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A Balancing Act
Porcupine
At last, the collected poems
Ironic and beutiful
A Unique Voice - Understated and All knowing

The Collected Poems: 1956-1998
Zbigniew Herbert
Manufacturer: Ecco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems
The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition
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Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006

ASIN: 0060783907
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

Every great poet lives between two worlds. One of these is the real, tangible world of history, private for some and public for others. The other world is a dense layer of dreams, imagination, fantasms. It sometimes happens...that this second world takes on gigantic proportions, that it becomes inhabited by numerous spirits, that it is haunted by leo Africanus and other ancient magi.

These two territories conduct complex negotiations, the result of which are poems. Poets strive for the first world, the real one, conscientiously trying to reach it, to reach the place where the minds of many people meet; but their efforts are hindered by the second world, just as the dreams and hallucinations of certain sick people prevent them from understanding and experiencing events in their waking hours. except that in great poets these hindrances are rather a symptom of mental health, since the world is by nature dual, and poets pay tribute with their own duality to the true structure of reality, which is composed of day and night, sober intelligence and fleeting fantasies, desire and gratification.

There is no poetry without this duality....

And this is the common vector of all Herbert's poetry; let us not be misled by its adornments, its nymphs and satyrs, its columns and quotations. this poetry is about the pain of the twentieth century, about accepting the cruelty of an inhuman age, about an extraordinary sense of reality. And the fact that at the same time the poet loses none of his lyricism or his sense of humor—this is the unfathomable secret of a great artist.

—from the introduction by Adam Zagajewski (translated by Bill Johnston)

Customer Reviews:

A Balancing Act.......2007-06-08

I purchased this book as soon as I saw it. Although I am not as disappointed as Mr. Dobyns (a wonderful writer himself), early on I did take a number of poems and place them side by side with their respective John and Bogdana Carpenter translations. (Although I don't know Polish, I had sensed something.) Dobyns is right; the Alissa Valles translations are flat and stiff in comparison. Considering Zbigniew Herbert is not only one of the most original poets of the last century but also one of the weightiest, this testament to his life's work falls short. However, it is a great pleasure to have even a reasonable facsimile of his collected poems. Even in the hands of inept translators, Herbert's poems can shine.

Porcupine.......2007-05-29

These are awful translations. Alissa Valles hardly knows Polish and her English is clumsy and graceless. These translations of one of the greatest modern poets are a terrible disappointment. Why Daniel Halpern, the publisher, chose Valles instead of John and Bogdana Carpenter, who had published a number of excellent books of Herbert translations with the same press (Ecco) is mind-boggling. Valles has taken a great poet and turned him into a minor poet. It is unlikely that a new collected poems will be published in English for many years and to have the Halpern/Valles edition stand as the only collected poems is like having Popeye stand for Michelangelo. Michael Hofmann's hard review in the May 2007 POETRY is the only accurate review. Simic's review in the New York Review of Books has good information about Herbert, but is otherwise useless. DO NOT BUY this book before reading Hofmann's review. Believe me, I have been reading and teaching Herbert since the early 1970's and Alissa Valles' translations are a travesty. What Herbert predicted in his prose poem, "Episode in a Library," has come true: "Now as I watch the death of the words, I know there is no limit to decay. All that will be left after us in the black earth will be scattered syllables. Accents over nothingness and dust."

At last, the collected poems.......2007-04-10

I teach comparative literature with an emphasis on twentieth century poetry, and over the years I've seen the western world's slow recognition of eastern european writers. I've also seen the immense influence (salutary, I might add) they've had on contemporary American poetry. Clearly, Zbigniew Herbert is one of the giants of that literature and now at last we have all his poems in one book. An occasion for celebration!

Ironic and beutiful.......2007-03-22

Outstanding poetry, ironic and classical. A must have, must experience, will mean a lot for you.

