Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
by Pablo Neruda
In these love poems, wonderfully translated into English by poet W.S. Merwin, the warmth of Pablo Neruda's language shines in every line. Every bookseller knows that if nothing else satisfies a customer looking for poems of love, they can always fall back on Neruda. There is a complexity and yet simplicity about the feelings Neruda describes. He touches on ideas and dreams that we all experience over time. Then, at the end, there is the song of despair (una cancion desesperada), a leavening that ensures the richness of all that comes before.

Given Sugar, Given Salt
by Jane Hirshfield
A Book Sense 76 Pick! Says bookseller Mary Ann Steele of Mary Ann's Mostly Books in Benson, AZ: "I passed this book on to a friend who likes poetry even more than I do ... she refused to give it back! These are simply wonderful poems about contemporary life."

Riot in the Charm Factory
by Todd Colby
From poems, to fiction, to reportage, Todd Colby's third book by Soft Skull Press combines selections from his first two books -- Ripsnort and Cush -- along with new poetry and prose. Sort of a "best of" collection, as well as a launchpad into palpable, demanding, and joyful new directions, Riot in the Charm Factory displays the kinetic, frenetic word-smithery of one of today's best poets under the age of 35. Explosive, visceral, hilarious, ultra-modern, and rock-and-roll: discover the high-octane delivery of a great new voice, that actually has something to say.

The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos
by Anne Carson
From one of contemporary poetry's most respected and challenging poets, The Beauty of the Husband is a poetic essay based on Keat's idea that beauty is truth, as well as the story of marriage. Carson refers to each poem as a tango, because "A tango (like a marriage) is something you have to dance to the end." And though her work is littered with literary and historical allusions -- i.e. obscure references -- the undaunted reader is also rewarded with deeply moving and emotional insights into the convention of marriage -- of two people committed to loving and growing together. And who isn't in need of some guidance in such matters?

Collected Poems
by James Merrill
Beginning with Merrill's First Poems, which was recognized immediately for its sophistication and virtuosity more than half a century ago, and into the next five decades, Collected Poems showcases the astonishing broadening of Merrill's range into the rich, urbane, and witty voice that earned him accolades and legions of fans. This book brings together a remarkable body of work in an authoritative edition -- from Merrill's privately printed book, The Black Swan, published in 1946, to his posthumous collection, A Scattering of Salts, which appeared in 1995, all of the poems he published are included (except for juvenalia and his epic, The Changing Light at Sandover). In addition, 21 of his translations (from Apollinaire, Montale, and Cavafy, among others) and 44 of his previously uncollected poems (including those written in the last year of his life) are gathered here for the first time. A must-have for the poetry lover's bookshelf.

Selected Early Poems
by Charles Simic
In this new edition of his selected poems, originally published in 1985, Pulitzer-Prize winner Simic has added twenty-eight poems and extensively revised others, making this the most complete collection available of his early work. In the spare, haunting vision of these poems, the familiar takes on a disturbing, often sinister, presence. A fork "resembles a bird's foot / Worn around the cannibal's neck" and a bird's chirp is "Like a match flickering / In a new grave." Life's horrors -- violence, hunger, poverty, illness -- lurk unnervingly in the background. And yet, despite the horror, a sense of wonder and humor pervades these poems, transforming the ordinary world into a mysterious place of unknowable forces. Classic displays of the economy and grace of Simic's work, these poems occupy an established place in American poetry.

The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry
by J. D. McClatchy (Editor)
This is a monumental anthology of selected works by a heady cast of the best American poets from the second half of the 20th century. Many of the names should be familiar to readers of poetry, but it's McClatchy's selection that makes this anthology tower above other similar retrospectives on the state of American poetry. From Ammons to Bishop to Clampitt to Ginsberg to Levertov, and on alphabetically, readers will discover a host of new favorites; be awed by the variety of form, language, and imagination; and appreciate the historical arc and influence of American poetry as it heads into a new century. Highly recommended.

Blood Sugar
by Nicole Blackman
A major voice in the spoken-word scene, this disturbing and evocative collection of new and selected poems is in essence a raw and brutal account of obsession, pop culture, angst, and survival. Blackman's poems speak to the ugly, dark beauties of the lives of people who choose their own paths. From the self-destructive rock-star groupie in "Backstage," to the doomed anorexic in "Honey Half," to the abused girlfriend of a porn-obsessed boyfriend in "In the Movie Now." Nicole Blackman was also the featured lyricist/vocalist on the Golden Palominos 1996 album "Dressed Inside."

Sappho: A New Translation
by Mary Barnard (Translator)
It is known that more of Greek poet Sappho’s writings were lost than remain, and after you’ve read some of these wonderful poems and fragments, you’ll be wishing more had survived. There have been only a few poets who can outdo the way in which Sappho’s everyday observations and love poems merge into wonderful odes to life and romance.

Without
by Donald Hall
Without is painful and wonderful poetry. As Paul Muldoon said in his Very Interesting People interview this month, “. . . people reach out to poetry at the key moments in their lives.” The pairing of Without and Jane Kenyon’s Otherwise [see yesterday's Daily Pick below] makes for one of the strongest literary conversations ever published. Without was written while Kenyon, Hall’s wife, was being unsuccessfully treated for leukemia. Hall’s poetry conveys all of his confused feelings, his incredible grief, the numbness, the waiting: "Remembered happiness is agony; / so is remembered agony."

