Nina Cassian's Selected Poems is a wonderful collection of her work, translated by some other great poets and translators (Richard Wilbur, Dana Gioia, William Jay Smith, and Carolyn Kizer). This collection isn't just about the art of poetry, it is about the art of translation. I wish there had been biographical notes on the translators, but other than that, it's a wonderful collection. I recommend it.

Nina Cassian's poetry is some of the most extraordinary to emerge from Eastern Europe in many years, and American readers can thank editor and translator William Jay for putting together this collection of samples of Cassian's best work, including some translations by the author herself. A resident of the United States since 1985, having been exiled from her own country, Nina Cassian is a poet who is both academic and accessible. Her fluid, easily grasped metaphors and poetic leaps have a charm which sets her apart from her more obscure, less emotional contemporaries.

In 1916, American poets Witter Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke had it up to wherever with Imagism, Vorticism, and several other minor isms that they thought had infected the literary world. They set out to concoct an ism to end all isms, and devised "Spectrism," a new school for experimental poetry. To that end, they published "Spectra: New Poems," with an unintelligible preface purporting to explain the name of the new ism. Each of the Spectric poems was pretentiously titled with an opus number, like a piece of classical music.

Witter Bynner wrote as "Emmanuel Morgan." Morgan's persona was full of bacchanalian, bardic blatherskite, a rhyming Whitman. Here is the opening of his "Opus 6:"

If I were only dafter
I might be making hymns
To the liquor of your laughter
And the lacquer of your limbs.

Arthur Davison Ficke wrote as "Anne Knish." The name was meant to be vaguely exotic and Eastern European; apparently not many Americans had heard of knishes in 1916. Knish is the archetypal poetess, sensual and enigmatic, vaguely scandalous. She writes free verse. Here is Opus 118:

If bathing were a virtue, not a lust
I would be dirtiest.

To some, housecleaning is a holy rite.
For myself, houses would be empty
But for the golden motes dancing in sunbeams.

Tax-assessors frequently overlook valuables.
Today they noted my jade.
But my memory of you escaped them.

By now, the basic flaw of the hoax should be obvious. Having endured much worse in the way of poetic experiment between now and 1916, the Spectric poems aren't that bad. In fact, they are rather consistently entertaining, and contain some pretty good lines. They rank among the more memorable work by Bynner and Ficke, and both writers acknowledged as much after the hoax had been exposed.

I first read this book when it came out in 1961. Its great value lies not so much in documenting the amusing history of the hoax, but in reprinting Spectra in its entirety as a lengthy appendix. Yes, the "hoax" poems are parodies, but they're careful ones, and contain some of Ficke's and Bynner's very best work!

"Asparagus grows feathery and tall; The hose lies rotting by the garden wall."

What a couplet! Buy it! Read it! Give it to your teenager as an introduction to modern poetry. Before long he'll be reading Pound.

A striking compilation of original, lyrical love poetry by William Jay Smith, and impressively illustrated by Jacques Hnizdovsky's fantastic black-and-white woodcuts, The Girl In Glass is a moving, heartfelt compilation of verse. An ideal giftbook for poetry fanciers, The Girl In Glass features brief yet sensual, rhyming verse about love, sex, valentines, weddings, and the heart's desire. Night Music: The Dark air rushes by us like a cry,/Slowly the branches turn and twist and bend;/The stars, dim islands, sink into the sky,/Borne downward in a broad abyss of wind/That closes quietly to draw them under./The night's deep water swirls and mounts and falls;/Rain descends in irons, and the thunder/Cleaves the thick charged air within these walls.//Now through the darkness will a careful prow/With chart and compass gain a scheduled place;/Now hands will calmly bend above a brow,/Now lips will lower to a trembling face;/And love within the constant mounting crests/Will break with equal fury from our breasts.

This is my favorite book, and I'm only thirteen years old. I read this book all the time. If you don't get this book your crazy.