A Unique Voice - Understated and All knowing.......2007-03-12

Herbert was a unique poetic voice. One needs to live with him over time. Every new book of his added wisdom. Having them collected is a candy story for one who believes in life, has felt its blows, but has Herbert to share the continuing yes belief. He is post-cogito and still standing. Don't just buy this book. Experience it

The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged

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Robert Frost, the poet for poetry lovers
Frost's treasure
North Country Simple?
Trite and banal
Good Collection

The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged
Robert Frost
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0805005021

Amazon.com Audiobook Review

Listening to these time-honored poems, it's difficult to imagine the young Frost struggling to find a publisher for his work. In fact, he was nearly 40 (and living in England, of all places) when A Boy's Will, his first collection, appeared. Over the next 50 years he would become the quintessential American poet, securing a well-cushioned catbird seat in the literary canon.

Performers Susan Anspach, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Elliott Gould, among others, heighten the conversational cadences of a writer who seldom strayed from his beloved iambs. Included are "Mending Wall," "The Road Not Taken," "The Death of the Hired Man," "The Fear," and much more, all complete and unabridged. (Running time: 1 hour, 1 cassette) --Martha Silano

Book Description

This is the only comprehensive volume of Robert Frost's published verse; in it are the contents of all eleven of his individual books of poetry-from A Boy's Will (1913) to In the Clearing (1962). The editor, Edward Connery Lathem, has scrupulously annotated the more than 350 poems in this book.

Customer Reviews:

Robert Frost, the poet for poetry lovers.......2007-04-12

I have read Robert Frost's poetry for years. There's nothing better than being curled up on the sofa on a cold afternoon drinking hot cocoa, and browsing through a Robert Frost poem book to warm your heart. For years I had been looking for a complete collection of Robert Frost's poems. I'm glad I found it a Amazon.

Frost's treasure.......2006-08-24

Robert Frost has a world-wide admiration. And in this book, you can find all his poems grouped neatly in sections connecting them to the place they are written in. So to put it in a nut shell, it is just what you are looking for if you want to buy something you won't regret.

North Country Simple?.......2006-07-13

Frost's poetry is like the essence of New England's North Country-it's sparseness, praticality, absence of frills, fall color, winter bleakness but strong, independent confidence. Yet in both the North Country and in Frost's poetry there is an underlying complexity and an openness to unfettered interpretations. This book delivers Frost's work in a simple, straightforward manner. His poetry needs no fancy presentation but then neither does the North Country. Visit both, but especially Frost.

A warning-it may be best to read only one or two poems a day. The more time each is thought about, the more it grows in depth and thought complexity-or doesn't....

Trite and banal.......2006-05-03

I wonder how long it will be before Frost's literary stock is devalued as much as it deserves to be. These are trite and banal poems that do not ring true or sincere. Frost seems distant from both his poems and the reader. What he has to say is obvious and unoriginal. How he says it is on the level of a hallmark greeting card at its best; at its worst, it is no better than a limerick. Posthumous revelations about his horrific cruelty to others and his shrewd creation/manipulation of his celebrity image as the New England farmer-poet only confirm that there was something seriously wrong with this man and his poems that an earlier generation missed. How earlier generations could find genius in such obvious observations is astounding.
Bad poetry from a twisted man.

Good Collection.......2006-03-17

Really good collection. I was able to find an old pressing of a collection of his poems that has one extra book release in it, but otherwise they were identical. I don't need to say Robert Frost is a great writer.. This is a very good collection.

An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (Collected Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

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An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (Collected Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Manufacturer: Classic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
ASIN: 0742622002

Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Collected Works of Charlotte Bronte)

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Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Collected Works of Charlotte Bronte)
Charlotte Bronte
Manufacturer: Classic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0742621871

The Battle of Marathon: A Poem (Collected Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

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The Battle of Marathon: A Poem (Collected Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Manufacturer: Classic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
ASIN: 0742621995

The Seraphim and Other Poems (Collected Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

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The Seraphim and Other Poems (Collected Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Manufacturer: Classic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
ASIN: 0742622037

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

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BOOKREADER
Excellent collection of Maya Angelou's works
Poetry that I can understand and identify with!
Poetry is what you make of it...
Motivational writer? Perhaps. Poet? In your dreams.

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

ASIN: 067942895X
Release Date: 1994-09-13

Amazon.com

Brought together for the first time here are all of Maya Angelou's published poems -- including "On the Pulse of Morning," her inaugural poem -- in a handsome hardcover edition.

