Poetry Speaks Who I Am is filled with more than 100 remarkable poems about you, who you are, and who you are becoming. Dive in-find the poem you love, the one that makes you angry, the one that makes you laugh, the one that knocks the wind out of you, and become a part of Poetry Speaks Who I Am by adding your own inside the book.
Poetry can be life altering. It can be gritty and difficult. It can be hilarious or heart-breaking. And it's meant to be experienced, so we've included a CD on which you'll hear 44 poems, 39 of which are original recordings-you'll only find them here. You'll hear poets both classic and contemporary, well-known and refreshingly new, including: —Dana Gioia expresses the hunger of a "Vampire's Serenade" —Elizabeth Alexander waits for that second kiss in "Zodiac" —Langston Hughes flings his arms wide in "Dream Variations" —Marilyn Nelson reads to her class in "How I Discovered Poetry" —Paul Muldoon's poem "Sideman," brought loudly to life by the band Rackett —And 39 more poems that are immediate and vibrant
From Lucille Clifton's "Here Yet Be Dragons" to Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" to "Tia Chucha," by Luis J. Rodriguez, Poetry Speaks Who I Am is a collection that is dynamic, accessible, challenging, classic, edgy, and ultimately not quite perfect. Just like you. If you're lucky, it'll serve as a gateway to a lifetime lived with poetry. At the very least, it'll be a good time. Dive in, and happy hunting.
Elise Paschen is the editor of Poetry Speaks to Children and co-editor of Poetry Speaks, both New York Times bestsellers. She is the author of several acclaimed poetry collections of her own, including Bestiary and Infidelities, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize. Former Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America, she is the co-founder of Poetry in Motion, a nationwide program that places poetry in subways and buses, and co-editor of Poetry in Motion and Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast.
Series Editor Dominique Raccah is founder, president, and publisher of Sourcebooks, a leading independent publisher outside of Chicago. Today Sourcebooks is the world's leading publisher of poetry in book-and-audio form, and also publishes nonfiction and fiction. Raccah was the initial visionary of the books Poetry Speaks, Poetry Speaks to Children and Hip Hop Speaks to Children, seeing them as interactive, engaging ways to experience spoken and written poetry.
Advisory Editor Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher. Most recently, she composed and delivered "Praise Song for the Day" for the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also published as a book. She has published five books of poems, including The Venus Hottentot, Body of Life, and American Sublime, which was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and was one of the American Library Association's "Notable Books of the Year."
Advisory Editor Brad Leithauser is the author of five novels, a novel in verse, five volumes of poetry, a collection of light verse, and a book of essays. His poetry collections include Curves and Angles, The Odd Last Thing She Did, The Mail from Anywhere, Cats of the Temple, and Hundreds of Fireflies. Among his many awards and honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Grant, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Advisory Editor Joy Harjo's seven books of poetry include She Had Some Horses, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, and How We Became Human. Her poetry has garnered many awards including a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.
This is not a poetry anthology for adults, for children, for classroom study, or for required memorization and recitation. It's made just for you.
When I was younger, I wish I had possessed an anthology like this one-a compilation that brings poetry to life through words and recordings. In grammar school, I memorized the poems I discovered in a favorite poetry anthology my parents had given me. In high school, after my British Literature teacher introduced me to the work of William Butler Yeats, I began to understand how to write a poem. But in middle school there were no poetry anthologies compiled just for students and poetry was not taught in class. So I gravitated toward poets of the past and read William Shakespeare's love sonnets, trying to imitate them. I had no idea that poets were alive and writing. This anthology attempts to fill that void by offering poems about subjects that might express what's on your mind.
Youth inspires poets. So when we asked poets to send poems either that were important to them at your age or that they'd written about being your age, we received hundreds of submissions. Many writers try to capture those moments you may be thinking about now as you step into a new world.
We strived to create an anthology where you can discover poems about the changes taking place in your life. We offer first kiss poems like "Zodiac" or "The Skokie Theatre." If you've ever stood in the outfield, waiting to catch a fly ball, check out "Baseball." There are some Bar Mitzvah poems called "33" and "49." Poems about changing bodies such as "Bra Shopping." Poems about the times you think you hate your mother as in "The Adversary" and poems about loving her such as "Dear Mama (4)." Poems about loneliness like Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." We even have a "Vampire Serenade." There are poems about navigating the turbulence of friendship like "Caroline" or the riptides of your parents' marriage as in "Mediation." We have paired classic poems with contemporary poems, from John Keats to Toi Derricotte, so you can read how poets throughout the ages have mulled over the same subjects.
Some poems will help you catch your breath, others will let you slowly exhale. Many of the poets traveled to studios to record their poems for Poetry Speaks Who I Am. When you listen to the CD, you will hear the immediacy of their words and the nuance of expression, and you will be able to hear and perhaps understand the poem from the poet's perspective.
In seventh grade, my friends and I would get together at each other's houses, listening for long afternoons to our favorite records. Older siblings introduced us to Carly Simon, James Taylor, Carole King, and we would sit and talk and sometimes just sit and listen to the songs, memorizing each one, playing them over and over in our minds. Let's hope that these poem recordings touch that same nerve for you and that they hold the same power that music did. Throughout my life, whenever I read a book I often scribble down a draft of a poem in the back pages. In Poetry Speaks Who I Am, you will find pages at the end where you can write down your own thoughts. Maybe some of the poems in this anthology will stir you to write some poems of your own.