Otherwise: New and Selected Poems
by Jane Kenyon
Kenyon selected the contents of this, her last collection of poems, in the full knowledge that she was dying. The book speaks for itself so well that, rather than the usual blurbs or praise, the title poem is printed on the back cover. It is an amazing and deeply affecting book. In this -- and her husband Donald Hall’s concurrent book of poems, Without -- the writing is almost unbearably searing, reflecting the sad horror of having death and dying become part of everyday life. [See tomorrow’s Daily Pick for more on Without.]

Goblin Market: A Tale of Two Sisters
by Christina Rossetti
The cornerstone of any Christina Rossetti collection is this long poem, “Goblin Market,” a truly timeless work -- nearly 150 years after its publication, the poem retains its strength. Sisters Laura and Lizzie are tempted by the market criers to try some of the fruits for sale at the goblin market, and, not surprisingly, things don't go very well for the two girls! Goblin Market is at once very Victorian and very modern, with its focus on the forbidden and the themes of innocence and experience, temptation and desire.

The Seven Ages
by Louise Gluck
Louise Gluck has quietly become one of our greatest poets, building an impressive, meticulous body of work since the mid-1970s. The fact that she's also a winner of just about every major poetry award, pales in comparison to the naked searching, the brave confrontations, and the hard-won, deeply resonant wisdom her poems uncover. Deceptively simple, Gluck's diamond-cut lines encompass a vocabulary refined to the simplest -- purest -- of objects and emotions, that when repeated gain a kind of elusive, opaque mystery. Whether the subject is herself, her older sister, her lovers, time, memory, desire, or death, the cumulative effect is nearly catechismal -- and, indeed, reading Gluck is like going to church.

Sixty Odd
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is better known for her Tales of Earthsea young adult series, her novels, and short stories, but she has also published a half-dozen volumes of poetry over the last 25 years or so. Sixty Odd, her latest collection, is in two parts, the second of which, “The Mirror Gallery,” is an incredibly strong selection of 26 poems about people, places, or times that obviously stand out in the poet’s memory. Sixty Odd showcases a poet who is occasionally hilarious, sometimes serious, and often wise.

Mermaids Explained
by Christopher Reid
From one of the most original poets writing in England today, Mermaids Explained is Reid's first book of poems to be published in the United States. Containing poems from all of his previous collections, readers will be hard pressed not to be won over by his delightful accessibility. Witty, irreverent, and sly, Reid finds significance in the marginal, the endangered, the apocryphal, and the absurd. With his broad imagination and fondness for domestic details, the profound implications of his ultimately philosophical concerns gently subvert the reader's perceptions.

The Boys at Twilight
by Glyn Maxwell
A Book Sense 76 Pick! Herman Fong, bookseller extraordinaire at Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, MA, describes The Boys at Twilight as, "An invaluable selection of poems from Maxwell's previous collections, many of which are unavailable in the U.S., and "Time's Fool," a stunning novel-length poem. Maxwell is surely one of the major new voices in contemporary poetry." Follow your independent booksellers to the best books today!

Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse
by Les A. Murray
When German-Australian sailor Friedrich "Fredy" Boettcher is shanghaied aboard a German Navy battleship at the outbreak of World War I, the sight of frenzied mobs burning Armenian women to death in Turkey causes him, through moral shock, to lose his sense of touch. This mysterious disability, which he knows he must hide, is both his protection and curse, as he orbits the high horror and low humor of a catastrophic age. Told in a blue-collar English that regains freshness by avoiding the mind-set of literary language, Fredy's picaresque life -- as, perhaps, the only Nordic Superman ever -- is a riveting, profound adventure story in -- ready for this? -- verse! Really! Expand your parameters and rediscover the literary form that made Homer, among others, so gosh-darned famous -- except this time it's set in the 20th century.

Roald Dahl Revolting Rhymes
by Roald Dahl
An hilarious collection perfect for people of all ages who claim to be bored by poetry. Here, Dahl is at his inventively wicked best, throwing tradition to the wind and rhyming madly. He shows you really wouldn’t want to be one of Cinderella’s sisters, demonstrates how Little Red Riding Hood was really as tough as any gangster’s moll, and shows who not to visit if you’re one of the Three Little Pigs (hint: a certain red-cloaked girl!).

Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen
by Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen is one of the lost generation of British poets killed in the First World War. His poetry started off very strong, and only became stronger: to read these Collected Poems is to see a poet mature and deepen in a way that makes his death at 25 all the more tragic. There is poetry that rhymes, poetry that is “good for you,” poetry that is hard to understand and challenges you to keep reading -- but most of all, there is harsh and good poetry that merits repeated readings.

Wislawa Szymborska: Poems, New and Collected, 1957 - 1997
by Wislawa Szymborska
Poetry as it is meant to be written -- deep and delicate, earthy, sexy, politically charged, and funny -- by the winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature. This collection contains elements of seven poetry collections published over 40 years, and, as a bonus, features seven new poems from the period 1993-1997. Szymborska speaks directly to the reader, in a simple yet sharp fashion. A simply enjoyable collection.

Models of the Universe: An Anthology of the Prose Poem
by Stuart Friebert, David Young (Editors)
Well, why not start out our Daily Poetry Picks with an anthology of not-quite poetry? Models of the Universe is a remarkable, comprehensive, and indispensable anthology of the prose poem -- one of literature's most fascinating hybrids, inadequately described by this reviewer as an extraordinarily beautiful paragraph -- from its beginnings to the present. Drawing both on the prose poem's chronological development and on its polylingual and multicultural manifestations, this book assembles the best examples (over a 100 selections) that can be found, from Turgenev and Baudelaire to Gertrude Stein, Kafka, Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Simic, Jamaica Kincaid, Russell Edson, and beyond. This collection should give pleasure and insight to lovers of language for years to come.