Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Best Poetry Books 2008 - Kathleen Jesme

Kathleen Jesme's choices:

Zone : Zero, by Stephanie Strickland (Ahsahta Press). Wonderful both visually and soundwise, and includes a terrific CD of two of the long poems in the book in an electronic version. State-of-the-art!

Flight: New and Selected Poems, by Linda Bierds (Putnam). The quality of language and attention paid to it is amazing in Bierds' work. She writes a lot of historical and persona poems, and they are truly gorgeous, every one of them.

Red Rover, by Susan Stewart (University of Chicago Press). I don't think this is Stewart's best book, but it's really fine, and the sonnet sequence titled "In the Western World" is just stunning.

Night Scenes, by Lisa Jarnot (Flood Editions). What a great, funny, and sly little book! What sound! Jarnot is about the funniest poet around, but the humor shades something else.

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Kathleen Jesme is the author of three books of poems: The Plum-Stone Game, Motherhouse, and Fire Eater.

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