We hope you will find inspiring company with these poems and with these poets. As the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes: "Live a while in these books..." So live a while with these poems. -Elise Paschen
A Note from the Publisher xi Introduction xiii Poem titles/authors Eternity Jason Shinder 1 Perhaps the World Ends Here Joy Harjo 2 Still I Rise Maya Angelou 4 Cinderella's Diary Ron Koertge 6 Vampire's Serenade Dana Gioia 7 Alone Edgar Allan Poe 8 Alone Siegfried Sassoon 9 Caroline Allison Joseph 10 "What are friends for...? Rosellen Brown 12 I Loved My Friend Langston Hughes 13 In the Fifth-Grade Locker Room Rebecca Lauren 14 Bra Shopping Parneshia Jones 16 Blood Charm Annie Finch 18 Pause Nikki Grimes 19 The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee N Scott Momaday 20 Indian Education Sherman Alexie 21 One Art Elizabeth Bishop 22 Here Arthur Sze 23 Haiku Sonia Sanchez 24 Good Girl Molly Peacock 25 Bad Boats Laura Jensen 26 No Images Waring Cuney 27 won't you celebrate with me Lucille Clifton 28 What I'm telling you Elizabeth Alexander 29 How I Learned to Sweep Julia Alvarez 30 Sonnet 130 William Shakespeare 32 Litany Billy Collins 33 A Teenage Couple Brad Leithauser 35 Free Period David Yezzi 36 Zodiac Elizabeth Alexander 38 The Skokie Theatre Edward Hirsch 39 Valentine Wendy Cope 41 An Angry Valentine Myra Cohn Livingston 42 What Great Grief Has Made the Empress Mute June Jordan 43 Mad Girl's Love Song Sylvia Plath 45 How We Heard the Name Alan Dugan 46 The Gladiator Kevin Prufer 47 Worth Marilyn Nelson 48 I Am A Black Gwendolyn Brooks 49 Lost Sister Cathy Song 51 Flash Cards Rita Dove 54 Arithmetic Carl Sandburg 55 Dream Variations Langston Hughes 56 Dreams Langston Hughes 57 Blackberry-picking Seamus Heaney 58 Manners Elizabeth Bishop 59 Mascara Elizabeth Spires 61 from For a Girl Becoming Joy Harjo 62 Every Day It Is Always There Rainy Ortiz 64 Dear Mama (4) Wanda Coleman 65 A Boy in a Bed in the Dark Brad Sachs 67 The Talk Sharon Olds 68 A Small Poem Calvin Forbes 69 Fears of the Eighth Grade Toi Derricotte 70 When I have fears that I may cease to be John Keats 71 Death of a Snowman Vernon Scannell 72 Oatmeal Galway Kinnell 73 Eating Poetry Mark Strand 75 The Bagel David Ignatow 76 Hope Is the Thing with Feathers Emily Dickinson77 If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking Emily Dickinson 78 The Duke's castle John Fuller 79 Ozymandias Percy Bysshe Shelley 80 The Sacred Stephen Dunn 81 The Road Not Taken Robert Frost 82 Prowess Samuel Menashe 83 What We Might Be, What We Are X J Kennedy 84 Sideman Paul Muldoon 85 XVIII Oh, when I was in love with you A E Housman 87 Sometimes with One I Love Walt Whitman 88 In the Desert Stephen Crane 89 Annabel Lee Edgar Allan Poe 90 The Summer of Black Widows Sherman Alexie 92 Permanently Kenneth Koch 94 A Dog on His Master Billy Collins 95 Mowing Midge Goldberg 96 Seal William Jay Smith 97 Seahorses Brad Leithauser 98 So Far Naomi Shihab Nye 101 The Germ Ogden Nash 102 Baseball Bill Zavatsky 103 Poetry Slalom Mary Jo Salter 106 How I Discovered Poetry Marilyn Nelson 107 Used Book Shop X J Kennedy 108 The Survivor Marilyn Chin 110 New Clothes Kay Ryan 111 Mediation Kim Stafford 112 A Fable Louise Glück 113 Houses Nancy Willard 114 Snowmen Agha Shahid Ali 115 The Floral Apron Marilyn Chin 116 Abuelito Who Sandra Cisneros 117 Legacies Nikki Giovanni 118 Instead of Her Own Molly Peacock 119 Tia Chucha Luis J Rodriguez 120 The Adversary Phyllis McGinley 122 What Your Mother Tells You Now Mitsuye Yamada 123 33 Philip Schultz 124 49 Philip Schultz 125 What Are Heavy? Christina Rossetti 126 The Wind Sara Teasdale 127 Acquainted with the Night Robert Frost 128 When You Are Old W B Yeats 129 "Nobody can counsel and help you" Rainer Maria Rilke 130 "Live a while in these books" Rainer Maria Rilke 131 Here Yet Be Dragons Lucille Clifton 132 Sedna Kimiko Hahn 133 The Writer Richard Wilbur 135 About the contributors 149 Acknowledgments 151 Permissions 153 Index 159
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