What did I read in 2016?
According to my Goodreads account, my books read in 2016 total 148 against a target of 100. Hurray!
Unfortunately, only 8 were poetry. 8? Yes, apparently, 8. Which is a pretty poor showing for a poet. Boo! Hiss!
On the flip side, I read prose very quickly. Poetry, I absorb very slowly.
Also, to be fair, several of the 14 nonfiction books on my list were poetry-related — essays, criticism, craft.
What Takes Me So Long To Read Poetry?
Reading one poem might prompt me to review the poetry on my shelves for similar poems. A topic or technique can trigger me to look for that same approach in another poet. Then there’s some back and forth between the poets — at least, in my thoughts.
For example, I’m currently reading Daniel Borzutzky’s The Performance of Becoming Human which won the 2016 National Book Award for Poetry this past November. Borzutzky’s work is angry, dense, vivid, intense.
To complicate the matter, he has titled two of these poems “Dream Song #17” and “Dream Song #423”.
Now, you cannot be a contemporary, well-educated, poet working in English, and use the phrase “Dream Song” in relation to a poem without conjuring John Berryman.
So, off I go to Berryman’s work. First, 77 Dream Songs, which won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Then His Toy, His Dream, His Rest which won the 1969 National Book Award for Poetry. Taken together, these two books contain 385 pieces. Altogether, they comprise Berryman’s idea of one long book-poem, which he referred to as The Dream Songs.
Taken as a whole, Berryman’s Dream Songs are a lot more difficult to wade through (wade through again, since I’ve read them before) than Borzutzky’s The Performance of Becoming Human.
I still haven’t decided the linkage between Borzutzky and Berryman on this topic. Nor have I yet given up and decided there isn’t one.
Berryman’s Dream Songs only (only?) go to #385. Borzutzky has given us a #423. So clearly, the contemporary poet has not looked to a numerical correspondence with the past. Nor has Borzutzky bombarded us with all 423 (or more?) of his Dream Songs, if such exist.
And, of course, it is entirely possible I have lost myself down a rabbit hole from which not even the White Rabbit might save me.
So, see? It takes me a while to absorb poetry.
What Poetry Did I Finish in 2016?
Poetry books I finished in 2016 are listed below. Some, like Elizabeth Bishop’s North and South, are re-reads from prior years. But if I didn’t re-read a book in its entirety, I didn’t post it on my Goodreads challenge.
- The Book of Women, Dorianne Laux
- The Darkening Trapeze: Last Poems, Larry Levis
- The Beauty: Poems, Jane Hirshfield
- Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems, Pablo Neruda
- The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Rainer Maria Rilke
- After, Jane Hirshfield
- North and South, Elizabeth Bishop
- Everything Neon, Bud Smith
So What About Books Read in 2017?
I’d like to get 2017 poetry reading up to 2/month, or 24 books. You better believe that Daniel Borzutzky’s The Performance of Becoming Human and John Berryman’s 77 Dream Songs and His Toy, His Dream, His Rest will show up there. Eventually.
I’m starting a new post series as well, called “A Poet Reads…”
These won’t be reviews, exactly, nor academic criticism. What they will be are a selection of the notes and comments I make for myself when I am reading. I hope someone else may find them interesting as well.
If my thoughts spark thoughts of your own–to take back to your work or perhaps triggering a comment on a post–I count that success.
What’s on your reading list for 2017?