Good Poems | 
| Creator: Garrison Keillor
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 17810
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 504
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 4.9 x 1.5
ISBN: 0142003441
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.008
EAN: 9780142003442
ASIN: 0142003441
Publication Date: August 26, 2003
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Product Description
Every day people tune in to The Writer's Almanac on public radio and hear Garrison Keillor read them a poem. And here, for the first time, is an anthology of poems from the show, chosen by Keillor for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m."
Good Poems includes verse about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendance. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds. It's a book of poems for anybody who loves poetry whether they know it or not.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 Pretty Good Poems selected by a really good writer. June 8, 2008
America has no equivalent to Japan's Living National Treasures, those artisans and craftspeople whose work is considered an integral part of Japanese culture. But perhaps we should, and we would find no better person to head the list than Garrison Keillor. That he selected these poems is reason enough to read them, savor them, mull them over; and they are, in fact, pretty darned good. Right-leaning twits might disagree with my opinion of Garrison, but then I doubt they read much poetry either.
 Passable Poems March 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
They are good poems in the sense that they're short and accessible, some are touching and some are funny. They're a cut above what a Reader's Digest anthology of poetry would be, but one is reminded of what such a thing would be like. Now, having said that, any anthology that includes Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, and Shakespeare is blessed regardless of company. But honestly there was hardly anything of which I thought I want to read that again, study or memorize. I think there is a certain kind of "down to earth" with "good folks" evocation that is appealing but ultimately unsatisfying.
Of course, it depends on what you're looking for.
The implied and very nearly expressed (in the introduction) frustration with modern poetry I suppose is understandable and it's too bad T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens don't and will never appeal to a larger audience than they do. But I think they truly are great 20th century poets, and obviously I'm not entirely alone. They require a different kind of reading than say Robert Burns, a great poet of an earlier time. Given what the 20th century was, poetry could only be real in a certain form. A great deal could be said about this but essentially the territory left to poets who wanted to said something true had to be about what humanity hadn't trashed, which is kind of esoteric, beyond their reach. What remains that can't be cheapened and profited from, Americanized? In the 23rd Psalm, at least in the versions we have in English, it begins by talking to us about the author's relationship to the Lord, then it shifts, "for Thou art with me" and is addressed to "Thou". "Thou", the greater consciousness and being, was what art was all about formerly. In many forms: gods, angels, mentors and many cultures you see it, until you get to the art we are most familiar with, "realistic" art in which all there is is "us". In the world in which all there is is us, we have to hope we'll be good: not genocidal and so forth, not too self-deluded and proud, because otherwise we are going to destroy ourselves.
So the art of the 20th century that tried to find and know the "Thou" of the Psalm necessarily involved searching, doubting and serious intent. It had to reject the tired religious fantasies and of course the frivolities of egoism. The people I mention I think came closest. It's always an approximation. It is after all inexpressible.
Besides, why shouldn't poetry involve a little mental and emotional labor? A poem that makes you cry isn't a "good poem" necessarily any more than a movie that makes you cry is a good movie. They knew how to get you, that's all. Poetry, we hope, will be more about illuminating our higher selves and our relationship with the vast what -we- don't- know above us.
This book is great for relaxing January 5, 2008
I love this book. It is a wonderful book to relax with and read your favorite poems over and over.
How to tell a good poem? December 31, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
While none of these might rate GK's brain pan sticking metaphor of "condoms on the beach, evidence that somebody was here once and had an experience but not of great interest to the passerby" and for both that metaphor and the selection I am grateful, it does prompt the question: good poems to whom? The obvious answer is GK. That means I think that you can take what you know of him from the wealth of shared experience he has made available to us over the years and figure on liking them if he would. I suppose this does not mean that some poems might still be enjoyable to children, young people, women, "working" people, poor people, illiterates, and other non-GK folk, and it most likely would not hit the mark for a critic like Harold Bloom, but since I love trying to emulate GK and find these poems poems I ought to find good, I do. They also make a great set of discussion pieces for book groups. Our book group had a wonderful time, if certainly on occasion it led us close to sin, but kept us spirited for more than our usual two hours to end the year 2007. Thanks GK for sharing these with us through the years.
Good Poems - Good time November 14, 2007
Good Poems
What a good read! The poems are extremely varied both in content and age. The organization is topical and the distinct content and tone of each poem provides a really good experience. Many of these poets I have never heard of, while the great poets are well represented. The endnotes are also interesting and informative. I would certianly recommend the book
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