A Pocketful of Poesy

Isn't it pretty? This Connection of Everyone With Lungs is the newest book of poetry by Juliana Spahr. I *love* the look and feel of all the books in the NEW CALIFORNIA POETRY SERIES. All the books in the series have this sort of hybrid hard-cover / soft-cover design -- it's like extra-stiff cardstock with a smooth finish and a flap. *So gorgeous.* FYI: J.S. is also the author of the book with perhaps the best title ever: Fuck You - Aloha - I Love You. Also purchased is the American Poets Project edition of Amy Lowell, ed. by Honor Moore. I know some people think they're cheesy (and they're just snobs), but I really love the books from The Library of America. Their size makes them highly portable. Speaking of "cheesy" series, I can't tell you how much I love this. How cool is it that a borzoi -- a sleek and narrow-nosed dog -- is the face of Knopf ? *I loves it.* Anyway, they publish great anthologies that are perfect as gifts. For example, On Wings of Song, a collection of poems about birds, is really elegant (and as Emily Dickinson says, "there is no frigate like a book"*). And my personal fave? Of course it's Animal Poems. Just take a taste of the copy from their catalogue:

An anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet praises the whale. Shakespeare sympathizes with the hunted hare. Marianne Moore tries to catch a jelly-fish. Virgil and Emily Dickinson contemplate Bees. Kipling lulls a baby seal to sleep. From East to West, from ancient times to modern, from Mei Yu Ch'en on swarming mosquitoes to William Cullen Bryant's solitary waterfowl and Rainer Maria Rilke's enchanted gazelle, from Auden on cats and dogs to E.E. Cummings's verse in the shape of a grasshopper to James Merrill's vision of the octopus, here--selected by John Hollander--are 136 poems that provide exhilarating access to literature's glorious lyric zoo.

And these books are really pretty too! And they come with a slender ribbon bookmark! How can you resist? I've given many of these as gifts. Everyone loves a beautiful book that's filled with beautiful words. And this series is thoughtfully edited. There is even an anthology for the foodies.

*forgive me for linking to a bowlderized version of E.D.'s poem. I need to find a better web-source for her work.

**and even Bono thinks that you should have a poem in your pocket.