Book Description

For the first time, the complete collection of Maya Angelou's published poems-including "On the Pulse of Morning"-in a permanent collectible, handsome hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

BOOKREADER.......2007-05-27

MAYA ANGELOU IS ONE MY FAVORITE GREAT AUTHORS OF POETRY . HER POEMS REACH THE SOUL AND SPIRIT OF A PERSON. THROUGH GREAT JOY OR GREAT PAIN..............

Excellent collection of Maya Angelou's works.......2006-03-22

I was so happy to find this collection of poetry and writings in one book by Maya Angelou. I find her work so uplifting and her writings cut to the core of humanity and show life as it is. It is real and not all glossed over and it goes right to your heart. Beautiful work...a pleasure to own. A work that I will read again and again.

Poetry that I can understand and identify with!.......2006-03-21

Maya Angelou's poems are wonderful. You can understand and grasp her meaning while she is not afraid to tell it like it is. Her poetry speaks to the heart of every woman no matter the race. When you read her poems you are not merely reading words but you feel the words and are surrounded by their message. I only wished I could have studied her poetry in high school and college. She is truly magnificent!

Poetry is what you make of it..........2006-02-19

I only write this because I love this author more than any other and feel the need to defend this book from the critics who wrote the other reviews on it. I feel that poetry is what you make of it. If you can relate to what the poet is saying, what does it matter if they didn't follow specific guidelines that universities try to teach people who probably lack the free-form. Which is what I consider this book. Free-form poetry. So, yes,if you're only reading the book for an assignment or trying to analyze it into a specific form of poetry, you might be disappointed. However, if you are reading it in leisure or to connect with someone who can beautifully express some of our emotions and events of life, you won't be disappointed. That is if you can relate to it. As with all poetry, it will mean more to you if you can understand where the poet is coming from and connect that with your own emotions and personal experiences. From the time that I picked up this book over a decade ago, I have loved it! I hardly ever take the time to go back and re-read anything. I figure, once read, the most important of the knowledge is there and to move on, but I have read and re-read this book more times than I can remember! For me, it's full of emotion. I feel that in it's free-form, it's beautifully written. I could only ever hope to create a book as outstanding as this one, and I often compare my own free-form to hers.Once again, it's an outstanding book if you can relate to it.

Motivational writer? Perhaps. Poet? In your dreams........2005-12-10

Maya Angelou is an expert at writing easily remembered catchphrases and proverbial tidbits that have all the taste of wisdom with half the calories. She fills her fans with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, she inspires them, she makes them feel as if she speaks The Truth. In other words, she's great at writing motivational proverbs. She is not, however, a poet. Not even close. She displays virtually no poetic craft and shows no real skill at compression, imagery, figurative language, and metaphor, to name a few tools that make a piece of writing a poem. At best, this collection would bore the pants off of any serious reader of poetry. At worst, it will make them want to gouge their eyes out with a pair of #6 knitting needles. If you think this is poetry, you haven't read any poetry yet.

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A Tribute, Not a Review
In His Exasperating Wholeness
A great collected poems
A Masterful Collection (and very well-edited)
Collected Poems by Lowell

Collected Poems
Robert Lowell
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Letters of Robert Lowell
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ASIN: 0374530327
Release Date: 2007-04-03

Book Description

Frank Bidart and David Gewanter have compiled the definitive edition of Robert Lowell’s work, from his first, impossible-to-find collection, Land of Unlikeness; to the early triumph of Lord Weary’s Castle, winner of the 1946 Pulitzer Prize; to the brilliant willfulness of his versions of poems by Sappho, Baudelaire, Rilke, Montale, and other masters in Imitations; to the late spontaneity of The Dolphin, winner of another Pulitzer Prize; to his last, most searching book, Day by Day. This volume also includes poems and translations never previously collected, and a selection of drafts that demonstrate the poet’s constant drive to reimagine his work. Collected Poems at last offers readers the opportunity to take in, in its entirety, one of the great careers in twentieth-century poetry.

Customer Reviews:

A Tribute, Not a Review.......2006-11-10

I studied with Robert Lowell at Harvard in 1963 & 1964. I wouldn't presume to review his Collected Poems, only to testify that he was a giant of a human -- witty, sensitive even toward brash young would-be poets, immensely knowledgeable, immensely conscientious. Having known him remains one of the great privileges of my life. Reading his poems is a great privilege for all of us.

