refreshing recap of life at sea, warts and all..

Mr. Oxenhorn, motivated by a journey of spiritual discovery, soon finds his preconceived notions of life at sea challenged not only by the mundane, repetitive tasks that consume most hours, but also by his inexperience and fears that he must confront whether scaling the vertical matrix of ropes and sails or keeping watch in the middle of the night in all kinds of weather and knowing that his decisions and observation will affect the well-being of the crew and ship.

As the story unfolds-and more so as a novel than travelogue-Mr. Oxenhorn constantly finds surprising aspects about his crew mates that force him to reconsider them, and himself, in the context of this expedition and extrapolates from these experiences a growing sense of self-mastery and awareness of interdependence.

As he recounts late in the book, "But again, the main point wasn't the rules themselves. Nor was it to demonstrate someone's authority. . . Rather, it was to break down the habit of mind that makes exceptions and desires special treatment. To replace it with a heart called unity."

Though this notion may sound a bit like the process used to mold soldiers in boot camp, his ruminations regarding interdependence reach a deeper resonance when he argues, both convincingly and cogently, that "We have made ourselves responsible for the life that ours depends on, from copepods to whales. To think differently about these animals is to think differently about ourselves as well. From now on, we must all stand watch. One tribe. One family. One crew."

Mr. Oxenhorn takes great pains to present his facts and details with care, clearly having spent many hours researching and documenting his observations about everything from various seabirds, to the construction and operation of tall sailing ships, to traditional navigational methods involving sextant and compass and stars. His narrative jumps to life as he describes what it is like to be sailing on a wooden ship among "tabular icebergs twice the length of football fields and seven stories high."

The point of the expedition was to study whale populations, and the author provides enough information about whales, their place and role in the marine environment, and how humans have affected (almost always badly) the balance of nature. He provides just enough details about how the research is conducted, what key findings are made, and what sort of future might be in store for the whale populations. Mr. Oxenhorn does not come off sounding like a overzealous, gung-ho Greenpeacer hunkered down in a Zodiac; rather he applies the same sort of calm logic to why we must carefully manage the oceans as agrarian essayist Wendell Berry proffers.

Likewise he captures both the ugly and shining sides of human behavior and interactions aboard ship and shore, pulling no punches even from his characterizations of Captain George Nichols, with whom Mr. Oxenhorn butted heads----and came away chastised more than once----the mates, or his peer crewmates. More than once, I cringed at some of these depictions, wondering if the author might be overstepping his rights, but he never fails to reveal the good, sometimes surprising, qualities of his shipmates.

If I had been Mr. Oxenhorn's editor, I might have asked for more explanation of some of the nautical and sailing terms that pepper the chronicle, maybe a glossary for those of us who will never experience firsthand such an adventure. The map inside the front cover is useful, but not nearly detailed enough, and without including the longitude and latitude lines, a puzzling lapse I would attribute to the publisher, it's not easy to track the voyage sequentially. (Most chapter titles follow this convention, for example, "17 July. 63◦N/54◦W."

Those minor points aside, "Tuning the Rig" is the kind of book that causes you to postpone your own chores while you read about the myriad tasks of "field day" or the duties of the "galley slave." I cannot say that I now have the urge to spend two months at sea on a tall ship, but I am grateful to Mr. Oxenhorn for his splendid account. Had he not been the faultless victim of an automobile crash, Mr. Oxenhorn, who is also a published poet, might have made quite a name for himself.

Want to check out some poetry that won't blind you with its self-importance? Give Pinksy a whirl. He wasn't poet laureate for nothing, and this volume shows why: his work is everyday-ish, regular images told in regular language, but stacked in such a way that the power of the images play movies in your head with every turn of the page. The book gets off to a ripping start and calms down from there, but is no less compelling.

Like really good, quiet fireplace conversation.

Compiled and edited by Harry Thomas, Talking With Poets comprises unique selection of interviews with five very different, but highly notable poets: Robert Pinsky, Seamus Heaney, Philip Levine, Michael Hofmann, and David Ferry. A deep and moving examination into lives, motivations, and how life experiences flow into written words on the page, Talking With Poets is an enthusiastically recommended look into what goes into the making of elegant and expressive verse, and of these five men who are particularly gifted in such creations.

