Books for Sale: Poetry and Related Works

Cage of Fireflies: Modern Japanese Haiku, translated by Lucien Stryk.  “Modern” here seems to mean poets born after 1850 and writing through the 20th century.  A fine collection of haiku written by 69 different authors.  [118 pp. trade paperback; like new] ~ $3 

Homage to Robert Frost.  Essays on Robert Frost’s poetry by 3 other great poets: Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Walcott.  [trade paperback in good condition except that the lower corner of the front cover has been bent]  ~ $2

Saint Friend, by Carl Adamshick.  This is the second collection by Adamshick; his first won the Walt Whitman Award.  [slender 61 pp. trade paperback in very good condition] ~ $1

All Soul Parts Returned, by Bruce Beasley.  A bright, witty, and serious wrestling with the variety of religious experiences.  Recommended.  [large trade paperback, very good condition] ~ $2 

Free Union, by John Casteen.  A nice collection of poems grounded in the life of the Piedmont by Charlottesville poet John Casteen.  [trade paperback; like new] ~ $2

Blue Pajamas, by Stephen Cushman.  This was the first of Steve Cushman’s four collections of poetry.  He teaches at UVA, and tends to be overshadowed by some of the bigger names in the English department, but I believe his work is underappreciated.  [slender 53 pp. trade paperback in fair condition; a corner is torn off the title page, and 3 or 4 poems have notes penciled in and beside them.  ~ $1

Approximations and Other Poems, by R. Bruce Daniels.  I know almost nothing about Bruce Daniels, except that he died in 2005 and his son Rob created a short video of photographs and music in his memory that is available on YouTube.  This is a very slender, inexpensive looking collection of just 23 poems, published in 1979, with yellowing pages.  If he published anything else, I can’t find it.  The quality of the poems is uneven, but there is some nice work in here.  I especially like “Wolf,” the closing poem.  ~ $1

Barn Fever and Other Poems, by Peter Davison.  Davison, who died in 2004, published 11 collections of poetry.  His work is attuned to the natural world yet feels very solid, sensible, and civilized.  The title poem of this collection is worth the price all by itself . ~ $2.50 

Emily Dickinson: Collected Poems.  This is the 1924 edition, with the spelling, punctuation, and sometimes word selections spruced up to make the poems appear more conventional.  If you’re interested in Dickinson’s work, this would be a book to have on hand to compare Dickinson’s original versions with these tidied-up versions which were the only ones known and printed for decades.  [hardback, good condition] ~ $3

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson.  America’s greatest poet.  These are the original versions of the poems, with all their eccentricities of punctuation and syntax.  A must-have for any poetry lover's bookshelf.  [thick 770 pp. trade paperback in fair condition; pages yellowing, and some in the back look as if they got damp and dried.  A good book to throw in your car trunk for when you unexpectedly get trapped somewhere with nothing to do or read] ~ $1.50

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson.  America’s greatest poet.  These are the original versions of the poems, with all their eccentricities of punctuation and syntax.  A must-have for any poetry lover's bookshelf.  [thick 770 pp. trade paperback in fair condition; pages and binding still solid and intact, but covers folded and some pages folded and dogeared.  Another good book to throw in your car trunk for when you unexpectedly get trapped somewhere with nothing to do or read] ~ $1

All You Ask For Is Longing: New and Selected Poems 1994 -2014, by Sean Thomas Dougherty.   Eclectic poems and prose poems that incorporate the scents, sounds, and acts of modern life.  Dougherty is the winner of a Fulbright Lectureship, and his work has appeared in Best American Poetry.  [trade paperback; like new except for a couple of folds in the title page] ~ $2.50

New Selected Poems 1964 - 2000, by Douglas Dunn. Dunn is a much-honored Scottish poet, although he is little known in the US.  He writes clear, serious poems in a variety of traditional forms and meters.  That may sound unexciting, but I like much of his work.  [340 pp. hardback in very good condition] ~ $4 

Calendars, by Annie Finch.  In addition to being a poet, Finch is a productive editor and scholar.  Unlike many modern poets, she works in strict literary forms, some historic, and some she has devised herself.  Her themes and subjects are often drawn from a deliberate feminine perspective. [hardback, in excellent condition] ~ $3.50

North Street, by Jonathan Galassi.  Galassi, in additon to having published four collections of thoughtful, intelligent poems, as well as several volumes of translations of Eugenio Montale’s work, serves as the president and publisher of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.   [slender hardback in very good condition; pages beginning to yellow slightly] ~ $2.50

Turning into Dwelling, by Christopher Gilbert.  Gilbert, a prominent African-American poet, was a close observer of the world around him, as befits his work as a psychotherapist.  He wrote well-crafted poems that still manage to sound like someone talking to you.  He received the Walt Whitman prize from the Academy of American Poets in 1983, and died in 2007 after a long battle with polycystic kidney disease.  [trade paperback in very good condition] ~ $2  