In His Exasperating Wholeness.......2006-03-08

The publication of this book was doubtless necessary to begin understanding Lowell correctly. Creator and destroyer, careful wordsmith and subversive deconstructor, encountering just one of his volumes along the strange parabola of his career can be confusing. Lowell always set out to carefully craft each of them, with special attention to the arrangement of his resonant poems and their slow, grand, building cumulative effect. To let you know the game, Lowell presented almost each of his volumes with an evocative frontpiece engraving by Francis Parkman -- the poet thus visually setting forth each of his works, in advance of his death, as another controlled chess move against the great opponent Fame -- the act of a control fanatic if there ever was one.

Yet somewhere in the middle of Lowell's career of creating the little volumes, more violently toward the end of his years as diseases took over, the mad Doppleganger Cal (Lowell's nickname to his insider pals) enters, seeds the serene clouds with fury, and all hell breaks loose. At worst, all is botched: mere beautiful poetic scraps, a line or two amongst literary gossip for insiders, yesterday's obnoxious news. In hindsight Cal indeed did a pretty good job; it is easier to just turn away from the mess. But Lowell is so good at his best, so earnest even in his madness, that we are going to miss something significant about our own history -- the subject which most deeply concerned him -- if we do. And finally, even at his worst, there is always something very endearing about this voice, something very human and honest. Lowell was plagued with true and furious organic disorders which disrupted his personality; his issues were not only self-inflicted. In an earlier age he would not have lived out the length of career he did; in significant ways, then, his voice is a truly new one on the block. Unfortunately for him, the hyped up madness of his period identified with his genuine madness and made a pathetic celebrity of him, which didn't help the brave and fragile personality struggling to make poetic sense of a disturbed time.

Bidart has picked up the pieces and presented Lowell as one, that's all, in all his exasperating wholeness. Now it is easier to see that Lowell and Cal were one, that the lasting work of worth emerges from their furious wrestling. Over time he was many kinds of a writer and a poet, and certainly not all of them will last. He left some absolute foolishness he only got away with because of his name and the looniness at large which seized on him about the same time it seized on Batman and Laugh-In -- junk like the plays in the Old Glory. But when you remember that this was a truly sick man and not just another boozed out writer, you wonder at the absolute clarity of the best work, and the occasional glimmers which never entirely disappeared. Doubtless much later, a generation free of the diseases we still to a degree share with this poet will make the appropriate selection. In the meantime, in a real sense, the record Bidart has compiled shows that the bell tolls for us, too.

A great collected poems .......2006-02-25

A great collected poems by one of America's masterful minor poets. Much to see and enjoy. Great for any poet who wishes to apprentice himself to someone with a subtle and sophistaced understanding of the English language and a wide and nuanced emotional range. Sturdy hardback volume. Will last an entire lifetime.

A Masterful Collection (and very well-edited).......2005-12-08

I believe that Lowell's work is best viewed through this expansive collection. No single book of his poetry truly captures the full breadth of his literary accomplishments. Of course, if you're only looking for an introduction to his work, Life Studies or For the Union Dead would probably do.

But if you really want to understand the full scope of his talent, then this book is indispensable. I would even go so far as to say that this book will probably cement Lowell's place among America's finest poets in years to come.

Collected Poems by Lowell.......2004-01-03

This is an excellent work in belles lettres literature.
The author covers a range of poems from history, nature,
geography, the elements, voyages, portraits and the four
seasons. He writes in a fine English tradition worthy
of serious literary review and critique. Here are samples:
"I took the preacher's text
too much for Gospel truth:
"In the light of your eyes, rejoice and have your wish!"

"In the verse coming next he serves another dish;
What are childhood and youth but vanity and vice?"

How about a quotation from the poem "Autumn"!

"Shaking , I listen for the word to fall;
building a scaffold makes no deafer sound.
Each heartbeat knocks my body to the ground,
like a slow battering ram crumbling a wall."

Lowell's poetry is both informative and relaxing. It is recommended for general reading or as collegiate literary
critique.

