Sunday, August 19, 2007

The Poetry Book Club Poll Is Up... Sort of

Okay, so the poll widget is cool, but not as cool as I thought it would be.

It doesn't allow HTML tags in the poll, so I cannot have cool links to Amazon for descriptions of the books on the docket. So, here are the nominees with links to Amazon:

Fever Almanac by Kristy Bowen
For the Confederate Dead by Kevin Young
Migration by W.S. Merwin
Stardust by Frank Bidart
Frail Craft by Jessica Fisher

Out of the grouping, I've only really read Kevin Young deeply, and I really like him. However, I'm open to any of the above books.

Please vote for your choice... the poll closes Sunday!

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jessica,

I stumbled across your blog. I'm new to blogging. My son just left for college and the last two years I've been devoted to being a mom and haven't written a single poem.I had one published in North American Review, and after that, the creative juices dried up. I feel lost, now, that he's gone and I have no poetic thoughts rolling around in my head. Thus the reason for my blog, I suppose. My friend suggested I create a blog, create a new art room and all this would help the creative juices to bubble up again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! You have a great blog. I enjoyed reading through it, and will visit again hoping to find some great ideas. I've read a lot of Merwin's poems. I really like him. I've not read the books by the other poets you mentioned here, but I'll check them out. I love poetry books. I have book shelves full of them.Thanks again!

Jessica said...

Hi Kelly,

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I'm glad that yr enjoying it! For myself, I have found that blogging has definitely kickstarted my creative process, but that I still need to apply myself to my writing in the non-blogging times. I'm still working on that. It's a lifelong process, I think. As a fellow teacher, I know how that job can really suck the creativity out of you, because you're committed to the class energy.

If yr interested, you should definitely participate in the poetry book club next month. I've found that reading other writers has also helped my own writing. I hope you'll come on board!

Love the banner picture on your blog, btw.

Marie said...

Jessica, how do you find these books? I'm always so impressed by your choices that I want to read them all! But, as you said, fellow teachers know that we use our energy and time for our classes and don't allow that for our personal selves...thus my lack of writing for two weeks! I'm glad you are still dedicated to doing this and thank you deeply for that. It's so hard to choose! I'm partially leaning toward Fever Almanac because it sounds fun...and partially to Stardust because it's intriguing and seems like ideas and theories I've been tossing around in my head...Though I feel I'd enjoy of them...can't wait to read with you guys! Again, thanks.

Jessica said...

Hi marie,

see the other post for my answer to how I've picked these books. :) I'm really excited about all of them, which is why I'm glad the poll widget (and therefore this blog's readers) are picking the books for me, this time around.