Grand Mothers, edited by Nikki Giovanni.  A collection of poems, memoirs, and short stories by women bearing testimony to the sustaining love provided by their grandmothers.  [hardback copy in excellent condition, signed by Nikki Giovanni] ~ $3

Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate.  A collection of poems from the Harlem Renaissance, each with a brief reflective comment by Nikki Giovanni.  [hardback copy, like new, signed by Nikki Giovanni] ~ $4

The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974 - 1994, by Jorie Graham.  This collection, drawn from her first five books of poetry, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in1996.  I admit to a preference for the earlier, more direct poems, which I like very much.  [trade paperback; very good condition] ~ $3

Like the Iris of an Eye, by poet, essayist, playwright, and feminist philosopher Susan Griffin.  These are mostly spare, taut poems; they often  take up political and feminist themes.  [1976 trade paperback in good condition] ~ $2

Desesperanto, by Marilyn Hacker.  Hacker’s birthday is today--November 27--when she will turn 76.  Former winner of the National Book Award and of two PEN Awards for poetry.  Like Annie Finch, she often writes in strict forms, which makes her work something of an anomaly among modern poets.  [quality trade paperback, excellent condition] ~ $2.00

A Map to the Next World: Poems and Tales, by Joy Harjo.   Harjo’s fifth collection.  Poems, prose, myths, and dream visions.  [trade paperback; like new] ~ $3

Glory River, by David Huddle, part of the Southern Messenger Poets Series; nice approachable poems rooted in the Southern storytelling tradition [quality trade paperback, excellent condition] ~ $1

On the Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988, by Kenneth Koch (pronounced “coke” like the Koch brothers).  Koch was a well-known member of the “New York School” of poetry and also a playwright.  He was prolific in both fields.  He died of leukemia in 2002. [large, 324 pp. trade paperback in very good condition] ~ $2

To Make a Prairie: Essays on Poets, Poetry, and Country Living, by Maxine Kumin. Essays by an observant, insightful, and under-appreciated (despite the fact that she won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and also served as Poet Laureate of the U.S.) poet.  Worth reading. [good condition for an older paperback] ~ 50 cents

Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected.   Recommended.  Kunitz won almost every honor imaginable, including a Pulitzer Prize, a National Medal of the Arts, and was twice named the US Poet Laureate--the second time when he was 95 years old!  Passing Through won the National Book Award.    [quality trade paperback in very good condition]  ~ $2  

The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden, by Stanley Kunitz.  A mixture of poems and prose containing thoughts by the elderly poet near the end of his long life.    [well designed large paperback on high quality paper with some lovely photos] ~ $2

When a Woman Loves a Man, by David Lehman.  Witty and inventive poems on a wide range of topics by this New York poet. [quality trade paperback in excellent condition] ~ $2

High Lonesome, by Patricia Lee Lewis.  Lewis is well-known for her writing as well as her workshops and retreats for other writers.  She combines her passions for writing and yoga, and her work has a significant simplicity you might expect from a writer with that combination of interests.  [signed copy; trade paperback in very good condition] ~ $2

Collected Poems: James Merrill.  Merrill was yet another Pulitzer winner.  He was considered brilliant, skillful, and lyrical; a superb and witty craftsman, with the ability to move effortlessly from lyrics to epics.  [hardback of almost 900 pages; very good condition except for a fold in the lower part of the front cover] ~ $3

The Captain’s Verses, by Pablo Neruda.  Recommended.  Bilingual edition of love poems to his wife by arguably the greatest poet of the 20th century. [trade paperback, like new] ~ $3

A Quarter Turn, by Debra Nystrom, a long time member of the Creative Writing faculty at UVA.  I like this 1991 collection of approachable, very human poems, often dealing with family or personal experiences.  [yellowing trade paperback, signed by author; cover looks slightly soiled] ~ $2

Torn Sky, by Debra Nystrom.  This 2003 collection by Debra Nystrom may be more “ambitious” than her earlier collection, dealing with the history and landscape of the American West, but the poems are still infused with her personal experiences and memories.  [trade paperback, signed by author; very good condition] ~ $2

Woven Stone, by Simon J. Ortiz.   Three earlier works by one of our best Native American poets gathered in a single volume. [attractive 365 pp. trade paperback on good quality paper stock, excellent condition] ~ $2.50

The Twelve-Spoked Wheel, by Marge Piercy.  This is one of 17 books of poetry Piercy has written; she has also written 17 novels.  All emerge from the ardent social activism, feminism, and stormy love that have been central to her life.  From a working class family, she won a scholarship to the University of Michigan, was an early SDS activist, and seems never to have lost her fervor. [older trade paperback, yellowing but in good condition] ~ $2