I wonder. I doubt it since Maya Angelou isn't included. She's one of the most visible poets in America today and very much loved. It's not that she's little known because she was America's Poet Laureate a few years ago -- so why leave her out? And why only one poem by William Stafford? Also, clearly one of the universal favorites of Robert Frost's is "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" and it's not here, either. (That one shows up in almost any discussion of poetry.)And, only one poem by Robert Penn Warren, another former USA Poet Laureate?
[sigh]

I'm also suspicious of a "project" that doesn't seem to have been announced widely before it began -- it can't be representative of ALL Americans since all Americans obviously didn't know about it.

All that said, it's a great collection. Through it I met several new poets (new to me)and I certainly enjoyed the ones I was already familiar with. It made me curious, too, about just what the American taste in poetry truly would be. I suspect it would include Ogden Nash and Edgar Allen Poe.

No. I don't think it's representative of the poetic taste of the American public and I don't think it should claim to be so, but I do think it's a great overview of popular poets and a superb collection of poems.

Americans' Favorite Poems is an amazing book. It is the result of the "favorite poem project" held across the nation. The poems in the collection are real Americans' favorites along with their own comments on why they chose that poem as their favorite. The compilation is great for the obvious. The poems selected come from everywhere (many different cultures and different styles of poetry are present), and they are outstanding. The thing that sets Americans' Favorite Poems apart from other collections is the commentary from regular people. The comments are at turns hilarious and moving. They are always profound. They show the real greatness of good poetry: it has the ability to relate to a person's life experiences and really touch that person.

I must say that my favorite selection in the book was "I May, I Might, I Must" by Marianne Moore mainly because of the reason behind its selection. The only complaint (it isn't much of one) I have about the book is that my favorite "I Thank You God for Most This Amazing" by ee cummings didn't make it, but hopefully, there will someday be a Americans' Favorite Poems Volume II, and it will.

This book is simply awesome. Nearly every poem speaks to the heart. I got it for my girlfriend but when i got it i had to read it before i gave it to her. I almost bought another copy for myself! She absolutely melted when i gave it to her. One poem in particular has special meaning for us. It was PERFECT.

The other poems are great too. Many great poets. Many hard hitting poems. DEEPLY MOVING!

It says a lot that of all the books we read during the year in a rigorous English curriculum, many of my best readers picked the Pinksy Inferno as their favorite book of the year. I'm a Mandelbaum fan too (I still like his Aeneid since it's by far the closest to Virgil's Latin and was even helpful when I worked on translating books 4 and 6), but I prefer Pinsky's rendition of Dante's poem. It makes the text alive for generations of new readers. My class appreciated Nicole Pinsky's notes at the end of the book which add greatly to students' comprehension of historical background and context. Hats off to Pinsky for a great work of art that has made Dante more accessible to a new generation of potential fans.

The Inferno is by far the most interesting of the three books which make up Dante's Divine Comedy, and Robert Pinsky's translation is by far the best I've ever read.

The Inferno is the story of Dante's journey through hell on the night before Good Friday in 1300. He moves through the nine circles, until he meets Satan in the middle. Each circle holds souls who committed various sins, each catagorised by their sins and punishments. All of Dante's sinners receive retribution, ironically based on their respective sins. He also fills hell with famous sinners, making it easier to determine what sins belong to which circle of hell. The nine circles are also catagorised by regions: the first five are the sins of incontinence, the next three are the sins of violence, the next is the sins of fraud, and the last and most terrible circle is the sins of betrayal.

One of the most notable things about The Inferno is that Dante's theme is not that of Christian forgiveness, but instead it is justice. All sinners in hell deserve their punishments, and they will suffer them forever. This is illustrated by the case of the sinful love of Francesca da Rimini.

