[New-Poetry] Important Books In My Life

[Bob Grumman]

/95 Poems/ by E. E. Cummings was the first book of poetry I ever read 
that fully ignited me--although it was only its first poem, the one 
about the falling leaf, that did so.  Seeing that a poem could be visual 
bowled me over.

Two anthologies of visual poetry, one edited by Mary Ellen Solt, the 
other by Emmett Williams, were important for showing me where visual 
poetry could go from Cummings.

The Modern Library edition of Keats's poems and letters was probably my 
most treasured book when I was twenty or so although nothing in it quite 
bowled me over. 

One of the four Peter Pauper collections of Japanese Haiku gave me a 
terrific jolt when I skimmed it in the bookstore I bought all four 
from.  I had an intense dormant receptiveness to haiku that it awakened.

/The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke/ gave me a jolt much later, 
mainly by introducing me to what poetry could do with dirt and its 
habitants.

Another key book in my life as a poet is Dylan Thomas's /Collected Poems/.

Then there's the Samuel French Morse collection of Stevens's poems.


There have been and still are lots of other poetry books in my life I'm 
glad of, but the above are the only ones super-important to me I can 
think of right now.  Not counting many by close friends, some of which 
I've published.

--Bob G.

--Bob G.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20090302/802968ca/attachment.html