To Be of Use, by Marge Piercy.  Another of Piercy’s early poetry collections.  [older trade paperback, in good condition] ~ $2

Breaking Camp by Marge Piercy.  This is Piercy’s first book of poetry, collecting poems she wrote in the 60s.  [older trade paperback, yellowing but in good condition] ~ $1

Ariel, by Sylvia Plath.   This is one of the two collections published in Plath’s lifetime, and is the one that made her reputation.  It contains her best work, which is intensely personal.  [trade paperback in good condition, with some yellowing--forgivable in a book I bought new more than fifty years ago] ~ $2

Big Bright Sun, by Nate Pritts.  There is a kind of awkward self-consciousness about these poems--a kind of me-being-a-poet vibe--which puts me off a little, but his poems are very readable and I expect many of us can identify with the experiences and feeling he describes.  [large format paperback; very good condition] ~ $2

Following are 6 books by Adrienne Rich, listed in chronological order.  5 of them I bought new over a long span of years.  Rich is considered one of the more important poets of the second half of the 20th century--in part because of her impact on others through her formidable intellect, her prolific output, her academic connections, her social activism, her anti-war efforts, her feminism, her building of theoretical structures, and eventually her “coming out” as a lesbian, which was a pioneering decision at the time.

1) Necessities of Life: Poems 1962-1965.  A breakthrough book in Rich’s career.  [77 pp. trade paperback, good condition] ~ $2
2) Poems Selected and New 1950-1974.  [250 pp. trade paperback, bought used, fair condition ] ~ $1.50
3) 
4) A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far: Poems 1978-1981.
Another good collection, with women and women’s world the subject of most of the poems.  [trade paperback, very good condition ] ~ $2.50
5) Time’s Power: Poems 1985-1988.  [trade paperback, very good condition ] ~ $2.50
6) Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010.  These poems seem more spare and elliptical than Rich’s earlier work; an interesting collection.  [slender 89 pp. hardback, excellent condition] ~ $4 

Late Into the Night: The Last Poems of Yannis Ritsos.  Translated by Martin McKinsey.  Somber, reflective poems by a man considered one of the major Greek poets of the 20th century. [paperback in good condition] ~ $1

The Standing Wave, by Gabriel Spera.  This was Spera’s first book.  Honest, well-developed narrative poems which are neither academic nor pretentious.  It was chosen for the National Poetry Series and won the PEN Center/USA Literary Book Award for Poetry.  Recommended.  [79 pp. midsize paperback; very good condition] ~ $2.50

The Story of Our Lives with The Monument and The Late Hour, by Mark Strand.  A gathering of three books in one, with two of them more meditative, and even melancholic, than his earlier work. [quality trade paperback, 156 pp.; very good condition except for where someone has marked out an inscription on the frontispiece with a black felt tip marker] ~ $2

The Horse Show at Midnight, by Henry Taylor.  Taylor is a Virginia, graduate of UVA, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and classmate and friend of David Black.  This is Taylor’s first collection, published back in 1966.  [hardback, first edition; good condition but pages starting to yellow after more than fifty years] ~ $4

Tomas Tranströmer: Selected Poems 1954-1986.  Edited by Robert Hass.  A must-have collection of work by the Swedish poet, psychologist, and Nobel Prize winner.  He died in 2015; one of the great poets of our time.   [190 pp. trade paperback; excellent condition] ~ $2

Ghost in a Red Hat, by Rosanna Warren.  Though Warren is the daughter of Robert Penn Warren, she started out as a painter.  She still has a painter’s eye, and this, her fifth volume of poetry, is both eclectic and personal.  It’s a strong collection.  [hardback, in very good condition] ~ $2.50  

Reading the Earth, by Claude Wilkinson.   Sensitive poems about Southern lives and landscapes; simple, clear, and imaginative.  [trade paperback; excellent condition] ~ $1

Bye-and-Bye, by Charles Wright.  Highly recommended.  Wright has won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry as well as the National Book Award and a PEN Translation Prize.  Now 83, he taught at UVA for many years.  [367 pp. trade paperback in very good condition] ~ $4

Collected Poems and Two Plays of William Butler Yeats, ed. by M. L. Rosenthal.  A must-have collection of work by one of the greatest 20th century poets.  [well-worn paperback in fair condition, apparently used for a literature course, with numerous notes in the margins.  If you want something you can toss in a purse or backpack without worrying about wear, this is a book for you.] ~ $1

Selected Poems of William Butler Yeats, ed. by M. L. Rosenthal.  A generous selection of the best of Yeats’ poetry. [236 pp. older trade paperback; cover shows wear but interior is in very good shape] ~ $2

Classic Poems to Read Aloud, selected by James Berry.  A nice selection of poems to read aloud, grouped under interesting headings like “Not Havings, Longings, and Endings.”  [trade paperback in good condition] ~ $1

1 comment:

john peter said...

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