Pinsky's gift to the readers of this version of The Inferno is twofold: the first is his ability to write so well in English, and the second is the way he chose to present the English with regard to the Italian. The Inferno is written in terza rima, which Dante invented for the Divine Comedy. This involves a rhyming scheme, and many translators restrict themselves to it when publishing The Inferno. However, Pinsky keeps the three line stanzas of terza rima while writing in plain verse instead of rhymed, letting him mirror Dante's phrasing and flow without restriction.

Pinsky's version of The Inferno is also bilingual - Italian on the left page and English on the right. This allows even the most casual Italian scholar to follow the translation, and see the logic of it, which is a thoughtful and useful bonus. The notes on each canto are superb, and necessary to catch all of Dante's in-jokes.

This version of The Inferno is perfect for anybody who really wants to read and understand Dante's classic. I recommend it as a gift, to others and to yourself.

It goes without saying that The Inferno is one of the great masterpieces of Western culture. That being the case, Pinksy, not Dante, is the focus of my review. This was the third translation of The Inferno that I have read (Mandelbaum and Ciardi being the others), and it is by far the most graceful of the group. I was particularly impressed with his handling of that ever present problem: the rhyme scheme. His solution to the problem is fluid and faithful to the original text (something Mandelbaum's rhyme-free translation lacks), without being distracting (as I found Ciardi's to be). But, what is truly amazing is that he is able to maintain this scheme without ever sounding forced or contrived. This allows Pinsky's tranlsation to remain first and foremost, a poem, which is so crucial in realizing the true genious of Dante's work. I was also pleased with Pinsky's decision to put a line of white space between each triplet. This really helped to accentuate the pacing and structure that make terza rima so important. The inclusion of the Italian text is also a nice touch. Finally, the notes are concise and informative. While Mandelbaum's notes seemed to me a little too thorough, often glossing the obvious, these give pertinent information without ever condescending to the reader. My only complaint would be that Pinksy stopped at the Inferno. I firmly believe that one must experience a work of art in its entirety in order to fully experience its brilliance. This is very true of the Divine Comedy. While there are certainly plenty of Purgatorios and Paradisos out there, I would very much have liked to have been able to maintain the continuity of a single translator. While there is a long list of translators who provide this option, I regret that Pinksy is not among them.

In conjunction with the show at The Brooklyn Museum of Art this Winter, Rizzoli has published the photos by the Russian photographer, David Goberman, aged 88, which he took from the 1930s through the 1960s of Jewish gravestones. The photos document the vanishing art of stone carvers and highlights themes of folk art and spiritual belief. The photos also provide a timeless record of Jewish tradition in the Ukraine and Moldova. Intricately carved motifs include crowns of the Torah, signs of the Kohanim (split fingers), birds, fallen fruit, a single candle, a broken tree and three small chicks (for the mother who dies leaving three young children), fish, deer, unicorns, bear, lions, and fighting lions. Those with menorahs, grapes and water jugs usually represented Levites. Peacocks represent paradise. An excellent book to cherish and learn from.

There are over 100 photographs of tombstones from Jewish towns (shtetls) in Ukraine and Moldova taken by a Russian photographer surreptitiously during the 1950's and 1960's in the Soviet Union. The images range from lions and dragons to seahorses and rabbits -- Jewish stonecarvers used the stones for artistic expression, as well as text to describe the deceased (translated in detail on many stones). The book was published to coincide with an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum that opens on January 13 and runs through April. Many of the stones shown here were torn up during the Stalin regime and used to make factory steps or fish ponds, so this is the only historical record.

The Handbook of Heartbreak has a wonderful collection of poems. Some very touching and personal ones. I related very well to some of the poetry included in this collection- a very nice piece to read over some free time, but I think it would have been even more wonderful if it had a few more pieces of poetry in it.