I first decided to read this volume because of the great influence poet William Jay Smith had in its production. I have become a recent fan of Smith, since I read his latest collection of poetry, The Cherokee Lottery. What impressed me about that collection was the way in which Smith was able to use poetry to illuminate a probing historical issue, the relocation of Native American tribes along the Trail of Tears, and infuse it with meaning for a contemporary American audience. Smith and his fellow translators succeed on a similar level in their work on the poetry of Gyula Illyes. Of course, Gyula Illyes is not exactly a historical figure. He only recently passed away a mere seven years ago. However, the prestige Gyula Illyes earned in his native Hungary for his inspiring poetic output certainly renders him his place in literary history. Unfortunately, much of Gyula Illyes's incredible work is unknown to American readers. Or at least it was until now, when Smith decided to tackle the task of translation and bring Gyula Illyes verses to a vibrant, colorful life for modern-day, English-speaking audiences. Now, thanks to Smith, it is possible for readers in America to become acquainted with Gyula Illyes and appreciate the struggles of the Hungarian lower-classes through the powerful, poetic vision of one of the country's most beloved citizens. Like Bela Bartok, Gyula Illyes was an instrument of the passions of the Hungarian people. And like Bartok, Gyula Illyes deserves to be remembered for many years for his amazing artistic accomplishments.

Smith is not an Indian, although he claims to be. If you know anything about him, you'll know that he might be about 3 % or less Choctaw, but that has not even been documented. Yet he continues to make a huge deal out of it, as if it somehow makes him informed enough to write a book about Indians. The worst thing about this book is that is is told mostly from the white point of view. What is told from the Indian point of view (and there is precious little of that) suffers from Smith's fixation on the Noble Indian idea. Smith includes art from all these white artists who also had fixations on the Savage/Noble Indian...this is the kind of book that white readers will like, because it's not going to make them too uncomfortable. I suggest that Smith lose his white sources and read up on history written by those who were the most affected by the Removal: Native Americans. And get some humility: just because you might have a tiny bit of Indian blood does not make you qualified to write a book about the most humiliating chapter in American Indian history.

"THE CHEROKEE LOTTERY [is] a magnificent sequence that celebrates the Indians of the famous Trail of Tears....This is as fine in its way as similar poems by Robert Penn Warren, and it is an appropriate poem to have been written by a former Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress." --World Literature Today
"Smith accomplishes a remarkable poetry of fact and documentation..." --Publishers Weekly
"The richness of these poems makes the multi-layered task of memory a luxurious task." --Real Change
"William Jay Smith has been one of our best poets for more than sixty years, and THE CHEROKEE LOTTERY is his masterwork: taut, harrowing, eloquent, and profoundly memorable." --Harold Bloom

William Jay Smith was unknown to me as a poet or author before I picked this book up in a local library. "Cherokee Lottery" is an exceptional and refreshing book of poetry, a real pleasure to read. There is nothing tedious and overwrought here. The book begins with an invocation, and obviously the muse served the writer well. Each poem presents a chapter of historical fact and allows the reader to digest it without dipping into excessive negative pathos. The reader is brought to a new awareness of just what the plight of the southeastern Indians was. William Jay Smith has a great feel for language and how it sounds. In many ways I think this is the book of poetry I have been waiting to read for years. Now I want to read everything else he has written.

I read 'Echoes in the Darkness' and absolutely loved it, and was convinced of Jay Smith and Bill Bradfield's guilt and involvement in Susan Reinert's (and her children's) murders. But this book made me think twice. A lot of new information has come to light and this book explores those other theories, witnesses, and (yes, it's true) facts that never came to light. I am not 100% convinced of Jay Smith's innocence, because the whole situation is rather bizarre, to say the least, but this book put some doubts into my head. I find it appalling that police cover-ups and dishonesty can tarnish a trial and skew the entire outcome . . . I mean, maybe Smith WAS intricately involved, but we may never know the whole truth. And a few over-zealous policemen or investigators really did fabricate some things. It is a sad commentary on the American justice system. All in all, it was a good book, and you really can't know the whole story until you read both 'Echoes' and this book. My only major complaint is that the author (Costopoulos) was a little wordy, a little annoying, and VERY high on himself. Generally, I just don't think he is a very good writer. I was not interested in his physical descriptions, or what he was wearing, or what the other lawyers were wearing, or what color their hair was. I don't care that Costopoulos was compared to Burt Reynolds. I don't care that everyone looked up to Costopoulos and he was well-respected in his community. That doesn't add to the story. He is obviously QUITE proud of himself and his ability to boss people around. But what do you expect?? He's a lawyer!

