Two of My Favorite Things!

Looking For a New Book of Poetry to Read?

Lilliput Review has a page entitled: Near Perfect Books of Poetry.

At present there are 277 books, but you can propose an addition to the list and, if it is added, win a free copy of the journal.

If you have a suggestion of a title of a perfect or near perfect book of poems for this list (and it is accepted) and would like to receive the two current issues of Lillie for free (or have your current subscription extended), . . . 

Their blog, by the way, is Issa's Untidy Hut, also worth checking out.

Here is just a small part; follow the link above for the complete listing.

The List

The Clean Dark by Robert Adamson
The Golden Bird by Robert Adamson
Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova
The Fall — Jordie Albiston
A Nostalgist's Map of America by Agha Shaid Ali
Chrysanthemum Love by Fay Aoyagi
Once in Vermont by Bob Arnold
Where Rivers Meet by Bob Arnold
The Double Dream of Spring by John Ashbery
Rivers and Mountains by John Ashbery
Some Trees by John Ashbery
Salute--to Singing by Gennady Aygi
Restoration Poems by Ed Baker
Pencil Flowers by Johnny Baranski
Back Roads to Far Towns by Bashō, translated by Cid Corman and Kamaike Susumu
Bashō And His Interpreters by Makoto Ueda
Bashō: The Complete Haiku, translated by Reichhold & Tsujimura
On Love and Barley by Bashō, translated by Lucien Styrk
The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire (any & all translations)
Weeping for Lost Babylon — Eric Beach
Actual Air by David Berman
The Sonnets by Ted Berrigan
Openings by Wendell Berry
Complete Poems, 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop
The Cities by Paul Blackburn
Silence In The Snowy Fields by Robert Bly
Talking into the Ear of a Donkey by Robert Bly
Turkish Pears in August by Robert Bly
Kerrisdale Elegies by George Bowering
The Pill Versus The Springhill Mine Disaster by Richard Brautigan
Poems of Madness & Angel by Ray Bremser
Life Supports by William Bronk
Moment to Moment by David Budbill
The Last Night of the Earth Poems — Charles Bukowski
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck by Charles Bukowski
Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, The Line, the Way - C. Bukowski
Complete Poems by Basil Bunting Dreaming of Robert de Niro — Grant Caldwell

Yup. This is just a SMALL part of the list!

CHECK OUT the REST . . .

POETRY CAN BE USED TO TEACH READING

Through most of her school career my daughter struggled to read because of a learning disability. Even the familiar stories that she loved were difficult for her.

Quite by accident, in a high school drama class, she discovered Shakespeare. While many students struggled with the bard's words, she found in them a doorway into the literary worlds previously denied her. Their rhythm was her key to unlock that door.

Poetry, with its meter, with its rhythm and rhyme, has been a gateway to the world of reading for about as long as reading has existed.

"Nursery rhymes" have made us laugh, taught us our colors and numbers, provided nurturing time with loving family as well as a blueprint of how to be . . . well, us. They can also aid students who struggle with reading.

Five little monkeys sitting in a tree

Teasing Mister Alligator: "can’t catch me, can’t catch me!"
Along comes Mister Alligator quiet as can be and
SNAP!

Four little monkeys sitting in a tree

Teasing Mister Alligator: "can’t catch me, can’t catch me!"
Along comes Mister Alligator quiet as can be and
SNAP!

Three little monkeys sitting in a tree

Teasing Mister Alligator: "can’t catch me, can’t catch me!"
Along comes Mister Alligator quiet as can be and
SNAP!

Two little monkeys sitting in a tree

Teasing Mister Alligator: "can’t catch me, can’t catch me!"
Along comes Mister Alligator quiet as can be and
SNAP!

One little monkey sitting in a tree
Teasing Mister Alligator: "can’t catch me, can’t catch me!"
Along comes Mister Alligator quiet as can be and
SNAP!

Missed me!

SOME SOURCES:

Using Poetry to teach reading.

Poetry teachers dot com.
Giggle poetry.
Five Little Monkeys, courtesy of: Smart-Central.com.

LOOKS LIKE THE BEGINNING OF AN INTERESTING SERIES

The Righteous Skeptic's Guide to Reading Poetry

"I introduce this five-part series, a sort of "state of the union" for poetry, in the hope that it will spur a broader discussion among poetry readers and non- readers alike. 

- Adam Roberts - poet, educator, and post-graduate fellow

at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.