Saturday, December 27, 2008

My Top 20 List - Plus 1

The Best Poetry I Read in 2008

(In no particular order, except Frank Stanford is the king.)


The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You – Frank Stanford

The Light the Dead See – Frank Stanford

Ooga-Booga – Frederick Seidel

Itinerary: Poems – Reginald Shepherd

Internal West: Poems – Priscilla Becker

A World Beyond Myself – Rutger Kopland

What Water Left Behind – Rutger Kopland

The Salt Daughter – Christine Hamm

Figured Dark – Greg Rappleye

Dog Language – Chase Twichell

The Snow Watcher – Chase Twichell

Orange Girl – Simone Muench

Sleeping Woman – Herbert Scott

High Windows – Phillip Larkin

Alive Together: New and Selected Poems – Lisel Mueller

Necessary Stranger – Graham Foust

Glass, Irony and God – Anne Carson

The Beforelife – Franz Wright

For Love: Poem Nineteen Fifty to Nineteen Sixty – Robert Creeley

Deepstep Come Shining – C.D. Wright

A Murmuration of Starlings - Jake Adam York


9 comments:

Talia Reed said...

I think I left Orange Girl off of my top list. It should be there.

I just finished Snow Watcher. It's not my thing.

Charmi said...

I think you would like Dog Language quite a bit. Deepstep Come Shining is probably No. 3 on my list, after the Stanfords.

SarahJane said...

I read Ooga-Booga this year, too, and think it was my favorite.

Anonymous said...

I've read a little over half your list and you are spot on... these are not only some of the best YOUve read in 2008 but some of the best period.

Charmi said...

Yeah. I've got one more I might add. Have to finish it first. Jake Adams - Murmuration of Starlings.

Michael said...

Charmi. Word. You liked the Creeley I lent you that much? That's great. I just read the Beforelife myself (got it as a Christmas gift). Some real fine poems in that one. I think I'll need to revisit that one, Walking to Martha's Vineyard, and God's Silence, try to get a sense of what your man (as they say in Ireland for some reason) is up to. Maybe write something about it. Talia's got the right idea, writing reviews, that sorta thing. Merry 8th Day of Christmas, soon to be 9th. I think.

Charmi said...

Ah, yes, the review writing. I'm afraid I would look entirely foolish writing a review. I haven't been doing this long enough to write anything sensible. I would come back to what I had written a year later and be completely ashamed and I won't have youth on my side to defend me. I'll leave that to Talia.

And Happy New Year to you.

Unknown said...

Hey:

Thank you for including me on your excellent list.

Charmi said...

It was a great book, Greg.