I READ THE BOOK ECHOES IN THE DARKNESS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES IN 1997. ON OR ABOUT SEPT.1979 I HAD AN EXPERIENCED AT A LOCATION NOT TO BE DISCUSSED ONLINE. AT THIS LOCATION THERE IS A SQUARE AND DRIVEWAY, WHICH COULD BE THE SQUARE AND LINE VINCE VALATIS CLAIMS BRADFIELD DREW. THE DRIVEWAY GOES TO A POND. ALSO DISCUSSED IN BOTH BOOKS IS SLAG.THERE IS ALSO A CLOSED STEEL FACTORY NEXT TO THE SQUARE AND INDUSTURIAL WASTE MOST LIKLY SLAG. I GAVE THIS INFORMATION TO THE PA. STATE POLICE PRIOR TO THE REOPENING OF THE INVESTAGATION. I DISCUSSED OTHER THINGS WITH THE STATE POLICE ABOUT EVENTS AT THIS LOCATION. I HAVE NOT BEEN TOLD IF THE INFORMATION I GAVE THEM DOES HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE CASE. I BELIEVE JAY SMITH IS GUILTY. I beleive we will never know the truth. All involved are sworn to secrecy. Maybe One of those involved will break down and come forward. Note: I beleive Jay Smith may be protecting someone. If this location and conversation I had with someone there has nothing to do with the crime, Than all I can say is what a coincidance and many of them.
04/11/03
This location is
2522 State Road
Bensalem Township
Bucks County, Pa.
There is now a building on the (ground which was in the shape of a Square.) There was never any earth disturbance where this building is. There were some digs in the area one to the left of the driveway going to the pond, the other about 120 ft. straight in the woods above the pond.

What a brilliant book! William Costopoulos tells the story of his lonely battle to free a man from death row, a man put there by hearsay, payoffs, hysteria, and criminal acts by state police and prosecutors. Wambaugh's book about the main line murders of Susan Reinert and her two young children was a great story, but this book is the truth! As usual, non-fiction trumps even good storytelling. The writing is sophisticated, and Mr. C. is clearly the finest example of what a criminal defense lawyer should aspire to be. Thank God he persisted, freed Jay Smith, and in the process got Pennsylvania law changed so that defendants in death penalty cases who are convicted due to perjury and prosecutorial misconduct, are freed without retrial. What an accomplishment! Read this book. It's important.

Smith's Collected Nonsense is a cute book, and I'm sure children love it, as well as those of us adults who like light and nonsensical verse. It's well worth the money and the time. But Smith isn't one of the heavyweights like Shel Silverstein or Dr. Seuss, or X.J. Kennedy, or even a Nancy Willard. There were many pieces that weren't funny or that Smith missed the punchline or the poem just fizzled out. And a few are there to show how clever Smith is. Still many of the pieces were enjoyable as were most of the illustrations. I say if you are buying for a child, pick it up. If you are buying for an adult, go with one of those listed above.

Highly recomendable book of silly verse, light and fun. I have sent copies as gifts - a sure cheerer-upper!

I know William Jay Smith is a respected poet, but I found his poems to be lacking something. His style seems to be stuck in adult mode, but with children's-poem-style. I'm probably not making myself very clear here, but I didn't find myself hating the book. I just didn't like it, and keep seem to work myself up into saying much about the book. And that should say it all.