Average customer rating:

No.
My favorite poet
Auden's collected poems
Auden of the anthologies
I;m Willing to go with Joseph Brodsky

Collected Poems (Modern Library)
W.H. Auden
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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W.H. Auden: Selected Poems

ASIN: 0679643508
Release Date: 2007-02-13

Book Description

To commemorate the centennial of W. H. Auden’s birth, the Modern Library offers this elegant edition of the collected poems of one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century.

This volume includes all the poems that Auden wished to preserve, in a text that includes his final revisions, with corrections based on the latest research. Auden divided his poems into sections that corresponded to what he referred to as chapters in his life, each one beginning with a change in his inner life or external circumstances: the moment in 1933 when he first knew “exactly what it means to love one’s neighbor as oneself”; his move from Britain to America in 1939; his first summer in Italy in 1948; his move to a summerhouse in Austria in 1958; and his return to England in 1972.

Auden’s work has perhaps the widest range and the greatest depth of any English poet of the past three centuries. From the anxious warnings of his early verse through the expansive historical perspectives of his middle years to the celebrations and thanksgiving in his later work, Auden wrote in a voice that addressed readers personally rather than as part of a collective audience. His styles and forms extend from ballads and songs to haiku and limericks to sonnets, sestinas, prose poems, and dozens of other constructions of his own invention. His tone ranges from spirited comedy to memorable profundity–often within the same work. His poems manage to be secular and sacred, philosophical and erotic, personal and universal.

“All the poems I have written were written for love,” Auden once said. This book includes his famous early poems about transient love (“Lay your sleeping head, my love,” “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”) and his later poems about enduring love (“In Sickness and in Health,” “First Things First”). The book also includes Auden’s longer, more thematically varied poems, from the expressionist charade “Paid on Both Sides” to the formal couplets of “New Year Letter”; the darkly comic sequel to The Tempest, “The Sea and the Mirror”; and a baroque eclogue set in a wartime bar, “The Age of Anxiety.”

This new edition includes a critical appreciation of Auden by Edward Mendelson, the editor of the present volume and Auden’s literary executor.

“W. H. Auden had the greatest gifts of any of our poets in the twentieth century, the greatest lap full of seed.”
–James Fenton, The New York Review of Books

“At the beginning of the new century, [Auden] is an indispensable poet. Even people who don’t read poems often turn to poetry at moments when it matters, and Auden matters now.”
–Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

Customer Reviews:

No........2006-06-25

This is a poet who has no emotional or spiritual depth. He is poet of shame. His sarcasm and wit is anything but remarkable. I was actually looking foward to reading his poetry in my class, but was terribly disappointed. It's not worth it.

My favorite poet.......2005-10-08

Since the first time I read Auden's "The Unknown Citizen" in the 10th grade, I have been captivated by his writing style and the pure emotion his poems express. The meaning isn't lost in needless words, but is clear and passionate. I could spend hours just reading his works and oftentimes do. Everyone should read a poem or two of his.

Auden's collected poems.......2005-09-29

The softcover book arrived in excellent condition and in a timely manner.

Auden of the anthologies .......2004-12-12

The work of Auden I know is not the complete Auden, but rather the Auden of the anthologies. It is the Auden of Musee de Beaux Arts and September 1,1939 and Elegy for W.B. Yeats. It is the Auden of memorable lines, ' The universal error bred in the bone , not to be loved/ but to be loved alone'. It is Auden who is a public poet speaking in lines held together not only by internal rhyme, but by a certain majestic authority of statement. It is the Auden whose poetry at its best seems to be saying something significant about the human condition at a particular time of our history.
This I know is not the whole Auden but it is rather that part given to the widest audience in anthology - the public Auden. Here I sense Auden's poetry spoke with a clarity and sense rare especially in his own time.
He does not have the music of Yeats and Wallace Stevens at their best. He is not as some readers on Amazon have suggested the greatest poet in English in the twentieth century. But my own sense he is one of the best.

