Page 2 of 3 < >

Poet's Choice

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

were not pureed by your selfish misfortune,

how to leave the house for the first time in two years.

It's both agonizing and funny for an invalid to joke about his "bruising marathons of bird watching." And Guest's humor often disarms me before he ambushes me with longing. Losing a potential love makes his joy in a mid-January burst of spring both funny and sad in this wry poem:

The Lives of the Optimists

So the jonquils are fooled into flaming up

though it's January. The bricks soak

in heat like ruddy sponges.

Walking home, I hide

within whatever's radiant.

A bird whose name I've never bothered

to learn sings its farewell

to winter. It's January. Tomorrow

we'll grieve. Or the next

< 2 >

Find More Reviews and Features in Books

War stripped of all its glory

In "The Good Soldiers," Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Finkel faced an unenviable task in writing his on-the-ground account of war in Iraq.

Who do men say that I am?

Though too cursory to work as an intro to the Gospels, Mary Gordon's "Reading Jesus" should appeal to anyone who wants to wrestle with the problems and paradoxes of the New Testament.