The centuries have changed little in this art,
The subjects are still the same.--Kenneth Rexroth
Why poetry? What is poetry and why do people write it and read it? Why, as Dana Levin has written, this urge to making a scrapbook of stars?
Every poet, by accident or design, has responded to Why poetry by writing a poem about poetry (an ars poetica). Whether these poems focus on the personal, political, or philosophical, each recognizes that our world is more complicated than a direct statement.
As Marvin Bell has written, Writing is all and everything. This anthology of poems about the art and life of poetry--which draws widely from Copper Canyon's 30-year backlist of poetry books--proves him right.
Poets write out of love and longing:
Lord, let me live / long enough to dare /a love poem --Cyrus Cassells
Poets confront suffering:
since we will always have a suffering world, we must also always have a song.--David Budbill
And poets write in order to live fully:
We all stumble into ourselves /like this, fitting our fingers to the shape of letters, / while the page gallops out of our reach--Rebecca Seiferle
Only poetry lasts.--Ho Xuan Huong
Michael Wiegers is the Managing Editor at Copper Canyon Press.
CONTRIBUTORS Included: [box]
Kay Boyle,
Olga Broumas,
Hayden Carruth,
Norman Dubie,
Han Shan,
Jim Harrison,
Carolyn Kizer,
W.S. Merwin,
Jane Miller,
Kenneth Rexroth,
Ruth Stone,
Anna Swir