I;m Willing to go with Joseph Brodsky.......2003-03-23

I feel for people like Nate Dorwood who wrote the comment
about the first line in "musee des beaux arts" being "fatuous."
This may be Auden's greatest poem. Ian McEwan recently paid
tribute to it's greatness, and Russian poet Joseph Brodsky,
who admired this poem in particular, claimed that Auden had
"the greatest mind of the 20th Century." Neither of them,
both geniuses themselves, found anything about "Musee" to
be "fatuous."
Perhaps it's time to re-read?

Average customer rating:

Poetry Five Stars, of Course but...
Ginsy's Collected Poems

Collected Poems 1947-1997
Allen Ginsberg
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg
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ASIN: 0061139742
Release Date: 2006-10-17

Book Description

Here, for the first time, is a volume that gathers the published verse of Allen Ginsberg in its entirety, a half century of brilliant work from one of America's great poets. The chief figure among the Beats, Ginsberg changed the course of American poetry, liberating it from closed academic forms with the creation of open, vocal, spontaneous, and energetic postmodern verse in the tradition of Walt Whitman, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hart Crane, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams. Ginsberg's classics Howl, Reality Sandwiches, Kaddish, Planet News, and The Fall of America led American (and international) poetry toward uncensored vernacular, explicit candor, the ecstatic, the rhapsodic, and the sincere—all leavened by an attractive and pervasive streak of common sense. Ginsberg's raw tones and attitudes of spiritual liberation also helped catalyze a psychological revolution that has become a permanent part of our cultural heritage, profoundly influencing not only poetry and popular song and speech, but also our view of the world.

The uninterrupted energy of Ginsberg's remarkable career is clearly revealed in this collection. Seen in order of composition, the poems reflect on one another; they are not only works but also a work. Included here are all the poems from the earlier volume Collected Poems 1947-1980, and from Ginsberg's subsequent and final three books of new poetry: White Shroud, Cosmopolitan Greetings, and Death & Fame. Enriching this book are illustrations by Ginsberg's artist friends; unusual and illuminating notes to the poems, inimitably prepared by the poet himself; extensive indexes; as well as prefaces and various other materials that accompanied the original publications.

Customer Reviews:

Poetry Five Stars, of Course but..........2006-11-21

Americans who can't name five poets will name Allen Ginsberg. In this case, that is good since he was one of America's Greatest Poets. This book attest to this.
I write this review to show disappointment in the publisher who continues to publish the collected works on the cheapest paper next to newsprint.
For the next edition, I would like to see, at least in limited edition, a volume printed on quality paper which could last more than a few years before turning yellow.
Ginsbergs deserves better treatment.

Ginsy's Collected Poems.......2006-11-19

I just finished reading Ginsberg's collected poems, 1947-1997 -- fifty years and over a thousand pages of poetry. My overall impression is that he was probably the kindest, most moral member of the beat generation. When the other beats were penniless & borrowing money, Ginsberg was the one they borrowed money from. Corso would steal Ginsberg's manuscripts and sell them to used book dealers to score heroin, and each time Ginsberg would walk down to the book dealer and buy back his priceless words. Where Kerouac preached his own version of buddhism and gave it up a few years later for alcoholic catholicism, Ginsberg remained a dedicated student of buddhist compassion to the end of his days.

And that's what shines thru in many of these poems -- compassion, attention to the present, and the courage to be so honest about his life and his feelings. Many of these poems are raw, experimental, informal, and spontaneous, almost like journal entries. He wrote numerous classics -- Pull My Daisy (written with Kerouac & Cassady in 1949), Howl, America, Kaddish, Mescaline, Lysergic Acid, Wichita Vortex Sutra, Wales Visitation, Elegy for Neal Cassady, and Memory Gardens (elegy for Jack Kerouac), among others.

Some of the most common themes are world travel, nature, daily events, progressive politics, the US invasion of Vietnam, the peace movement, road trips, drug use, the beats, gay sex, hinduism, buddhism, death, and love. In other words, Ginsberg wrote about his life. He talks about his friends dying, his father dying, his mother's insanity and death, his loves, his joys, and whatever is pressing and interesting to him at the moment. Some of the poems are better than others, but I can't imagine there's a more honest poet out there.

Casual readers of the beats will likely want to skip around and read a poem here, a poem there, just checking out the highlights. But even for casual readers, there's no sense in buying Ginsberg's small City Lights books -- just buy this big book so you can have it all.

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