This little treasure can lead you through the gamut of emotions. I keep it on my nightstand, crawling into it when I'm feeling unloved and alone. There's something about the physical book itself -- small, thin, with the poems printed on beautiful deckle-edged paper in an elegant font -- that invites you to pick it up, hold it. The poetry within is mournful, painful, emotional -- a fine accompaniment for a bout of miserable introspection. A wide variety of poets are represented -- from Ben Johnson to Robert Frost, Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath. My personal favorite poem in the collection: Elizabeth Bishop's villanelle that begins "The art of losing isn't hard to master;/ so many things seem filled with the intent/ to be lost that their loss is no disaster. . . ." Despite this, the collection includes a number of very eloquent descriptions of the desperation of losing a love and the disaster of lost love. This is one of my favorite (and most frequently-read) collections of poetry.

This book enlightened me regarding both the nuts-and-bolts and the art of poetry. I would recommend it to a thoughtful reader.

However, I had to read a couple of sections more than once, and it took me a while to get through it. I'd say it's a little bit "wordy."

I learned from it. I'm glad I read it. I now appreciate more of the remarkable "language behind the language."

This is obviously not the first book to explore poetry from an angle other than the meaning of its words -- for another example, see John Ciardi's "How Does a Poem Mean?". Nonetheless, it's a very readable discussion of one of the things that distinguishes poetry from prose -- the importance of how it sounds, either spoken aloud or spoken in the reader's mind. I love to read poetry, and this book has given me a new layer of understanding -- both of poems themselves and of what I enjoy about them.

I have been a fairly big poetry fan for awhile now, but never have been able to pick up how subtle poetry really is. If you are like me and have read poems before, and have felt the frustration in not being able to explain why they sound so wonderful, this book is for you. For instance, who would have known that juxtaposing words with Germnaic and Latin roots can often produce a pleasing effect? Pinsky will allow you to pick up on this.

Some have said that Pinsky is dry and condescending in this work. It's true, Pinsky talks about poetry in a way devoid of all mysticism, but I think this no-nonesense and more objective approach is wonderful. Additionally, I don't see any actual condescension in the work. P's goal is not only to be simple, but also to show how misleading usual terminology can be. However, paradoxically, it is knowledge of what this terminology means and how it is useful, along with how Pinsky's ability to describe how subtle the sounds of poetry are that will teach you how to talk about poetry intelligently, if only with yourself.

I first stumbled across this book in the bookstore where I worked. Already being a fan of magnetic poetry, I planned to get it. Then later, in the children's section, I saw the book of magnetic poetry for kids. I got it instead. It costs more, but there is a bigger magnetic surface to work with. Both kits are worth the money spent on them.

The bulk of the book is other people's poetry divided up into sections by themes and is well-presented. The last part of the book includes games you can play with magnetic poetry (if you have a full set!). The most interesting part (in my opinion) is a quick overview of the different types of poetry and poetry jargon - written in a simple, non-English teacher type of way.

I love the whole magnetic poetry idea, but this book left me wanting more. It comes with a magnet-friendly cover and some words to get you started (but not enough). The authors are quick to point this out, stating that you will need to get a full set of magnetic poetry words in order to be to create something meaningful. Also the magnet friendly cover is very small, so I ended up using my fridge. That was the only slightly disappointing feature.

I've loved magnetic poetry since I discovered it (until then I was cutting words out of magazines) and some of the best poems I've written and read have been made this way. I wonder if this is why poetry has made a comeback just when it seemed to most people to be an archaic literary form. I can imagine millions of people hovering at their refrigerators combining and recombining raw language into unheard of forms, sending their poems up the tree of wires until they emerge as ripe soul-apples in a book like this.

This is probably the best way to introduce yourself to the art; and if you already love poetry, it may surprise you by introducing you to some of the best short poems you've ever seen. An excellent argument for the universal nature of creativity, smashing the stereotype of poetry as an elitist preoccupation abstracted from real life.

It also occurs to me that having the magnets on a refrigerator is a clever way of using reinforcement (see Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor) to encourage creativity and self-expression. Forget losing weight, get the magnets :) Guaranteed to increase creativity and literacy, your kids need this (although it may spoil them for the sterility of factory schooling)--Do not allow your children to attend a school where there is no magnetic poetry.

Buy this book or you will be cursed with the accumulated whispers of aborted poems lodging in your brain.