Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor

by David Edin March 29, 2021

From Garrison Keillor:

The pleasure of making this book is the chance to put poets such as Jennifer Michael Hecht and C. G. Hanzlicek and April Lindner and Ginger Andrews and Louis Jenkins into a club with Frost and Dickinson and Burns and Shakespeare.

The pain of it is to look at the book and realize who I left out who should've been here. I can think of a dozen without hesitation. I am sorry for the omissions.

But I hope that the includees know that ther poems mean a lot to people. These are poems that made people stop chewing their toasted muffins and turn up the radio and listen and later zip into our website and get the dope on the poet. Many of these poems have been deeply loved by people, and why not? They deserve to be.

Raymond Carver wrote:

And did you get what

you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself

beloved on the earth.

Garrison Keillor

From the Publisher:

America's beloved author, humorist, and storyteller offers a selection of meaningful and enjoyable poems

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.

Purchase the Book:

Get the Book >>> Download from Amazon >>> iTunes >>>

Listen to Readings:

Summer Morning by Charles Simic from June 15, 1999 >>>

The Master Speed by Robert Frost from June 8, 1998 >>>

Her First Calf by Wendell Berry from March 8, 2001 >>>

Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon from July 28, 2019 >>>

Reviews:

"A pretty dandy candy jar. The range of poets is wide, the tone is unpretentious, and the poems are all . . . good." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"These are poems to live in comfort with all one's life." (Booklist)

"[Keillor is] Will Rogers with grammar lessons, Aesop with no ax to grind, the common man's MoliFre." (The Houston Chronicle)

Artistic License >>>

My Top 7 Favorite Poems from Legion Athlethics >>>

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Good Poems for American Places >>>

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